10 Interviewing

I’d have come across better if I’d only known how to prepare.

Chapter Overview

Have you ever attended an interview and felt uncomfortable not knowing what was going to happen, what questions would be asked, how decisions would be made, and what you could have done to better prepare yourself? If you answered yes to these questions, you’re among more than 90 percent of interviewees.

In this chapter, I’ll share my views from the perspective of a recruiter, employer, and career coach. Taken together, these views will help you:

Prepare to answer the questions interviewers will ask.

Prepare to make sure you pass the unspoken evaluation.

Exude confidence during an interview.

Convince employers and recruiters that you’re the best person for the job.

The main sections in this chapter include:

Creating the best image.

Pre-interview preparation.

The interview.

What interviewers want to know about you.

Post-interview.

Milestones.

This chapter takes you through the interviewing process. Although you may think many of the guidelines are obvious and needn’t be mentioned, far too many candidates didn’t know these simple tips at our interviews.

During my seven years leading a boutique international executive search firm in the UK, I participated in an abundance of interviews with our recruiters and, at my urging, most of our corporate clients.

If an interviewee didn’t come across positively on all of our evaluation criteria, as well as our clients’ criteria, he didn’t make it to the shortlist and didn’t get the job, even if he had the best skills and experience. The sad part is most never knew the real reason they weren’t selected!

Creating the Best Image

Chapter 9 identified three ways you communicate: through image, language, and values. If there’s ever a time when all three are examined under a microscope, it’s during an interview. Everything about you adds up to the impression you give: how you look, how you act, and what you say.

The first impression you make is pivotal. Even before you speak, your attire, personal grooming, and organization greatly influence the direction and duration of your interview. Recruiters often say they can tell within the first four minutes whether a candidate will get serious consideration.

Many times that decision is based solely on the person’s appearance and demeanor, not on their skills, knowledge, and experience. I’ll review the things my recruiters and I noticed that created issues for us in the following four areas:

1. Appearance.

2. Personal grooming.

3. Personal organization.

4. Travel arrangements.

You may think they are unimportant, but they create impressions that are hard to overcome.

Appearance

Clothes are the first thing people notice about you. Know your audience, and dress for the occasion. Executives and managers should dress for a professional environment, meaning men should wear a coat and tie, and women should wear a dress or suit. Men, forget the suspenders and bow ties unless it is common in the industry.

If a recruiter has already interviewed you and you’re going to interview with the potential employer, ask the recruiter about appropriate attire. If you don’t feel comfortable asking, being over-dressed is better than being underdressed. If you’re underdressed, you’ll feel at a disadvantage.

Illustration by Steven Lait.

Recruiters and employers notice the following:

Clothes—wrinkled, spotted, ill-fitting, or uncoordinated.

Jewelry—excessive, noisy, ostentatious, or inappropriate.

Shoes—scuffed, worn heels, holes in soles, broken laces, or brown shoes with a blue or black suit.

Socks (this is mainly for men) —threadbare, holes, color doesn’t match outfit, or won’t stay up when you cross your legs, exposing your bare legs. (The image of the executive I interviewed who sat picking the lint off his socks is still clear in my mind.)

Briefcase, handbag —worn out.

Personal Grooming

Interviewers may not be looking for them, but will notice the following about your personal grooming:

Bad breath—alcohol, garlic, onions, fish.

Visible body piercing or tattoos—think about the norms for your chosen industry.

Cigarette smell—lingers on your breath, in your hair, and on your clothes long after you put the cigarette out.

Aftershave, perfume—excessive amounts or overpowering smells.

Fingernails—unkempt, garish color, excessive length for men or women.

Hair—past due for a haircut, uncombed or not brushed, or a distracting hairstyle or color.

Facial hair on men—often perceived as hiding something, having eccentricities, or indicating aloofness. When looking for a new job, it’s best to be clean-shaven. You can always grow the hair back after you get the job.

Personal Organization

Use a diary (hard copy or Personal Digital Assistant). You’re the administrative support person responsible for your schedule. Write everything in your diary. Do it right away, and don’t rely on memory.

Carry a notebook. When you interview, have the notebook containing your notes about the company and your list of questions. Record the name and title of every person with whom you speak, confirming the spelling of their names, and include a brief summary of the conversation (after the meeting).

Check your briefcase. If you take your briefcase, you’ll probably open it during the interview, so make sure it’s neat and orderly ahead of time.

Bring extra resumes. Carry three or four clean copies of your resume.

Plan ahead for presentations. If they ask you to make a presentation, it would probably occur at a second interview. Inquire in advance if there’ll be a projector for your laptop or an overhead projector. Bring hard copies of your presentation in color.

If you plan to use PowerPoint, print three slides to a page so your audience can take notes. If the technology doesn’t work (a common problem), your handout will save the day and show that you think and plan ahead.

Go to the company’s Website, copy the logo, and paste it into your opening slide. Companies like to see that you took the time to use their logo.

Keep your slide presentation to key points, and speak to those points.

Content is king. Keep it simple.

Look at the people in the meeting, not at your slides.

Speak directly to each person to make a connection.

Eat in advance. Always eat something before the interview. It will give you a boost of energy, help your concentration, and keep your stomach from rumbling.

Check your appearance. When you arrive, go to the restroom and check your appearance from head to toe.

Observe your surroundings. As you walk into or through the office, absorb the corporate atmosphere. Keep your eyes and ears open for details about the company, its people, the office environment, and the building. Your visit will help you decide whether you want to work for them. Make notations in your notebook about the environment to help you remember what you noticed. If people aren’t talking to others or don’t look up, it could be a sign of a pressure environment.

Prepare to wait. Put a business or professional magazine or newspaper in your briefcase that you can read while waiting. You want them to see that you think ahead. Don’t take any non-business publications. Review the contents and skim or read the lead article or a topical one. Your interviewer may ask if you saw the article in such and such magazine about something relating to their company or the industry. You may also be able to use something topical as a starter for “small talk” at the beginning to help break the ice.

Travel Arrangements

You may think the following are inconsequential, but they’re the most frequent causes of interviews getting off to a shaky start:

Parking—Call and ask for the company’s interview location, directions, and parking instructions. Make sure you have plenty of change in case you have to pay for metered parking.

Directions—Check, copy, or download a map that shows exactly how to get there. If you know someone who works in the general neighborhood, ask about the usual traffic flow for the time of day of your interview. Consider making a dry run to the location so you know what to expect. You don’t want to arrive and find one-way streets or construction that impedes your arriving on time.

Be on time—On time means around 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment. This lets the interviewer know you’re there, and gives you AND them time to use the restroom and prepare. If you can’t be there within this time frame before your scheduled time, call to let them know where you are and when you anticipate arriving.

Lateness—If you think you’re going to be late, call the interviewer or her administrative support person as early as you can, explain the circumstances, and tell her when you expect to arrive. The interviewer may have meetings or interviews scheduled back-to-back. If it’s a problem, immediately try to reschedule your interview. If you simply arrive late without notifying her, you show insensitivity and lack of respect for the interviewer’s time.

When you’re comfortable with knowing the physical considerations, you can start looking at how to prepare yourself mentally.

Pre-Interview Preparation

You are (or will certainly feel you are) at an immediate disadvantage if you must begin your interview with an apology. The need to apologize puts you under needless stress.

It’s perfectly normal to feel nervous, even after the most thorough preparation. Interviews are stressful. But the better prepared you are, the less nervous and stressed you’ll feel. Some stress is good. Feelings of anticipation and a desire to do well will help you perform better.

The interviewer may also be anxious. Interviewers have only a few minutes to make decisions with enormous adverse repercussions for their employer and, possibly, for their own job if they get it wrong.

Interviewers will initially be trying to find reasons to screen you out. They’re not career coaches trying to help you find a job! Not all interviewers are experienced at interviewing or even good at it. Consider this, and adjust your style so that you’re not competing to control the interview or appear to be trying to dominate it.

Interviewers will know early on whether you’ve done your homework. If it appears that you have, they’ll mentally shift attitudes. The interview will be less of an interrogation and a screening-out, and more of an attempt to find reasons to hire you.

You need to come across not as a job seeker but as a resource they need. To accomplish this effectively, the following will help:

Be knowledgeable about the company. Do your research. Know what their Website says and what was in their latest SEC filing and press release. Read recent news articles affecting the company and the industry. (The library is an excellent resource for this.)

Find out something about the interviewer. Sometimes you can obtain information if you speak directly to her when you arrange the interview. Other sources of information may come from your network, the interviewer’s administrative support person, a receptionist, the company’s Website, a name search using a proprietary database you can access remotely from a library database, or an Internet search.

Prepare for probable questions. Review the types of questions you think he’ll ask so you’re ready for them in advance. Know how you want to respond, but don’t try to memorize the actual words.

Understand your most recent employer’s business. Understand how your job fits into the larger perspective of your most recent employer. Know its products, markets, niche, and so forth. When asked questions about your most recent employer, interviewers may probe your overall understanding of the business. A word of caution: Don’t disclose confidential or proprietary information. If you do, the interviewer will assume you would do the same with their proprietary information. Companies sometimes interview candidates from a competitor for the sole purpose of gathering proprietary information.

Prepare to ask questions. Prepare a list of questions for the interviewer. You want to ask questions about the business and the position: What are the expectations of you in the role? What specific results do they expect you to deliver and when? Why did the last person in the position leave? Include questions about the culture, such as turnover in the company or department. What are the company’s “hot buttons”? What operational changes are being considered that might affect [the business or the job]? Phrase your questions so that the interviewer can’t answer with a yes or no. Use “how,” “why,” and “what” types of questions.

If you have sensitive questions that might not be appropriate during an initial interview, such as a recent lawsuit, hold off asking them until you think the company is seriously considering you, and you both know each other a little better.

The Interview

How well you do in an interview most often depends on how well you prepare. However, you may encounter some things that will be out of your control. The employer may cancel the interview at the last minute, decide during the hiring process not to fill a position, decide to promote someone from within, or rethink his needs and decide to restructure the company, eliminating the position.

You might make some erroneous assumptions about the interviewer’s preparation for the interview and find that she may not:

Be a skilled interviewer.

Be knowledgeable about the specifics of the job.

Have read your resume.

Understand how your experience relates to the job.

Listen carefully to the questions the interviewer asks so you can evaluate which of these assumptions is true and adjust your message to the realities. For example, if you sense that the interviewer hasn’t read your resume, make sure you mention one or more of your achievements, so that your memorable story will set you apart from others.

Though the interviewer typically takes charge, don’t be shy about asking pertinent questions if you feel the interviewer isn’t prepared or asking relevant questions. This is your interview as much as it is hers. If you don’t convey enough positive information about yourself and obtain enough information about the company, the interviewer won’t have enough information to consider you seriously, and you won’t have enough information about them to know whether you want to work there.

Following are suggestions regarding the mechanics, procedures, and rules about interviews in general.

When You First Meet the Interviewer

Make eye contact as you shake hands, and smile.

Sit after the interviewer sits or when invited to sit.

Scan the interviewer’s office. Look for things that tell you something about her. Look for photos of children or places visited, citations or awards on the wall, pictures, statues, or books that you also may have read.

Open the Communication Channels

Establish rapport as quickly as possible. Comment briefly (positively, if possible!) on the usual things (the weather, the journey, the view from the office). Don’t make insincere or patronizing comments. Remind the interviewer who introduced you, if it was someone in your network.

Let the interviewer set the tone. Don’t try to take control.

Be yourself. Act natural. Exude good humor, energy, enthusiasm, and openness. You need to appear as your true self.

Don’t become too chatty. You’re there for an interview. Keep the subject focused on the reason why you’re there.

Body Language

Your body language is unspoken but observed, and makes a powerful and influential impression. Interviewers may be trained in NLP (Neuro-Linquistic Programming) and will look for nonverbal messages that reveal clues to the real you.

Interviewers look for signs indicating when you’re nervous, feeling under pressure, or hiding something, such as clenching your jaw, clasping your hands together tightly, blushing, facial sweating, throbbing at the temples, crossing your arms, or nervously bouncing your leg up and down as if keeping beat to a fast musical score.

During the interview, observe the interviewer and assess whether her nonverbal signals are consistent with what she says. Does she appear open-or closed-minded? Inquiring or interrogating? Truly interested or just going through the motions?

General Rules for Answering Questions

A good interviewer controls timing and content but doesn’t dominate. Make sure, as well, that the interviewer doesn’t feel threatened or dominated; aim for 50/50 to 60/40 your speaking/listening. Recruiters typically have you speak more than 50 percent of the time.

Techniques to remember in your interview:

Listen to the question, think about how to answer, and then respond.

When asked multiple questions, answer each part separately.

Focus your answers on this particular job.

Give short, succinct answers—two minutes maximum. Expand on them only if asked.

When asked open-ended questions, tailor your response to how it relates to the job or use examples from your past.

If the question is unclear or you’re unsure how to respond, ask for clarification.

If the interviewer uses a word you’re unfamiliar with, ask her to explain it.

Don’t try to bluff based on what you think it means.

Tell the truth. Just relate the facts. Don’t justify, and don’t stretch it.

Keep cool even under intentional provocation. Interviewers sometimes do this to test your mettle.

Focus on the employer’s needs. They seek to employ you for the skills, knowledge, and/or experience they think they need. Don’t go off on tangents.

Maintain a positive attitude. Talk positively about your current or former employer, associates, bosses, and so forth, regardless of personal feelings. You never know who knows whom.

Don’t be overly sensitive. Interviewers often look for something to criticize just to see how you react. Be prepared to accept criticism where it’s due, and treat it as constructive. Don’t be afraid to admit your mistakes. No manager learns without making mistakes. If you say you haven’t made any, you’re either not a manager or not telling the truth.

Look for opportunities to quantify your answer using percentages or other numbers as these help the interviewer to put it into perspective.

Most interview questions will be behavioral or situational, where they ask you to describe an incident from your past.

Use the STAR method to respond to these types of questions. STAR stands for:

Situation:	What was the situation you were in or what position did you hold? This frames your response or sets the stage for your answer.
Tasks:	What was the task or what were the tasks that needed to be accomplished?
Action:	What did you do and how did you do it (that enabled you to achieve or accomplish the tasks)?
Results:	What were the results, achievements, solutions, etc., that directly followed because of your involvement? This completes the story.

Here’s a STAR example:

You are asked to describe a situation where you were in charge of training and you had to balance the needs of directly providing training and managing a small training team.

Your response could be:

(Situation) “As the newly promoted manager of sales training for the LoSales division at Truncheon Corp., I had responsibility for three sales trainers who had been my peers and who had been with the company longer than I.”

(Tasks) “The HR Director asked me to develop new training programs and revitalize the effectiveness of current programs. I knew, however, that my new responsibilities could take me away from the training part of the job I loved, and I didn’t want that to happen.”

(Action) “I gathered my trainers together and explained my mission and asked for their help in revising our programs and looking into new programs that would allow me to stay involved in providing training. We brainstormed different options and finally settled on each person selecting the specific subject that interested them the most and agreeing to become the subject matter expert in that area. I took on the training program ‘Team Management Skills for Newly Promoted Managers.’”

(Results) “Within six months, the overall quality of the group training improved and the sales staff began to use the trainers as individual coaches in addition to their roles as group trainers. After one year, sales per person increased 20% and sales staff turnover was down by more than 50%.”

This story is intended to convey examples and is more detailed than you should use. Keeping your story concise will help the interviewer to repeat it to others from memory.

An interviewer may ask forced-choice questions, such as, “Are you people-oriented or task-oriented?” If so, they’re looking more at how you answer than the answer itself. There’s no one right answer to these types of questions. Think carefully and give an honest but balanced response.

Inappropriate or Illegal Questions

If the interviewer asks you an inappropriate or illegal question, be professional and maintain your composure and positive attitude. Illegal questions may be unintentional—an innocent mistake by an unskilled interviewer. Perhaps there’s a valid reason for asking the question, but the interviewer phrased it poorly. Sometimes the questioner knows the question is inappropriate, but is testing your reaction.

When you know a question is illegal, inquire what information the person is looking for so you can answer the question more specifically. For example, if she asks you if you’re married or if you have young children, what she might really be trying to determine is what restrictions you might have on overtime or travel that might affect your ability to perform the job.

You can respond by saying you think she’s asking you to describe any limitations you may have regarding travel, overtime, or relocation. If you react negatively to an illegal question and respond with a challenge, such as, “That’s an illegal question,” your interviewer will probably apologize, but your chance of getting a job with that company may be remote. Even when you encounter a clearly illegal question, use your finesse to answer with a reasoned response, addressing the substance of the question.

“Tell me about yourself” is often cited as one of the first questions interviewers ask. We occasionally asked that question, but only at the very end of our interviews, because we didn’t believe we learned anything useful from the answers. But many interviewers still ask it.

This is a leading question, enabling the interviewer to gather information about your personal life so they can “better understand you as a person.” Their intent may only be to “better understand” you and not pry into your personal life. You’re there for an interview for a job so keep your response focused on your career, qualifications, and education.

Explain how you chose your major, why you took your first job, what positions you held, what challenges you had, some memorable learning experiences, why you left companies, and what brings you to this opportunity. Include things in your personal life that have had a positive impact on your career or have helped form your beliefs, such as a personal challenge or interest, such as scaling a mountain, involvement in a community initiative, teaching language skills, or reading to children in an educational environment, and so forth.

General Rules for Asking Questions

Ask questions when you’re sincerely interested in the answer. Don’t ask perfunctory questions that don’t serve a purpose. It’s okay to ask relevant questions even if you think you already know the answer. You need to confirm your assessments and judgments.

Prepare your questions in advance. Use open-ended questions such as the following:

“Could you tell me about the budget? What is it based on? Who prepares it? Who compares actual to budget? Who reports the differences and to whom?”

“You mentioned the possibility of promotion. Could you tell me how you assess criteria for this and how often you make appraisals?”

“Can you tell me why the position is open?”

“Why did the person who formerly held this job leave?”

“What qualities did you see in the previous job holder that made you hire him?”

“Are any internal candidates currently being considered for this job?” (If so, ask how the company, group, department, and so forth would react to someone new coming in.)

“How will the department react to and accept a new manager from outside the company?”

“What is the morale in the department right now?”

“What do you see as the biggest challenges for the person taking this job?”

“Have there been any employee legal actions against the company from this department?” Ask this if you suspect a problem (for example, sexual harassment).

“What do you think is the most important action the incoming person should take first?”

“On what factors would I be evaluated during the first 90 days (or other time period)?”

“What would you expect me to accomplish within the first 90 days (or other time period)?”

“Do you anticipate any reorganization or change in business focus that might impact this department or this position within the next year?”

On the day of your interview, you may think you’ll be interviewed by only one person. After that initial interview, however, they may have others interview you as well. The questions the secondary interviewers ask may be predetermined, but usually they are decided on by the interviewer at the time of the interview. This is your opportunity to ask each interviewer the same questions to see if you get consistent answers.

If you are interviewed by the person for whom you would work and are then interviewed by their peers or subordinates, ask them to describe the person who would be your boss and what it’s like to work for her.

Write summarized answers on your list and if someone tells you something inconsistent with what others say, note that for follow-up in your closing interview.

Make sure to collect a business card from everyone who interviews you. If the person doesn’t have one, confirm the correct spelling of his name and job title. Don’t leave the premises without getting this information, as it will be difficult to get it later.

Closing the Interview

Don’t leave with a vague “we’ll be in touch.” If the interviewer doesn’t take the initiative in telling you what happens next, it’s up to you to find out. Ask where the company is in the process, how many people have they already interviewed, how many more will they be seeing, what additional interviews may be required of you, and what type of tests, if any, will the company be using (psychological, EQ, and so on).

If there are open issues regarding travel expenses, ask the interviewer how to handle them. When you leave the interview, don’t forget you’re still on stage. Even if you don’t think it went as well as you’d hoped, be cheerful and polite to everybody. You don’t know who gets to weigh in on your hiring. Your assumption that you performed poorly may be incorrect. The interviewer may believe that you came across very well under intense and perhaps difficult questioning.

The interviewer may escort you back to the reception area or to the next person who will interview you. Don’t be lulled into thinking the interview is finished. This is a time when skilled interviewers assess how comfortable they feel with you. Innocuous-sounding questions at this time may have more meaning than you realize.

Panel Interviews

If you will be involved in a panel interview, anticipate that they can seem like pressure cookers. Keep in mind that the interviewers’ questions can often be more structured requiring a more formal interaction when responding even when you are responding to a question asked by someone with whom you think you have a more informal relationship.

If introductions are not made at the start, ask the names and positions of all persons in attendance in a circular fashion, so you can address them by name when they ask you questions. This is where your notepad will be crucial.

Take time to respond to questions. Think about each question and paraphrase it back to the group before you respond. This will demonstrate that you think before you respond, and will ensure that everyone understands your answer in the context of how you paraphrased the question. If you paraphrased incorrectly, someone will likely clarify the question.

When you respond, look at the person who asked the question and say her name when you answer. If you get multiple-part questions from the same person, jot down key words as she asks the questions. If several people are asking you questions at the same time, they may be testing your stamina under pressure to see how you react to multiple simultaneous demands. Smile and go with the flow. Use your notepad to jot down the key words and then answer them in the sequence asked. If you don’t have a notepad handy, you can easily become overwhelmed.

Pressure Interviews

Pressure interviews occur when the position requires a strong change-management style, or when contentious negotiations, such as with unions, will be a key responsibility. You can deal effectively with pressure interviews by remaining calm, showing that you’re prepared, and handling questions in an organized way—by making frequent use of your notepad.

Review your most important interview questions ahead of time. This will pay enormous dividends in pressure interviews, because few candidates prepare for interviews. If the position requires difficult negotiations, plan for a pressure interview knowing that an interviewer will probe into your past, looking for weaknesses, situations where you failed to prepare, and negotiating failures.

Be ready to describe how you overcame them and adapted to changing circumstances. No one became skilled at dealing with difficult situations or people without making mistakes along the way and learning from them. Don’t hide those mistakes. Talk about them, and demonstrate that you’ve already gone through the learning phase.

What Interviewers Want to Know About You

There are only three basic things interviewers want to know about you:

1. Can you do the job? Do you have the skills and experience to do what we want?

2. How well will you fit into our culture? Will your attitude and style be in concert with ours?

3. Are you telling the truth? Is what I am hearing the real you?

When I stress these three points, people often remind me of Southwest Airline’s philosophy: Hire for attitude, and train for skills. (Refer back to the beginning of Chapter 3 for a reminder about this issue.)

If you’re an executive candidate who will be expected to lead and manage, but don’t have the right skills and experience, your attitude probably won’t be relevant. It’s also true that, if you have the right skills and experience but the wrong attitude, you’re probably out of the running.

Of course, interviewers will never ask you the questions directly, but instead will ask you to describe situations in your past that will help them answer their three questions. Keep the following points in mind when you respond.

Do You Have the Skills and Experience We Want?

Employers want the skills and experience they think they need. It doesn’t matter if independent observers, the recruiter, or even you think they really need something different.

Employers often don’t reconsider their needs when recruiting a replacement leader or manager and, as a result, don’t reassess whether the business or the position has changed, resulting in their now needing someone different.

You must focus on what they say they want, not on your perception of what you think they need.

Is Your Experience Analogous to Our Company and Industry?

The first person to interview you at an employer may be someone in HR whose only job has been with that employer. Consequently, they may not understand, be open to understanding, or even be capable of understanding, how your experience relates to their employer, even if you believe your experience is in the same industry.

For example, an interviewer for a specialty boutique retailer may think your experience at a national retail chain is not comparable to his business, even if you were selling similar products to his. Remember: The initial interviewer’s role is often to try to find reasons to screen you out, similar to the initial screening process for resumes described in Chapter 6.

If you think you’re being stereotyped, include examples in your follow-up thank-you letter reiterating the similarities, and immediately get in touch with your contact who helped you connect with the company to discuss the events of the interview. Ask if there is some way she can assist to help you bridge the perceived gap in the mind of the interviewer.

How Do We Know You Really Have the Skills and Experience You Say You Have?

They’ll be looking for situations from your past that confirm you have the skills and experience you say you have. Be ready to tell achievement stories that demonstrate your claims. They may not remember all your skills and experience, but they’ll remember your stories and use them to tell others about you.

How Committed Will You Be?

They’re looking for evidence of commitment in the past. They don’t want someone who looks at this position as just another job. They’re looking for passion and evidence of enthusiasm in your work and for their industry.

If an employer doesn’t detect any passion in you for his business, he may screen you out, sensing that you’re not searching for the right job for you but, rather, just another job.

Will You Be a Stable Employee?

Have you jumped ship every couple of years, other than for short-term projects common in engineering and IT? In today’s environment, breaks in employment are more common than in the past. Even so, they’ll probe the nature of your job changes as they try to find out if you can demonstrate personal stability. They won’t want to recruit for this job again in the near future.

Will You Fit in With Others in Our Organization?

They’ll probably ask (directly or indirectly) about your attitude and relationship with superiors, peers, and subordinates. Here, they’re probing your emotional intelligence. (Refer back to Chapter 3.)

Can We Believe What You’re Telling Us?

Ah, the really difficult area starts now. This is something interviewers are asking themselves throughout an interview. When they probe certain areas in granular detail or seem to ask similar questions in different parts of the interview, it isn’t necessarily because they’re bad interviewers asking unimportant questions or repeating themselves. They might be assessing your honesty and forthrightness.

They may use other methods to assess your attitude, truthfulness, and “fit,” such as psychological tests like the Disc, the Bar-on EQ-i, SHL’s OPQ, or one of many others marketed to employers as the pre-employment test. Or they may send you to an assessment center where you’ll take a number of personality tests and have behavioral interviews by psychologists.

They’ll also want to speak to previous employers, check your references, and, possibly, engage a company to conduct a background investigation. I can’t overemphasize the importance of coming across as being authentic. If there is the least contradiction between how you think about yourself and what they think about you, they’ll feel uncomfortable and will probably decide against you. You probably won’t know the real reason why they selected another candidate.

Be prepared to justify everything you say. Interviewers often discover the most telling answers from responses to the following questions or statements:

Could you be more specific?

For instance…?

Could you give an example?

Tell me a time when you….

Describe a situation when you….

Why?

What exactly do you mean?

I don’t understand. (They probably do, but want you to explain in more detail, want to see if you modify your answer, or they want to see how well you can translate something technical in nontechnical terms so other non-technical people understand.)

What did you learn from that?

It doesn’t take an interviewer long to determine whether you’ve been through outplacement or you’ve been over-coached on how to respond to interviewers’ questions. I’ve had to stop interviews when I felt the answers were too “perfect.” I’d ask the candidate if he or she was using an outplacement firm or a career coach and, if so, I’d tell them that I was discontinuing the interview, and he was no longer a candidate.

I’d then explain the three objectives of an interview and that the answers he was giving made me suspect I wasn’t getting the truth or a true picture of the real person. I explained that I felt I was getting a packaged presentation and, consequently, wasn’t able to make a good determination of him. Based on this, I couldn’t recommend him to my client.

If you haven’t been involved in successful interviews recently, get some practice interviewing in front of an observer who can be frank with you about how you come across before you attend the real thing.

Worksheet 10.1 Preparing for Interviews

This form, available online because of space restrictions in this book, lists those questions interviewers commonly ask. Print the list, review it, and make notes or enter keywords that will remind you how you would answer each question.

If the question is appropriate, assume the interviewer will ask you for an example. Don’t write out long answers; use only phrases or keywords.

Color code or use a number from 1 to 3 to prioritize the questions you think you will have more difficulty answering. Take this list with you when you attend an interview and review the high-priority ones immediately before the interview so you’ll be ready to answer confidently and succinctly.

If the interviewer asks you other questions during the interview that you had to struggle to answer, note them after your interview and add them to your list of interview questions so you’ll be prepared for your next interview.

I’ve heard people tell me that every question the interviewer asked them were ones on the list they were prepared to answer. They felt confident in the interview, aced it, and got the job. The interviewer later told them after they were hired that they chose them largely on the strength of how well they performed in the interview. They stood head-and-shoulders above all other candidates.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again just in case the message hasn’t sunk in yet:

PREPARATION IS KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW.

Post-Interview

Assess your performance soon after each interview—within half an hour if possible. An assessment is your personal quality check to improve your performance. If they invite you back for another interview, these notes will be useful in your preparation.

Worksheet 10.2 Post-Interview Notes

This worksheet illustrates the information you might want to note after an interview.

Post-Interview Notes

At a second interview, you may get questions in areas where you hedged answers or gave unfocused or unclear responses in the first interview. If you noted those areas in a post-interview appraisal, you’ll be able to prepare thoughtful answers for the second round.

Send a one-page letter to the employer’s primary interviewer the same day if possible, but no later than the following day, thanking him for the meeting. Send separate letters to other interviewers if you have something specific to add or clarify that came up in your interview with them. Express continued interest in the job and comment on any particular point you feel needs to be emphasized more or that you didn’t mention or get across during the interview. Use thank-you cards if you only want to send personalized, handwritten notes.

Milestones

The following milestones recap what you need to do to complete this chapter. Include those items you are unable to complete in your summary-level open-items list.

1. Review the points in “Creating the Best Image.”

2. Review the points in “Pre-Interview Preparation,” and make a list of items you can use as a checklist before you attend an interview.

3. Review the points in “The Interview” so you’re familiar with things you want to observe and consider when you go for an interview.

4. Review “What Interviewers Want to Know About You,” and download Worksheet 10.1: Preparing for Interviews. Write key words that will jog your memory of what you’d say in response to the questions.

5. Prioritize your interview questions into at least three groups, reflecting the importance you attach to the questions or the difficulty you anticipate in answering them.

6. Practice interviewing, and have another person observe your response to questions you consider most important or difficult.

7. Prepare a list of questions you might want to ask during an interview. For example, confirm that your values and preferences for the work environment and the people you want to work for match their corporate culture.

8. Using the guidelines in “Post-Interview,” prepare your own Post-Interview Form or use Worksheet 10.2: Post-Interview Notes.