The first part of this article discussed the necessity to research the company background, the industry competitors and the industry trends before attending a job interview. In this, the second part, we will focus on the preparation required to communicate at an optimum level with the interviewer.

1) Determine the questions you are likely to be asked

You need to put yourself in the mind of the interviewer, acting on behalf of your prospective future employer before attending the job interview. This will give you the best chance of being prepared to answer all the questions. It will also reduce the chance of being ‘floored’ by a question that you hadn’t even considered before.

Key questions that you shouldn’t have any problem answering include, “Why do you want to work here”, “Where do you see yourself in five years time”, “What do you think are the key skills for this job” and “What key skills would you bring to this job”.
You need to practice pre-prepared answers to these questions until they sound natural, believable and confident.

Next, you need to think about questions that you are likely to be asked that relate to the existing or future politics within the organization. For instance, if the original entrepreneur that started the business runs the company, then the interviewer may try and find out if you are comfortable working in a fairly reactive environment.

2) Prepare your own questions

You need to prepare you own questions about the role and company before the interview. This shows that you are keen on the job role and are proactive in nature. In addition, it shows the company that they perhaps may have to ‘sell’ the role to you should it be offered.

The questions that you need to ask should be about the future business strategy, their opinion of their own competitors and current operational and technological procedures. Other good questions to ask include promotional opportunities or personal development opportunities, however these two areas need to be touched sensitively as there may not be any such opportunities available at present, and the company may simply want to ensure that the individual that they recruit will want to stay working in the same role for a reasonable period of time.

3) Be prepared to ‘close’ the interview effectively

If you ‘close’ your job interview effectively, you’ll be ensuring that you know when a decision about a job offer will be made, when a second interview will be conducted, or the likelihood of you being offered the position.

If a prospective future line manager is interviewing you, then the chances are that you will be able to get good feedback on what your chances are of being offered the job. If you ask questions like “Is there anything that you feel I haven’t gone into enough details about” or “How do you think I’d personally fit into the organisation”, it demonstrates your keenness for the role.

If, on the other hand an HR department is conducting the interview, it may be more worthwhile to close the interview by saying something like “I’d like to confirm that I’m very much interested in the position. Do you conduct second interviews or make a decision after today?”

The bottom line is that you have to leave the interviewer with a feeling that you’re keen on the position and that you’d be happy to stay in the job role in question for a decent period of time.

David Bain is a consultant to Uteach Recruitment who specialise in UK Teaching Jobs. Whether you are a school struggling to find a new teacher to fill a position or a teacher looking for a teaching job role in the UK, visit their website http://www.UteachRecruitment.com today.

The Chicago Cubs are one of America’s most beloved teams despite the disappointment that they bring to their faithful followers year after year. The Cubs are hoping a key off season acquisition of Juan Pierre, to replace the inconsistent Corey Patterson in center field, will pay off. Pierre is a true lead off hitter and more of a threat on the base paths than Patterson which is definitely one of the things the Cubs were missing last season as Patterson was striking out too often trying to hit long balls. The other problem for the Cubs last season was that they really struggled with injuries to their pitching staff. It seems like the team is going to start off this season with the same problems to Prior and Wood, so it will be interesting to see how this team will pan out.

My fear is that the Cubs didn’t get better where they’ve needed to really get better for several seasons, the bullpen. The Cubs’ starters have been banged up over the past few seasons which has prevented them from throwing as many innings as they need to in order for this team to be successful. The bull pen has been exposed countless times having to enter the game in the 6th or 7th. When a reliever enters the game, Cubs fans start to panic. Carlos Zambrano has been the only starter who is producing up to the potential set for him and if he can continue to improve, he’s a Cy Young contender. Moving Ryan Dempster to the bullpen proved to pay off as he earned 33 saves.

Derrek Lee is coming off a break out, MVP caliber, season. The question remains if he’ll be able to duplicate it, as prior to last season he was a .270 hitter over the last three seasons. Although not at the rate his numbers jumped last season, they have gone up each year over the last 3, which leads me to believe he will be talked about as an MVP candidate again this season and that last season wasn’t some kind of a fluke. However, just as last year, Lee’s heroics won’t be enough to put the Cubs over the top. The Cubs were a sound hitting team overall with an average of .270. Cedeno, Murton, Ramirez, and Todd Walker all made it over the .300 mark. Lee and Ramirez should be able to drive in quite a few runs with Pierre setting the table.

Because of the Cubs’ starting pitching, which has all the potential in the world but has rarely seen the rotation on the same page, Vegas often overvalues these Cubs, especially at home. If you pick your spots, you can make some nice profits by going against the Cubs as a home favorite. I would be wary about taking them as an underdog and on the road in division games as they play in the toughest division in the National League with Houston and St. Louis.

This article was written by Jimmy Boyd. Pick up his MLB Gambling Picks here.