Preparing for Interview

To your prospective employers, one of the clearest indications of your ability to manage a job is how prepared you are for the interview. Not being prepared wastes one of your major employment opportunities.

Spend a couple of hours getting ready for each interview.

Review the following list several days before an interview to give yourself time to prepare.

1. Who are they (the prospective employers) and what do they do? Who owns the company? What are its products and services? How does the department or group for which you're interviewing relate to the whole company?
   
   
2. What has the company done? Know some history. Has it recently merged or been deregulated? What have its last two or three years been like? Know about the industry of which it's part. What is the company's growth rate? Who are its competitors?
   
   
3. Where are they headed? Know current predictions for the company and industry. What new products are on the horizon? How does the company stand in national and international competition? If they have new leadership, what goals have they announced?
   
   
4. What is the competition? Where is this company at an advantage or disadvantage? What are the trends in technology and profits? Get the names of the company's biggest competitors and know what advantages or disadvantages those competitors have.
   
   
5. What are the success factors? What influences the company's ability to achieve its targets? One set of factors is external and includes the economy, competition, and technology. Other factors are more internal, such as cost cutting, revitalization, and penetration of new markets.
   
   
6. How can the job you are pursuing contribute to the company's success? This may take more interpretation than research, but you want to have a clear idea of how the department and job relate to the future success of the organization. Even if the job you want is at a lower level, you need to know how it relates to the whole.
   
   
7. Three successes. Be prepared to describe three specific things you have done that demonstrate how you can contribute to the organization's future success.

If you are interviewing with a smaller, privately owned firm, it will be harder to find information on its history and strategies, but it is essential to do so. Find out about comparable businesses that are better known and assume that people in similar situations will face similar challenges. Check product brochures and magazines.

Employer Insight

"Four out of five applicants don't know much beyond the obvious about our company. It turns me off to have to do their homework for them. When an applicant really knows what we are doing and what is going on in the industry, she has a great advantage."

Insider Information

We are referring here not to secret or proprietary information, but to facts that are available to the public if requested. Insider information is not easy to obtain, but very valuable. You have to make a special effort to pay particular attention to company publications, news releases, etc.

Information to look for:

1. The company's mission statement: Find out if it has published one and get a copy of it.
   
   
2. Strategic objectives: Check stock write-ups, annual reports, or internal documents.
   
   
3. Corporate values: Often published and available to employees and customers in brochures.
   
   
4. Current problems, challenges, and changes: If a public company, this will be in stock analyst reports. Try trade journals and business publications.
   
   
5. Organizational changes: Is the company moving toward centralization? Decentralization? Has it embarked on any major changes--for example, from a domestic to a global orientation or from product orientation to customer orientation?

• Anyone you know employed by the company
  
  
• Corporate public relations; personnel handouts
  
  
• Trade journals, investment experts. Standard & Poor's
  
  
• Company newsletters and product announcements
  
  
• Industry specialists
  
  
• Competitors and suppliers
  
  
• The business reference section of any major public or university library.
  
  
• An agenda
  

List the main points you want to communicate about yourself and five or six questions you want to ask based on your research. Make notes to take with you to the interview and consult them.

• A good defense

Anticipate questions the employer might ask you and anticipate any objections that could stand in the way of a job offer. Prepare and practice responses to these questions and objections.

• Practice

Role plays will polish your presentation and make you more comfortable. Practice interviews to point up areas where you need improvement.

• What to bring with you

Take notes, pad and pen, relevant news articles, and extra copies of your resume. Have exact directions to the interview site and parking area (if necessary) and get there with time to spare.

The Creative Advantage

To be competitive with other candidates you must exceed expectations. Consider how you can expand the employer's thinking about the job. Train yourself to think beyond nuts and bolts to the future of the organization by asking questions like these:

• How can you offer far more value than is required by the job description?
  
  
• What are some innovations in technology, training, etc., that the employer should consider for the job in the future?
  
  
• How can you make the employer's job easier?
  
  
• How can you motivate and inspire others in their work?
  
  
• How can the job more actively serve the company's customers, internal or external?