Keys To Your Successful Interview
How often do you get a chance to have a meeting
that may last no longer than one hour but could materially
affect where you work, where you live, who your friends
are, how much you earn, and the general course of
your life? Apart from the first meeting with future
in-laws, there is no meeting more important than
an employment interview.
With that in mind, we have taken our results from
more than 20,000 interviews and compiled the following
advice that in more instances than not has been unfortunately
learned from experience.
Preparation - Before you go to your first
meeting with a prospective new employer, there are
several things you must know. On your own, or with
the help of your executive search consultant, you
should find out where the company has its headquarters,
branches and local offices. You should also know
correct names (and correct spellings) and title of
all people involved in the interview process. It
is also important that you know the company's products
and/or services and whether the company is private
or public. Any website operated by the company should
be studied and the most recent annual reports from
public companies should be reviewed before the first
interview.
Timing - You must be punctual to
every interview. On every actual interview occasion,
you should plan on arriving a full thirty minutes
prior to the interview time. Park out of sight of
your prospective employer's facility and take time
to prepare mentally for your meeting. Parked away
from any line of view, you can also attend to any
last minute grooming needs. Approximately 10 minutes
before your scheduled interview time, you should
pull into the company's parking lot, get out of your
car and with a purposeful stride and a smile on your
face (people are probably watching you out of the
building) walk to the front door.
First Impressions - Every candidate
should dress for an interview at one level above
what the position will require on a daily basis.
Men should wear a jacket and tie (preferably a suit)
and women should wear a business suit. Conservative
clothes - gray or navy blue - are always the safest
choice. Men should wear a white professionally laundered
shirt, a silk tie (no novelty or theme ties!), black
shoes and a black belt. Both men and women should
avoid excessive jewelry, and little, if any, fragrance
should be worn.
Answering the Tough Questions - The interview should
take place in a conversational style. Open ended
questions should be completely answered in three
or four sentences. Closed ended questions (answers
to which are usually yes or no) should be answered
directly, but with short elaboration or a return
questions - "yes, we did cut our defect rate
by 20%, but most of that was accomplished by an accountability
program we implemented." Your goal is to answer
every question completely but concisely, while fostering
a conversational style so that your interviewer will
openly share information about the position and company
with you.
Getting Your Questions
Answered - The questions you have about a prospective
new employer are important and must be asked in a
way that ensures you an accurate and meaningful answer.
During your interviewing process, all of your questions
should be strictly related to the company and the
performance of the position, centering on the company's
products, services, and plan, as well as any contemporary
issues that may have a direct impact on the company.
Questions regarding benefits, hours, vacation policy,
smoking privileges, and other personal questions
should be addressed only to your search consultant
until after you have a firm offer in hand. Frankly,
those issues are not pertinent to the candidate who
is not going to receive an offer, and all of your
attention needs to be directed toward winning the
best possible offer. At the close of the interview,
you should thank the interviewer for his/her time
and say something along the lines of .... "From
our conversation today, I feel certain that I could
be effective in this position, and I'd really like
the opportunity to come to work here. Can you tell
me what I need to do next?"
Your Follow-Up - Immediately following your interview,
the candidate should call the executive search consultant
for a debriefing and strategy session. At this point,
you should also send a short and personal note or
e-mail to the employer thanking them for their time
and interest and expressing a significant interest
in the company and the position.
We may be a little biased about the value we bring
to your relationships with prospective employers,
but job change decisions are among life's most important
transitions. Take advantage of the training and expertise
of the search consultant with whom you are working
and work with him/her to make the right career related
decisions and beneficially to grow your career.
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