Job Interview Tips

Job interviewing never seems to get any easier – even when you have gone on more interviews than you can count. You are meeting new people, selling yourself and your skills, and often getting the third degree about what you know or don’t know. Here are job interview tips to help prepare you to interview effectively. Proper preparation which help alleviate some of the stress involved in job interviews.Job Interview Tips

Practice

Practice answering interview questions and practice your responses to the typical job interview questions and answers most employers ask. Think of actual examples you can use to describe your skills. Providing evidence of your successes is a great way to promote your candidacy.

Prepare

Prepare a response so you are ready for the question “What do you know about our company. Know the interviewer’s name and use it during the job interview. If you’re not sure of the name, call and ask prior to the interview. Try to relate what you know about the company when answering questions.

Watch

Take a look at my Job Interview Tips Videos, so you’ll be sure to dazzle a potential employer and leave the right impression.

Get Ready

Make sure your interview attire is neat, tidy and appropriate for the type of firm you are interviewing with. Bring a nice portfolio with copies of your resume. Include a pen and paper for note taking.

Be On Time

Be on time for the interview. On time means five to ten minutes early. If need be, take some time to drive to the office ahead of time so you know exactly where you are going and how long it will take to get there.

Stay Calm

During the job interview try to relax and stay as calm possible. Take a moment to regroup. Maintain eye contact with the interviewer. Listen to the entire question before you answer and pay attention – you will be embarrassed if you forget the question!

Show What You Know

Try to relate what you know about the company when answering questions.  When discussing your career accomplishments match them to what the company is looking for.

Follow Up

Always follow-up with a thank you note reiterating your interest in the position. If you interview with multiple people send each one a thank you note.


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Sep 02, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Top 10 Checklist for an Effective Resume… Surviving The Screening

Painful fact: the hiring official at Acme Wingnuts–-or any company, for that matter–would rather not read your resume. Don’t take it personally. He’d rather not read anybody’s resume. Labored, unexciting text, pat phraseology, fluff and puff exaggerations. It’s torture. Still, he’s going to read the sorrowful lot of them because it remains the best (only?) way to get warm bodies in the interview chair. And when there’s a job opening that has to be filled, warm bodies need to be seated in that chair.

But don’t expect him to like it. In fact, expect him to do everything in his power to get rid of your resume as fast as humanly possible. His immediate goal is to eliminate you from further consideration in the placement process. The more applicants he eliminates and the faster he does it, the sooner he can get back to the life he prefers–regaling his subordinates with tales of fly-fishing in the Rockies.

Resumes Are For Screening

The lesson to be learned here is that resumes are first put to use toscreen out candidates from further consideration. Those resumes that don’t screen out their owners are effective - simple as that. To keepyour resume from screening you out of the running, to make your resume effective, you must do a few basic things right from the beginning. Compare your resume to the following checklist to ensure you’re resume is an effective resume.

Top 10 Effective Resume Checklist To Survive The Screening

1) Keep it short. The effective resume is preferably one page, two at the most. If you’ve written a novel, tear it apart and whittle it down to one/two pages.

2) It must be easy to read. That means the effective resume is well organized with clear headings, brief statements of responsibility, bulleted points for emphasizing achievements.

3) It must avoid overly specific professional jargon. Keep in mind that your resume is likely to be read first by someone in the HR department who may not have a clue what you’re talking about when you say… “Chaired brain dump resulting in a turnkey solution to improve customer’s ROI.” Rather, talk like an earthling and state it plainly: “Boosted customer sales 20%.” Take care to craft a resume with universal appeal so as to at least get to the starting gate.

4) Curb your design enthusiasm. That means limiting your font selection to one or two. Use the traditional and popular New Times Roman if you prefer lettering with a serif, or consider Arial, Helvetica or Verdana if you prefer san serif fonts, lacking the slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter. Go easy on the bold and the underlining. And limit your paper selection to white or beige with a weight of 22 or 24 lb. Black type.

5) The effective resume is tailored for a specific position. I understand that may mean cranking out slight variations of your resume every day of the week to target different job postings. Nobody said a job search was a walk in the park. Jump over to Job Resume Objective for more on this.

6) Portray yourself as a problem solver.

7) Quantify your accomplishments with hard numbers whenever possible.

8) Don’t mention your current, or expected salary on the resume.

9) Don’t mention personal information, like whether or not you’re single or married, whether or not you have kids, whether or not your hobbies include golf or listening for extra-terrestrials with the modified ham radio contraption in your garage. Especially that last one.

10) Check, check, check for misspellings. Don’t ever, ever, ever submit a resume or post it online without doing a spell check.
In fact, take it a step further and have one or two friends or colleagues proofread the resume for spelling and grammar problems. Do this because an automated spell check program will not know whether you meant to say “principal” or “principle.” Both are spelled correctly but mean totally different things. It will not know that you erred by using a verb in the present tense when referring to a job in the past tense.

None of this may seem that critical to you, but trust me, it’s critical to the hiring official.

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Sep 01, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Acing the Interview (Tips and Strategies for Successful Interviewing)

You have just landed an interview for a seemingly wonderful job! Now what? Successful interviewing will be essential in order for you to lock in an offer. Here are some tips and strategies for effective interviewing from preparation through follow up.Company Research

Research should always be your first step. Gathering background information on employers is a crucial element in successful interview preparation. You will need to be prepared to answer the questions “What do your know about our company”? and “Why do you want to work here?” Knowing as much as possible about the company’s past performance and future plans can make your interview more interactive and could be just the leg up you need in a competitive job market. Before the interview review the company’s web site and don’t be afraid to contact your prospective employer to request details on the position you are interviewing for or to ask for company literature. Google the company to see what other information is available online.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice makes perfect (or at least leads to improvement). Practice with a friend and record or videotape your responses so you can replay the interview and see how well you did. Prepare answers to commonly asked interview questions. Doing so will help you analyze your background and qualifications for the position.

Behavioral Interviews

Behavior based interviewing is becoming more common. It is based on the premise that a candidate’s past performance is the best predictor of future performance. Rather than the typical interview questions on your background and experience, you will you need to be prepared to provide detailed responses including specific examples of your work experiences.

The best way to prepare is to think of examples where you have successfully used the skills you’ve acquired. Take the time to compile a list of responses to both types of questions and to itemize your skills, values, and interests as well as your strengths and weaknesses. Emphasize what you can do to benefit the company rather than just what you are interested in. Also prepare a list of questions you want to ask the interviewer. Remember, you aren’t simply trying to get the job – you are also interviewing the employer to assess whether this company and the position are a good fit for you.

Prepare For the Interview

It is very important to be on time for the interview. On time means ten to fifteen minutes early. If need be, take some time to drive to the office ahead of time so you know exactly where you are going. Know the interviewer’s name and use it during the interview. If you’re not sure of the name, call and ask prior to the interview. Remember to bring an extra copy of your resume and a list of references.

Stay Calm

During the interview try to remain as calm as possible. Ask for clarification if you’re not sure what’s been asked and remember that it is perfectly acceptable to take a moment or two to frame your responses so you can be sure too fully answer the question.

End the interview with a thank you to the interviewer and reiterate your interest in the position. Then follow-up with a personal Thank You note restating your interest.

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Aug 31, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Turning around a problem employee

Takeaway: If you have an employee with a productivity or attitude problem, the temptation is often just to write that employee off and get back to business. But before you take such a drastic step, you need to identify the problem and try to solve it.
An employee with performance problems is not just a manager’s problem. It’s a problem for the whole staff. Staff members can resent taking up the slack for a poor performer, and rightly so. Hostility and anger from a problem employee can permeate and infect the whole environment. Ungrounded cynicism can also spread to the rest of your staff, even your good performers.

For these reasons, it’s important that you take action with an employee who is exhibiting problems with productivity and behavior as soon as you detect there is a problem. Here are some of the best ways to approach this tricky issue.

Identify the problem
First, you should identify the problem and try to find the reasons behind it. Why should you do this instead of just starting dismissal procedures? There are several reasons.

Staff morale: You don’t want your staff operating under the assumption that the axe will fall at the first sign of a mistake. As a manager, arming yourself with a God complex can be tempting and seem less complicated, but do resist the temptation. No matter what you think, people are more productive in a supportive environment than they are in an intimidating one. And besides, a problem employee who is “rehabilitated” could become one of your organization’s greatest assets one day.

The bottom line: Believe it or not, fixing an existing problem is cheaper than recruiting, hiring, and training a replacement employee. (Keep in mind that I’m addressing run-of-the-mill performance problems. This statement wouldn’t be true if you’d just discovered that the employee has been covertly selling off parts of your technical inventory.) Also, if you fire an employee prematurely, even for what you know are legitimate reasons, you could set your organization up for some hefty legal fees. If you haven’t worked with human resources to follow a standard and well-documented dismissal process, there’s a good chance that the employee will feel wrongfully terminated and will sue. Don’t forget that federal law, institutional policies, and special status through entitlements affect the disciplinary process.

The behavior may be a symptom of something bigger: It’s not always the case, but sometimes problematic employee behavior is an indication that there’s a bigger or more pervasive problem in the department or organization. Maybe the employee is just not in the right role; a change in duties could turn everything around. Talk to the employee, then ask yourself if the problems are caused by organization-induced obstacles that are beyond the employee’s control. Is the working environment respectful? Is its culture exclusive of those who don’t “fit the mold”? Are your department rules counter to institutional policy? Is an employee’s perceived bad attitude just a reflection of your own bias in favor of a preferred communication style? It could be that a supervisory deficiency is at fault.

You may find, however, that your department is not to blame and that the problem rests solely with the employee. If that’s the case, then direct your efforts accordingly. Begin your employee performance improvement process.

Dealing with the problem
TechRepublic member Mike Malesevich uses a six-step process when helping employees improve their performance. The steps are:

1. Describe the employee’s specific performance issues

  • Talk about the issues, not about the employee’s poor effort.
  • Describe the results of the employee’s performance.

2. Describe the expected standards of employee performance

  • Be specific. Don’t say you have a “poor” attitude; instead list specific occurrences that illustrate problematic behavior.

    • 3. Determine the cause of the performance issues

    • Does the employee lack training, skills, knowledge?
    • Is there a lack of motivation, incentive?
    • Are there external factors involved (family, financial, etc.)?
    • Are there factors beyond the employee’s control affecting the performance?

    4. Ask the employee for solution(s)

  • What could the employee do to improve this situation?

    • 5. Discuss each solution with the employee

    • How will this solution help with the employee’s problem?
    • Discuss your solution(s).
    • Try to jointly improve upon the solutions.

    6. Agree on specific actions to be done and a time frame to implement them

  • Arrange for another meeting in the future to track the progress/results of the solution.

    • Malesevich says, “This outline has helped me assist others when their work seems to have slipped. It’s not perfect, but it lets employees know that others do care about their work, and are trying to help. The best way to resolve performance issues is to tackle them early, before they become more deeply ingrained and harder to eradicate.”

    And the best way to tackle performance issues early is to use a regular performance appraisal process. At the very least, conduct performance appraisals once a year. But it’s even better to conduct smaller evaluations every few months so that any information about performance problems doesn’t come as a surprise to the employee. Also, you can set performance goals at more frequent intervals and check more readily if they’re being met.

    Effectively dealing with performance issues in an employee can be a long, intensive process. But it’s best to do it right.

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    Aug 30, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

    Is Your Employee Newsletter Doing Its Job?

    Some years back, a custodial employee working for one of my clients came up with an ingenious way to eliminate a slip hazard for customers on wet or snowy days. A story about it, with a photo of the employee, was featured in the company newsletter. This company routinely mailed copies of its newsletter to the children of any employees highlighted within its pages, with a personalized note that read, “Your daddy’s picture appears on page 2.”

    Several weeks later, management held a staff meeting and invited questions about their quality improvement program. The custodian rose to his feet and reported that the day his two children received the newsletter, he’d been greeted with a hero’s welcome when he got home. His youngsters wanted to hear how his picture came to be in “the paper.” The kids had subsequently brought the newsletter to school for show-and-tell, and the teacher posted it on the school bulletin board for a week. His kids felt like celebrities at school, he said, as if their dad had been on the cover of Time magazine. He went on to acknowledge that he’d always assumed they were somewhat ashamed of the janitorial work their father did for a living. This expression of pride from his own children, he said, was the most personally rewarding experience in his entire 30-year career with the company–and if this was the kind of thing management meant by “quality improvement,” he wanted them to know he was ready to do anything he could to help. With that, he sat back down. Things were strangely quiet in the meeting room for a few moments after his remarks.

    Information vs. Inspiration
    “I have been consistently shocked at how important [internal communication] is to employees,” New-York-based retail consultant Cheryl Beall told me during an interview for my book Motivation. “Some kind of a mention in the newsletter, and [the employees are] diving down the hall to get it. And I have to admit, it really quite frankly shocks me.”

    Why would I be discussing newsletters in a book about motivation? Precisely because the company newsletters with the greatest impact are not those that seek to inform but rather those that seek to motivate. It’s a simple shift of purpose, but it changes the kind of information the newsletter presents and the way its presented–and it dramatically changes the effect the newsletter has on the culture of the organization. Instead of striving to keep workers in the know about random news events, the primary goal of these newsletters is to keep workers fired up about the key objectives–in other words, the mission–their organization is pursuing.

    The Power of Hero Stories
    The traditional newsletter is a hodge-podge of information, a patchwork of what often turns out to be old news by the time it makes its way into print. Worse, besides being outdated, the content often reflects management’s interests more than those of the rank and file. While management may want a big story about the company’s new product line, for example, the employees are often far more interested in photos of the company’s charity fundraisingpicnic and softball game.

    Newsletters in high-energy businesses, by comparison, usually reflect an entirely different focus. Because these businesses are typically more customer-driven than profit-driven, their newsletters exist to show employees reflections of themselves doing extraordinary things to help customers or benefit the community. Everything in the newsletter is there exclusively for theedification of employees–as opposed to the education of employees (for the edification of management). Each edition of the newsletter puts as many employees in the news as can be squeezed into the available space. Everybody goes diving down the hall to get their hands on the latest edition because they know it’s going to be full of hero stories about them. These hero stories become much more than a reflection of the organization’s commitment to customers and the community–they become powerful intensifiers of that commitment.

    Show, Don’t Tell
    How do you find these hero stories? Creating a motivational newsletter requires adopting a semi-journalistic approach.

    • Learn about something newsworthy that one or several employeesdid. This may require digging for facts among co-workers and customers. If your company routinely invites customer comments, this can become a prime source for hero stories.
    • Use direct quotations from employees, co-workers and the customers affected. The greater the number of direct quotes, the greater the story’s overall credibility and impact.
    • Take photos of the employees and customers to accompany the story. Photos further enhance both credibility and motivational impact.

    The real job of an employee newsletter is to motivate workers to do positive things for customers and the community. Start filling your newsletter with stirring descriptions of workers doing that, and let your employees experience their own “hero’s welcome.”

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    Aug 28, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

    Five Tips for Effective Employee Recognition

    Employee recognition is not just a nice thing to do for people. Employee recognition is a communication tool that reinforces and rewards the most important outcomes people create for your business. When you recognize people effectively, you reinforce, with your chosen means of recognition, the actions and behaviors you most want to see people repeat. An effective employee recognition system is simple, immediate, and powerfully reinforcing.

    When you consider employee recognition processes, you need to develop recognition that is equally powerful for both the organization and the employee. You must address five important issues if you want the recognition you offer to be viewed as motivating and rewarding by your employees and important for the success of your organization.

    The Five Most Important Tips for Effective Recognition

    You need to establish criteria for what performance or contribution constitutes rewardable behavior or actions.

    • All employees must be eligible for the recognition.
    • The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized.
    • Anyone who then performs at the level or standard stated in the criteria receives the reward.
    • The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces behavior the employer wants to encourage.
    • You don’t want to design a process in which managers “select” the people to receive recognition. This type of process will be viewed forever as “favoritism” or talked about as “it’s your turn to get recognized this month.” This is why processes that single out an individual, such as “Employee of the Month,” are rarely effective.

    A Working Example of Successful Recognition

    A client company established criteria for rewarding employees. Criteria included such activities as contributing to company success serving a customer without being asked to help by a supervisor. Each employee, who meets the stated criteria, receives a thank you note, hand-written by the supervisor. The note spells out exactly why the employee is receiving the recognition.

    The note includes the opportunity for the employee to “draw” a gift from a box. Gifts range from fast food restaurant gift certificates and candy to a gold dollar and substantial cash rewards. The employee draws the reward, so no supervisory interference is perceived. A duplicate of the thank you note goes into a periodic drawing for even more substantial reward and recognition opportunities.

    More Tips About Recognition and Performance Management

    • If you attach recognition to “real” accomplishments and goal achievement as negotiated in a performance development planning meeting, you need to make sure the recognition meets the above stated requirements. Supervisors must also apply the criteria consistently, so some organizational oversight may be necessary.The challenge of individually negotiated goals is to make certain their accomplishment is viewed as similarly difficult by the organization for the process to be a success.
    • People also like recognition that is random and that provides an element of surprise. If you thank a manufacturing group every time they make customer deliveries on time with a lunch, gradually the lunch becomes a “given” or an entitlement and is no longer rewarding.In another organization, the CEO traditionally bought lunch for all employees every Friday. Soon, he had employees coming to him asking to be reimbursed for lunch if they ate lunch outside of the company on a Friday. His goal of team building turned into a “given” or an entitlement and he was disappointed with the results.
    • There is always room for employee reward and recognition activities that generally build positive morale in the work environment. The Pall Corporation, in Ann Arbor, MI, has had a “smile team” that meets to schedule random, fun employee recognition events. They have decorated shop windows, with a prize to the best, for a holiday.They sponsor ice cream socials, picnics, the “boss” cooks day, and so on, to create a rewarding environment at work. Another company holds an annual costume wearing and judging along with a lunch potluck every Halloween.

    Rewards and recognition that help both the employer and the employee get what they need from work are a win-win situation. Make this the year you plan a recognition process that will “wow” your staff and “wow” you with its positive outcomes. Avoid the employee recognition traps that:

    • single out a few employees who are mysteriously selected for the recognition,
    • sap the morale of the many who failed to understand the criteria enough to compete and win, and
    • sought votes or other personalized, subjective criteria to determine winners.

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    Aug 27, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

    7 Rules to Write an Effective Resume

    Goal or Problem

    Many people can write a good resume but a good resume is not necessarily an effective resume. My article below will explain how to write an effective resume that lands you in an interview.
    Idea

    Anyone who owns the skill of writing an effective resume is not just skilled but he is truly blessed. In 90% of job, education or other career applications, you will not get to face the employer without initial screening. The initially screening is usually done on nothing else but your resume. Now your resume can never land you a job alone. Many other factors count in such as interviews, specific skills requirement but an effective resume can certainly bring you much closer.
    The good news is that writing an effective resume simply depends on your perception regarding the job and your own profile. If you can change those perceptions you can learn to write an effective resume. Here is what you need to know in order to do that:
    1. Customize: Writing a resume that can land you a job, starts with customization of your resume. What does this mean? This means that never ever submit the same resume everywhere. Your resume needs to be tailored according to the job requirements. Now this mainly depends on your perception of the employer and the job, so think about what would the employer want to see in your resume and then start writing your resume e.g. if you have some work experience under your belt and you are applying for a job that requires so, start your resume with your professional or work experience. On the other hand, if you are writing a resume for a college application (other than MBA), you should start with your education.
    2. Make it Concise: Now this does not mean, the shorter the better. I mean a half page resume for a senior level position might only be as good as not applying at all. But you have to understand that in most cases, you are not the only one applying for this job and an employer may have to even go through piles of resumes to shortlist a few. So chances are that, if your resume is long, it might not even be read before going into the garbage. Now all employers have different set of rules regarding the length of the resume but a concise one page resume is usually always welcomed by every employer.
    3. Content: Many people and specifically people who are just staring to make their resumes are often confused by the format and what to include and what not to include. This is a tricky question e.g. in several countries including mine; almost everyone includes an Objective Title at the beginning of their resume. This may include data ranging from which position you are applying for, career aspirations to become successful in your field. When I started to feel that I need more space on my resume, I got down to think what would be least important to the employer and that is when I realized that just because everyone includes an objective, doesn’t mean I need to. In practice, it is the most useless bit of information on a person’s resume. Now without it, my resume lacked a beginning and it felt like I was jumping onto details. So I created a title of Career Profile in which I included, in just a couple of bullets, my career summary ranging from the industries I have worked in to my education and most prolific trainings.
    The data your employer will always need is your work experience and education. What else you want to include depends on you and the particular job your are applying for. You can include data such as Trainings, Tools or Applications you have worked on, Social Work that you may have been doing, any good references that you may be able to provide, languages you can speak, management skills that you may have attained, co-curricular or social activities that you were involved n during your past job or education etc.
    4. Design It: Yes that’s right. Just because its a professional document, doesn’t mean that it has to be boring. Now with most companies, you cannot go too creative with the design or it will be taken as unprofessional. But you can still make sure that the design of your resume appeals to the aesthetic sense. You can make your resume in a tabular format, highlight the headings and make them dark blue instead of black, add some very light shade to the background etc. If you are applying for an advertising job or design job, you may even take the liberty and design your resume like a poster or include an ad campaign on the back your resume. Such a resume will be able to stand out and has much more chance to catch the employer’s attention than any other resume.
    5. Personalize it: In most cases, people applying for a particular job will have somewhat similar profiles. For example, if the opening is for a restaurant chef, most of the people applying will already be working as chefs at different places. In such a case, you can make your resume stand out by highlighting your key strengths e.g. writing a brief intro of a recipe that you invented. Chances are that when the employer is bored with reading resumes, he/she will have a look at your resume and suddenly start taking interest again.
    6. Highlight Achievements, Not Positions: Again, people with similar profiles often apply for the same positions. Chances are that by the time your employer gets to your resume, he/she will not be interested anymore in your position but rather in what you did while being at that position. Let me give you an example here on how you write the same information more effectively:
    a. Worked on aligning the hiring process between Operations and Human Resources Department
    b. Achieved reduction in average hiring time by one week through process alignment between Operations and Human Resources Department
    The second line explains what you achieved while working and is much more appealing to the reader.
    7. Don’t write anything without backing it up with example: This is specifically true for soft skills. Never just write “Has strong negotiations skills”, instead write it as “Negotiated the reduction in costs by 70% with the vendor”. Soft/Management skills are much more believable when written as examples.

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    Aug 26, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

    John Boehner calls for firing of Obama’s entire economic team; time ‘to put grownups in charge’

    Here is the text, as prepared for delivery, of House Republican leader John Boehner’s remarks Tuesday at Cleveland’s City Club. This speech was the subject of an earlier Tuesday morning Ticket post showing how the communications strategies of the the two parties jostle around the clock.

    In this case, the GOP team lured the Democrats into a trap, causing them to help publicize Boehner’s dramatic call for President Obama to fire his entire economic team, a step that gets Tuesday’s debate back on to the economy, the hardest part of the Democrats’ record to defend these days.

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    Aug 25, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

    Unpaid taxes can put homeowners at risk

    Eric and Mersija Simon couldn’t believe it when they walked out of their house and saw the bright yellow sign announcing a foreclosure sale.

    “We felt like we got the wind knocked out of us,” Eric said. “We couldn’t think, we couldn’t breathe. … We were just paralyzed.”

    The Simons have five children, ranging in age from 2 to 17 years old, who have always known the house as their home.

    In 1991, when the Simons bought the house on 310 Dunham Ave. in Salisbury, they paid for it in full. They have never had a mortgage on the house or faced worries that a bank might take and sell their home as a result of nonpayment.

    But mortgage lenders aren’t the only entities that can foreclose on a house. If a homeowner does not pay his or her property taxes, the county also has the ability to impose a lien on the property and put it up for auction.

    According to Janet Phillips, a deputy tax collector with Rowan County, the county has more than 500 accounts coded as being in foreclosure, and fewer than 100 of them have had judgments filed with the Clerk of Court’s office for sale of the property.

    Many of these are vacant buildings or lots, developments, businesses and rental properties. County tax administrator Jerry Rowland said it’s rare that a primary residence is put up for sale, because the county tries to work out payment plans with people who are in financial crisis and in danger of losing their homes.

    That’s what happened to the Simons, though, who owe the county a debt of about $4,000. The couple dutifully paid their property taxes each year until about five years ago, when hardship struck.

    Eric had been working full time as a group leader for a youth group home when he developed a severe case of vertigo.

    “I bent down to pick something up, and I couldn’t stand up,” he said. “I couldn’t tell which way was up and which way was down.”

    The condition causes dizziness and nausea, and the medication to treat it causes drowsiness, so his employer determined that he was no longer able to work.

    Eric has not sought disability payments, he said, because he was advised he would not receive them if his condition is improving. He says he is getting better, but he still can only perform odd jobs and occasional guest preaching events.

    Mersija volunteers for a few hours per week at a crisis pregnancy center in Salisbury. She had also worked part time at a video store, but severe back pain limits her motion and she is no longer employed.

    “With the little bit we had that was dwindling down, we had to look at taxes, utility bills, putting food on the table, taking care of the things our children need, and making our one and only vehicle function,” Eric said.

    Often, taxes have been prioritized last on that list.

    The Simons try to keep from relying on government assistance and nonprofit agencies, Eric said, though they have used those resources before. He said they have been fortunate lately to receive help from family members, friends and community members.

    Eric said this is a humbling experience after having given their own money, time and resources to the community. The Simons run a free prayer line out of their home called 7 Prayer Ministry, which can be reached at 704-469-1826 or 7prayer@gmail.com.

    With some assistance, the couple made a $1,000 payment on their property tax debt in January. Eric said he gave a lump sum because he was not aware that he could enter into an affordable payment plan. He did not make another payment until this month.

    Rowland said the county sends several notification letters, including a certified letter, before putting a property up for sale. Eric received those letters, but he was concerned when he read that the house would be sold if his debt was not paid in full.

    He said he made calls and sent e-mails to county staff members and was told that the county would not take his home. The yellow sign still showed up, though, on Aug. 2.

    Rowland said while, to his knowledge, the county has never sold someone’s primary residence, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. State law requires the county to foreclose on a property and put it up for sale after a certain period of nonpayment.

    “We want to work out any other way that we can to keep that from happening, but the law requires us to once it gets to a certain point,” Rowland said.

    Rowland said his office works with financially struggling families to allow them to make small monthly payments toward their tax debt. Tax officials did communicate with the Simons about their payment options in January, he said, so there must have been a misunderstanding.

    Eric said he met with county tax officials earlier this month and made the first payment in a new plan. Rowland said as long as they continue to pay what they can, the Simons should not lose their home.

    “All we’re wanting people to do is communicate with us and let us know that they are trying,” Rowland said. “It’s a good faith effort, and that’s all we’ve ever asked.”

    Contact Karissa Minn at 704-797-4222.

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    How to Lower Your Property Taxes

    Different local governments use different methods to determine home values and assess the related taxes. Call your local tax assessor’s office and ask how they determine home values. Typically, local governments calculate your property taxes based upon the value of your home. How the value of your home is determined has a huge impact on the amount you pay. If local laws or home values change, you might be able to reduce your tax liability.

    Review Tax Property Card
    Request to view your property tax cards from your local assessor’s office. The card provides you with information your local government gathers about your property. It includes information about the lot size, house size, room measurements, and the type of fixtures located within the home. It can even include information on special features, or notations about any improvements that have been made to your house.

    Think Twice About Remodeling
    If you plan to make any structural improvements to your home, it will increase your property tax bill. These include decks, pools, storage sheds, or any other permanent fixture that will increase the value of your house. Keep this in mind when you are calculating the total cost of the project. You can call your local tax departments for assistance.

    Limit Curb Appeal
    Tax assessors use a very strict set of guidelines when evaluating a house. However, the assessment does contain a certain amount of subjectivity. For example, more physically attractive homes will receiver higher assessments. In addition, property is always being compared to other houses in the area. Try not to make too many cosmetic improvements to your house before an assessment. Also, avoid any physical improvements to your house such as new counter tops or stainless steel appliances until after your home has been assessed.

    Walk with the Assessor
    Most people will allow the tax assessor to wander around their homes unguided during their evaluation. This can be a huge mistake as some assessors will only see the good things in a house and might overlook areas where the home is lacking. To make sure this does not happen, walk through your home with the assessor and point out both good and bad points. This ensures you get the fairest possible value of your home.

    File an Appeal
    If you think the value of your property is incorrect, then file an appeal to your local taxing authority. Within a few of weeks you should receive a notice acknowledging your appeal. Note that it can take months to get your appeal heard. Before the day of your hearing, it is a good idea to attend a local a hearing to get accustomed to the proceedings.

    Move to a Lesser Taxed Area
    Every local government has different property tax rates. Just by moving a few miles you may be able to greatly reduce your property taxes. However, before making any rash decisions, always perform ample research on the local tax rates.

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