It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this is the point where you want to bow out. You may think the initial objectives were totally reasonable, and you're planning to think of your next interview in terms of them, but you may be getting cold feet as you think of persuading your prospective boss to grant you another interview. A story about Henry Ford comes to mind whenever a client of mine winces at the thought of directing his interviewer to invite him back. It seems that Ford was paired up with an insurance company executive at his local golf club tourney. During their play around the links, the insurance executive blurted out: "Henry, we've been members of this same club for years and have played together on many occasions. We're good friends, in fact. Why is it you don't buy your insurance from me?" Henry Ford replied: "You never asked for my business." The fact is ninety-five out of one hundred job-seekers wouldn't think to try to set up an appointment for a further interview-feel it would be presumptuous to do so. But if you handle it correctly, it's the logical conclusion to any interview. So why not try?
How do you bridge the gap from 'Holding yourself from cross-examination to going after you came for'? Again, control is the answer. If your prospective boss has asked you a couple of questions to reassure himself, as you respond to the third or fourth such challenge, you might immediately ask him a question that leads directly into a discussion of your next interview. That question is "Whom will I be meeting next if I'm one of the finalists for this job?" Your first step is to find out the name of the next person up the line. Fortunately, you don't have to ask this question out of the blue. You can use any bridge to it that you feel comfortable with, like "Mr. Interviewer, from my point of view this position is just what I've been looking for, and if I've judged our meeting right thus far, I think you feel I have the sort of background you're looking for. If this is the case, whom would I be meeting next if I'm considered further for the job?" Try creating an approach to the "who" question that you are comfortable with, and memorize it word for word. This is a critical question and you have to ask it right. One other thought about the "who" question: you don't have to leave it for the cross-examination. If you think things have gone extremely well then there is nothing to stop you. Usually a prospective employer will have questions unresolved in his mind and will want to take you into the cross fire, but if you feel the timing is right, you can proceed to your "who" question earlier in some cases.
What kind of reaction can you expect when you ask your "who" question? Probably your interviewer will be surprised, since he probably wasn't expecting it. But undoubtedly he has the name of some executive in mind whom you would meet during the interviewing process, and it shouldn't be all that difficult for him to come up with a name. Will your interviewer be put off because you asked for a name? Those who've tried the "who" approach are pleasantly surprised to find that most interviewers think it's a reasonable question, which doesn't faze them at all-even if they hadn't really planned to tell you the individual's name at your meeting! Certainly asking the "who" question won't eliminate you from consideration if you've done well. So it's worth taking your interviewer this far in achieving 'what you came for'.
