Dealing with the Salary Question
You don't want to get into the salary question early in the interview. You want an opportunity to show the interviewer your qualifications first. A good time to deal with the salary question is sometime toward the end of the first interview, although the question can be held until a second or third interview if the rest of the interview is going well. If the interviewer appears to be rushing into the salary discussion before you know enough about the position or have had an adequate opportunity to present your qualifications, you can stall the discussion for a while by saying something like:
Generally, that would be somewhere between 10 and 20 percent more than you got in your previous position. Don't let the interviewer maneuver you into a box where you state a salary that's too low for the position or that's tied to what you made on your last job.
If, on the other hand, the interviewer appears to be stalling on the salary question, you may be spinning your wheels on the interview. Try a tactical question to try to find out where you stand.
Coping with Questions about Career Problems How do you handle those really tough questions when you've had some problems during your career? The toughest areas to handle:
- You had trouble on your last job(s) and know you'll have one or more poor references.
- You've been unemployed for a long period of time.
- You've had a number of jobs recently. You've either been job-hopping or you've had trouble handling the job and have been let go.
- You are obviously overqualified for the position for which you are applying.
A long period of unemployment might be turned to advantage by pointing out that you'd used that time period to learn new skills and update existing ones.
If you don't want to be questioned about a problem area or areas in an interview, you can be sure the interviewer will question you about it or them. Whatever the problem, try to meet it head on. Don't try to evade the question, remain silent, exhibit fear or become angry.
Those are the questions to practice answering with family members or friends until you come with responses that will put you in the most favorable light, without lying, yet will honestly answer the interviewer's question.
Handling Questions Related to Age
Another batch of really tough questions relate directly or indirectly to your age. They are tough to answer, and you have to prepare some kind of response in advance.
In the first, you are asked questions about your profession or career area to determine whether or not you've kept your skills up to date. (The prospective employer is afraid that your skills are obsolete.) The easiest answer to this kind of question is to be able to respond that you've kept current by taking seminars, by self-study, or by keeping your department at state-of-the-art level. If, however, you've been managing people and haven't stayed current, you'll use a different type of response. You say that on your most recent job assignments, you've been managing people (or worked in planning or whatever). In essence, you made a career change and haven't been working at your original profession. You could expand by saying that you could certainly, however, manage professionals in that area.
As you already know, you can't be asked directly how old you are, But if the potential employer thinks you're too old or has a general prejudice against hiring older employees, you may be asked questions that skirt the topic. Many employers still work on the false assumption that older executives have reduced capabilities. Point out that some of the world's sharpest business people is old. Mention that as a mature person, you're more stable and would be less likely to job-hop than would a younger person. Older executives also have fewer distractions than younger executives; they have maturity and judgment; they've learned to focus on the job at hand and have positive experiences they can use as guidance.
But the best way to get around this whole area is to present an appearance and general demeanor that negates the stereotypes of age, Project vitality, energy and enthusiasm. Then, the interviewer is less likely to even consider age as a de-selector. Pension your potential employer may be worried about providing your pension. You won't have enough time to provide an adequate "cushion" of covered work. Currently, about a third of the workers in most companies stay long enough to be fully vested in the company's pension plan. Most pension plans also make payouts that are proportional to the number of years an individual has worked and been covered under the plan. You might ask the interviewer to calculate the cost of the pension to the company in comparison to someone making a comparable salary, but working there for more years.
Many companies are also turning to alternative methods of financing their pensions. They may have 401 K plans, where the employees save a portion of their salaries, which are then matched by the company after the employee has stayed a certain length of time. Some creative use has been made of IRAs, with the company contributing partially to IRAs specifically purchased on your behalf. Some companies have other types of deferred compensation or insurance plans for older executives, which have been developed to take care of some of the pension problems involved with hiring older workers. These plans are cost effective for the companies, for younger workers who have been job hunting, and they're also good for you. When you get down to the nitty gritty job negotiations, you can suggest something like this yourself.
