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On a Job Interview, You're Already Starting a Working Relationship.
See If It Works Out for Both Of You.
Interview coaching takes you beyond memorizing answers to the 120+ possible interview questions.
You'll learn and practice a very natural structure for the interview process.
The points in this article can help you make the transition from second guessing how the
employer may be second guessing you, into a more conversational and collaborative interview experience,
and a clearer sense of the steps and stages of the interview process at that organization and for that opening.
Practicing interviews in role play can help you even further, of course, but reading the following can be a
really good place to start in shifting how interviews go for you and getting you past figuring out after the
interview what bright thing you might have said in response to that one seemingly trick question!
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Don't assume your interviewers are experts in interviewing who have deeply considered reasons for asking questions
they ask and only certain acceptable responses. See this as an opportunity to get to know each other. You may
work together for years! If they are good interviewers, great, nice suprise. But if they're not - that's fine -
you're there to help, and making sure the interview is successful is your first assignment with the organization.
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Get off of the 'hot seat' by concisely telling your story (every one loves a positive, true story).
Remember, you're the expert on you. Let the interviewer get to know you and experience you as you are.
Are you worried about bragging? Fine, be diplomatic - but also informative. Let the employer know what
skills and capabilities you can bring into a department, a set of tasks, a set of projects. Information
that will help them understand how you'll add synergy to the team - information that you and you alone,
in all the world, know in great detail - and can summarize in the interview meeting. They need your help
in understanding what kind of professional you are! Help them understand if or how you're a match in
both what you can do and in temperament - by clearly and concisely informing them, in positive, comprehensive
terms they can understand!
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Once you've gotten used to telling your story - in much the same way you'd tell your
story to friends at a party, or even kids around a campfire - then you can organize it increasingly in sophisticated
ways, using the 1-2-3 Problem –> Solutions –> Results outline, indicating the problems you were charged with taking care of,
the solutions you, and/or your team, came up with, and the results from those solutions – which can also be organized as
Challenges –> Solutions –> Results outline, or the one I like best, same idea, different way to remember -
Challenges –> Actions –> Results, which
spells out "C.A.R." and reminds you that you're using the outline to move the conversation forward. Getting to the point
of all of this becoming natural often begins with telling true stories from your résumé, and then practice, practice, practice.
This is where practice on your own, practice with a trusted friend, or practice with a Job Interview Coach can all really be of help.
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Understand differences between informing, bragging, and holding back. Make a genuine connection.
Try to experience with the interviewer what it might be like for you to work there, and for them to have you working there.
How you establish a working rapport in the interview is more important than rushing in with all the best answers.
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Outline clearly any leadership and management initiatives that apply, in any response to any question. You need to demonstrate (1) how you carried out upper management objectives, (2) made strategic decisions, (3) carried out certain objectives on your own, (4) communicated team related decisions to your team, (5) made sure that goals were understood, invited initiatives also from team members, (6) integrated team activities with your own management and leadership initiatives, (7) built your team in ways that covered all roles and objectives, (8) achieved team synergy, and (9) achieved or exceeded articulated goals. And that feel like a lot to explain in one part of one answer in one question in one interview. And yet, with practice, demonstrate your role and the team's role, and state key points in a clear point by point outline that will be very clear and very compelling. You will demonstrate your leadership in the way you organize your response. And in doing so, you will assure the interviewer / employer, that you are prepared to take on challenges they are looking for some one to take on their behalf.
Let's look at this consultative, conversational approach to interviewing a little more closely:
Jumping in with knee-jerk responses or sucking up to say what you think some one else needs to hear – leaves an
impression that you may be a nice (and nervous) person with good qualifications,
but who knows if you're truly a match and a fit or not = Next!
Instead, establish:
- Real Rapport plus:
- Great Responses to Actual Questions Asked plus:
- Questions that you have to ask them when it's your turn to ask – show that you have a real interest in
helping you and them make sure it's a match = A Mutually Useful and Satisfying Interview!
Amazingly few job search candidates do their homework prior to the actual interview. :
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Conduct basic due diligence. Learn about
the company / organization / institution the way you would learn about a new friend or a new community. Find out what
they're all about. Where are they going in the next few years? What are their goals and challenges? Values and priorities?
What matters to them? Is this a group where you'd want to commit your energy on an emotional level as much as a
professional level? Are you inspired by what they're trying to accomplish? Do you feel a desire to get in there and
help them out?
- These are as important to understand as where your desk might be or whether there's the kind of
balance you would prefer between independent work time and team interactions. So how do you begin to do this? Before
the interview so that you're ready with genuine questions to ask that will help you decide if this is where you
want to work - not just so you'll look good asking questions that sound appropriate. Find out what you need to
know about them - in doing so you'll get across to them that you're taking a real interest in how this could
work out for you to be part of their program.
Matching Your Professional Development Goals with Company / Department / Turf-Building / Project Goals:
- Learn basic info about the organization's programmatic impacts, market share,
demographics, products and services, partnerships, and competition.
- Decipher the job description like a treasure map. What do they need vs. might just want?
- Research the corporate website, financial reports and new product announcements.
- Find out who the key players are in the organization and especially in the group where you'd work, if you can.
- Look for company trends in press releases, mission statements, the most recent prospectus.
- Look for ways to discover, both before and during the interview, how organizational and team needs and goals,
and the job opportunity itself, seem to fit or not to fit your own needs and goals for a happy, successful and
prosperous working relationship and job experience – once you'd be hired.
- Notice in what areas you are or are not curious to find out more and ask them questions, too.
You Get to Ask Questions Too:
Arrive with three to five or half a dozen or more questions that you need to ask – for you.
Usually your opportunity to ask questions will come towards the very end of the interview. Sample questions include:
- Questions should have to do with what you would need to do the job well.
- Additional questions to verify impressions or information you have about the big picture of the job and the day-to-day details of carrying it out.
- Additional questions you may have about the company, department, project or team.
- You may surely ask – "What are the hiring process steps for this position?" – you'll have less to wonder about later.
- You also sense an opening to ask, "Is it too early to get an impression of where I stand at this point, if you think I may be called back for another interview?"
More Job Interview Tips:
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You may find it helps to use a mirror or video camera during practice on your own prior to the interview.
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Please remember: This isn't a TV quiz show. Slow down a little. Give yourself a few moments to hear the actual questions asked.
Repeat! – give yourself a few moments to hear the actual questions asked – and even to ask to make sure you're
hearing the question precisely before responding. Amazingly few interview candidates do this – and rattle off
a bunch of rehearsed answers they think the interviewer wants to hear – you can be different, simply by making
sure you're on the same page with the interviewer's real question!
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Don't hyperfocus on one person or several people you expect to interview you. It could change last minute.
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Bring your references with you, in case you are asked to provide them. Better to come with, than be caught without.
And you may even find yourself quoting any reference letters you have to help make your case - diplomatically, of
course. Understand that references are used primarily to verify a hiring decision once it's already made, but have
your references ready and available, formatted in the same way as the resume, and with best ways to contact each individual.
Remember also that these need to be professional references who can say good things about you personally as well as
professionally, not personal references who can say good things about you professionally.
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Bring several extra copies of your resume on nice resume quality paper –
and expect to have different people or more people in the interview than you
were told initially. Better to be prepared for the unexpected than to get caught off guard. Don't bring in a briefcase
of documents, do come in with a letter sized folder of some kind that makes it convenient to carry and provide
anything that may be needed during the interview.
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Arrive 15-20 minutes early. Park, look around, adjust your outfit. Walk in 5 minutes early.
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Secure appropriate contact info to send continuing interest-thank you notes within 24 hours.
Copyright © 2008 by David Glober, Glober Associates. All rights reserved.
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