Carolyn Illman Carolyn Illman

Play with Behavioral Interview Question “Madlibs”!

Behavioral Interview Questions can sound intimidating, but they're simply asking a candidate about a specific situation. I find that many folks rely on their own personal interview question bank, sticking to those that have worked well for them. Similarly, job seekers are often asking "what are the most commonly asked behavioral interview questions?" and only preparing to answer those.

I challenge you to come up with some of your own questions that are more specific to a particular part of the role or value that is important to the company. Let's play Behavioral Interview Question Madlibs!

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Carolyn Illman Carolyn Illman

Tips for Hiring FAST

If you're struggling to find someone to fill an open role and are on the verge of feeling desperate, this is the post for you. As a volunteer Chair of the House Corporation Board for my sorority, I was in this position the summer of 2022. It certainly wasn't my first time urgently (read: within a month) hiring a new House Director, but I decided to take a new approach that resulted in hiring a candidate who continues to perform as our best House Director hire to date. This is advice I would give any entrepreneur or scrappy small business who needed to find a quality hire - fast!

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Carolyn Illman Carolyn Illman

Using AI for Mock Interviews

I’ve been intrigued by everyone talking about having AI mock interview you and using that feedback to work on your interview skills, as well as the fact that so many companies are using AI these days to identify and narrow down their overloaded candidate pool. I conducted my own small study, and these are the takeaways I hope both job seekers and hiring managers will find helpful when considering using AI for their own purposes.

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Carolyn Illman Carolyn Illman

What Sorority Recruitment and Corporate Recruitment Have in Common

Whether you also have memories of sorority recruitment, you're getting ready to go through sorority recruitment (yay!) or you'd just like a peek into what it was like, this article is for you. Keep in mind I was an active member of my sorority back in the early 2000s, so I'm sure there have been vast improvements since then - this is just based on my experience.

There's a need for better interview questions: I can't tell you how many times I had to answer the same questions over and over during recruitment, predominantly- "Where are you from?" to which I would say, "Seattle" and they would always say "Seattle Seattle?". I understand this is an icebreaker question, but come on, you have my application. You know where I'm from. I would've loved to speak more about my extracurricular activities or what I was most excited to focus on in college.

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Carolyn Illman Carolyn Illman

Career Gaps: Retaining and Gaining Skills

Taking a break in your career is becoming more common – a LinkedIn survey from 2021 found that 62% of job seekers reported having a gap on their resume. Whether you become a full-time parent, leave a toxic work environment, or care for a family member, the “old school” view is that employers don’t want to hire someone with a break due to potential “rusty” skills. I challenge this belief and offer tips for job seekers and hiring managers to overcome this mental block. Learn how to embrace your career gap and present it as a time of growth and skill enhancement.

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