1. Know the employer’s business.
In the pre-Internet days, job-seekers were advised to ask, “Who do
you consider your principal competitors?” to show their alertness and
interest in a job. These days, it signals the opposite. By the time you
arrive for a job interview, you’ve already got to know not only the
employer’s business profile but also which organizations compete in its
arena and how your target employer compares to every other major player
in its market. That’s true whether you’re applying for the CFO slot or
hoping to answer the phones in its call center.
Begin by touring the employer’s own Web site, then move on to LinkedIn to learn about its leaders. From there, journey over to Glassdoor.com
to see what past and current employees are saying about the firm, its
culture, its business prospects and the quality of its leadership.
2. Prepare questions.
Your research will pay off in another way: It will give you fodder
for great interview questions you can ask the recruiter, hiring manager
and any other company reps you meet during your interview. When you’re
invited for the interview, ask your scheduler who you’ll be meeting, by
name and title. Knowing the job titles of the people on your interview
roster will allow you to come up with position-specific questions to
pose to each person you meet. If you’re a marketing person and one of
your interviewers is a sales manager, you can ask, “What should the
person in this role accomplish in the first three months, for you as an
internal customer to be overjoyed with his or her performance?”
3. Get the inside scoop.
Use LinkedIn to find people in your second- or third-degree network
who worked for your target employer in the past. Since they’re connected
to people you know and they don’t work there anymore, these folks will
be more likely than current employees to give you the eye-opening scoop
on the organization’s culture and challenges. Use the Get Introduced
Through a Connection button on the user’s LinkedIn profile page to make
these connections through mutual friends, asking for a quick telephone
chat. (Be sure to thank these helpful folks for their time!)
4. Collect personal contact information.
As you meet each new person in your interview lineup, ask him or her
for a business card. Do it the minute you’re introduced, before you sit
down, or you’re likely to forget. Since lots of people don’t carry
business cards in their pockets while they’re at work, be ready with pen
and paper to take down each person’s name and contact information if no
business card is handy. You’ll need to know the names, titles and
e-mail addresses for each person you meet, so you can compose and send a
customized thank-you note to each of them.
5. Tell personal stories.
When you’re asked the standard interview questions, use stories to
make your accomplishments come to life. You don’t have to wait for the
interviewer to ask you a “story question,” such as “Tell me about a time
when you worked with a difficult customer.” You can give a story-type
answer to any interview question.
If the question is “Have you been using FrameMaker very long?” your
answer can begin, “You know, once we were under the gun to get some
documentation done for a version of the product that was custom-built
for one client. I hadn’t used FrameMaker for that sort of thing before,
so I pulled out the manual and began reading….” It’s a great goal to
tell two or three pithy, human stories in each job interview, to bring
your talent to life and to get out of the zero-impact “yes, no,
somewhat” rut.
6. Zoom in on the employer’s pain.
In 2011, it’s not enough to let an employer know that you’ve got
skills X, Y and Z. You have to make it clear that you’ve faced down the
same dragon the employer is facing now, and that means you’ve got to
know which sort of dragon is circling the castle. Float a pain
hypothesis early on in the interview –- something like, “My take is that
you’re looking to get sales leads assigned and acted on more quickly
after trade shows. Is that the biggest area you’re looking for this new
hire to handle, or am I missing something major?” Once you and the
hiring manager are talking about the business issues and not the
often-irrelevant list of job requirements, your conversation will become
much more substantive and fun.
7. Save the salary discussion for round two.
It’s not a great idea to bring up salary in the first interview,
because it’s a bad use of everyone’s time. If they aren’t interested in
you, why worry about the salary? When you get the call or the e-mail
inviting you for a second interview, go ahead and broach the salary
topic. Ask the recruiter, “Is now a good time to sync up on salary?
Would you be the right person to have that conversation with?”
There’s no sense going for a second interview (or first interview, if
you’ve already passed a phone screener) if you and the employer aren’t
in the same ballpark salary-wise. If they ask you what you were earning
at the last job, smile and say, “I’m focusing on roles in the $X range.”
8. Save a question for the end.
Hiring managers tell me that when they’ve got a promising candidate
sitting in front of them, it’s a terrible disappointment for the manager
to ask “So, have any questions for me?” and to hear the candidate say
“No.” Don’t be left queryless — have a list of ten or 20 questions, and
jot down new ones that occur to you as you’re sitting in the interview.
(Yes, it’s fine to bring a pad and pen to an interview, tucked into a
portfolio, and it’s fine to take notes as you’re listening or even
talking.) Here are a couple of useful questions: 1) What was the
incident or the trend that caused you to decide to hire this person now?
and 2) Can you tell me why this position exists — either a bad thing
that happened in the absence of this person, or a story about a time
when my predecessor (assuming I get the job) saved the day?
9. Stay alert.
Job interviews can be overwhelming and exhausting. An interview is a
performance, and performances are grueling. You’ve got to stay alert and
in the game, whether you’re on site for two hours or six. That means no
spacing out, staring into space or (as one of my memorable
least-favorite interviewees did) spitting water into the potted plant
during the interview.
Be focused from the moment you walk in the door. That means not using
your cell phone while waiting to be picked up in the lobby, and having a
warm greeting in mind when your host shows up to meet you. (It’s hard
to forget a young man I met in the lobby one day. Tim had arrived for a
face-to-face interview; I’d phone-screened him the day before. “Are you
Tim, by chance?” I asked. Tim looked startled and replied, “Why, yes, I
am! Are you Miss Ryan? You sounded so much younger on the phone!”)
10. Say thanks.
Thank each person you meet on the interview trail, and when you get
home, send each one a thank-you e-mail, as well. (That’s when the
contact info you grabbed from each person will come in handy.) In your
thank-you notes, mention as specifically as you can what you and each
interviewer talked about. “Thank you for your time” is general and
namby-pamby, but “Thanks for your fantastic description of the plastic
extrusion process. You put a complicated process into words very well!”
will not only flatter the recipient but also bring you, the candidate,
back to mind sharply. Say something in each thank-you message about the
wheels that are still turning in your head, post-interview. “Since I
left you, I’ve been thinking about the CRM issue you raised, and
wondering whether the new Siebel plug-in tools would be worth a look.”
Let the manager know that your brain is already turning over the issues
the firm is facing. Don’t beg for another interview or praise yourself,
but be positive: “I’m looking forward to the next conversation” has the
right mix of hopeful and not desperate notes.
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