June 28, 2018 in Tips and Tricks

Email Examples: How to Respond to an Employer Interview Request

Email Examples: How to Respond to an Employer Interview Request

When an employer responds to your job application with an interview request, you want to get back to them quickly and with enthusiasm. If you applied through Indeed, emails from employers will have the subject line “Response to application on Indeed.” Be sure to check your email settings and spam folders so you won’t miss their messages.

In your responses, keep your tone professional and upbeat. Avoid emojis, emoticons and slang. Proofread your messages for typos before you hit send. Here are four email examples to get you started.

If an employer requests an interview

In this case, you should send your response the same day. This shows enthusiasm for the role and respect for the employer’s time.

Begin your email with a note of thanks. If possible, agree to the employer’s suggested day and time. However, if you are currently working and your schedule is not flexible, most employers will accommodate your situation. Below is a sample email to consider if an employer contacts you requesting an interview:

Dear Ms. Wade,

Thank you for your consideration and the invitation to interview for the Social Media Manager role at XYZ Company. I am available this Wednesday at 1:30 pm, and I look forward to meeting with you to discuss this position in more detail.

Please let me know if I can provide any additional information prior to our meeting on Wednesday afternoon at your offices.

Sincerely,

Jaime Jones

Phone: (555) 555-1234

The response is short, clear and positive. It reinforces the date and location of the interview. There’s no need to include additional details—you’ll discuss the specifics during the interview.

If an employer asks you to call to schedule an interview

Another type of email you might receive from an employer is a request to call the employer’s offices to schedule an interview. Even though the employer wants you to call, you could also consider sending a brief confirmation email. Here’s an example:

Dear Ms. Wade,

Thank you for considering me for the Social Media Manager role at XYZ Company. Per your request, I will call you tomorrow afternoon to arrange for an interview.

I look forward to speaking with you. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information.

Sincerely,

Jaime Jones

Phone: (555) 555-1234

If an employer asks you follow-up questions

Finally, an employer might email you with follow-up questions. These questions are essentially a preliminary interview, so respond with professionalism and detail:

• When asked company-related questionsProvide specific, detailed responses. Research company information (including corporate blogs and social media channels), and adapt the language you find there into your own words.
• When asked about your pay or salary requirements
  Employers ask this question because they want to know your expectations are aligned ed with what they can offer. You have a few options when answering this question. One is to delay talking about pay until you know more about the job. An example response could be: “I’m looking for a competitive offer that includes benefits and other kinds of compensation. I’d like to know more about the specifics of what this job requires first.”Another option is to provide a range instead of one number. If you’re only interested in this job if it pays a specific amount, be honest. This can help you and the employer determine if this is a match early on.  
  • For more example responses to this question, review How to Talk About Salary in a Job Interview.
  • When asked questions about your own career pathAlign information from your resume with the job description to make natural connections. Be sure that your enthusiasm for the position and the industry are apparent.
  • If asked about skills you don’t have
    Be truthful. Instead, discuss transferable skills, proof of adaptability, ability to acquire new skills quickly, and a willingness to learn. In today’s job market, it’s rare that candidates have all the listed qualifications, so don’t be intimidated or discouraged. Instead, provide examples that show you can learn and grow as an employee.
  The following template provides sample opening and closing statements you can use when replying to an employer who asks follow-up questions in an email. This strategy can help move the process to the interview scheduling stage: Dear Ms. Wade,Thank you so much for considering me for the Social Media Manager role at XYZ Company. I’ve outlined responses to your questions below.[INSERT YOUR SPECIFIC ANSWERS]I appreciate the opportunity to provide this additional information, and I look forward to speaking with you and members of your team soon.Sincerely,Jaime JonesPhone: (512) 555-1234 If an employer asks you to email to schedule an interview Employers sometimes request that you email another individual to schedule an interview. This will likely be someone you have not contacted in the job application process. In this case, you must write two emails: a reply to the employer’s email and another to the person arranging the interview. Again, it’s important to respond promptly to the employer and remain brief in your reply. In the second email, you’ll need to provide context for the reason you’re writing. Here are two templates to help you navigate both situations: To the employer Dear Ms. Wade,Thank you for considering me for the Social Media Manager role at XYZ Company. Per your request, I will email Kate Duran to arrange for an interview. I look forward to speaking with you and additional members of your team.Please let me know if I can provide any further information in the meantime.Sincerely,Jaime JonesPhone: (555) 555-1234 To the person arranging the interview Dear Ms. Duran,I received an email today from Elaine Wade requesting that I contact you to schedule an interview for the Social Media Manager role at XYZ Company. At your convenience, please let me know when you have openings in your schedule.I am excited to learn more about the opportunities at XYZ Company and look forward to discussing the role in greater detail.Sincerely,Jaime JonesPhone: (555) 555-1234 If your schedule isn’t flexible, let this second email recipient know. You can add a few more sentences in the first paragraph that explain your circumstances. For example: …At your convenience, please let me know if you have openings in your schedule. Though I currently work standard business hours, I am available for interviews during lunch hours, before 9:00 am and after 5:00 pm. Is it possible to schedule an interview during these times? If not, please let me know so that I can arrange time off for the interview. Your response to an employer’s request is the beginning of your communication. Set a great tone in that first response, and you may improve your chances of moving forward in the hiring process.

June 26, 2018 in Tips and Tricks

how can I recursively delete empty directories in my home directory?

how can I recursively delete empty directories in my home directory?

The find command is the primary tool for recursive file system operations. Use the -type dexpression to tell find you’re interested in finding directories only (and not plain files). The GNU version of find supports the -empty test, so

$ find . -type d -empty -print

will print all empty directories below your current directory.

Use find ~ -… or find "$HOME" -… to base the search on your home directory (if it isn’t your current directory).

After you’ve verified that this is selecting the correct directories, use -delete to delete all matches:

$ find . -type d -empty -delete

June 21, 2018 in Tips and Tricks

Starting and Stopping httpd

Starting and Stopping httpd

After installing the httpd package, review the Apache HTTP Server’s documentation available online at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/.

The httpd RPM installs the /etc/init.d/httpd script, which can be accessed using the /sbin/servicecommand.

Starting httpd using the apachectl control script sets the environmental variables in /etc/sysconfig/httpdand starts httpd. You can also set the environment variables using the init script.

To start the server using the apachectl control script as root type:

apachectl start

You can also start httpd using /sbin/service httpd start. This starts httpd but does not set the environment variables. If you are using the default Listen directive in httpd.conf, which is port 80, you will need to have root privileges to start the apache server.

To stop the server, as root type:

apachectl stop

You can also stop httpd using /sbin/service httpd stop. The restart option is a shorthand way of stopping and then starting the Apache HTTP Server.

You can restart the server as root by typing:

apachectl restart 
or:
/sbin/service httpd restart

Apache will display a message on the console or in the ErrorLog if it encounters an error while starting.

By default, the httpd service does not start automatically at boot time. If you would wish to have Apache startup at boot time, you will need to add a call to apachectl in your startup files within the rc.N directory. A typical file used is rc.local. As this starts Apache as root, it is recommended to properly configure your security and authentication before adding this call.

You can also configure the httpd service to start up at boot time, using an initscript utility, such as /sbin/chkconfig, /usr/sbin/ntsysv, or the Services Configuration Tool program.

You can also display the status of your httpd server by typing:

apachectl status

The status module mod_status however needs to be enabled in your httpd.conf configuration file for this to work. For more details on mod_status can be found on http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_status.html.

June 21, 2018 in Tips and Tricks

How to Start/Stop or Restart Apache server on CENTOS Linux server ?

How to Start/Stop or Restart Apache server on CENTOS Linux server ?

Apache is the HTTP server which is freely available over internet. It is a kind of software or program which is developed to run on Linux/Unix but now it is also work under systems like windows or MAC. Today’s most of the websites hosted under different servers like Linux, Windows, Java etc . But if you are hosted under Apache server and you need to makes changes in httpd.conf file or other configuration file then you have to restart Apache server so the changes may reflect.

If you are thinking how to restart Apache server through command line then don’t you worry here is the way…

To start your Apache server for Linux version 4.x/5.x/6.x or older commands :

## Start ##

# service httpd start

## Stop ##

# service httpd stop

## Restart ##

# service httpd restart

To start your Apache server for Linux version Linux version 7.x or newer commands :

## Start command ##

# systemctl start httpd.service

## Stop command ##

# systemctl stop httpd.service

## Restart command ##

# systemctl restart httpd.service

June 21, 2018 in Tips and Tricks

My VPS / Cloud / Dedicated Servers hangs/stops responding/stops working ?

My VPS / Cloud / Dedicated Servers hangs/stops responding/stops working ?

When your server you are hosted on stopped working there could be numbers of possible reasons for it. When you feel the website is not working try to refresh the page if it doesn’t resolves the issue try opening it in the other browser and other devices as well. If nothing works out kindly contact the support team they will help you resolve the issue. The server could stop responding when there is too much of resources consumption from the website, The database failure due to foreign commands ran into the server. Numbers of possible cases are studied to overcome this issue.

Problem:  (The problem can be told in many ways, Example of few ways)

1. My VPS or Cloud or Dedicated server hangs and stops responding?
2. Due to overload, My server stops responding?
3. Due to HIGH CPU and high RAM usage, My DB server or Apache / web server stops responding.

The CPU load or system load can shoot up to sky high at any given time for 100s of reasons.  There can be 100s of reasons, why it happens and It can analyse or known once we reboot the server and study the logs of what has happened.

Some of the common reasons, Why server stops responding…

• Too many requests choke the servers. Example, Your server is configured to server 10,000 requests per hour. All of sudden, If your server receives more than that, then your server struggles to serve all the request and at some point in time, It overloads and stops functioning as expected.  You may get too many hits due to bot or DDOS attack.

• Overload of DB server.  Due to poor programming or overload of the request as mentioned in the above para, your DB server can stop functioning. Imagine, If your DB server can handle only 1,000 queries per minute and If it receives more than 1,000 like 5,000 queries per minute, then it stops functioning properly.

• Email server issue. The email server can handle a good amount of Emails per hour. Assume, If your website is compromised or hacked, then generally hackers use your server to send millions of emails per hour. When you send few millions of emails per hour, then Email server consumes more memory and results in the server overload.

• A genuine increase in traffic: It is possible that your website might get more genuine traffic than what was before. When there is a increase in traffic, then it is advisable to increase the resources.

In all the above scenario, You have to find out the root which causes the problem and fix it. Otherwise, upgrading the resources such as RAM or CPU can be helpful sometimes. When you add more CPU and RAM, then your server gets more resources to handle any request. But, still it is still advisable to find out the root cause and take permanent action.

June 19, 2018 in Tips and Tricks

Setting up cron jobs with cPanel

Setting up cron jobs with cPanel

What is a cron?

A cron is a service that allows a user to automatically execute a script at a specific time.

For example, you can set a particular PHP script to be automatically executed everyday at midnight.

Set up cron jobs through cPanel using this procedure:

1. Log on to your cPanel Interface.
2. Go to ”Advanced’ section.
3. Click on “Cron Jobs”.
4. Select the specific time from the lists provided.
5. You should enter the command to run in the “Command” field.

Note:

You should make sure to enter the proper command and the full path to the file.

(for eg.: /usr/bin/php /home/user/public_html/cron.php).

Check the relevant screen captures:

June 19, 2018 in Tips and Tricks

How to test Cron Job(Cron job testing)

How to test Cron Job(Cron job testing)

What is Cron Job ?

The software utility Cron is a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like computer operating systems. People who set up and maintain software environments use cron to schedule jobs (commands or shell scripts) to run periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals.

Below are the few points/Pre-made Test cases for the Cron Job Testing:-

1. Verify if It is scheduled correctly – By going here http://corntab.com/.
2. Mock the Cron time by 1-2 minutes by changing it for quick testing (if it’s long for hour/day long). – High
3. Ask the devs to create a shortcut for it. In the server or any other way to directly run it by you so that you can test it when you need.(saves time)
4. Ask dev to add the logs for monitor purpose and monitor it while testing.
   Use below command for logs.
   * * * * * /path/script.sh &> /path/script.log or
   tail -f /var/log/cron
5. Do testing by doing changing things like we do in CRUD(Not always, Crud means update/delete etc whichever is relevant) and verify results. – High
6. Break something the job relies on upon and schedule it to run again in a few minutes – Verify the results.
7. After deployment – Validate it with real data also. – High
8. Keep system time and user system time in mind while testing CRON’s as scheduling is by server GMT time usually.
9. Negative scenario: What if CRON is stopped the midway execution, any impacts it will have?
10. Negative – Discuss with dev if there is any possibility of the same Cron getting run multiple times.
11. Negative – Discuss with dev if its fails to the job – What is the risk/ solution for it(did we get the mail if it fails ?)
12. Test for scenarios which shouldn’t get affected by Cron job(e.g. a other Cron should not affect other cron)