Do not order alcohol-ever! If your interviewer orders a carafe of wine, politely decline. You may meet another interviewer later who smells the alcohol on your breath, or your interviewer may have a drinking problem. It's just too big a risk to take after you've come so far. Just do your best to maintain your poise and you'll do fine, noticeable lack of energy, poor interpersonal skills (i.e., not listening or the basic inability to carry on an intelligent conversation), and a demonstrable lack of motivation.
Every impression may count. And the very last impression an interviewer has may outweigh everything else. So, before you allow an interview to end, summarize why you want the job, why you are qualified, and what, in particular, you can offer their company.
Then, take some action. If the interviewer hasn't told you about the rest of the interview process and/or where you stand, ask him or her. Will you be seeing other people that day? If so, ask for some background on anyone else with whom you'll be interviewing. If there are no other meetings that day, what's the next step? When can you expect to hear from them about coming back?
Ask for a business card. This will make sure you get the person's name and title right when you write your follow-up letter. You can staple it to the company file for easy reference as you continue networking. When you return home, file all the business cards, copies of correspondence, and notes from the interview(s) with each company in the appropriate files. Finally, but most importantly, ask yourself which firms you really want to work for and which you are no longer interested in. This will quickly determine how far you want the process at each to develop before you politely tell them to stop considering you for the job.
Immediately send a thank-you letter to each executive you met These should, of course, be neatly-typed business letters, not handwritten notes (unless you are most friendly, indeed, with the interviewer and want to stress the "informal" nature of your note). If you are still interested in pursuing a position at their company, tell them in no uncertain terms. Reiterate why you feel you're the best candidate and tell each of the executives when you hope (expect?) to hear from them.
On the Eighth Day God Created Interviewers
Though most interviews will follow a relatively standard format, there will undoubtedly be a wide disparity in the skills of the interviewers you meet Many of these executives (with the exception of the Personnel staff) will most likely not have extensive interviewing experience, have limited knowledge of interviewing techniques, use them infrequently, be hurried by the other duties, or not even view your interview as critically important
Rather than studying standardized test results or utilizing professional evaluation skills developed over many years of practice, these nonprofessionals react intuitively-their initial (first five minutes) impressions are often the lasting and over-riding factors they remember. So you must sell yourself-fast
The best way to do this is to try to achieve a comfort level with your interviewer. Isn't establishing rapport-through words, gestures, appearance common interests, etc.-what you try to do in any social situation? It's just trying to know one another better. Against this backdrop, the questions and answers will flow in a more natural way.
When you look at this sequence closely, it is obvious that once you have gotten past the greeting, social niceties and some explanation of the job (in the "getting down to business" section), the bulk of the interview will be questions-yours and the interviewer's. In this question and answer session, there is not necessarily any right or wrong answers, only good and bad ones. Be forewarned, some interviewers will try to fluster you by asking off-the-wall questions, while others are just eccentric by nature. Be prepared for anything once the interview has started.
It's Time to Play Q & A
You can't control the "chemistry" between you and the interviewer-do you seem to "hit it off' right from the start or never connect at all? Since you can't control such a subjective problem, it pays to focus on what you can control-the questions you will be asked, your answers and the questions you had better be prepared to ask.
Not surprisingly, many of the same questions pop up in interview after interview, regardless of company size, type, or location. I have chosen the 14 most common - along with appropriate hints and answers for each inclusion. Remember: There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, only good and bad ones.
Substance counts more than speed when answering questions. Take your time and make sure that you listen to each question-there is nothing quite as disquieting as a lengthy, intelligent answer that is completely irrelevant to the question asked. You wind up looking like a programmed clone with stock answers to dozens of questions who has, unfortunately, pulled the wrong one out of the grab bag.
