Your primary objective in a job interview is to get a job offer whether you want the job or not! This is an important point. It is the enthusiastic pursuit of this objective that results in job offers that cannot be refused even in situations that originally looked uninteresting. Moreover, you as the job hunter should always prefer to be in the driver s seat. You want to have the final decision in your hands, rather than the employer's, in the form of a job offer. If you do not actively encourage the interviewer to make you a job offer, then you may be allowing the interviewer to make the final decision and it is likely to be no. You cannot say yes or no until the interviewer first says yes. So, always pursue the job offer in order that you may have the final say. Such aggressive enthusiasm may generate an offer that will surprise you. On the other hand, there are few feelings in life more gratifying and ego-boosting than declining a job offer.
Your second objective in a job interview is to get leads on other job possibilities. This objective is to be pursued only after you have concluded or been told that no job offer is forthcoming. The person who interviews you is in a very unique position. By the end of the interview, he or she should know you very well with respect to your experience, likes and dislikes, goals, and job preference. The interviewer also should be very familiar with job opportunities elsewhere in his or her company or industry. The interviewer is in daily contact with other decision makers who may have revealed staffing needs as well as with other job seekers with similar backgrounds and goals who perhaps have mentioned other job possibilities in their respective interviews. Therefore, the interviewer can be a very knowledgeable source of job advice and leads, if asked.
Your third objective in a job interview is simply to make a favorable impression. Doing this not only will increase the probability of achieving your first two objectives but also will make you more memorable to the interviewer even if you do not receive a job offer or lead. Being viewed favorably will solidify the interviewer as a profession? Contact for the future and will enhance the chances of the interviewer calling you when another job becomes vacant or is created. Also, the interviewer may become a future customer, client, or supplier after you ultimately do select a new position. If and when you ever come in contact with the interviewer again, even years later that first impression gained in the interview will be remembered to your benefit or to your detriment. In numerous instances, I have tried to arrange for a company to interview a person who had been interviewed years previously by that same company and had to fight the negative memories or notes of the original interviewer.
The interview process can be broken up into three distinct phases: Pre-interview, face-to-face interview, and post-interview.
