Steve Dalton the former head of daytime careers at Duke Fuqua School of Business and the author of The 2-Hour Job Search and The Job Closer published by Ten Speed Press, will be hosting the webinar "How to talk about your weaknesses" on Thursday 10 November 2022. In this webinar Steve will be discussing why employers ask negative questions and the responses they are looking for, and how to quickly construct authentic answers about both failures and weaknesses.

Below are some of the ways you can use your free Alumni Library Online (ALO) service to prepare for job interviews

Hear more from the keynote speaker:

If you are interested in more information from Steve Dalton, check out these podcasts and videos:

674: Nailing Your Interview, Resume, and Negotiation FAST with Steve Dalton - How to be Awesome at Your Job

626: Mastering the 2-Hour Job Search That Generates Dream Interviews with Steve Dalton - How to be Awesome at Your Job

Answering "Tell Me About Yourself" Effectively in Interviews: the FIT Model - YouTube

Industry trends and company news:

Read up on the latest trends, research and insights. Impress the interview panel by demonstrating your knowledge on current trends and the latest research in the company’s area - it is useful to check out what has been written about it in academic, trade and general business publications.

Here are a few examples of full-text articles in our databases:

EBSCO Business Source and ABI Inform

EBSCO Business Source and ABI/Inform Global both enable you to limit your search to recently published articles using the search features. 

FitchConnect (formerly known as BMI Research) provides access to global economic information, including reports and analysis, in a number of areas including Autos, Defence and Security, Oil and Gas, Power, Renewables and Water. 

To help keep up to date you could also sign up to alerts from your favourite journals. The best tool for this is JournalTOCs. 

Why we like it: 

JournalTOCs has a very broad coverage – there is something here for everyone. It also covers open access journals where you will be able to access the full text articles. It currently covers over 31,000 journal titles, and nearly 15,000 of these are open access titles. 

General interview skills and careers information

You can use the ALO to brush up on your interview skills with tips and example questions and learn more about companies from their current employees and research careers in different industries. Check out Firsthand in our Databases section - a comprehensive career resource.

Academic research

Search the Cranfield research repository CERES to see what Cranfield researchers have been doing. 

Use resources such as the British Library’s OATD (Open Access Theses and Dissertations) to see UK and worldwide research.
Here are just a few examples of the sort of academic articles you can read in some of the ALO databases on the research topics of job seeking behaviours and interview issues:

In Emerald 

Chen, S., Wang, W., Zhou, J., Zhang, S., Ge, A., Feng, J. and Zhou, Y. (2022). Take heed of those you reject: a candidate’s view of employer reputation. Journal of Product & Brand Management, Ahead-of-print.

Harrison, J.A., Budworth, M.-H. and Halinski, M. (2021). Trait gratitude and job search: the mediating role of perceived employability. Career Development International, 26(2), 238-251.

Dutta, D. and Mishra, S.K. (2021), Predictors of applicant attraction among Gen-X and millennials: evidence from an emerging economy. International Journal of Manpower, 42(8,) 1479-1499.

Patulny, R., Ramia, G., Feng, Z., Peterie, M. and Marston, G. (2019). The strong, the weak and the meaningful: Do friends or acquaintances help us get “any” job, or “meaningful” work? International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 39(5/6), 376-394.

Hossain, M.M., Alam, M., Alamgir, M. and Salat, A. (2020). Factors affecting business graduates' employability–empirical evidence using partial least squares (PLS). Education + Training, 62(3), 292-310.

SAGE

Krishnan, I. A., Ramalingam, S., Kaliappen, N., Uthamaputhran, S., Suppiah, P. C., Mello, G. D., & Paramasivam, S. (2021). Graduate employability skills: Words and phrases used in job interviews. Australian Journal of Career Development, 30(1), 24–32.

Previtali, F., Nikander, P., & Ruusuvuori, J. (2022). Ageism in job interviews: Discreet ways of building co-membership through age categorisation. Journal of Peace Research, 0(0), 449–468.

Song, L., Shi, J., Luo, P., Wei, W., Fang, Y., & Wang, Y. (2020). More Time Spent, More Job Search Success?: The Moderating Roles of Metacognitive Activities and Perceived Job Search Progress. Journal of Career Assessment, 28(1), 147–164.

Maras, K., Norris, J. E., Nicholson, J., Heasman, B., Remington, A., & Crane, L. (2021). Ameliorating the disadvantage for autistic job seekers: An initial evaluation of adapted employment interview questions. Autism, 25(4), 1060–1075.

Mowbray, J. A., & Hall, H. (2021). Using social media during job search: The case of 16–24 year olds in Scotland. Journal of Information Science, 47(5), 535–550.

Not sure how to find us? Follow these simple steps to the Alumni Library Online service:

  • Go to your alumni portal

  • Log in with your details

  • Scroll down the page and click on Alumni Library Online

  • Click on Databases to find the databases listed above.

Forgotten your portal login?
Please email the Alumni Office.

Any other questions?
Contact your ALO team.