Chapter5: The Curtain Rises on the Job Interview

1. Winning a job offer depends not only on the things you do well but also on the mistakes you avoid. These deadly traps can damage your candidacy:

Failing to listen to the question

Answering a question that was not asked

Providing superfluous, inappropriate, or irrelevant information.

Being unprepared for the interview

2. First impressions are the strongest. Here are the preparations to make before heading out to the interview.

The company dossier: Always take copies of the resume you customized for this job and an executive briefing that clearly defines how you match the job's requirements. It is perfectly acceptable to have your resume in front of you at the interview; it shows you are organized, and it makes a great cheat sheet. A decent folder with pad of paper and writing instruments. They give you something constructive to do with your hands; Any additional information you have about the company or the job

A list of job-related questions: The details of the job you already know are likely to be general in nature. Asking questions that give you the practical details of the activities you will be involved with in the first few months will make you think about your experience with a focus that is complementary to that of your interviewers. You might ask:

What are the most immediate challenges of the job?

what are the most important projects of the first six months?

What skills and behaviors are more important to success on the job?

Why is the job open?

What is the job's relationship to other departments?

How do the job and the department relate to the corporate mission?

Name-Dropping: Recruiters often look for candidates who either are working for or have worked for certain companies or competitors.

3. Most interviews start with a preamble by the interviewer about the company. Pay attention: that information will help you answer the questions. In fact, most of the statement the interviewer makes about the job or corporation can be used to your advantage.

4. Being able to do the job is only a small part of getting an offer. Questions of whether you are motivated to make an extra effort, whether you are manageable and a team player, and whether you think of yourself as a problem identifier and problem solver, are just as important to the interviewer.

Get Ready for the Tough Questions

1. "What are the reasons for your success in this profession?" Keep your answers short, general, and to the point.

2. "What kind of experience do you have for this job?" This is a golden opportunity to sell yourself, but before you do, be sure you know what is most critical to the interviewer, who is looking for someone who can contribute quickly to current projects. If you do not know the project you will be involved with in the first six months, you must ask. Level-headedness and analytical ability are respected. For example: "I have worked in the shipping area, I understand deadlines, delivery schedules and the bottom-line importance of getting the product shipped, and my awareness of making money by saving money has always..."

3. "What aspects of your job do you consider most crucial?" A wrong answer can knock you out of the running. It is designed to determine time management, prioritization skills. and any inclination for task avoidance.

What are the broad responsibilities of your job?

This is becoming a very popular question with interviewers, and rightly so. There are three layers to it. First, it acknowledges productive and self-responsibility; second, have to be trained, third, comprehensive understanding of your job.

To answer effectively you need to understand the small role your job plays in the bigger picture of departmental responsibilities and how the department's role in turn helps contribute to the bottom line. Explain your day-to-day responsibilities, whom you are serving and how your function serves the profit motive of the organization.

4. "What did you like/dislike about your last job?"

5. "What are your biggest accomplishments?" If you exaggerate... "Although I feel my biggest achievements are still ahead of me, I'm proud of my involvement with...I made my contribution as part of that tem and learned a lot in the process. We did it with hard work, concentration, and..."

6. "Tell me how you moved up through the organization."

A fast-track question, the answer to which says a lot about your personality, your goals, your past, your future, and whether you still have any steam left in you. The answer might be long, but try to avoid rambling. Include a fair sprinkling of your professional behaviors in your stories and illustrations (because this is the perfect time to do it). As well as listing the promotions, demonstrate that they came as a result of dedicated, long-term effort, substantial contributions, and flashes of genius.

7. "Why do you want to work here?" Cap your answer with reference to your belief that the company can provide you with a stable and happy work environment. I believe it offers my professional growth.

8. "Can you work under pressure?"

You might be tempted to give a simple "yes" or "no" answer. Actually this common question often comes from an unskilled interviewer, because it is closed-ended. You might answer: "Yes, I usually find it stimulating. However, I believe in planning and proper management of my time to reduce panic deadlines within my area of responsibility." To answer "How do you handle pressure?" "Tension is caused when you let things pile up. For instance, if you have a difficult presentation coming up, you may procrastinate in your preparations for it. I've seen lots of people do things like that--a task seems so overwhelming they don't know where to begin. I find that if you break those tasks into little pieces..."

9. "What are you looking for in your next job?"

"My experience at the XYZ has shown me I have a talent for motivating people. That is demonstrated by my team's... I'm looking for an opportunity to continue that kind of contribution..."

10. "Describe a difficult problem you've had to deal with."

11. "In your last job, what were some of the things you spent most of your time on, and why?" Employees come in two categories: goal oriented (those who want to get the job done), and task oriented (those who believe in "busy" work). You must demonstrate that you have good time-management skills. You might reply: "I work on the telephone like a lot of businesspeople, meetings also take up a great deal of time. What is important to me is effective time management and prioritization of activities based on the deliverables of my job. I find more gets achieved in a shorter time if a meeting is scheduled, say, immediately before lunch or at the close of business. I try to block my time in the morning and the afternoon for main thrust activities. At four o'clock, i review what I've achieved, what went right or wrong, and plan adjustments and my main thrust for tomorrow."

12. "What skills are most critical to this job?" The question examines your practical understanding of the day-to-day responsibilities of the job and the skills required to execute them. For example, "with high-end marketing of product launches into new territories I think there are two...first, strategic marketing skills: the identifying, prioritizing, and penetration of the new market--something I have done in the Atlanta area in both of my prior jobs. Second, I'd have to say negotiating skills..." Talk to people already doing the job, through your personal contacts and through membership in a professional association.

13. "How resourceful are you?" This is a question about creativity and initiative; it is also asking you to talk about analytical skills, how you anticipate problems and how you approach them when they do arise. The problem you wrestled with...talk about your analytical skills in discovering root causes, your resilience in the face of challenges...

14. "Do you have any questions?"

A good question. Almost always, this is a sign that the interview is drawing to a close and that you have one more chance to make an impression. Remember the adage: People respect what you inspect, not what you expect...better that you concentrate on gathering information that will help you further your candidacy.

Find out why the job is open, who had it last, and what happened to him or her.

Why did the interviewer join the company? How long has he or she been there? What is it about he company that keeps him or her there?

To whom I need to report

What type of training is required?

What are the realistic chances for growth in the job? Where are the opportunities for greatest growth within the company?

What are the skills and attributes most needed to get ahead in the company?

What kind of person are you really, Mr. Jones?

Learn the techniques an interviewer uses to find out whether you will fit into the company and department, and, most important, whether you are a good person to work with.

1. “How do you take direction?”

The interviewer wants to know whether you are open-minded and can be a team player. Can you follow directions or are you a difficult, high-maintenance employee? It is hoped that you are a low-maintenance professional who is motivated to ask clarifying questions about a project before beginning, and who then gets on with the job at hand, coming back with request for direction as circumstances dictate.

It can also be defined as “How do you accept criticism?” Your answer should cover both points. “There is carefully explained direction, when my boss has time to lay things out for me in detail; then there are those times when, as a result of deadlines and other pressures, the direction might be brief and to the point. While I have seen some people get upset with that, personally I’ve always understood that there are probably other considerations I am not aware of. As such, I take the direction and get on with the job without taking offense, so my boss can get on with her job.”

“I listened carefully and asked a couple of questions for clarification. Then I fed back what I heard to make sure the facts were straight. I asked for advice, we bounced some ideas around, then I came back later and represented the idea in a more viable format, show that a satisfactory resolution was ultimately reached.”

2. “What do you think of your current boss?”

The interviewer wants to know if you are the type of person who will be confrontational or undermining. Be short, sweet, and shut up. “I liked her as a person, respected her professionally, and appreciated her guidance.”

3.”Tell me about yourself.”

This invariably one of the first questions we all face. It helps the interviewer get a picture of you, and it helps you get used to talking…

4. How do you get along with different kinds of people?

You don’t have to talk about respect for others, the need for diversity, or hot it took you ten years to realized Jane was a different sex and Charley a different color, because that is not this question is about. This is a team player question.

5.What have you done that shows initiative?

“My boss has to organize a lot of meetings. That means developing agendas, letting employees around the country know the dates well in advance…”

6. What is the most difficult situation you have faced?

This question looks for information on two fronts:"How do you define difficult?" and "What was your handling of the situation?"

7. "Do you prefer working with others or alone?"

"I'm quite happy working alone when necessary. I don't need much constant reassurance. But I prefer to work in a group--so much more gets achieved when people pull together."

8. "You have a doctor's appointment arranged for noon. You've waited two weeks to get in. An urgent meeting is scheduled at the last moment, though. What do you do?"

What a crazy question, you mutter. It's not. It is even more than a question--it is what I call a question shell. The question within the sell--"Will you sacrifice the appointment or sacrifice your job?" This is a situational interview technique, which poses an on-the-job problem...once you understand, all you have to do is turn the question around: "If I were the manager who had to schedule a really important meeting at the last moment, and someone on my staff chose to go to the doctor's instead, how would I feel?"

To answer, you start with an evaluation of the importance of the problem and the responsibility of everyone to make some sacrifices for the organization, and finish with: "The first thing I would do is reschedule the appt and save the doctor's office inconvenience. Then I would immediately make sure I was properly prepared for the emergency meeting."