Here are eight basic rules that will get you through even the toughest questioning during an interview:
- Keep it brief. Don't talk too long. This is perhaps the more common sin of executives when they interview. When you'll be the boss, you can discourse at will and length. During a job interview, you can't--or rather, you shouldn't. You won't b very appealing if you turn your prospective employer into a captive audience.
Try for three to four-sentence answers. If you must give an answer longer than that, divide it into parts by saying: "There are three reasons for that."
Make a special attempt to keep your answers short during the first few minutes of an interview before you've had a chance to check out the direction of the interview and the interviewer's personal style.
- Stop talking when you've said enough. Even if the interviewer sits there in silence after you have given an answer, don't start talking again. Lots of people let themselves go because they can't stand a little silence.
The interviewer could be using the silence deliberately to make you uneasy enough to say something more-possibly something you will regret. Or he could be mulling over what you've said, which is probably a good sign.
- Listen carefully. If you do this, you will find that interviewers tell you a lot about themselves and a lot about the company. You can use this information to impress the interviewer during the interview with your grasp of the company and the position.
Pay attention, too, to the content of the interviewer's questions. Do they ask about how your authority has expanded over past few years, or are they more interested in how you have been limited? If they ask about the latter, they may be letting you now that they run this show and that your powers under them will always be somewhat limited.
Another reason to listen carefully is that you'll appear inept if you misinterpret a question. Imagine expecting to be asked one King and actually being asked--and responding to--another. Never hesitate to ask for clarification of a question, if necessary.
To listen well means that you must listen actively. Use your whole body and your facial expressions to listen. If you are planning what to say next, it will show in your face. You can forward slightly in your chair. Nod in agreement. Look directly at the person interviewing you.
- Don't be modest. You are there to sell yourself, and sell yourself you must. Describe your achievements and don't hesitate to mention ones you aren't asked about directly. Some key phrases will help you describe your achievements without sounding overly boastful. For example, say such things as, "I'm especially proud that I managed to..."or "I think that was the achievement that meant the most to me personally." Another way to harp gently on your achievements is to rate them: "That was a minor achievement, but one that I'm proud of nonetheless." "Yes, I think that was my major accomplishment on the job." "Of the things that I accomplished, there are two I'm especially proud of."
- Don't exaggerate. Don't say you did something you didn't do. Don't say you played a more important role in a project than you did or that you did something alone when in fact you had considerable help in masterminding it--or weren't even the mastermind at all. John Foster said, from a recruiter's point of view, that he will disqualify someone who exaggerates on-the-job experience: "Often, I'll find out after the interview that the person didn't really do all the things he said he did, or that he certainly didn't do them by himself. He took the credit and someone else did it, or he shared responsibility with someone else."
The CEO at a Fortune 500 company noted, "People have a tendency to overemphasize their experience. It's awfully easy to check with references or find out from the person during the interview whether he really had the decision-making responsibility he claims to have had. If a job candidate goes in trying to make too big a case, and that means any kind of distortion about the responsibilities you had, you're dead in the water a far as I'm concerned."
- Talk in concrete terms. There are two ways to do this First, through the use of examples that describe your work experience, and second, through the use of numbers that show how you measured up on your present or on past jobs. Examples and numbers are proof that you get results, be they products, sales or some other criteria, and results are one of the things that will most interest a prospective employer. They show that you, as a manager, have a growth record, and that you know and understand the industry.
- Never defend or argue a view during an interview. Why? For the very simple reason that you can't win. You may be right, in fact, but you will also appear defensive, and that's a fast way not to get hired.
Bob Hecht explained why this is never a winning technique "If the interviewee tries to wrestle power by intimidation rather than explanation and persuasion and justification, then you have two battling machines who are defending each other against one another. Nobody wins an argument in an interview, least of all the candidate. This is because if you're going to start out arguing, the prospective employer will conclude that you're going to be a tough cookie to live with, and who in the hell wants you around?"
- Make connections for the interviewer. It is vital that your experience and qualifications be connected to the requirements of the job for which you are interviewing. If the employer is using an executive recruiter, the job will have been clearly denned at the start of the search, but whenever you go into an interview through some other contact, one of the first things you will have to ascertain is how well defined this job is.
If the prospective employer does not have a clear picture of the job, it is up to you to make the kinds of connections that will enable the interviewer to see you as the best qualified candidate of the job. One way of viewing this situation is to realize that the person interviewing you has a problem or set of problems to solve. These are the requirements of the job. You can help them solve the problems if you can figure out what they are.
You can ask directly what the requirements are for the job. If the interviewer cannot give you a straight answer, then you may have to get at the requirements in some other way, usually by giving them choices about what they wants to hear about you. If they ask a question about your present job experience, for example, you can respond by saying, "My job responsibilities fell into three areas: sales, management, and marketing. Which of the three are you most interested in hearing about or would you like to hear about first?" Their answer will give you a clue to the requirements of the job. If they want to hear about sales, then sales experience is probably something they are looking for in the person they hire.
See the following articles for more information:
- How to Start on the Right Foot in Your New Job
- What Are the Sources to Find the Information You Need
- The Background of Application Process
- How to Network and Take an Information Interview
