When you enter the interview room, what happens during that interview can affect your prospects for landing the job. Tine and again I’ve watched top contenders fade and underdogs emerge victoriously.
So, what should you do to maximize your chances for success? Although the interview is an opportunity for you to check out the project and consider whether you can work with the hiring parties, your main job is to impress upon them the merit of your proposal and the superior applicability of your talents and skills.
This isn’t just about presenting what you plan to do if you are selected. The interview is a rhetorical act. By rhetorical I don’t mean lies or manipulative hot air. The interview is a persuasive process and the interviewee should use all available, ethical ways of influencing people. The interview should be deliberately, polished attempt to overcome obstacles, with a specific audience, towards a particular goal.
What is a job interview?
Typically, and unfortunately, it is a sales meeting between two parties, one with little concept of what they are selling and the other with only a vague understanding of what they need to buy. Small wonders, then, that these exercises in communication invariably end in tears – largely through the inability of both parties to listen, understand and evaluate.
The battle largely is won or lost before you even show up. It’s really a matter of preparation and damage control. Imagine that in going to the meeting you are a ship sailing into a war zone. You would have to be a quite fortunate to sail away from that war zone without having had a few holes blown in your rigging. But if you do your damage control preparation before entering you are equally unlikely to be sunk by the first salvo.
Further to your application for this position, we have pleasure in inviting you to an interview at the above address at 2 p.m. on Friday, 13 May. When you arrive, please ask for Mr John Smith.
An elation you may feel at having clinched the meeting should be tempered by a degree of curiosity. Your competitors are likely to do more than make a note in the diary and carry on snoozing. If you snooze you lose. Two questions need to be asked:
- What is thy telling me?
- What are they not telling me?
You have a place, a date, and a starting time and d name. The bare minimum information you need simply to turn up. What pieces in the jigsaw are missing?
- Who is the mysterious Mr Smith? You might assume that he is the person they have designated to conduct the meeting. Assume nothing. Not being psyched up for a panel, and not knowing who these individuals are, can seriously disturb one’s mental equilibrium before getting one’s coat off.
- You will off course always be given a starting time but rarely an indication of the scheduled duration – unless you request and indication of the scheduled duration – unless you request it. If you clarify this before the meeting and establish that only thirty minutes have been allocated, then at least you will be psychologically prepared. Is there anything you can do about it? You can, on first meeting the other party, issue a gentle reminder: ‘Am I right in thinking that we have just a half hour?’ Telephoning beforehand and asking: “How much time has been allocated for the meeting?’ often elicits further information about your competition and the pecking order.
You are going to the meeting to make a sale – you need to know how long you’ve got to make it.
- Is there any written information about their problem – sometimes called a ‘Job Description’? This purport to describe the role accurately but rarely do so. Nevertheless, if there is one and you can encourage the buyer to send it to you prior to the meeting then you have more information than your competitors, which must be an advantage.
- What do you know about the buyer’s organisation? Using directories and websites is fine, but why not get them to send you something? ‘I’d naturally like to come as prepared as possible – could you send me some information prior to the meeting?
So – Communicate!
Selling yourself is no more than an exercise in communication and on the whole it is something that we tend to be very good at. Having received an invitation to a meeting, it would be courteous and businesslike to return it by communicating that one would be pleased to attend. The snoozers’ thought process rarely gets this far so this is an opportunity for you to score a few points and “make a friend at Court”. This can be achieved by a simple telephone call. For example: ” I am ringing to conform that I will be pleased to attend at 2 p.m. on 13 May – there are a few things that I need to clarify but if it’s not convenient I can ring back later.” If you sense that you are really hitting it of with the other person you can sometimes get down to the small talk. “I guess you had a lot of applications for the position?” The crucial questions are those regarding whom you will be seeing and the timing of the meeting – anything else is a bonus.
However, don’t relax yet. Consider knocking another ball over the net; i.e. communicate in writing that you will be pleased to attend. For example:
“Further to your letter dated 25 April and our subsequent conversation/my subsequent discussion with your secretary, I am writing to confirm that I will indeed be pleased to meet both yourself and Mrs. Brown at 2 p.m. on 13 May.”
“Thank you for agreeing to send me a copy of the Job Description and an Annual Report in the interim period, which I look forward to receiving.”
Letter writing has gone out of fashion but do not completely eschew the letter as a means of communication when selling yourself – it retains the benefits of being more personal, intimate and classier. This is tiresome – do I really have to do all this? The short answer is ” No, of course you don’t”. Looking at it another way, if you choose to be a snoozer you might, just might, be competing with someone who has bothered to do these things while you are not even on the starting blocks. It will always be your call.
Your Five Point Plan
Failing to prepare really is preparing to fail. To ensure that your mental attitude is positive you can have your own five-point plan based on the following.
- Beware of your objective and stay true to it.
Never assume that buyers know what they are looking for, particularly at the first meeting when very little may be defined. The turbulent waters of these meetings can throw up a lot of garbage. Navigate your way through; put clear water between yourself and the buyer.
- Beware the well-meaning advice to “be yourself”.
This is the worst advice anyone can give you before the meeting. We wear different “hats” for different occasions. Our boxer might be a nice, gentle person outside the ring but his trainer would be ill advised to say: “It’s fight night tonight but just go in that ring and be yourself.” Whether you like it or not, you are going into a sales meeting and you say whatever it takes to achieve your objective.
- At the first meeting, all sellers are equal.
“Now you may be competing with someone who has, on paper, a higher credibility rating, in which case the buyer is saying, based on what I’ve read I believe that you could probably be the solution to my problem.” So, on paper not all sellers are equal – there is a pecking order. At the meeting this can be turned on its head within the first thirty seconds.
Don’t go into these meetings feeling vulnerable about lack of qualifications or experience. If you can sell the positives and defend the negatives you can turn yourself from a “possible” into a “probable”. It is a truism that those who achieve the offer are not always the best equipped for the task – but they are always the ones who have sold themselves best.
4. Always retain your self-respect.
There is the story, perhaps apocryphal, of the seller who was being treated particularly discourteously by a panel of buyers. He decided to exercise his veto saying, “I feel that you are wasting my time, good day to you.” Whereupon one of the buyers jumped to his feet saying, “But wait – you are just the person we are looking for!” The seller replied: “Perhaps, but I’m not looking for you” and carried on walking.
- You should feel ‘nervous” before the meeting.
If you feel nervous before the meeting, ask yourself why. Let your competitors be too busy being nervous to think about winning
Dead zone one
Your arrival at the venue for the meeting, ideally fifteen minutes before the appointed hour, can signal the beginning of unforeseeable. Success lies in your ability to anticipate the questions, analyse and interpret them as accurately as possible, and prepare your response.
Fundamentally there are only two questions the buyer can ask!
- Why should I hire you?
- Why shouldn’t I hire you?
How was your journey?
There is no overt hidden agenda but even if your journey to the meeting was a nightmare, resist the temptation to say so.
Tell me about yourself
It is, a most excellent question to get, but only if you are prepared for it. It sets the standard for the rest of the meeting. Respond well and you have laid a solid foundation upon which to build. It also sets the standard for your competitors, as the chances are high that they too will be faced with it.
If you say, “what do you want to know? They will be forced to pluck something out of the air, which might not be in your interests. Your body language will all too visibly convey that you have run out of ideas and the buyer will have to come to the rescue in an effort to breathe some new life into the meeting. It may be your nervous reaction to start talking and not know when to stop. At the end of twenty minutes. You can do a lot of damage in twenty minutes.
Vision!
It is a blank cheque so fill it in! Look carefully at your understanding of their need. Be objective and ask yourself. “Well – why should they hire me? What can I bring to their party?”
Two minutes is about right – you can sell a lot of good things in two minutes provided you are focused. Ask yourself, if I say these things, what supplementary questions might they come up with?” With sound preparation, you can decide the direction in which you want the meeting to go. For example, you can actually make the buyer ask you the question you would rather get.
Why are you leaving/did you leave your present/previous position?
Hidden agenda: “Are you leaving/did you leave for any reasons that might make me not want to hire you?”
Devise a response that has three parts to it, a beginning, middle and an end.
“Although I’ve really enjoyed my previous role, I’m now seeing this as an opportunity to use my skills in an organisation like yours.”
“Because I believe I have a lot to offer.”
What is your greatest strength?
This is a gift, so grab it with both hands. Interpret the question as: “Give me one reason why I should hire you?” In preparing your response to this you may want to ask yourself, “Based on my understanding of their problem, what would they want my greatest strength to be?”
Ensure that you have two examples to back it up. Examples and anecdotes are essential pieces of ammunition to take along to these meetings; they give credence to what you are saying and are the evidence to support your strengths and attributes.
What is your greatest weakness?
This is a monster and is the archetypal “Tell my why I shouldn’t hire you” question. If, for example, you are selling skills which are primarily cerebral then admitting to a weakness of a practical nature will not be damaging: “I’ve been a driver for many years and “I’ve no idea what goes under the hood, but it’s of no interest to me. If I break down, I’d rather make a phone call.”
Sometimes my wife/husband/partner accuses me of not getting the balance right between work and play “and I guess I should build more leisure time into my schedule.” “But I enjoy my work.” And we don’t fall over it.
Sometimes I’ve been accused of paying too much attention to detail, but I have always found that to do this work successfully you have to do the “is” and the “t”s.
“Right now I can think of one, but if you had asked me that question only a year ago…”
“I would definitely have said that my presentational skills were not good.” But it was an essential part of the role and I was very fortunate because my boss was good at giving presentations and he gave me a lot of help. Now I am good at it too and I really enjoy it. I don’t think weaknesses are a problem if we know what they are and something about it.”
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
“It’s difficult for any of us to plan ahead these days but I try to do so. I do like to progress and would certainly still see myself with your company. My first priority will be to achieve what you want me to achieve in this role. Having done that, I’m sure that we will have enough evidence to suggest where else my skills could be used.”
What was your biggest mistake?
“Well, hindsight is 20/20 vision but if I had my time over again I would have:
- Taken a year off before going up to university
- Stayed on at school longer but I had to get out and earn a living
- Studied economics instead of mathematics
Would you say that you had an aggressive management style?
“I like to feel that I am adaptable enough as a manger to change my style depending on the situation and perhaps the person I am managing. I find that people respond differently. Some only react positively to a more assertive style, whereas others require a subtler approach. Good managers should know what makes their staff tick and be able to adapt accordingly.”
What was your previous salary?
“I’d rather talk in terms of the package as salaries can be misleading…. But can we come back to this later? It might be more helpful at this early stage if I find out more about the role and you find out more about me and what I have to offer.”
“All right, we can come back to it – what in particular do you have to offer?”
This is your opportunity to seize the initiative and invite them to open: “If that should happen I won’t feel I’ve wasted my time…” – “But I don’t want to waste your time…”.
What remuneration do you have in mind?
Don’t discuss the price until you have made the sale.
If the buyer opens at a price that is higher than your previous remuneration you will be thankful that you didn’t open. If, however, the open at e level below your expectations you may be tempted to reach for your hat and coat, and make for the exit. Exercise caution. Unless their figure is so low that you will never be able to negotiate up to your needs then stick with it.
Questions for you to ask.
So, what questions might you legitimately as? You will be able to think of several of your own but you may wish to add some of the following to your armoury:
It is of course essential to find out something about the organisation prior to the meeting, if only to answer the question:
What do you know about us?
– “Your website indicates that….”
- Why has this vacancy arisen?
- Did you try to fill the position internally?
- What would you see as my main priority in this role?
- Can I take a look around before leaving?
- I’ve enjoyed our discussion.
- I’m very confident that I can take this and do it very well, but do you have any reservations about my suitability for it?
If you choose to ask this, it will be your penultimate question. You may ask it at a first meeting but are more likely to do so at the final meeting when you are closer to making the sale.
When will I hear from you?
A “business hat” will deliver a passable Ronnie Reagan “beats me” impression and profess to have “an open mind”, thus sending the buyer away empty-handed. The “Columbo Question”
Doesn’t have to be about the price but it invariably is.
I am naturally disappointed to have been unsuccessful on this occasion (you haven’t given up – still selling tenacity). However, I would like to thank you for your courtesy in seeing me. I thoroughly enjoyed our discussions and as I retain my strong interest in working with your company please do not hesitate to come back to me (implication – not the other guy) should the situation change (if you screw it all up) in the near future (I’m not going to be swanning around in the marketplace for ever).
Manie Spoelstra