On December 3rd, 2013 all roads led to the Old Power House at the heart of Paphos, where the CyHRMA in cooperation with the Paphos District Office of Labour and Cyprus International Institute of Management (CIIM) organized an open lecture entitled “The Ingredients to a Successful Interview”.

The turnout was beyond expectations thus resulting in a slight delay at the beginning of the seminar due to the large number of participants. Despite this delay the seminar was characterized as being perfectly organized.

Mr Socrates Christodoulides, Paphos District Labour Officer, opened the seminar by welcoming the participants and by making a short introduction of what would follow. Mr Savvas Vergas, Mayor of Paphos, followed and referred to the availability of European funds and how the Paphos municipality has been affected by today’s crisis that the island is facing. Mr Demetris Michaelides, Senior Officer at the Department of Labour, continued the presentation and stated that the European funds are very important and that we should find ways to bring these funds to the island in order for young people to profit with the creation of new jobs. Finally, Mr Christis Plastiras, Business Development Manager at CIIM, presented the ways in which CIIM offers so as to help young people to improve their employability opportunities.

During the main part of the seminar, Mrs Maria Antoniadou, Administrative Assistant of Accounts and Administration at Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd, explained to the participants that the right CV as well as being well prepared for an interview is the beginning of everything. Mrs Antoniadou focused her presentation on how to write a CV as well as what one should use and what one should avoid. Mrs Annita Petrou, Human Resources Officer at RCB Bank Ltd, followed to talk about the importance of effective communication skills for a candidate during an interview. She basically tried to give the last touch by joining all the pieces of the puzzle together for an interview and show what the employers are really looking for in a candidate i.e. cooperation, communication skills, responsibility, and consensus. Mrs Natale Mastoroudes, Senior HR Specialist at Amdocs Development Ltd, closed the seminar by focusing her presentation on the different types of interviews and different types of questions addressed to candidates during interviews. She also noted that behavioural interview questions can be answered using the S.T.A.R. Technique which allows the candidate to answer in a structured way. Mrs Mastoroudes gave examples of frequently asked questions that are given to candidates by employers during an interview.

Mr Christis Plastiras closed the seminar by asking the participants to make any queries they had to the presenters. The various questions of the participants were answered by the speakers and that marked the end of the seminar.

The Ingredients to a Successful Interview Material
– Presentation (Maria Antoniadou)
– Presentation (Annita Petrou)