Preparing For The Interview

WARNING: If you are skipping the other preparation steps you will not be able to prepare as well for the all-important job interview and you risk “blowing it big time!” While we will be dealing with some of the interview techniques and psychology of the interview here, you will only get the full meaning and benefits by assembling all the tools that are required to make the most of the interview opportunity.

Before we delve into this intriguing subject, there are three things you will want to keep in mind in preparing for the interview:

1. Every interview – whether an Informational Interview that could yield referrals or an actual Job Interview -- has an intrinsic value to you. It represents the culmination of your preparatory activities and the opportunity to demonstrate your potential value to a company or organization. One way to measure the value of the actual Job Interview is to divide the amount of lost salary plus investment in your job search by the number of interviews you have.

(Example: four months out of work = $40,000 in lost income + $5,000 expenses = $45,000. If you have nine interviews, each one could be viewed as costing you $5,000.)

2. If you do your homework preparing for the interview, you will be more skilled at interviewing than 95% of the people you will sit across from. And, if you think you are nervous, they have probably been dreading the encounter far more than you realize. Just knowing this gives you a significant advantage . . . if you know how to use it and have the tools at hand.

(Oh yes, did we emphasize the need for you to have done your homework . . . including research on the company and the hiring executive? Preparing for the networking interview may take two hours. Preparing for the job interview at the executive level may take ten or more hours.)

3. He or she who asks the questions controls the conversation. Think about that. When you ask insightful questions, the person who is obliged to answer is being directed into a conversational path of your design. And, the quality and relevance of your questions helps define your level of knowledge and sophistication.

It’s Not The Most Qualified Person That Gets the Job Offer ...It's Likely To Be The Candidate Who Is Best Prepared

There are some key points that you will want to have fully addressed in advance of any interview. And these will vary from telephone interviews to full-blown job interviews conducted by groups or one on one. But first, let’s address some “philosophical” issues that you will want to keep in mind:

• On the one hand, you will want to have read everything you can get your hands on about the industry, the competitors and economic forecasts for the industry in which the company you are interviewing with is operating. But . . .
• There is always the danger of being “too smart” and unnerving the intermediaries in preliminary or “screening” interviews. This is a delicate subject and you would be well advised to use carefully-crafted questions to “guide” the interview (without controlling it) and give you insight into your interviewer, her interests and objectives. The quality of your questions should leave no doubt about your intelligence or interest in the company.
• But, the interviewer will also have questions . . . many of them may be “stressful questions” designed to uncover issues in your background or personality that might weigh against you. There are techniques for answering stress questions. In fact, whole books have been written on the subject. Unfortunately, much of the material we’ve reviewed treats the subject mechanically and offers pat answers or transparent methods for avoiding the answers.

  The more “conversational” the interview is, the better your chances for a positive outcome. But don’t be lulled into complacency. A skilled interviewer will extract far more information in a friendly, comfortable exchange than one could ever obtain through creating stress.

While we deal with both questions and answers (separately and in some depth), preparing for the interview really depends on your research on the company and the hiring executive and in-depth review of your own questions and your Accomplishments. Before we go into some of the interviewing techniques, let’s look at some potential deal killers.

Minefields and Deal Killers

• Companies that are staffed at the top solely by family members will frequently have a “genetic ceiling.”
• If there are religious symbols and trappings throughout the facility, unless you are of the same “faith,” you may find that you have to convert in order to rise in the organization. (Some business owners see their company as a pathway to heaven and every employee as a potential convert!)
• And, if you are female and don’t see any like-gender executives represented, why bother?

Is it unfair? Yes. Is it illegal? Possibly. Do you need to go on a crusade to try to change it? Well, that’s your decision . . . but, to do so probably puts you in the “martyr” category. The point is that there are thousands of real opportunities out there. Why focus on dead ends? The better job you do in researching and networking the more of them you are going to come across.

The bottom line here is preparation, preparation, preparation.

This is a major undertaking you have embarked upon and the stakes are high. When you think you have your ducks in a row, make sure you’ve counted all the ducks! And if you think you’ve exhausted all your past Accomplishments, go back and document another 25, 50 or a hundred. And, before you put your contact list away, remember how difficult it was to build your valuable network. Keep it up. It could be your most valuable lifeline in the months and years ahead.

And, oh yes . . . if you think this whole job search will come to an end once you get an offer, think again. Remember that it’s a new world of work out there and the only thing that is permanent is change. Always be ready for the next adventure.

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