Success or Stress
Congratulations, you've got an interview. Hope you're on the way to a job that is right for you. You're wise to recognize the importance of the interview as well as to question what you can do to prepare. While that phone call is a sign of success, It is also a sign of impending stress. You need to prepare to interview for success rather than experience interview stress.
Let us be perfectly clear about what that call means. You got the phone call and an invitation to interview because you were successful in marketing your resume, writing letters, and networking for job leads. After all, the specific goal of writing a resume, letters, and networking is to get a job interview --not a job. The invitation to interview appears to put you closer to an actual job, but it is not a job offer - only an invitation to ask you, in person, some questions to further determine your capabilities for a specific position.
Interview for Success
Remember, it is not over until you and the employer finalize the nuts-and-bolts of the employment process -- a firm offer detailing your duties, responsibilities, and negotiation of your salary and benefits. These are the most desirable outcomes of the interview process. In fact, this could be one of many invitations to interview you receive on the road to getting the job you really want.
The specific goal of writing a resume, letters, and networking is to get a job interview -not a job.
By the way, did you know you just had your first interview when you answered the phone and received the invitation to interview? You were most likely screened over the phone for the face-to-face interview. Congratulations, you just passed your first interview.
Even though you have learned a great deal about yourself and others during these past few weeks of job hunting, let's face it, you're not in this for learning experience. Despite what all those career counselors and books say, finding a job is no fun. You would rather be working, right? Try as we may to make the job search process upbeat and positive, the job search process seems demeaning to many people. It seems so impersonal, superficial, and detached. It appears to be a game of chance where timing and luck often seem more important in the hiring process than one's hard-earned skills and capabilities.
Employers quickly screen hundreds of people and then line up a few for the final selection. They don't have or take time to really get to know you. While it may be a selection process for interviewers, it's an elimination game for interviewees. It reminds one of a shooting gallery in a carnival; the game is but a side-show for the main events.
You may have experienced weeks of mixed emotions. You've seen the peaks and valleys, and perhaps been in the dumps. After all, you've put your ego on the line, displayed your weaknesses to strangers, collected rejections, felt frustrated, developed false expectations, and experienced disappointments. Now you're supposed to put on your best performance as you walk on the employer's stage to dearly communicate - both verbally and nonverbally -- why the employer should hire you. Now it is on to the interview where you will probably experience the greatest stress in all of your job search.
Old Adage Truths
Just how ready are you for this interview? Will you interview for success? What are you going to do between now and the interview on Monday? What questions will the interviewer most likely ask you? How will you answer them? Are there certain questions you may have trouble answering or which may reveal your weaknesses and thus disqualify you from further consideration? What additional information do you need on this employer? What questions should you ask during the interview? Is this the type of organization you really would like to work in? What will you do if you are offered a job? Are you prepared to accept the first offer presented to you or are you planning to negotiate a better salary?
Let us get even more specific. What are you going to wear on Monday - especially the colors, fabrics, and styles? What time will you arrive? What is the first thing you will do when you meet the interviewer eye-to-eye? Remember the old adage - you never have a chance to make a second first impression. And that is what the interview is all about --making good first impressions.
Better still, are you prepared to answer these basic knee benders?
- Why should I hire you?
- What are your weaknesses?
- What do you want to be doing five years from now?
- What are your salary expectations?
Managing Stress to Your Advantage
We all want to be the very best we can. And with a little preparation and fine tuning of your interpersonal and communication skills, you should do your best in the crucial job interview. While you are excited about getting a job, if you are like most people you will be apprehensive about the job interview. Your ego is on the line. You might succeed, yet you might fail. The interviewer will ask you many questions to determine whether you are the right person for the job. To communicate that you are the best, you must let the prospective employer know your strengths and value. Yes, you believe they should hire you rather than other candidates. But what makes you so special in the eyes of the employer? Do you have something the others lack? Are you more capable, enthusiastic, or personable? Why should they think you are the best and hire you?
Let the prospective employer know your strengths and value. If the thoughts of being subjected to numerous questions, closely scrutinized by employers, and possibly rejected are enough to make your throat dry and your palms sweat, you are not alone. Most people facing a prospective job interview experience some nervous apprehension and fear. While they know the interview is a critical step in getting a job, they prefer avoiding it altogether because of its possible negative consequence - a rejection.
The job interview is a different type of job search activity from writing letters, using the telephone, or meeting people for information, advice, and referrals. Analogous in some ways to trying out for a part in a theatrical performance, the job interview places you on center stage for a part in the employer's organization. Employers want the best for their money. Your actions -- both verbal and nonverbal -- should clearly communicate that you are the best one for the part.
Skills You Can Learn
It is useful to view the job interview as a set of verbal and nonverbal skills that can be quickly learned. Our purposes are to show you how to minimize job interviewing stress, put your best foot forward during the interview, and leave the interview with successful outcomes.
Interview Power
The job interview plays a powerful role in the screening and selection processes of employers as well as in your future career advancement. But exactly how important is it for both you and the employer? This question is best answered by addressing three additional questions on the role of job interviews.
1. How important is the interview in determining who is offered the job?
In study after study employers say the job interview is the single most important activity determining whom they hire. While grade point average, work experience, good recommendations, resumes, and networking are important concerns, they are of lesser importance than the actual face-to-face job interview. These other factors help get you invited to the interview. But the interview determines whether or not you get the job offer. Flunk your interview and you're out of the hiring picture.
Knowing this, you should spend a disproportionate amount of time preparing to do your very best in the job interview. Don't expect to walk into an interview and "just be yourself"; you must perform according the expectations of what constitutes a "good interview" in the eyes of employers.
2. Assuming you accept a job offer, how will the way you conduct the interview --especially salary negotiations -- affect your future with the employer as well as your future salary levels?
Employers agree the job interview is an important factor in determining how well an individual will be treated on the job in terms of both respect and salary. Haldane Associates, for example, note from years of experience with thousands of clients that "Employees who have handled themselves well during their salary negotiations were treated with greater respect and were given more opportunities to advance within the organization." Others agree with the importance of how you conduct the interview: you must be professional at all times, keeping in mind the interview leaves both a first and lasting impression from which employers develop expectations about how well you will fit into their organization. As for salary negotiations, remember a simple fact of economic life: the salary you negotiate establishes a base from which your future salaries with this as well as other employers will be influenced. Salary increments will most likely be figured as a percentage increase on this base. When you change jobs, your previous earnings will be one major basis for determining your new salary.
3. How frequently will you face job interviews?
In today's work world changing jobs and careers is a fact of life. Most people will have several jobs --perhaps a new job every two to three years -- due to a combination of voluntary and forced job and career changes attendant with new technologies, recessions, terminations, and career advancements. While some of these new jobs will be found within one's present organization, most jobs will be in other organizations. In either case, each job change will require another round of job interviews. Since 95% of employers require interviews as part of their selection procedures-- the percentage is even higher for managerial/professional positions -- you can expect to participate in several job interviews in the years ahead. As your career advances, each interview will become even more important to your future career advancement and earnings.
Successful Outcomes
While job interviews are an important step to getting a job, the interview process can lead to several outcomes which may or may not be positive for you and your career. Therefore, it is important to clarify your goals prior to conducting a job interview. What, for example, do you want to accomplish in a job interview? Most people still view interview success in narrow terms: success is to get a job offer. But to get the job offer is only one of many outcomes of the employment interview which may or may not be positive for you. Only time and experience on the job will tell you if getting the job was a good idea.
Success may mean learning the position is not for you.
An important goal and outcome of any job interview should be to obtain useful information to determine whether the job is right for you. Success in the interview may mean learning that the position is not for you, and thus you turn down the job offer. If you view a major goal of your interview to be gathering information, you will most likely perform better in the interview situation. Rather than feel you are in a stressful win-lose game, you will be more at ease as you focus on what the interview is all about -- an exchange of useful information between the interviewer and interviewee. It is to your advantage to make sure this exchange takes place in your favor.
Another successful outcome would be to market yourself for future positions in this or other organizations. The interview could establish a good basis for developing a job information and referral network.
Approach the interview as a two-way street: both you and the employer want to better know each other. While the interviewer is trying to determine whether to hire you, you should be determining whether you want to work for the employer. There is nothing worse than dampening the euphoria of getting the job with the realization two months later that the job is not right for you. So beware of supposedly positive outcomes -- job offers --that can lead to negative career experiences!
Good interviewing is based upon a strong job search foundation of self-assessment, skills identification, objective setting, research, resume and letter writing, and networking.
