Advice and detailed guidance on preparing for and navigating through the job interview.
Long and hard work goes into preparing to be successful in a desired job or career. Ironically, insufficient thought and preparation prevents many qualified candidates from making their best case to a prospective employer at the often critical opportunity/hurdle known as the job interview.
Why Interviews?
A person with a job to fill has usually read a resume with information she needs to know about an applicant's education, training, and/or experience. In our sophisticated age, she is well aware that resume services and job counselors can help craft a written product that exaggerates and oversells a job-seeker's merits. Her first concern, then, is to probe the words on the sheet of paper to get a better idea of the applicant's knowledge and ability to think.
Depending on the type of work the organization does, the hiring official also wants to know somewhat more about the applicant's motivation and character. With so much corporate and government activity done collaboratively nowadays, it's important to staff project or permanent teams with people who are likely to communicate and interact productively. For people who represent the employer to the public, it is equally essential that they personify the image and ideals of the organization. While interviews are far from foolproof instruments, they do make it possible to learn something about an individual's goals, ambitions, willingness to work with others, openness to conflicting ideas, and ability in oral expression.
Responsible employers will attempt to supplement what they gather from interviews with reference checks.
Preparing for the Interview
The most valuable preparation for an interview is to learn as much as possible about the hiring organization. Brochures or Websites, which many have, can be excellent sources on missions, locations, finances, staff, and leading programs or projects. The best information about how they actually do business and how they treat their employees, however, comes from people who work, or have worked, there. If that kind of contact is possible, it should be utilized. If not, calling up the human resources or public relations office and asking for information about the organization and its policies can be helpful and shows interest. A relevant question these days is dress code, including what is preferred at interviews.
Although it is not always possible, finding out about the structure and scope of the interview is worth a try. Whoever set up the interview can be asked if it will be a one-on-one, serial, or panel format, and whether the session will cover technical as well as personal matters. It's important to bear in mind that many organizations, public and private, have no standard formats, and that many interviewers have no special training or expertise in interviewing.
With as much knowledge as possible about the prospective employer and the interview, the applicant should organize his thoughts about why he wants the job, what he believes he can contribute to the organization, how specific experiences of his substantiate that belief, and how he feels about individual and team recognition and criticism. He should be able to explain any gaps or obvious questions that arise from his resume, and he should be prepared for personal questions about his hobbies or outside interests.
Doing the Interview
A job candidate should arrive on time, well rested, and appropriately dressed. If it had not been possible to find out about expected attire, it's best to err on the side of formality.
The candidate should hear and remember the names of all interviewers, asking for a name to be repeated if unsure. The old cliches about eye contact and firm handshake do apply in these situations. If there is an invitation to ask questions, it is still timely to try to get information about the organization and its policies that was unavailable or to mention how such information was obtained.
From this point on, nothing is more vital than understanding each question that is asked. If there is any doubt, the applicant should ask for it to be repeated. She should take a few seconds to consider the question, answer as clearly and specifically as possible, and cite examples where appropriate. If more than one interviewer is present, each one should be addressed or faced from time to time.
The applicant should not feel obligated to answer questions about religion, politics, or membership in organizations, and should politely decline to do so. However, an interviewer may ask a perfectly legitimate question in a manner that seems nasty, patronizing, or tricky. This may be done deliberately to test the candidate's reaction to provocation or because the interviewer is just being unpleasant. In either event, the interviewee should ignore the bait and answer as coolly and responsively as possible.
At the conclusion, the candidate should thank the interviewer(s) and ask when and how the selection decision will be communicated.
After the Interview
It's a good idea to review the interview while still fresh in memory with a friend or relative to determine if anything could be done better next time. And then relax.
