I Hope I Don’t Forget My Name
"As is our confidence, so is our capacity."
-William Hazlitt
Interviews are won on words and wits, on preparation and previous experience-and on first impressions. The interview starts the moment you meet the interviewer and, like it or not, first impressions are vitally important.
"From the first moment they meet you, interviewers know whether or not they want to hire you," says career counselor Sherrie Pavol Bereda of Career Concepts.
You make your first impression on an interviewer in a variety of ways, including the way you're dressed, the way you move, the way you speak and the way you present yourself. "First impressions are significant," adds General Motors'
James Sturtz, "such as how someone is dressed or how they walk into the room. As an interviewer, the first thing you see is that person. Of course, I do use other information [to judge a job seeker], but personal appearance is important."
Given the importance of first impressions, it's not surprising many recent graduates don't feel entirely confident when they go through that first round of interviews. Interviewing can be an intimidating prospect. However, it doesn't have to be. Most recent graduates see interviews only as a way for an employer to weed out job hunters. What they don't realize, however, is that job hunters are doing some weeding out, and learning, of their own.
"Keep in mind that interviewing is a mutual, reciprocal process," suggests psychologist Dr. Anita Auerbach."While you're being interviewed, you are also interviewing. You're not sure you will sell your product, yourself, to that company." The interview is not simply a way for an employer to see if you're the best candidate for the position. It's also a way for you to see if the job is the best one for you-for your personality, your talents, your interests, and your career objectives.
In many ways, an interview is a time for you to interview the employer. It's a time for you to figure out what a company does and what the job you're interviewing for involves. It's a time for you to gather first-hand information about the company so you can decide if you'd like to work there.
"Interviewing is a two way street, and this often isn't as well-recognized by recent graduates," says Chrysler's John Stone. "Recent graduates should remember that they're insterviewing to see if the job is something they'd be interested in doing."
When you're interviewing, employers don't hold your future in their hands-you do. This can be a reassuring thought. And it can lead to more successful, and even enjoyable, interviews. If you'll remember that you will eventually find a job, you'll see that each interview isn't a do-or-die situation. Every interview is important, but if you are meeting with one employer doesn't go well, you will have other opportunities to present yourself in a favorable light.
A lot of recent grads don't really believe this. They feel trapped and desperate. They blow interviews out of proportion, and they don't realize the ways in which they can use an interview to learn more about potential employers. "Often, recent college graduates fall into the 'I need a job syndrome,"' says Stone.
Shaken job hunters who fall into this trap believe that if they do well in the interview, they'll get a job and their lives might possibly go on. If they don't do well in the interview, they will never find a job, and they will die an agonizing death, perhaps even during the interview itself. Not, of course, that I have experienced this myself
While there are clearly some wrong ways to interview, there is no one right way. This sounds discouraging until you think about it. What it really means is that as long as you avoid specific interviewing mistakes, you're free to act and speak as you wish. Within the normal bounds of acceptable dress and behavior, you can, and should, talk, dress and act in a way that reflects your individual style and personality.
Every interview is different, depending upon the personalities involved. If John the Job Hunter meets with Mr. Employer before you do, John will answer all of the questions in a different way than you will. He will dress differently, and he will mention different activities on his resume.
When you walk into the interviewer's office and interview differently from the way John did, neither one of you is wrong.
Unless, of course, John the Job Hunter knocked over Mr. Employer's priceless antique vase or you happen to be wearing those great new hiking boots you got last week. In that case, you're both in trouble.
To be on the safe side, we'll use this chapter to point out all of the wrong ways of interviewing. If you can avoid making the mistakes we discuss here, you can interview with confidence and poise, because you'll know that what you're doing is right. We'll also look at what you should do before, during, and after the interview. At this point, that probably covers all of your waking hours. But if you'll look at each stage of interviewing before you get started, you'll be able to use interviews to your greatest advantage and with the least amount of anxiety.
What Not To Do
During Your Interview
It may sound negative to begin with a list of what not to do during an interview, but it's actually the easiest way to prepare your-self. If you have a firm understanding of what creates a poor first impression, you're one step ahead of the hapless soul who wanders in completely unprepared.
If you want to make a positive first impression, be sure NOT to dress inappropriately, communicate poorly or ask the wrong questions at the wrong time. You may wish you could have given these guidelines to your first college date. Avoiding these mistakes is easier said than done, right? We'll get into specifics in this chapter.
These are broad categories, but employers stress that most interview mistakes fall into one ofthese three areas. If you start out with a dear idea of what to avoid, you can proceed with confidence.
''What Should I Wear?''
Yes, we're back to my initial job hunting obsession, that of what to wear to an interview. The clothing issue sounds trivial, but Stone believes it reflects applicants' overall judgment and their level of understanding of the job hunting process.
"The first thing that strikes me is whether a candidate is dressed appropriately," says Stone.
What you wear to an interview greatly influences an interviewer's perception of you. It's not that you have to look stunningly attractive or even all that fashionable. Instead, you need to avoid looking underdressed, sloppy or out of place. In interviewing, being underdressed can potentially eliminate you from getting the job.
"One mistake I see a lot of recent graduates make is that they have too casual an appearance," says Perpetual Bank's Terri Goslin-Jones. "Anyone looking for a job should always dress profession ally. That means no sports coats and no dresses."
The good news about this particular interviewing mistake is that it is easy to prevent. As long as you wear traditional, conservative interview clothes, you will be dressed appropri ately, even ifyou're not a traditional, conservative person or the job is not a traditional, conservative job. Save the wacky clothes that express your inner being for the weekends, and be content to let your personality shine through from what you are saying, not from what you are wearing.
Men may find the question of what to wear to an interview slightly less confusing than women. Women, after all, have more options, from suits to dresses to skirts and blouses. However, to be on the safe side, women should go with suits and avoid frilly dresses or flimsy blouses.
"Suits for women are not required per se, but it is essential that they're dressed in a manner consistent with the business environment," says Stone. "An interview is not a cocktail hour, a party or church."
In general, women should wear a suit, a good blouse and standard pumps. Men should wear a conservative wool suit with a traditional tie and the appropriate dress shoes. "Job hunters should look the role even before they get the job," career counselor Marilyn Goldman of Horizons Unlimited explains.
Women should take these words to heart in terms of their make-up as well. If you don't wear makeup, that's fine. If you do, you should probably wear what you'd wear during the day on campus, and avoid anything you'd wear for parties or for going out at night.
The second part of dressing to make a good first impression involves how you look in your clothes. Avoid looking wrinkled, messy or generally unkempt. The fact that some of your friends spent four years of college wearing clothes that had been rolled up on the floor of their closet can sort of warp your perspective. I'd rule out that wrinkled look, as well as the wardrobe composed entirely of sweats and t-shirts with obscene logos.
''You Mean
I Can't Do My Beaver Imitation?"
As interviewers form that vital first opinion of you, they are looking at more than your clothes. They also want to see how well you interact with people and how friendly you are. How you greet the interviewer, therefore, contributes to the first impression you make. If you wander weakly into the room and just stand there, or if you rush clumsily into the room, and look flustered and out of breath, you probably won't make a great first impression. Of course, anyone would be out of breath if they had gotten trapped in the stairwell, climbed fourteen flights of stairs and had an anxiety attack before the interview, but it's probably better not to bring that up.
When you go in for an interview, remember that you should make as much of an effort as the interviewer does to see that things go smoothly. If you think about making things easier for the interviewer, what to do in each part of the interview will become clearer. For example, is it easier for the interviewer if you stand there silently without any kind of expression on your face, or if you walk in, smile pleasantly, and say, "Hello, my name's John Smith"?
If you're ever in doubt as to how to proceed during an interview, try to make the situation more comfortable. Any kind of polite effort on your part will be well-received. This, in turn, will make you feel more confident.
In addition to good manners, employers are looking for poise and self-possession. The best way to appear self-possessed is to introduce yourself when you enter the room and speak up whenever you're asked a question. You don't have to act like Mr. Charm or Miss Personality. As long as you are clearly making an effort to keep the interview rolling, the interviewer will see you in a positive light.
Stone likes to see job hunters make an effort to introduce themselves. "The second thing that I notice in forming a first impression, after how someone is dressed," says Stone, "is how they introduce themselves. I also notice whether or not they smile."
Much of this detail about interviewing may sound insignificant, and certainly not related to any job skills. However, how well you mix with people can be integral to many jobs. In providing advice about interviewing, employers stress that they want candidates who can communicate effectively with other people and represent the company well.
"It's very important that the people we hire can communicate well," says General Electric's Peter Bowen. Communication skills are a broad category, and it can be hard to have a clear picture of what employers mean when they say they're turned off by someone who communicates poorly.
What they mean by a poor communicator is someone who is hard to talk to and who doesn't seem to be trying to keep up his or her part of the interview.
"One mistake that recent graduates frequently make is not looking an interviewer in the eye and not speaking clearly," explains Pavol Bereda.
It's important to maintain eye contact with interviewers. Several employers mentioned that they form a negative impression of a person who can't look at them directly during the interview.
"A lot of people look at the ability to maintain eye contact as a source of strength and of being able to communicate effectively," comments Ford's Darrell Washington.
Again, it's a minor point, but if interviewers start feeling a growing sense of irritation because you keep staring at the floor or at an imaginary spot on the wall, you'll eventually lose their interest. Like anyone else, interviewers are going to be most interested in the person who is easiest to talk to and easiest to deal with. You may simply be nervous, but don't let small issues like physical mannerisms sabotage your interview.
Another part of communicating effectively is answering the questions that are asked of you. IBM's Colette Abissi, based in Armonk, New York, sees two mistakes that many recent graduates make when it comes to following a line of questioning. First, says Abissi, job seekers often ramble and150 provide answers which are not related to the question. Second, they provide short, yes/no answers that don't give the inter viewer any insight into their personality or qualifications. Both mistakes can be big ones.
"Keep your answers focused, and make sure you're answering the question that was asked of you," advises Abissi. "Try not to ramble and lose focus."
When trying to avoid the first problem that of losing sight of the question asked of you try to answer all questions with specific examples. You might be able to keep on the subject if you relate all of the questions you're asked to something on your resume. If you're asked how you work under pressure, give a concrete example of what you did in a specific situation, whether it was during a crisis at a summer job or in meeting a particularly difficult academic deadline.
Abissi also sees recent college graduates miss opportunities to describe themselves, their work experiences and their ambitions. "I've seen job hunters answer a question in one or two words when it would have been to their advantage to elaborate." For example, if you worked in a book store one summer, and the interviewer asked if you liked it, you shouldn't just say yes. Say what the challenges were, what you learned from the experience, how you benefited and if the job had any impact on your future career decisions.
"Most interview questions require more than a yes/no answer," adds Pavol Bereda. "You've got to sell yourself"
''Maybe I Shouldn't Have Brought That Up"
Finally, interviewers said they're turned off by job hunters who ask the wrong questions at the wrong time, such as inquiring too early about salary and benefits. Benefits include vacation and sick days, health insurance, and any perks like free parking or the use of a company gym.
Most employers and career counselors don't think you should bring up salary or benefits during the first interview. If you're interviewing with a small company or with one that is in a rush to fill a position, you may only have one interview. In this case, the interviewer is likely to bring up the subject of salary and benefits near the end of the interview. Therefore, there isn't any real point in introducing the subject into the interview until the employer does. In your first interview with a particular employer, stay away from any questions that don't relate to the job or the company.
Now that we've looked at what you shouldn't do, let's talk about what you should do. This may seem a little more confusing because it's not as clear-cut, but that simply gives you the freedom to be yourself
What To Expect
First, most interviews last anywhere from fifteen minutes to half an hour. However, the length of time you're interviewing doesn't mean anything. Don't feel you've failed if the interview lasts less than ten minutes. It could be that the person you've met with does everything at a rapid pace and knows how to find exactly what he's looking for in a few minutes. Conversely, don't think you'll definitely get the job if someone talks to you for an hour. Everyone has a different pace. Unfortunately, there aren't any secret signals that can let you know whether you'll be offered the job.
Second, most interviews follow a straightforward format, with the interviewer dividing the time evenly between asking you about yourself and telling you about the job. Some interviewers like to tell you all about the job first and then ask you questions second. Some like to begin by asking you about your credentials and then telling you what they're looking for. It's a little easier if they do the talking first and then ask you questions later, but don't be thrown off by an interview that starts with questions from the beginning.
Third, interviewing is simply an extension of your resume and your cover letter. When you wrote your cover letters, you tried to use each sentence and each paragraph to promote yourself. You used your cover letter to emphasize your interest in the company and your particular skills. You also used it to differentiate yourself from other job applicants. You can do that with the interview as well.
"In an interview, you have to prove that you will be an asset to the company," says Pavol Bereda. "It's important that you sell yourself and make the employer want to hire you." However, be sure you do this in a sincere way.
Before The Interview
There are several ways to prepare for an interview. First, you can research the companies that have jobs available. Second, you can identify three of your strengths and figure out how to communicate them to the interviewer. Third, you can familiarize yourself with frequently asked interview questions. Fourth, you can practice your answers to these questions aloud.
You have two options regarding your pre-interview research. As we've discussed before, you can learn as much as possible about each individual company with which you're interviewing. Or, you can practice what you're going to say and how you're going to answer to questions, regardless of the company with which you're interviewing. The methods you choose will depend upon how much time you have available.
Taking the first approach, that of learning as much as you can about an individual company, can help you make a better impression on the interviewer. It can help you make decisions about whether you want to work at a particular company, and it can help you feel comfortable and more relaxed during your interview. I know, you'd probably rather use this new found information to impress people at cocktail parties, because at this stage of the game, anything seems better than interviewing.
"In order to help you desensitize for an interview," says psychologist Dr. Auerbach, "look into what a company does. This will enhance your self-confidence and give you a sense that you've got something to offer."
Learning about a company before an interview will prevent you from making an embarrassing mistake, such as not knowing what kind of product the company manufactures or not knowing that it was involved in a highly publicized labor dispute.
To find out more about the companies with which you will be interviewing, call their public affairs office to ask for a copy of their annual report or for product literature. You can say you're interested in learning more about the company, and you'd like any information that is available.
You can also go to the library and scan the periodicals guide to see if there were any articles about the company in the newspaper in the past year. You can learn about the company's financial performance or about the role it plays in your community.
It is fairly easy to do this type of research when you're interviewing with a major corporation or a large local employer. It can be a little more difficult to research smaller companies.
When researching smaller companies, you can call the public affairs office and ask for information on the company, just as you did with a larger employer. If the company doesn't have a formal public affairs office, you might call the receptionist and tell her you'd like information. You can ask what the organization does, how long it has been in business and if it has any offices elsewhere.
However, this one-on-one research can be time-consuming. This probably isn't the kind of advice the experts want to hear anyone give, but I wouldn't engage in in-depth research of a company unless it is a big corporation or it has a reputation for being a stickler about details.
If you're interviewing with a smaller or less traditional company, you can probably bypass in-depth research. The advantage of avoiding individual research is that you won't be spending time in preparation that will advance your cause with only one company.
If you are interviewing with a large corporation, though, you would be wise to invest your time in personalized research. Larger companies place greater emphasis on applicants being familiar with daily business operations. Finding out more about a large company prior to your interview might make the difference between a successful interview and a lackluster one.
The second method of interview preparation can help you in every interview you have, regardless of who the employer is. This preparation involves your-self, and it doesn't require as much time. It only requires an understanding of the interview process and a few hours of practice.
Studying a list of typical interview questions may not sound necessary, but many people get nervous when they interview. And many people completely lose their cool when they get nervous. After these people (neither you nor I, of course) get themselves into a nervous state during an interview, they can't concentrate or follow what someone else is saying.
To avoid joining the ranks of recent graduates scarred by traumatic interview experiences, familiarize yourself with the typical questions that interviewers ask. This way, you won't be knocked off balance by difficult or unexpected questions. You can then develop well-organized answers. You can also make a lasting impression on the interviewer.
This sounds kind of daunting, but it's as simple as having the interviewer think, "He is intelligent, motivated and a nice guy," when you walk out the door. Or having the interviewer think, "She is well-organized, assertive, and an independent thinker."
You want the interviewer to form some kind of impression of you to differentiate you from other applicants who may come across as being dull or colorless. To guard against not making any kind of impression on the interviewer, you should go into the interview prepared to talk about your three primary strengths or impressive achievements.
These points will be different for each person, but they don't have to be anything startling or exotic. Think of your strengths, both as a person and as a prospective employee. What would you like to communicate about these strengths to the interviewer? How would these traits, characteristics or achievements tie in with the job you're seeking?
If you're honest, imaginative, articulate, inventive, and aggressive or cool under pressure, make that known. If you graduated with a 4.0, won a prize from a literary magazine, had an amazing summer internship or saved 500 trees on campus through an environmental project, make that known. Whatever it is that makes you distinctive and unique, pass that on to the interviewer.
It's easy to come up with three points that will set you apart, but it can be difficult to know how to utilize them. To help you make a lasting impression on the interviewer, look over the interview questions below. Figure out where you can work in your three unique points.
''But That Question Isn't On My List!"
- Tell me a little bit about yourself.
- Did you like your college? What were some of your favorite classes? Why?
- What was your biggest accomplishment in college? Your biggest disappointment?
- If you had to go to college all over again, would you do anything differently?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- How would a previous employer describe you?
- Why do you want to work here?
- What do you know about the company?
- How does your previous experience relate to the job we have available?
- Why have you been looking for a job for such a long time?
A lot of job hunting comes down to personality. That's not to say you have to possess blinding charisma or charm. It simply means that an employer, consciously or unconsciously, will select someone she likes. She will also select a person she thinks is similar to the other people who work there. Or, if she's trying to change the overall feel of the department, she'll select a person different from the people who work there in order to shake up the organization or restructure the division.
In short, employers make all kinds of decisions based upon your personal attributes, and you have no way of knowing exactly what they're looking for. Therefore, when you interview, while you're trying to present your best self to the employer, you also need to present your real self. This way, employers can be sure of what it is that they're getting, and you can be sure you've got the right qualities for the job.
This is an important point. You're not practicing your responses to interview questions so that you can pretend you're something you're not. Instead, you're trying to communicate your strong points. If you present yourself as something other than what you are, and you do it successfully, you will end up getting a job that requires the skills of this person that you made up to impress the interviewer and not the skills that you really possess. With this in mind, let's look at some good responses to the following typical interview questions.
1. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
This is probably the hardest interview question ever invented because it is so vague. The best way to answer the seemingly innocuous tell-me-about-yourself question is to start with the bare facts.
You could say, "As you can see, I majored in physics at the University of Arizona, and I graduated with a 3.7. I'm interested in a job in product design, and I believe my course work ties in well with the position your company is advertising.
You can then discuss one or two of your courses and say what you enjoyed most about them. Depending upon the158 interviewer, you can give a fairly lengthy answer. The key to answering an open-ended interview question is not to rush through it.
If interviewers want to talk to you about something else, they'll guide you that way. You might start by talking about your physics class and they might ask you if you took any humanities courses and if you have any other interests outside of physics. (Hopefully, you do.) Good interviewers will direct your conversation. If there's something specific they want to know, they'll ask you outright or lead the interview in that direction.
Probably the worst thing you can do with open-ended questions is to become flustered and clam up. When interviewers ask you to tell them about yourself and you say that you'd like to work there and then you sit there silently, several things will happen, all of which are bad.
First, you will become nervous and tongue-tied. It will be difficult to spit out the answer to any question. The interviewer will have to start pounding you with question after question in order to keep the conversation going, and you'll lose sight of the points you'd like to get across.
Second, the interviewer will think you communicate poorly or that you're unresponsive or disinterested. When you answer a tell-me-about-yourself question, take the time to put your answer together before you start to speak.
You may find open-ended interview questions difficult to answer because there are so many things you could talk about. Do interviewers want to know about your academic experience?
Your summer jobs? Where you're from? What you're like as a person? Why you want to work at their company? They probably want to know something about each of these things. If you've started with the bare facts and the interviewer seems to want you to continue, you can briefly begin to list your personal characteristics. The key here is not to be too personal. For example, if you were a counselor at a summer camp for three years, you could say this was a valuable experience for you because you love sports and you enjoy working with kids. Maybe you come from a large family and there were always lots of kids around.
It's fine for you to mention these things because it gives the interviewer a better sense of you as a person. From a strict job hunting standpoint, it's not really relevant, so you don't want to spend too much time talking about personal things. Telling an interviewer something about yourself, however, can lighten the atmosphere and make the interviewer more interested in you as an individual.
However, don't talk about anything too intimate. Don't talk about your love life, don't talk about what you did a few evenings ago, don't complain about the city you live in and don't talk about your problems. If you're in doubt as to whether something is too personal, think about whether you'd want it written down for another person to read.
Many interviewers will take notes while you're talking. They will use these notes to refresh their own memories or to pass their impressions on to their supervisors. If you start talking about your crazy roommate or your break-up with your beloved during college, you probably aren't bringing up the best subjects.
However, there are positive ways to introduce personal details into the interview. For example, you might explain that you'd like to be a teacher because your life was affected deeply by one of your teachers when you were young.
When interviewers ask you to tell them about yourself, they don't want you to boast about your intellect, your leadership abilities or your incredible popularity on campus.160 But since youVe prepared in advance, you know that you're going to work one or two of your accomplishments into the conversation if it fits.
For example, you can say that majoring in chemistry was exciting because you were selected by the chairman of the department to work on a unique research project. Or that you've always been interested in traveling internationally because you speak three languages. Or that you're eager to get involved with a job in which you interact with other people because you learned so much serving as the president of two major campus organizations.
You don't have to lay it on too thick. The employer is probably aware of most ofyour achievements because you have mentioned them in your resume and your cover letter. However, you should never pass up the opportunity to say something positive about yourself during an interview. You're the only one who can point out your accomplishments, and as long as you bring out your strong points in a way that flows naturally in the conversation, you won't sound arrogant or egotistical.
2. Did you like your college? What were your favorite classes?
Employers would like to know how you did in school and why you're interested in your particular major. This is a good time to relate you’re major to the job you're looking for, particularly if it appears to be unrelated. Although it is hard to understand why anyone would think the study of modern sculpture is not related to a job in product research.
If your major ties in well with the job you're seeking, elaborate on how instructive your class work was. Express your eagerness to learn more about the field, and ask a question or two about the approach that the company favors.
If your major doesn't tie in with the job, you can proceed in two ways. If it's not that different, explain why you chose to major in what you majored in and not the more obvious major for the particular job for which you're interviewing. You can be honest. If you weren't originally interested in the field, tell the interviewer what changed your mind. Talk about the particular area of the field in which you'd like to work, and discuss one or two of your personality traits that make you well-suited for the job.
For example, you might say you're interested in accounting because it plays such a critical role in the daily management of a company. You could point out that you're detail-oriented and able to concentrate on difficult subjects for hours at a time. You might not want to mention that you frequently get lost trying to find your own apartment or that you have a hard time remembering your best friend's last name.
After all that we've said about honesty, if you didn't like school, this is an area you may need to be less than forthcoming about. Employers are not going to be impressed by job seekers who didn't care about their classes, their major or their academic performance. If your classes bored you, you shouldn't admit that. Find something about your classes that you liked or some area of your major in which you did well and talk about the challenges it presented you.
If your grades were not particularly good, this is the time to deal with the subject. As we discussed in the chapter on cover letters, mention some other area in which you excelled. Point out how well you did in some other academic area, or mention if your grades progressively improved. If there was some kind of extenuating circumstance, like you were working full-time or you were ill one year, touch on that briefly, but don't make it sound like you're making excuses for yourself. Ac-knowledge your poor grades and move on to discussing die more positive aspects of your college career.
3. What was your biggest accomplishment in college? Your biggest disappointment?
This almost gets into the realm of cute and pointless interview games. We'll discuss later in this chapter what to do if your interview degenerates into a challenge of wits between yourself and the interviewer. For now, let's look at how to answer difficult or unusual questions in a way that promotes your skills and demonstrates your interests.
Talking about your accomplishments, and yes, your disappointments, gives you another opportunity to bring up your three strong points. Mention the classes you took, grades you earned, awards you won or even interesting friends you met. Again, you can be a little personal if it offers a glimmer into your true self or your over-all work habits.
When you answer this question about achievements and disappointments, try to put things in a positive light. Surprisingly, you can do this with your disappointments, too. Your ability to answer even hard interview questions with positive statements will separate you from other job seekers.
The trick here is to be selective in the disappointments you share with the interviewer. You don't have to tell an interviewer anything you don't want to. While the core of any interview is honesty on both sides, it is to some degree a game. If your biggest college disappointment is too personal to get into, don't feel compelled to discuss it. Or if your biggest college disappointment sounds trivial, even though it really disappointed you, discuss a disappointment that reveals something positive about you.
Maybe your biggest disappointment was a social one, like you weren't able to have the roommate you wanted junior year or you didn't make the final cut for a popular performing arts group on campus. It might serve you better to talk about an academic disappointment, such as not having a paper you wrote accepted for a prestigious campus review or not taking a class from a science professor who went on to receive a presidential award for his teaching. Mentioning these disappointments indicates that you cared about your major and your grades.
You can mention social disappointments, or those that came in your extracurricular activities, only if they can be used to demonstrate that you're an active go-getter. For example, if you ran for president of your student government and lost, mention that.
The best way you can score points on your college disappointments answer is to bring up situations in which you were disappointed and you did something to change whatever caused your disappointment. Maybe you didn't make the Dean's List fresh man year so you studied diligently the remaining three years and you came out at the top of your class. Or you didn't win the presidency of the student government so you formed a student coalition to rejuvenate the honor system.
Unfortunately, we often suffer disappointments which only make us disappointed, rather than spur us on to some kind of noble, impressive achievement. If you can't think of a genuine disappointment that led you to accomplish something, mention a situation that wasn't really a disappointment, but subtly brings up one of your strong points.
For example, maybe one of the three points that you want to leave with an interviewer is that you organized a fund raising drive on campus for a local charity. You could say you were disappointed that you weren't able to be in charge of the fund164 raiser for all four years because there was so much more you could have accomplished.
If you played a role in developing an important program on campus, talk about it. For example, if as a senior you served as an adviser to freshman and you brought 50 other seniors in to help with the program, you could say you were disappointed that you didn't think of doing it earlier.
You get the idea. Use the conversation about disappointing events to talk about your achievements. Just don't lay it on too thick, or you will sound cocky and insincere.
4. If you had to go to college all over again? Would you do anything differently?
Your first reaction may be "who cares?" It doesn't seem terribly important, but it's another way for an interviewer to get a sense of you as a person.
First, this question and the preceding one can demonstrate if a job applicant is an obnoxious, complaining whiner. You know the type. It's the person for whom nothing is ever good enough, fun enough or what it was cracked up to be. People like this can have a heyday with any question involving disappointment or introspective thought.
Second, interviewers ask questions like this to see if you approach your life in a thoughtful manner or if you just roll along with whatever comes your way. Even if you don't think you'd do anything differently, you should probably say you would and then list a few examples.
Interviewing involves a lot of subjective judgments. Even though you have a right to approach life any way you want to, most interviewers are looking for a somewhat idealized person, at least in the interview stage. They want someone who fits the popular notion of success. If you are a happy-go-lucky person who doesn't worry about the future or reflect on the past, it would probably benefit you to act as though you do.
When answering this question, bring up one of your three strong points. For example, if you made great grades, say that if you had to do it all over again, you would take the time to tutor your peers who were struggling. If you were an amazing organizer, say you would have shuffled around your commitments and used your talents to help out the sailing club. It doesn't have to be anything big, as long as it demonstrates your skills.
If your answer to the question of what you would do differently is a negative one, make it positive. If you would have gone to another school, chosen another major or participated in an entirely different set of campus activities, that's O.K., but don't talk about it in a negative fashion. Your answer should reflect that you've learned a little bit about life and you're willing to correct your mistakes.
5. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
I'm sure you'll be surprised to learn what you should talk about to describe your strengths! Yes, your three points. And your weaknesses? You have two options here. You can either go with pseudo weaknesses, like you did in answering the disappointments question or you can go with real weaknesses or demonstrate how you overcame them.
First, for the strengths. You're probably starting to see that you've got all of the perfect interview responses inside you as long as you take the right approach. An interview is basically a way to reiterate your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, no matter what question you're asked. It's nice to be asked about your strengths outright because it doesn't take as much effort to work them into the conversation.
So for your strengths, discuss your three points. Mention the interesting things on your resume. Prepare for this question by making sure you can describe your strengths in one or two paragraphs. Always include specific examples which demonstrate your good points.
As far as your weaknesses go, you're probably getting the hang of talking about things that aren't really all that bad. We all have weaknesses, and some of our weaknesses are worse than others. Talk about your minor weaknesses.
It's probably not good to mention that you procrastinate so badly that you're always in trouble in some area of your life. However, you could admit that you often commit to too many projects at one time and end up working twice as hard in order to pull everything off. As weaknesses go, that's not such a bad one.
Or you can take a slightly more honest approach and mention a genuine weakness and then tell how you get around it. "When someone asks you what one of your weaknesses is, you can deal with it by pointing out how you compensate for it," says career counselor Susan Schubert of Schubert & Associates. "You could say, 'I'm not good at detail work, so I make a schedule and I take care of details at a specific time.'"
6. How would a previous employer describe you?
This is a cross between a strength-and-weakness question and a tell-me-about-yourself question. You probably know what types of things a previous employer would say about you. When you describe yourself through her eyes, try to be specific. Don't say, "Oh, I think she'd say I worked hard" or "She'd call me responsible and serious."
Instead, point to a specific experience. Say that your boss was pleased by your willingness to stay late every day for a month when the company was in a crunch, and from that experience, you think she would describe you as being diligent, a team player and someone who works well under pressure.
7. Why do you want to work here?
This can be a difficult question. Basically you want a job and this particular company has one open. However, this isn't good enough. Interviewers like to feel that you have a personal interest in their company above all of the other companies with which you've been interviewing.
The best thing you can do is summarize your related experience, whether from your classes or from a summer job, and express your interest in learning more about the field. If you're interviewing for a civil engineering job, you can say it looks similar to the work to which you were exposed during a summer internship. You can mention that you like working independently and that you enjoy being outdoors.
It's probably not good to talk specifically about the company unless you've done some research and you know something about it. If you say that it would mean a lot to you to work for ABC Manufacturing, that might lead to questions like, "What specifically do you like about ABC Manufactur ing?" or "What do you know about our company?"
8. What do you know about our company?
Well, here it is. The big fact question. You either know something or you don't, and it's a little bit harder to give pseudo answers. Luckily, I never found this question that hard because interviewers never seemed to pursue it too much. It probably depends upon the size and type of company with168 which you're interviewing, but a fairly short answer is likely to suffice.
When I was first looking for a job, I was interviewing with ad agencies. It wasn't too hard to list a few of their clients or talk about how creative a certain ad was. To be honest, you can often learn something about a company just by sitting in their office. Many offices will put up awards they've won from certain organizations or commendations they've received for community service.
Clearly, if they've put an award or certificate in their reception area, it's important to them. Keep a sharp eye out and read anything you can while you're waiting for the interviewer to meet with you. Then, in your interview, mention that you know the company has won special recognition for its concern for the environment or for donating its surplus products to the needy or whatever it is the company has done. You don't need to say that you know about this only because you read a plaque in the lobby.
However, as we've mentioned, you might want to invest in some more intensive research if you're interviewing with a major corporation or if you've been called back for a second interview.
9. How does your previous experience relate to the job we have available? What makes you a good candidate for the job?
You have several options in answering this question. You can either relate one or two work experiences, classes or special projects to the job, or you can talk about abstract qualities, like your public speaking ability or your talent for planning corpo rate events. If you can, point out similarities between your summer jobs and the job you're interested in. Anything you can do to emphasize your previous experience will help you win the job.
The second question, that of what makes you a good candidate, is another version of the first, but it can catch job hunters off guard because it is somewhat vague. Each time interviewers ask you a question about your skills or your worth as an employee, start at the beginning of your resume and briefly sum up everything you have done. This will give you time to collect your thoughts and think of another way to sell yourself.
Questions about your qualifications can be intimidating because they almost sound like a challenge. Depending upon how the interviewers ask you, it can sound like they don't think you're qualified. This probably isn't the case. Interviewers want to hear you specifically relate your skills to the job. They also want to see how much you know about the job.
10. Why have you been looking so long?
If you have been looking for a job for a while, employers might ask you why it has taken you so long. Schubert advises that you be prepared for this question, and have a few specific reasons.
"You might say that it is a tight market, and you could give some examples of what you've been doing," says Schubert. "You could say that you've gone on X number of interviews or that you've been researching a variety of companies. Make it clear that you've been looking."
If you want to put it in a more positive light, you could say something about there being a lot of opportunities, and you want to make sure you find the job that is right for you.
Practicing Your Response
The final part of your interview preparation involves practicing aloud with a friend. This is the step you're most likely to neglect, and, once you get into the interview, the step you're most likely to regret not having done before.
You can have a great set of answers to interview questions in your mind, but ifyouVe never articulated these answers, you can have a hard time getting it all said during your first interview. If you haven't heard yourself respond to questions out loud, you might not realize how long it takes you to come to the point or how often you repeat yourself. Or how uncertain you sound when you talk about your strong points. Or how you keep saying "Um" and "You know" every couple of sentences.
"One thing that is helpful is to role play," advises Dr. Diane Goebes. "Get a good friend to be a personnel director and ask questions. Have your friend hold a clipboard and put a little pressure on you."
However, don't blow your minor interviewing flaws out of proportion. Interviewers realize that you may be feeling anxious. They won't penalize you for acting like a normal human being. "We recognize that people are nervous when they come to interviews," says Bowen. "If I can tell someone is nervous, I'll back off a little bit, maybe by changing the subject for a while and talking about something else."
Practicing aloud before you go to an interview can get rid of those last minute fears and help you come across smoothly. It can also help you learn to talk about yourself "People underestimate the value of behavioral rehearsal," comments Dr. Auerbach. "In general, the more you practice something, the better you will be at it, and it will seem less frightening."
You can also use an informal practice session with a friend to see what interviewers see when they look at you. Interview your friend, and notice how he or she answers questions. Think about your friend's strong points and weak points and see how you compare.
"Practice not being the candidate, but being the inter viewer," says Schubert. "Make up a job, think about what you're looking for an interview a friend."
This way, you can see how you would expect someone to answer a question about skills or past experiences. It might become obvious to you that interviewers would like to hear about your classes when they ask one question. Or about your campus activities when they ask another because that is how you'd expect someone to answer if you were asking the questions.
In addition, you'll see that anyone can interview if he or she is prepared. As long as job seekers keep the conversational ball rolling and don't stray from the subject, the interviewers can get a picture of an applicant's personality and career goals.
What to Do During Your Interview
At the end of the interview, the employer will ask if you have any questions. If you didn't think of anything during the interview, this is the time to pull out the standard questions you ask each interviewer.
You have two objectives in asking questions. The first is to demonstrate your understanding of the job to the interviewer and to express your interest in the company. The second is to obtain information that will help you make a decision as to whether the company is a place you'd like to work.
The questions that you ask are important, but they don't need to be unique, probing, or earth shattering. Simple772 questions about the company's objectives for a new product line or its success with a recent expansion are sufficient. You might ask why the company chose a particular year to intro duce an innovative new program or what kinds of conditions it looks for before making a major move.
Or, if you're looking for a job in sales, you can ask about the level of individual interaction between sales reps and clients. If you're looking for a job as a fund raiser for a nonprofit organization, you can ask what type of spokesperson the company has had the greatest success with in its fund raising campaigns. Asking intelligent questions can distinguish you from other applicants and point to your knowledge of the job for which you're applying.
If you can't think of anything to ask about the specific company with which you're interviewing, ask questions that would directly affect you. Ask about the job and how the interviewer would describe the work environment. As we mentioned in the previous chapter, you should ask what type of person the employer is looking for and what qualities the ideal applicant would possess. This can reveal to you whether you're the right person for the job.
For example, I once interviewed for a job I thought I really wanted. When I asked what kind of person the employer was looking for, I realized with regret that it wasn't the job for me. The employer wanted someone who was very tough, able to wheel and deal and negotiate with others in the company. The ideal candidate would be outspoken, aggressive, and ready to jump in and fight for what he or she believed. I was none of those things.
However, the employer was not aware of this because I am talkative and outgoing. I could probably have persuaded him that I was the best person for the job, but if I had gotten this job, I would have been miserable. You can therefore learn a lot from the questions you ask, and it's wise to get as much information as you can from each interview.
When you're asking questions to find out what the job is really like, ask who you would report to directly if you were to get the job. Ask how the office is structured. Would you be working independently or on group projects? Would you be required to give presentations to others in the department?
Would you be required to travel? Is there much overtime? These last two questions are tricky because you don't want to make yourself sound lazy. It gets back to the major interviewing mistake of asking the wrong questions at the wrong time. However, you need to know these things if you're going to make an informed decision.
If you ask about things like travel and overtime near the end of the interview in an unemotional way, you're not likely to offend the interviewer. You'll need to judge each individual interview to see when it's appropriate to ask these questions. In general, it is fine to ask questions about aspects of the job which would have a very real impact on you. If interviewers can tell that you only want a job that involves travel, and their job doesn't, or that you don't want a job that requires a lot of overtime, and their job does, it's better to get weeded out now than to end up in a job in which you wouldn't be satisfied.
We'll get into this more in the chapter on decision making, but don't be afraid to ask tough questions and to receive tough answers. This brings us to a point we touched on earlier in the chapter. When you interview for jobs, you should be looking at employers as closely as they're looking at you. And if you don't like an employer, or you feel you're getting sucked into a demeaning interview game, you're entitled to politely end the interview and walk out of the interviewer's office.
''Did You Just Ask Me Why Buffalo Can't Sing”
Infrequently, you'll encounter interviewers who want to know what you'd do in a bizarre hypothetical situation. You will realize that interviewers are playing interview games when they ask you strange, puzzle-like questions.
They may want to know what you think of the ancient feudal system and what kind of role it played in the evolution of agriculture in Europe and Asia or how you'd revamp the census system on a $500 budget. Or what you'd do if you were stranded in a snowstorm with a talking parakeet and a large ball of twine.
You will probably feel like asking them why they don't have enough to do with their time and where they hope to use the vast body of knowledge they must accumulate after ten or fifteen interviews based upon these questions.
In some ways, these interviewers may wish to inject creativity or individuality into their interviews. Or they may wish to see how much creativity or individuality you have. Don't let these questions throw you, and don't feel compelled to jump through hoops or demonstrate your intellectual prowess simply to find a job.
If you don't mind unusual interviews, or if you find them amusing, you may have found a quirky company that perfectly complements your personality and life-style. If you aren't attracted by this kind of thing, don't berate yourself for failing to answer these questions as the interviewer seems to wish you had.
Remember that you're an intelligent, motivated person who is simply looking for a job. You're not required to be some kind ofentertainer who can discuss arcane topics at will. Ifyou encounter an unusual interview in which the interviewer delights in asking you peculiar questions, don't despair. It may be that you've now pinpointed a company at which you don't want to work.
Luckily, it is rare, but you may encounter an interviewer who denigrates you and your accomplishments. This is less likely to happen at major corporations, but it can happen once in a while in any job search.
When I was looking for my first, and later my second, job out of college, I interviewed with a tremendous number of companies, thanks to networking, the classifieds and job banks. I had some great interviews which recharged me. I had some educational interviews which steered me in another direction. I had some exciting interviews through which I obtained job offers. And I had two interviews which qualified for the Interview Hall of Infamy because the interviewers were so harsh.
Luckily, the second time I encountered an interviewer who approached the interview, or maybe just me, with overt hostility, I was able to nip the interview in the bud. In that situation, I was interviewing at a large engineering firm for a job in the public relations department. Unfortunately, I interviewed with a sour, embittered man. He embarked on a tirade about how worthless public relations were, asked me skeptically if my previous employers (from a very large firm in a very large city) had attended college, and then proceeded to criticize my university for every flaw possible.
I sat there speechless and astonished, wondering why, if I were such a despicable sample of humanity, he would call me in for an interview. I also wondered why anyone would be dumb enough to take the job, and how I could get out of there.
Finally, I interrupted, saying, "Mr. Jones, I really appreciate your taking the time to interview me," and walked out of his office. (I toyed with the idea of harassing the man for the rest of his Hfe, but I decided I was too busy.)
Anyway, as rare as it is, you may encounter interviewers who do their best to snub you and to make you feel like you doesn’t deserve any job, let alone the one available. There are two things to do here. The first is to keep your cool and the second is to keep your confidence.
You should never be rude to any potential employer because you never know when it will come back to haunt you. No matter what an interviewer might say to you, respond politely, even if it involves getting up and leaving. That is probably the best thing you can do when it is clear that the interview is not going anywhere.
You should also write these experiences off as strange job hunting occurrences. Don't begin thinking that there is something wrong with you, your resume or your job hunting methods. As with anything else, when you look for a job, you may encounter a few bad situations, and you can't let this ruin your job hunt.
After The Interview
How you follow up with employers after the interview is as important as how you followed up before you obtained the interview. It was by following up on your cover letters that you won the interview. Now, by following up on your interviews, you can win the job you've always wanted.
Thank you notes and phone calls are the two primary ways to maintain contact with an employer after an interview. Employers and career counselors agree that thank you notes provide a nice touch and help differentiate a job hunter. "When I get a thank you note, I can tell that the individual has some class," comments Washington.
Thank you notes are vitally important, and they don't take much time. In your thank you note, you can be brief and to the point. You might start your note by telling the interviewer you enjoyed meeting him. Thank him for taking the time to discuss whatever it was he discussed with you, whether it was sales or financial management, and then put in a sentence or two about something you learned about the company.
For example, you might say, "I appreciate your telling me more about your marketing efforts and the methods you used to increase your customer base." Or, "I was interested to learn how you manufacture the stands for artificial Christmas trees, and I enjoyed touring your plant."
Adding a personalized sentence emphasizes that you took the time to write an individualized thank you note. It may also distinguish you from other job applicants if the interviewer talked to you about the company's marketing plans on a more in-depth level than with other candidates or gave only you a tour of the plant.
You can include a subtle "final sell" in your thank you note if it is exactly that-subtle. You might mention one of your three strong points and tie it in with something the interviewer mentioned. Or reiterate your interest in working there and pinpoint a specific area of the job that you found particularly appealing.
Thank you notes should follow the normal business letter format, and they should be typed on a standard eight and a half by eleven inch piece of paper. Handwritten notes, if written neatly on business-like stationary, are acceptable, but typed notes are the norm.
The second way to follow up after an interview is to call. Employers like job hunting candidates who are well-organized and assertive. They like job hunting candidates who approach job hunting as something that they can take charge of rather than something they passively react to. It is therefore to your advantage to check back in with an employer after an interview. However, you should get the interviewer's approval before you call.
At the end of your interview, when you are shaking hands with the interviewer, ask if you can call in two or three weeks to see if you're still being considered. If the answer is no, you clearly should not follow up. However, if the answer is yes, and many times it will be, you should call in the amount of time specified. If no time-frame is given, check back in with the employer in a week.
Call once or twice, and if you get through, say you'd like to see if you're still being considered. If you are, you can reiterate your interest in the job and briefly express your strong interest in working for the company. You can then wait for the company to contact you with a final answer. You've communicated your interest in the job, and you've brought your name to the employer's attention one more time. If you're not still being considered, thank the interviewer and say that you hope you'll encounter him or her again.
If the interviewer doesn't return your call after you've called two or three times, don't lose hope. It could simply be that the employer is busy. Call the employer back periodically, but be sure to carry on with the other parts of your job search. Interviews are a vital, exciting, exhilarating part of job hunting. If you walk into an interview armed with self-confidence and with knowledge of how to proceed, you can walk out with a job offer. The guidelines below will help get you started with your interview preparation so you can make every interview a success.
INTERVIEWING WITH CONFIDENCE
- In the next few days, start preparing for interviews. If you have interviews scheduled, decide if you're going to research individual companies. If you're interviewing with a large corporation, or if you have time on your hands, go to the library and spend an hour finding out more about potential employers.
- If you don't yet have any interviews scheduled, you can still prepare for any interview that might come your way. Identify your three strong points. Look over your resume and think back to your classes. Try to find at least five specific examples which demonstrate your strengths and achieve ments. Use examples from all parts of your life so that you can talk about successes in the academic world and in your summer jobs.
- Develop an answer to each of the questions in this chapter. Start by answering them as you would answer if one of your friends had asked you. Next, polish your answer until it is positive, well-organized and coherent. If it fits, be sure to mention at least one of your strengths in each response.
- Practice aloud with a friend; ask him what he thinks of your answers.
- Make sure you have all of the necessary interview clothes. You should also have extra copies of your resume in case the interviewer needs one. This is a good time to verify the addresses of all the companies with which you have interviews scheduled. Make sure you know where the company is located, and how long it will take you to get there.
- You're ready to begin interviewing with confidence and poise! For information on how to make a decision after you receive several offers, read the next chapter.
