Cardgigs Shares Industry Employment Insights for 2010

While many wonder what 2010’s job market will look like, a survey conducted by Cardgigs can shed some light on the payments industry’s current job climate and what’s in store for 2010.

Cardgigs recently approached payments industry companies that use its job board in order to assess the payments industry’s employment outlook and to approximate the expected hiring trends for the rest of the year. The most evident finding was that the health of the payments industry job market is tightly coupled to the effects the economic downturn has had on employment numbers in general. That said, employers did feel that the beginning of 2010 might mark the end of the great recession, if not from a technical perspective, perhaps more from an emotional one. Chris Isidore of CNNMoney.com reiterated this sentiment by saying that “A two-year string of job losses appears to be near an end, if it hasn't ended already.” Isidore however added that “most economists don't expect the employment picture to significantly improve anytime this year – or over the next few years for that matter.”

It became obvious to Cardgigs that predicting the 2010 job market was complicated when using recovery figures from previous recessions, as no previous downturn precisely compared to the crash we’ve recently experienced. It appeared that economists experienced the same difficulty and issued outlooks on either side of the scale; CNNMoney stated “A survey of top economists in November by the National Association of Business Economics found 60% don't expect payrolls to return to pre-recession levels until 2012, and another 35% say it will take even longer than that.” On the other hand, Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Officer at Charles Schwab, recently wrote that panicking companies went overboard in cutting jobs amid the downturn. Judging by the GDP declines and correlating job losses during prior recessions, she noted that employers might have fired 30% more workers than they should have. Now that great decline in business confidence has been arrested, "many companies concede they didn't just cut employment to the bone, but into the bone" Sonders wrote. Sonders may have a point, as recent jobs reports and increased temp hiring may be testament to the rebound that lies ahead.

Because of the mixed messages from economists, Cardgigs approached industry Hiring Managers in order to gain a better perspective on how payments companies have dealt with the economic downturn and to gain insight on their hiring strategies for the coming year. One significant ISO in our field is North American Bancard (NAB). When speaking with Deb Fonseca, NAB’s Corporate Recruiter, an positive picture came to light. In reference to how NAB’s hiring practices fared in 2009, Fonseca stated “We were fortunate that NAB experienced tremendous growth and expanded into our new facility in 2009. We continued our policy to promote from within while adding ground-level positions on a regular basis and sought out industry professionals outside NAB for mid to senior level positions.” Fonseca added “We saw a lot of change in the industry in 2009. Many talented industry professionals seeking the stability offered by companies like NAB. This is a time for transition and a time for growing ISOs to partner with some exceptional employment talent.” When asked about the employment outlook for 2010, Fonseca said “For the first quarter of 2010, we have openings in Sales, Operations, Marketing, and Internships in various departments. Recruiting for Outside Agents, as well as Corporate Sales at our Headquarters in Michigan, is a strong focus. However, Customer Service, Retention, and Account Maintenance will be expanding as well.” The North American Bancard outlook is cautiously optimistic and does resonate with other companies in the payments space.

Shane Schut, Director of Sales Development at Eliot Management Group (EMG) was asked how the company’s hiring practices performed in 2009, stating “The resources committed by EMG to recruiting and number of new hires in 2009 modestly outpaced that of 2008. With the U.S. unemployment rate in the double digits, we saw unusually strong responses to our job postings. The demand for jobs allowed us to be more selective and find a higher caliber of new hires than would have been possible if jobs were plentiful. Eliot Management Group was (and is) fortunate to be growing at the right time.” When asked about EMG’s hiring strategy for 2010, Schut said “EMG will be adding Outside Sales Representatives in every local office in 2010. We also anticipate filling a handful of Sales Management openings. Finally, we will add corporate operation personnel as needed to manage growth and infrastructure improvements.”

By analyzing a snapshot of various payments companies, as well as the job listings posted on Cardgigs, it could be determined that many businesses have taken advantage of the spike in unemployment by refining their employment strategies and being more shrewd in their hiring practices. Cardgigs did see earlier-than-usual implementations of the common year-end hiring freezes in Q4 2009 followed by a steep increase of job postings in the first week of 2010. As for the rest of 2010, payments companies shared a cautiously optimistic view, with the idea that the worst is behind us, and the most important indicator at this point is the actual rate of recovery. Unfortunately, even bullish economists are not predicting an explosive job recovery, stating that it will likely be 2012 when the unemployment will have dropped to pre-recession figures. However, of all companies surveyed, none planned large-scale layoffs in 2010.

Cardgigs gained further insight as to which payments jobs are most likely to be in high demand. Based on feedback from Cardgigs users, joined with an assessment of the most dominant job listings, indications were that most bankcard job openings are for experienced Sales, Sales Management and Business Development individuals. Next on the list of most sought after talents are positions specific to the payments industry, primarily: Operations, Risk Management, Underwriting, Portfolio Analysts and Technical Help Desk. The next levels of employment that’s available are the trades that are also present in most non-payments companies, such as Finance, Marketing and ironically Human Resources.

Tannon McCaleb, Managing Partner at Cardgigs rounded matters up by stating “In this economic climate, no one can exactly predict how their business sector will fare through 2010, but by gaining insight from industry employers, economic experts and job listings being posted on Cardgigs, we offer a general picture showing that the payments industry was not hit as hard as others sectors, and that we’re indeed in a slow recovery.” McCaleb concluded “However, the largest concern to all is how quickly we can get back to normal; unfortunately a place we often take for granted.”

Top 5 reasons to be employed in the payments industry.

It can be said that the electronic payments industry officially kicked off in 1871 when Western Union started utilizing its telegraph wire lines in order to “wire” money across the U.S. This transaction method was primarily in the hands of companies and financial institutions that utilized telegraph wires to predominantly transfer money rather than just payment transactions. It was not until 1950 that the consumer really became involved with the transaction process; it was the launch of the Diners Club credit card, and the payments industry as it’s known today was born.

The payments industry can be considered in its infancy opposed to older industries like banking (which began with the Templars ca. 1100AD), transportation (that started ca. 3500BC in Sumer) and the defense industry (sadly began before recorded history). Even though the payments industry operates in the background of commerce, it is indeed all around us, and most consumers interact with the industry almost daily. Practically all money transacted today pass through some component of the payments industry, may it be Federal Reserve, the Automated Clearing House or American Express; and we’re talking trillions of dollars per year. Many people I speak with really never understood that there’s a huge industry surrounding them when they swipe a card through a “credit card machine.” There certainly is! Thus we’ll examine five good reasons why to be employed in this sector.

5. The Payments Sector is an Esoteric Industry. It is easy to see that the payments industry touches the lives of virtually every American on a daily basis. You use your check card to buy lunch, pay your phone bill via the Internet, sell an item on eBay and pull cash from an ATM all using components of the payments industry. However, the industry itself, the number of companies and people in it, is relatively small compared to other industries and tiny compared to the amount lives we touch. When on vacation, we often meet doctors, lawyers, waiters or car salesmen; but how often do you meet someone that’s in the payments business? The small size of the business is compounded by the fact that many jobs in the payments field are highly specialized and do require a fair amount of training and familiarity with the many intricacies of transaction settlement, risk management, underwriting, transaction networks, compliance, operating regulations and much more. Unlike other industries, you don’t go to school or university to learn about these subjects as they pertain to the payments industry – you learn by being in the business. Payments companies constantly look for talent from within the industry; however, since the payments industry is rather esoteric, trained payments talent is a high valued commodity. It would be fair to say that it may not be the easiest field to enter, but once you’re in, you’re in! It’s very likely that you’ll have a career for life and are able to find work easier than employees in another field. In my 12-year tenure in the industry, I have rarely seen someone take up employment outside of the payments business once they have spent part of their career in it.

4. Many Non-Industry Businesses require Payments Talent. So you live in a small town, and it happens to be void of any large players in the industry, what should you do? A very large amount of companies outside of the industry need payments specialists as these companies closely rely on electronic payments to collect revenue. Many modern companies move away from mailing paper statements, besides that it’s an environmental faux pas; checks take a long time to settle. You have probably noticed that savvy businesses are switching over to electronic statements and accepting bankcards for payment remittance. When these companies switch to the electronic billing method, they soon find themselves forced to deal with the world of electronic transactions, chargebacks, risk management, fraud scrubbing and more. This is where you, the payments professional, enter the picture. There’s an entire world out there of companies that rely on electronic payments as their main transaction method; we’re talking about retail chains, medical foundations, Internet businesses, utilities, governments and more. Even non-payments companies have entered into our industry, as it appears that there’s plenty of income to be made, Google is an example. These corporations look for talent within our industry. So you see that payments talent is required way beyond the borders of our own industry and into many branches of other fields as well.

3. Big Name Employers. Some of the largest and most advanced companies in the world are in the payments sector; Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, First Data and Bank of America to name a few. While a large part of the payments industry is made up of small to medium-sized companies, employees that seek out employment in world players have homes as well. The beauty of these large corporations is that they positively affect many other surrounding smaller companies in the payments industry and hence create jobs outside of their own perimeters. So if you’re a type that loves the challenge of working for a start-up, or you’re a nine to fiver in a mid-sized company, or perhaps you prefer a corporate office in a downtown skyscraper; the fact that the payments industry has some big name players, including Dow components and Fortune 100 companies, benefits the industry as a whole and provides you, the employee, with an industry rich in all types of job facets and countless of opportunities.

2. The Payments Industry has a Large Footprint. Even though the industry is small compared to other industries (measured in the amount of people it employs), it has a very big footprint. When I cruise the tradeshow floors, like the annual ETA show in Las Vegas, it always dawns on me that the entities present in the medium-sized exhibit hall touch roughly 80% of the money that is transacted around the U.S. It’s sometimes mind-boggling how connected this business is. I previously described that the payments industry touches almost every American consumer in their daily lives, but it also acts as a pillar of modern commerce and economics. The payments industry spills over into a multitude of other industries, such as technology, government, hospitality, retail, energy, medical and more. Not many industries have this much overlap into other industry sectors. And there is a lot more to the payments industry than just issuing cards and pushing transactions. The industry is replete with companies that manufacture payments hardware, develop software systems, regulate and implement security measures, and companies that provide goods and services to other payments companies. Due to its footprint, there is always room for more talent, and payments employees have a wealthy choice of which segment they want to enter, from credit to debit to gift cards, electronic checks, POS terminals, cash advances and more; there is a place out there that’s your perfect fit.

1. It has a Bright Future. Ever since the bartering system thousands of years ago, the nature of “how to compensate someone for goods or services” has been an ever-evolving process, and that process is far from over. I think that many of us can envision our future generations asking us what “cash” is. We are fortunate that our industry lies on the same path as commercial evolution – new ways to transact in commerce are constantly introduced by our industry; like pointing your cell phone at a vending machine for instance. For the foreseeable future, our industry will remain on the spear tip of innovation, specifically now that human technology is exploding with no end in sight. One day you may see people pay one another with an eye blink or handshake – I know, it sounds awfully Orwellian, but if we do go there, it will be our industry that will make it a reality (perhaps with some assistance from DARPA). Many business segments are going the way of the Dodo; for instance, travel agents are being replaced by Internet travel sites, and journalism has been taken over by syndication and newsblogs. Even the acting industry isn’t safe. Since computers will soon be able to animate high quality human graphics, actors will be replaced by digital human renderings. But the payments industry looks like a winner; we have technology on our side, and electronic payment frontiers like China and India are fueling our expansion. Fortunately, where the technology wave has overtaken many other fields, the payments industry has been riding that wave into the future.

There is much to be said about the payments industry, but I think we all can agree that once you’ve gone down this industry path, most of us have never looked back.

Creating a Personal Brand – What does it mean?

We at Cardgigs have seen the that personal branding has promoted by other sites as a popular technique in the job market. Since the turn of the millennium, probably fueled by the dot-com boom that was in full swing at the time, the concept of branding yourself became a trend for those entering the high-tech job market. This eventually spilled over into other industries, including bankcard. But what is personal branding?

Branding defined.

The term “branding” actually goes back to the time of the Wild West. Ranchers “branded” their cattle with a mark that identified the animal as their property. Unfortunately for the livestock, this involved burning a mark into the thick skin of a piece of cattle, usually bulls, cows and horses. Being Dutch myself, I think that it’s not far-fetched to think that the word “brand” (burning the animal with a hot poker) comes from Dutch “brand” which means “fire”. When bringing cattle to market, buyers would start focusing their purchases on brands that had a good reputation for yielding excellent meat and leather. Thus some brands became more sought after than others – and the branding process, as we know it today, was born. Branding in modern times refers to the marketing and PR process of developing a unique and prominent identity for a product or service. A result of a successful brand is to be instantly identified with a product category. Examples are: soda: Coca-Cola, Pepsi; sneakers: Nike, Reebok and upscale cars: BMW, Mercedes, and so forth.

Brand development is a pillar of marketing; and probably initiated by a marketing professional, the concept of branding became applicable to ‘you’ as an employee. Thus when branding began to play a role in the job market and hiring process, it was called “personal branding.” Some experts swear by it while others urge job seekers to stick with the traditional route of having a resume and cover letter.

The idea behind the personal branding approach is this: Regular job seekers count on primarily reaching out to employers; branding can supplement your outreach by having employers reach out to you.

How can you brand yourself?

The idea behind personal branding is to treat yourself as a product that employers want to seek out and hire – and this means that you have to successfully distinguish yourself from other qualified candidates. The way this is achieved is by means of two factors:

Self-awareness. You need to know you. How else can you sell yourself? Hence to purvey your uniqueness and distinguish yourself it is important to take a good look at your own self. Now I’m not telling you to walk the earth like Caine in Kung Fu, but just to perform an exercise that can help you define what makes you different:

• Identify your own strengths. We’re not looking for the clichés of resume writing like “great relationship skills” or “hard worker.” Many use these points, and you will not stand out using clichés. Base unique strengths on actual experiences, like the “ability reverse declining sales trends into success and profitability with minimal need for operating expenses.”

• List your weaknesses. You will be asked about your weaknesses – may as well identify them up front and put a constructive and truthful spin on them – more on how to respond to weaknesses in our article “10 Tough Job Interview Questions.”

• Capitalize on your strengths. Focus much of your brand message around your unique strengths.

• Find valid ways to make your weaknesses irrelevant.

• Determine how you uniquely fit a job market need. This is important. What is it that you have that others don’t? Take a look at your strengths and see which one is most unique, yet 100% relevant to your targeted job. If you are gunning for a Risk Management position, don’t make your main strength your ability to quickly analyze merchant statements (just an example) – stay relevant and focused.

• Describe and define that unique fit as your personal brand. Once determined – put your unique fit into words.

• Determine how your image can communicate your brand. Some successful sales managers or Sales VPs have created an image where its known that hiring them brings success – the same can be done for other positions. If you are a POS Help Desk Manager, then create an image of being knowledgeable, a diagnostic thinker and being meticulous about error-free installations. Hiring you will bring the company a kick-butt POS installations department.

Market yourself. Promote your brand! Many job seekers have created brochures about themselves; many have personal web sites or make sure that they are on professional social media sites (e.g. LinkedIn). Now, don’t go overboard like that gentleman in Wisconsin that put himself on a huge billboard next to Highway 45. Yes, he did get hired, but not because of his billboard. However explore the following outlets:

1. Social Media: As previously mentioned, social media is a strong branding channel; specifically professional social networking sites. Use sites like LinkedIn, Ecademy and Ziggs to promote your professional side. Stay away from social sites that generally aren’t related with professionals, such as MySpace and Fubar.

2. Personal web site: In addition to being connected to social media sites, many professionals register their own name (or variation thereof) as a domain. Once again, don’t go overboard. Don’t make your site come over as narcissistic, self-absorbed and egotistical. If your site’s content is 100% about you, it will come over the wrong way. Bring other topics into the mix, such as companies you worked for, associations you belong to, causes your support, etc. Provide information on these topics and purvey your brand through them.

3. Business Cards: True, you likely have business cards if you’re currently employed, but do you have personal cards? It won’t hurt to keep some cards in your pocket that label you as John Smith, Sales Professional (or whatever your specialty may be). These personal cards come in very handy when meeting people at networking functions and trade shows. For instance, Risk professionals can attend the MAC meetings (which, by the way, are very informative). Hand out your personal card and make the card hint that you are in the job market.

4. Brochures: Relatively simple to make by using templates; use two-fold brochures to establish your brand. Don’t go overboard with graphics, lots of photos and multiple crazy typefaces – keep it clean, simple and most of all, focus on your brand identity, what distinguishes you above the rest. It is not advised to create a PDF version for emails – more will be explained about this later. Now you may ask yourself where brochures would come into play. Think job fairs. The banking industry has been known to throw job fairs in larger cities – and hiring managers receive piles of resumes. Stand out by adding a brochure to your resume. However, it is not advised to bring brochures to job interviews (in lieu of, or in addition to, your resume).

5. Your Resume: The most important branding component you own. Nothing, but absolutely nothing, replaces the traditional resume. We will feature future articles on writing killer resumes, but write your traditional resume with the strength you isolated in this exercise – include these qualities in your cover letter as well.

How do you know you’ve created a personal brand? Well, have you ever been in a company meeting where the executive said “We need to hire a kick-butt *insert title here* - We should see if we can hire *your name here*.” If your name become synonymous with a certain title or position, then you have done it my friend. Just make sure that the title you’re positioned with is what you want it to be – that is key.

Avoiding pitfalls.

The branding process, if not properly executed, may backfire. Hiring Managers see many resumes, specifically in this economic climate. They can afford to be picky and when browsing resumes primarily look for any reason to say “no” and dismiss a resume. Only the strong survive. So in order to properly develop ‘you’ as a brand, take heed to the following:

1. Avoid getting your skills and competencies lost in a sea of type. As I mentioned many times before, focus on your uniqueness, and don’t add fluff – it’s annoying and may put your resume in the trash bin.

2. Clean up your cyber image. Ask sites to take down pages that may put you in a bad image and submit these pages to Google and others search engines to be delisted (once they are down). Now, if you are not able to do this – because you had a DUI arrest and it is public record – then drown out these black marks with lots of good PR.

3. Be 100% truthful and don’t hype yourself up. You’ve taken time to build a brand. You’ve gathered the attributes and strengths that you want people to see as yours. But are they really just pipe dreams – wishes instead of realities? Ensure that your brand is not established on false pretenses. People recognize soon enough when you’ve oversold or over hyped yourself. They see it in what you can’t do or answer. You not only lose your brand. You lose any credibility you might have had. It’s exponentially higher, if not impossible, to win back trust, than it is to earn trust you never had.

4. You think your brand is an entitlement. Never lose sight that your personal brand isn’t really about you at all. It’s about the employer, and the employer or hiring manager is a person who is NOT you. A personal brand is a way of communicating to the employer what you stand for and what you can bring to their show. The brand message should be that you’re there for THEM, not the other way around.

5. Stay focused! Don’t go into 10 different directions. Focus on your core brand message. Don’t dilute your strengths with fringe decorations – stay focused on your identity! One major rule of branding is to purvey one solid message that can easily be remembered and associated. E.g. Jim Smith = Sales Pro. The moment your message becomes unfocused (e.g. Jim Smith = Sales Rep who is a golfing pro that knows much about expensive art) the whole purpose of branding is negated.

6. As previously stated – there is no substitute for a traditional resume. Brochures are good for job fairs and personal business cards are good for trade shows, networking and industry events, but never apply for a specific job using this type of collateral. When applying for a job, the number one item is your traditional resume and next is your cover letter – just ensure that your brand is cleverly communicated in your resume and cover letter.

I hope this has given you a bit of insight on how to build a personal brand. Use this to supplement your existing job searching efforts. You can build your brand when employed as well. Just keep it real, and understand that there are risks when overdoing it. When done right, your personal brand can result in employers reaching out to you in addition to you reaching out to them – and in today’s job market, having an edge goes a long way.

Is staying too long at one job hurting you?

Twenty years ago eyebrows were raised when anyone changed jobs more than twice in a career. And it has only been since the early 90's when anyone who left a job with less than a four-year tenure was considered a "job-hopper." In the bankcard industry today, like a lot of industries in America, the average person remains in a job approximately 34 months.

These days, employers are less inclined to pay attention to tenure than ever before. You need only look at the old dot-com effect and you can see why.

Since 2000, changing jobs has become somewhat challenging; the dot-com bomb combined with the retreat in technology spending and of course "the Great Recession", released a ton of talent and resulted in a lot of job cuts. Once dominant and successful industries have been shrinking rather than growing, and start-ups are having a hard time finding capital. Perhaps to a bit of a lesser extent, yet still affected is the bankcard industry.

But suppose you're happy, or at least you aren't unhappy with your job. Should you stay or look around?

Here are some good reasons to keep your options open and consider a job change:

Staying "too long" can:

1. Reduce your earning potential.
2. Put you in a "cubbyhole."
3. Identify you with a single industry segment.
4. Make transitions more difficult down the road.
5. Keep you in a career rut.

Obviously, the decision to make a job change should be carefully considered.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind as you contemplate career transitions:

1. Set realistic three and five year career goals.
2. Don't run to another job just to leave the one you're at; go to a new job because you are attracted to it. That has to come out during your interviews. The prospective employer must sense that you understand their problems and can solve them. Career moves should be planned and not just random happenings, knowing that even with such planning, no one can plan for or always predict a "down-sizing".
3. What would my ideal job look like? Write down all the things you'd like in a job (be sure you include personal goals). Remember, this is the "ideal" and not necessarily what you're going to get.

Constantly work at attaining the job that is closest to your "ideal job."

Update your resume every year. On top of having a current resume in case a new opportunity comes up, it will be a worthwhile exercise. If you're not able to add any additional accomplishments to your resume, or if you're off track from the goals you've set for yourself, it's probably time to proactively enter yourself in the job market. Ask yourself what other functions do you need to add to your resume to get you where you want to go?

When faced with a potential new position, ask yourself questions like:

1. Is the job or company I'm in currently going to get me closer to my goals?
2. Is the job or company I'm considering going to get me there sooner?
3. Does the new opportunity closely match my "ideal job?"
4. Do any anticipated "trade-offs" still balance with my personal and professional goals?

Once all these factors are weighed, you may find out that it is indeed time for a move.

One thing item of caution, however, is today's economy. In a good economy jobs are bountiful and companies spend money on expansion. In today's challenged economy, many companies are in a holding pattern and spend less on new talent. Instead they do with what they have. So keep this in mind. Even still, since the bankcard industry is relatively specialized and many employers want to hire talent with industry experience, you will still see a good amount of job openings in our field. Just take a second to search jobs on Cardgigs. It recently was launched (soft-launch) and jobs have been listed by various companies, from all parts of the U.S. So it's ok to look around and consider a move if you feel like your current position has run its course and the time has come for an upgrade.

Source: Exec-Links.com

10 Tough Job Interview Questions and How to Respond.

I think that all of us can relate to this; you’re in a job interview when the interviewer asks you a question that gets your adrenaline going. In your mind you may panic a bit; you wonder how to respond but want to avoid being perceived as critical, non-specific, dodging the answer or missing the point of the question altogether.

My partner at Cardgigs, Rick Slifka, a veteran recruiter, provided me with this information and it’s a given that these are simply guidelines on how to respond to tough questions, but I think that common sense tells us to do some of your own research and formulate how this information best applies to your own situation, and adjust this information accordingly. That said – here are the questions:

1 – Tell me about yourself?

This answer should last about two minutes. Be logical. Start anywhere, e.g. high school, college, or first employment position. I know that it doesn't appear to be a tough question, but a lot of candidates don't know that the interviewer is looking for communication skills and linear thinking. Try to score a point or two perhaps by describing a major personal attribute or.

2 – Why are you leaving your current position? 


This is a very critical question. Don't "bad mouth" your previous employer. Don't sound "too opportunistic." Best is to relate to major industry problems, a buy-out or shutdown. Also good is to state that after long personal consideration, a chance to make a contribution is very low due to company changes. Still attempt to score points.

3 – What do you consider your most significant accomplishment? 


This can get you the job. Prepare extensively. Score points. Tell a two-minute story, with details and discuss personal involvement. Make the accomplishment worth achieving. Discuss hard work, long hours, pressure, and important company issues at stake. Quantify your answers in actual sales figures, dollar amounts, percentages, names and numbers.

4 – What do you like/dislike most about your current position?

The interviewer is trying to determine compatibility with open position. If you have interest in position be careful. Stating that you dislike overtime or getting into details, or that you like "management" can cost you the position. There is nothing wrong with liking challenges, pressure situations, opportunity to grow, or disliking bureaucracy and frustrating situations.

5 – How do you handle pressure?

Do you like or dislike these situations? High achievers tend to perform well in high-pressure situations. Conversely, this question also could imply that the position is pressure packed and out of control. There is nothing wrong with this as long as you know what you're getting into. If you do perform well under stress, provide a good example with details giving an overview of the stress situation. Let the interviewer "feel" the stress by your description of it.

6 – The sign of a good employee is the ability to take the initiative.
Can you describe situations like this about yourself?

A proactive, result-oriented person doesn't have to be told what to do. This is one of the major success attributes. To convince the interviewer you possess this trait you must give a series of short examples describing your self-motivation. Try to discuss at least one example in-depth. The extra effort, strong work ethic and creative side of you must be demonstrated.

7 – What's the worst or most embarrassing aspect of your business career? 


How would you have done things differently now with 20/20 hindsight? This is a general question to learn how introspective you are and to see if you can learn from your mistakes. If you can, it indicates an open, more flexible personality. Don't be afraid to talk about your failures, particularly if you learned from them. This is a critical aspect of high potential individuals.

8 – Why do you believe you are qualified for this position? 


Pick two or three traits/characteristics about you and your career that clearly show that you can excel at this job. These can be education, experience, a technical skill, a specific management skill you have (e.g. organizing, staffing, planning), personal success attributes or achievements.

9 – What do you consider your most significant weaknesses?

Don't reveal deep character flaws. Rather discuss tolerable faults that you are working towards improving. Show by specific example how this has changed over time. Better still; show how a weakness can be turned into a strength. For example, how a concentration on the details results in higher quality work even though it requires much overtime.

10 – What do you consider your most significant strengths? 


Be prepared. Know your four or five key strengths. Be able to discuss each with a specific example. Select those attributes that are most compatible with the job opening. Most people say "management" or "good interpersonal skills" in answer to this. Don't, unless you can describe the specific characteristics of management (planning, organizing, results, staffing, etc.) or how your relationship skills have proven critical to your success.

I’ll post more questions/answers soon, but for the time being, take a bit of time and form an overall strategy with this information in mind. You have to be 100% on your game when interviewing; it is clearly all about how you answer the tough questions. Being able to breeze through these questions with accuracy and impact will very likely make the job yours.

Techniques most candidates fail to use when interviewing for a job.

My partners at Cardgigs are payments industry recruiters with more than 45 years of combined experience. We often discuss the hiring process in general because we always look to improve the workflow of Cardgigs.com. One of our recent conversations pertained to why some candidate excel in job interviews while others fail miserably. It was explained to me that many candidates don’t know that there is an actual “science” to job interviews; there is a specific technique. Some candidates have this technique down, some partially exude these techniques because of past experience, and others think that job interviews are best performed by the seat of your pants.

Rick Slifka shared this information with me and told me that everybody needs to know this information before they can fly through any job interview.

Numerous studies indicate that while your skills and achievements are important, 90% of the hiring process is emotional, i.e. “if I like you, I will hire you.” Thus be careful at being perceived as being hostile or negative about a previous employer or carrying significant emotional baggage. This is a red flag for your interviewer – emotions like these makes “liking you” difficult. Instead, perform these techniques for the win:

• Early on in your conversation take a moment to ask these four brief questions all sequentially. Listen very carefully because they set the tone for your responses to every single question you may be asked after that:

a. “I've reviewed the Cardgigs position profile but would like your own description of the position.” – This will give you an understanding of the exact landscape as it is perceived by the interviewer.

b. “Describe the characteristics you want in this person.” – Instead of babbling on about your own values and character, find out up-front what’s desired, so you can streamline your responses later with this information in mind.

c. “To be successful, what must be accomplished?” – Don’t be afraid to ask this simple question – it sets a tone that you are intent on achieving success, and gives you the answer on how to achieve it as understood by the interviewer.

d. “What are the desired results and objectives that I will deliver to the company?” – Understand clearly what your role entails, and what the expected results are from your position.

• Armed with this information, you are now well positioned to respond to all questions you will be asked. Focus your answers on the information received on the four questions above – even questions like “What did you do in your previous job?” can now be leveraged to underscore desired results and achievements at your new position, as opposed to ramblings of non-sequitur information.

• You’ll know when the interview is over. You will probably be asked if you have any other questions. A good way for you to end is a form of the following: "Thanks for your time and candid insight. I am very interested in being a member of this Team. However, it's important to me that everything we discussed was correctly interpreted. Therefore, based on our conversation did you hear anything that concerns you about my ability to be successful?” or “Are there any unclear discussion points that I’ve not adequately addressed?” Say nothing after this ‘closing questions’, simply listen carefully and answer any ‘objections’ by focusing on the answers of the four questions above.

There is additional information on ‘objection handling’ which I will touch on in the next weeks. In the meantime, get to know this technique and use it wisely when entering the interview office.

Five Reasons to Subscribe to the Cardgigs RSS Feed.

RSS? What the $%&#@ is RSS? These days you may have seen the RSS logo (shown on the left) on various sites, but probably paid no attention to it. Some of you may subscribe to RSS feeds – I know I do! RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, a very easy method to keep up to speed on new announcements and news articles without having to always go to a specific website to stay in touch. It basically is an XML file that feeds snippits of information to your RSS-enabled browser, email program and even your screen saver (Mac users). It is simply to subscribe; you just copy and paste the RSS URL into your RSS reader. The RSS URL for Cardgigs is: feed://www.cardgigs.com/_rss/index.xml.

Why subscribe? Lets take a look:

1. Job Listings. Of course, you should go to Cardgigs.com and search for jobs, but did you know that Cardgigs posts new job listings to its RSS feed as well? You will see jobs that perhaps you haven't previously searched for – valuable information.
2. News. Be plugged into news stories about which companies are hiring, moving, expanding or adding offices. Get news on the payments industry employment picture in general.
3. Learn. Cardgigs often shares important learning points about the hiring process, how to prepare for job interviews, things that make your resumé stick out and more.
4. Intelligence. Cardgigs will often publish surveys and interviews with hiring managers of various companies where we find out how their deciding process works. Find out how hiring managers think and the ins and outs of communicating with them.
5. Timing. Be one of the first to get information on a new job opening and apply. Timing often makes a difference, and showing up as the first applicant could be especially good if the employer is seeker to fill a position fast.

So there is nothing to lose – plug in our feed and gain perspective on RSS technology in addition to the five advantages listed above. Stay connected and we’d love to get feedback on our content – feel free to contact us at info@cardgigs.com