If you're not nervous, you should be-at least mildly so. It's the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the World Series and you're up at the plate with two out, the bases loaded, and your team down by one run. You're either going to come through or you're not.
One of your basic goals is to improve your job interview performance, and one of the first steps in gaining this improvement is recognizing that an interview is just that-a performance.
If you learn nothing else from this article, you will learn the best way to prepare for and to conduct yourself in this interview. You'll learn how to become an "overnight expert" on the company, and on the job you're after. You'll learn how to ask questions in a way that won't get you into trouble. You'll learn how to answer questions in a way that won't get you into trouble. You'll know ahead of time the kinds of questions you're going to get asked, and you'll know how to answer them, having rehearsed the answers beforehand. You'll learn how to "read" your interviewer, how to stay relaxed in the interview situation, how to deal with tactics meant to test your stress reactions.
Maybe you've messed up job interviews in the past, but that was yesterday. Remember, you need no special talent to score well in an interview. You simply have to know what to expect and how to respond.
Clearing Up Some Misconceptions
One of the things you're going to be doing a lot of in your job search is making decisions. You will make these decisions largely on the basis of perceptions you bring to each situation. But your perceptions need to be based on facts, not myths. So before we do anything else, let's clear up some of the more common myths and misconceptions that frequently lead job hunters down blind alleys.
1. it's a waste of time to apply for a job unless you have all the basic qualifications.
Not at all if your qualifications are reasonably close to the specifications of a particular job opening, and if you really want that job, and think you can do it, go after it! Qualifications, never forget, are only one of the things that determine whether or not you get hired. A survey conducted by Burke Marketing Research, Inc. indicates strongly that the majority of people who do the hiring are more interested in you as a person than they are in your work background. True, the closer your qualifications meet the job specifications, the better your chances, but the gap between the two may not be as great as you think. A lot will depend upon how you present yourself.
2. Once you've been fired, it's best to separate yourself from your former company as quickly as possible, the better to save yourself from unnecessary embarrassment.
Certainly not-not if you can make some arrangements with your former company that can make life easier for you during your job search. Like holding on to your office, and maybe your secretary for a while, or keeping the company car for a few extra weeks. As a recently discharged employee, you have more leverage than you think. Many companies today recognize that having a lot of disgruntled employees around doesn't do them or the employee any good and so retain an outplacement service to help dismissed employees find another job. Don't let pride or self-consciousness keep you from getting benefits that could make life easier for you in your job search.
3. it's silly to ask an employer who has fired you to give you a written reference.
Again not necessarily; it depends on why you were fired. Assuming that the reasons behind your dismissal weren't blatantly terrible, you can usually prevail upon your former employer to give you a favorable written reference. And while we're on the subject, resist the temptation-if you've been fired-to tell your boss once and for all what you really think of him or her. In a job search campaign, the enemies you don't have are as important as your allies.
4. Executive recruiters aren't interested in you if you are unemployed.
Executive recruiters, like all personnel services, are in the business of finding people for specific jobs. If you're the right person for the job, it doesn't matter whether you're currently working or not. True, most recruiters have only a limited number of jobs to fill, but this doesn't mean that you can't fill one of the openings. It doesn't cost much to send your resume and a covering letter to recruiters-but concentrate on recruiters who specialize in your job or field.
5. You're interested in a particular company; the best person to approach is the head of personnel.
In our Burke survey, personnel executives said almost unanimously that they rarely hire people.They only screen applicants for management. Probably the best person to approach-if you can get to that person-is a management-level person who works in the area you're interested in. The next best person is the company president, unless it's a giant corporation in which case you should contact the appropriate vice-president.
6. Blind ads-i.e., ads that don't give the name of the company-are safe to answer if you're currently employed.
Always approach blind ads with care and never answer a blind ad if you are currently employed and want to keep your job search a secret from your employer. I've heard of situations in which companies place blind ads in order to find out which of their executives are looking elsewhere. And you have no guarantee that a recruiter who may get your resume and letter won't turn around and approach your company with an offer to find your replacement, or that the letter won't be sent to a friend of your boss.
7. The more unemployment there is, the tougher it is to find a job.
Despite the obvious connection between unemployment figures and the number of people looking for work, the general unemployment figure doesn't necessarily mirror the difficulty you yourself can expect. For one thing, unemployment affects certain industries much more than others. Secondly, a substantial proportion of unemployed persons are very young or are people without special skills or training. Remember, too, that even during recessionary periods people are changing jobs. The annual turnover rate in corporations is somewhere around 25 percent per year on a national scale. And most of the time when a person leaves a job, the employer starts looking for a replacement. It could be you.
8. Playing "hard to get" is a good strategy because it makes you a more desirable job candidate in the eyes of the interviewer.
It's never smart to seem in too desperate need of a job-but you can easily go too far in the other direction, appearing so indifferent that your would-be employers are likely to think, "Why should we hire this person? He (she) doesn't even want the job." If you want a particular job badly, never create the impression that you don't want it. The lone exception to this rule is a situation in which you are being actively wooed by a company and playing hard to get might conceivably produce a more attractive offer. Otherwise, express the genuine enthusiasm you feel. This doesn't mean necessarily asking, after an interview, "Do I get the job?" It means coming out and telling the interviewer that the job is one you can handle and one you really want.
9. Women don't stand as good a chance of getting a job in most white-collar fields today as men.
Across the board, women today have as good a chance of being hired for most jobs as men, everything else being equal. We ran a study not long ago which showed that when at least one woman and one man were interviewed for the same accounting job in the $15,000 to $50,000 range, the woman got the job 72 percent of the time.
10. You shouldn't waste your time going on interviews for jobs you don't really want.
Getting a job offer isn't the only reason to go into a job interview. Impress the interviewer enough, and you might receive an offer for a job other than the one being offered. You might emerge from the interview with new job leads. At the very least, you'll gain some experience that might give you confidence to do better during an interview for a job you really want. I don't recommend that you make a career of seeking interviews simply for the sake of going, but, generally speaking, go on as many as you can.
11. Never take the first job that's offered to you.
The thing about the word "never" in job seeking is that it's never a good idea to use it. If you know ahead of time what you're looking for-that is to say, if you've done your home-work-you should be able to tell whether to accept an offer or not, regardless of when that offer materializes.
12. Taking a temporary job while you're looking reduces your chances of getting a good permanent job.
Not true, depending, of course, on the sort of job it is and how it relates to the sort of job you're looking for. For one thing, a temporary job can help to ease financial pressure which, in turn, gives you more leverage, a stronger negotiating position. More important, temporary work frequently puts you into contact with people who may either want to hire you or may give you new leads. I've known situations in which companies have been so pleased with the performance of a "temporary" worker that they have "manufactured" a job for the person. The only thing to be careful about when you take a temporary job is that it doesn't drain too much of your focus and energy away from your full-time job-finding a permanent position.
13. Once a company expresses interest in you, it's unethical to pursue other job possibilities.
Not at all a common pitfall in job searching is winding down prematurely. You get two or three situations that look "promising," and you figure that one of them is bound to come in. But too often the job situations don't pan out. You're forced to regroup and regain your momentum, which is always difficult to do once you've slipped out of the groove. The rule here is simple: never assume anything. There is no such thing as being "almost" hired. You either have a firm offer or you don't have it. If you don't have it, act as if your chances for it are remote. Pursue other leads.
14. Whatever else you do in a job interview, try to "be yourself."
"Be yourself" is sound advice in virtually everything you do, but part of effective job seeking is the ability to project different images of yourself, depending on the situation. I can remember years ago being fired from a public accounting job because the company told me they were looking for someone with a "heavier background." I thought about this and decided that the fact that I looked much younger than I actually was working against me. So, I worked on projecting an image of maturity. Even though I only wore glasses for reading, I made it a point to wear glasses during my job interview, and I also made it a point to wear only very dark and very conservative suits for interviews. Once I locked up a job with one of the best CPA firms in the country, I stayed with this very conservative look and worked on developing certain mannerisms-slowing down my speech pattern, for instance-that would offset my youthful look. Mind you, during this entire period, I didn't necessarily feel older; but I recognized that my success was dependent upon my ability to convey a certain image, and I never interpreted conveying this image as a lie. I always knew I was a damn good accountant.
15. Having a pleasant smile and being enthusiastic in a job interview isn't going to help your chances one way or another.
Don't bet on it! Our survey shows that as many as 90 percent of personnel directors consider "basic enthusiasm" an important job qualification and although personnel managers don't often hire, they are in a position to eliminate you from consideration right at the beginning. In and of itself a nice smile and a pleasant manner might not get you the job, but they could be the factors that tilt the chances in your favor over somebody else, who wasn't enthusiastic and was stone-faced. Who would you hire under these circumstances?
