Chapter Two —Take a Walk on the Wild Side
The days of filling out the standard application and chatting your way through one or two interviews are gone. These days, interviewers and hiring managers are reluctant to leave anything to chance. Many have begun to experiment with the latest techniques for data-gathering and analysis. For employers, interviewing has become a full-fledged science.
More employers seem to be looking for a special kind of employee—someone with experience, confidence, and the initiative to learn what he or she needs to know. Someone who requires very little supervision. Someone with a hands-on attitude—from beginning to end.
Because employers can't tell all that from a job application and a handshake, here's what they're making you do:
Pass the test(s). You'll probably have to go through more interviews than your predecessors for the same job—no matter what your level of expertise. Knowledge and experience still give you an inside edge. But these days, you'll need stamina, too. Your honesty, your intelligence, your mental health—even the toxicity of your blood—may be measured before you can be considered fully assessed.
Brave more interviews. You may also have to tiptoe through a mine field of different types of interview situations—and keep your head—to survive as a new hire.
Don't go out and subscribe to a human resources journal. Just do all you can to remain confident and flexible—and ready with your answers. No matter what kind of interview you find yourself in, this approach should carry you through with flying colors.
Let's take a brief, no-consequences tour of the interview circuit.
What (Who) are You Up Against?
There are three predominant interviewing types or styles: the Telephone Screener, the Human Screen, and the Manager. Which is which, and why would someone be considered one or the other? While personal temperament is one factor, the adoption of one or the other style is primarily a function of the interviewer's role in the organization and his or her daily workload.
Let's look at each of these types and how you should approach them.
The Telephone Screener
Telephone screening is an effective tactic used by many interviewers in all three categories. However, people in this first group rely on the strategy as a primary means of exploring employment possibilities. For many of these interviewers, the in-person interview is little more than an opportunity to confirm what they feel they've already learned on the phone.
Interviewers who typically fall into this category are entrepreneurs, CEOs, high-level executives, and others short on time and long on vision. Their guiding philosophy could be summed up as: ''My time is at a premium, I have a personnel problem to solve, and I don't plan to waste my valuable time talking in person to anybody but the very best."
The Telephone Screener is often the dominant interviewer at small- to mid-sized companies where no formal human resource (or personnel) department exists or where such a department has only recently been created. The primary objective of the Telephone Screener is to identify reasons to remove you from active consideration before scheduling an in-person meeting.
Among the common reasons for abrupt removal from the Telephone Screener's short list: evidence that there's a disparity between your resume and actual experience, poor verbal communication skills, lack of required technical skills.
Conversations with the oh-so-busy Telephone Screener are often quite abrupt. These people tend to have a lot on their plates.
But what could be better than answering questions from the comfort of your home, right?
Wrong! For starters, you've lost at least two valuable tools you have to work with during in-office interviews: eye contact and body language. You're left with your skills, your resume, and your ability to communicate verbally.
Don't be discouraged. Always project a positive image through your voice and your answers. Don't overdo it, but don't let the telephone be your undoing either. If your confidence is flagging, try smiling while you listen and speak. Sure, it might look silly—but it works, and Heather can't see you anyway!
And another important point: You have a right to be prepared for any interview. Chances are, the interviewer will call you to set a time for the telephone interview. However, if she wants to plow right into it as soon as you answer the phone, there's nothing wrong with asking if she could call back at a mutually agreeable time. You need to prepare your surroundings for a successful interview. If the kids are fighting in the background, or you're expecting a package, or call waiting keeps beeping and interrupting, you're in trouble before you start. So don't. Have the interviewer call you back.
The Human Screen
Many human resource and personnel professionals fall into this category. For these people, interviewing is not simply just a once-a-quarter or once-a-month event, but rather a key part of their daily job description. They meet and interview many people, and are more likely than either of the other two categories to consider an exceptional applicant for more than one possible opening within the organization.
A primary objective of the Human Screen is to develop a strong group of candidates for Managers (see category three) to interview in person. To do this, of course, they must fend off many applicants and callers—a daunting task, because the Human Screen or the department in which he or she works is often the only contact provided in employment advertisements.
Among the most common reasons for removal from the Human Screen's "hot" list are: lack of formal or informal qualifications as outlined in the organization's job description; sudden changes in hiring priorities and personnel requirements; poor performance during the in-person interview itself; and inaction due to the Human Screen's uncertainty about your current status or contact information. That last reason is more common than you might imagine. Human Screens are constantly swamped with phone calls, resumes, and unannounced visits from hopeful applicants. Odds are that despite their best efforts, they sometimes lose track of qualified people.
Human Screens excel at separating the wheat from the chaff. Because they are exposed to a wide variety of candidates on a regular basis, they usually boast more face-to-face interviewing experience than members of the other two groups. Human Screens may be more likely to spot inconsistencies or outright lies on resumes, simply because they've seen so many over the years that they know when a candidate's credentials for a given position don't quite pass the "smell test."
And while interviews with Telephone Screeners or Managers may be rushed to accommodate hectic schedules, Human Screens are generally in a position to spend a comparatively long amount of time with a particularly qualified candidate.
However, these interviewers often do not have direct knowledge of the day-to-day requirements of the job to be filled. They have formal summaries, of course, but they often don't possess the same first-hand familiarity with the skills, temperament, and outlook necessary for success on the job. Typically one step away from the action, they're generally reliant on job postings and experience summaries (often composed by Managers).
If those formal outlines are imperfectly written, and if Human Screens receive no direct input from supervisors on the kinds of people they're looking for, you may be passed through the process even though you're not particularly qualified (or eliminated even though you are).
Not surprisingly, Human Screens often react with a puzzled took when asked by others to offer their "gut reaction" on the merits of a particular candidate. Because they're generally operating at a remove from the work itself, they often prefer quantifying their assessments of candidates in hard numbers: either the candidate does have three years, or she doesn't. Either she has been trained in computer design, or she hasn't. Of course, this analysis may overlook important interpersonal issues.
The Manager
This category describes supervisors who choose to (or are required to) fit in-person interviews into their busy working days. Typically, they are interviewing applicants they themselves will oversee; frequently, the interviews are the result of referrals from a Human Screen, or from colleagues and personal contacts.
The primary objective of the Manager is to evaluate the skills and personal chemistry of the applicant on a first-hand basis. These interviewers want to get to know everything they can about the people with whom they'll be working closely. (The Telephone Screener, by contrast, may well be an entrepreneur who delegates heavily and interacts only intermittently with new hires.)
Common reasons for being dropped from the Manager's "hot" list include: lack of personal chemistry or rapport with the Manager; poor performance during the interview itself; and the Manager's assessment that you, although qualified and personable, would not fit in well with the team.
Often, these are the people with direct supervisory experience in the area in which the opening has arisen. A Manager who has worked with a number of previous employees who held the same position brings a unique perspective to the proceedings.
Such interviewers often have an excellent intuitive sense of who will (and won't) be likely to perform the job well and achieve a good "fit" with the rest of the work group. On the other hand, it sometimes comes as a surprise to applicants that excellent supervisors can be less than stellar interviewers, but a great many Managers lack any formal training in the art of interviewing.
Of the three categories, this is the group most likely to (mis)use the interview as an opportunity simply to "get to know" more about you—rather than to require specific answers to questions about your background, experience, outlook on work, and interpersonal skills.
Managers, like Telephone Screeners, are often pressed for time.
Think back to the last job interview (or series of interviews) you participated in. My guess is that you can quickly categorize one or all of the people you spoke with by means of the preceding categories. This is not to say, for example, that Managers never conduct telephone interviews before meeting with prospective employees. Indeed, the telephone interview is a valuable tool that almost all skilled interviewers eventually learn to use, as you'll see in the chapters that follow. But these three models do represent the dominant styles within most organizations.
Time to Get Up Close and Personal
There are a number of styles and guiding philosophies when it comes to person-to-person interviews. The overall purpose, of course, is to screen you out if you lack the aptitudes (and attitudes) the company is looking for.
Although experienced interviewers may use more than one strategy, it's essential to know which mode you're in at any given point—and what to do about it. Here's a summary of the methods and objectives of the most common approaches.
The Behavioral Interview
In this format, you stay in the realm of the known. Your conversations with the interviewer will focus almost exclusively on your past experience as he or she tries to learn more about how you have already behaved in a variety of on-the-job situations. Then he or she will attempt to use this information to extrapolate your future reactions on the job.
How did you handle yourself in some really tight spots? What kinds of on-the-job disasters have you survived? Did you do the right thing? What were the repercussions of your decisions?
Be careful what you say. Every situation you faced was unique in its own way, so be sure to let the interviewer in on specific limitations you had to deal with. Did you lack adequate staff? Support from management? If you made the mistake of plunging in too quickly, say so and admit that you've learned to think things through. Explain what you'd do differently the next time around.
That said, my advice would be to steer away from the specifics of a particular situation and emphasize the personal strengths and expertise you'd feel comfortable bringing to any challenge you're likely to face.
The Team Interview
Today's organizational hierarchies are becoming flatter. That means that people at every level of a company are more likely to become involved in a variety of projects and tasks—including interviewing you for the job you're after.
How does this happen? That depends on the company. The team interview can range from a pleasant conversation to a torturous interrogation. Typically, you will meet with a group, or "team," of interviewers around a table in a conference room. They may be members of your prospective department or a cross section of employees from throughout the company. (A slightly less stressful variation is the "tag team" approach, in which a single questioner exits and is followed by a different questioner a few minutes (or questions) later.
The hiring manager or someone from human resources may chair an orderly session of question-and-answer—or turn the group loose to shoot questions at you like a firing squad. When it's all over, you'll have to survive the assessment of every member of the group.
Some hiring managers consult with the group after the interview for a "reading" on your performance. Others determine their decision using group consensus. The good news is that you don't have to worry that the subjective opinion of just one person will determine your shot at the job. Say one member of the group thinks you lacked confidence or came across as arrogant. Others in the group may disagree. The interviewer who leveled the criticism will have to defend his or her opinion to the satisfaction of the group—or be shot down.
A group of people is also more likely (but not guaranteed) to ask you a broader range of questions that may uncover and underline your skills and expertise. Just take your time—and treat every member of the team with the same respect and deference you would the hiring manager. And be diplomatic—policies and procedures that you are critical of may be embraced by your peers. Don't blow the interview by offending them.
The Stress Interview
Formal qualifications are important, but in some jobs, the emotional demands, sudden emergencies, and breakneck pace of work can be downright intimidating—not once in a while, but every day. Even a candidate who knows all the technical moves may wilt under the glare of an etiquette-challenged boss or crumble when inheriting a surrealistically compressed deadline.
When you're interviewing for such a position—whether you're seeking a job as a stockbroker, an air traffic controller, or a prison guard—an interviewer may feel it's not enough to ascertain that you are capable of performing the job under the best conditions. He may well try to find out for sure how you will do under the very worst conditions. And that's where the stress interview comes in.
Anyone who's been through one of these never forgets it. The stress interview is designed to cut through the veneer of pleasantries to the heart of the matter and see what a candidate is really made of. A common enough question in this setting could sound gruff or rude, which is exactly how it's supposed to sound.
I was subjected to a stress interview before I'd ever heard of the technique—which is not the best way to prepare, believe me.
Some years ago, I applied for an editorial position at a major publishing company. I made it past the first hurdle, a screening interview conducted in the corporate office. Next, I was invited to come back to meet the director of personnel, Carrie. After greeting me pleasantly, Carrie led me back to her rather palatial office. We chatted for a few minutes as I settled in. Then everything changed. Suddenly, I was undergoing an interrogation—worthy of the secret police in a country on Amnesty International's Top Ten List.
Assuming that I had been given good reviews by the screening interviewer, I was shocked when Carrie began firing. First she questioned my credentials. Why, she wondered sarcastically, had I majored in liberal arts rather than in something "practical." She demanded to know what in the world made me think that I could edit a magazine (even though I had been doing it quite well for years).
Each successive question skittered in a dizzying new direction. If the first question was about my work experience, the next launched into my fitness routine, and the next, my favorite movie.
Carrie's questions did exactly what I later discovered they were intended to do—they made me feel confused, fearful, and hostile. I behaved badly, I admit. I answered most of her questions in monosyllables, avoiding her eyes.
Needless to say, I was not offered the job. But I did learn some valuable lessons from Carrie that day:
• Never let them see you sweat. In other words, no matter how stressful the situation, stay calm. Never take your eyes from the interviewer. When he or she finishes asking a question, take a few seconds to compose yourself and then, and only then, answer.
• Recognize the situation for what it is. It is nothing more than an artificial scenario designed to see how you react under pressure. The interviewer probably has nothing against you personally.
• Don't become despondent. It's easy to think that the interviewer has taken a strong dislike to you and that your chances for completing the interview process are nil. That's not the case. The stress interview is designed to see if you will become depressed, hostile, or flustered when the going gets tough.
• Watch your tone of voice. It's easy to become sarcastic during a stress interview, especially if you don't realize what the interviewer is up to.
Lastly, you may well question seeking a job with a company that utilizes such techniques. If they think insulting and belittling you during the interview are effective tools, what's their management philosophy—bread, water, and torture?
The Situational Interview
"What would happen if everyone else called in sick and ...?”
There's nothing quite like the terror of the hypothetical question. Especially when it is a product of the interviewer's rich imagination. We'll talk more about these devils in Chapter 7. But for now, know that the hypothetical question should start a red light flashing in your mind. It's your signal that you are about to undergo an increasingly popular type of interview—the situational interview.
The premise is sound. Present the candidate with situations that might, hypothetically, occur on the job in order to gauge the degree to which he or she demonstrates the traits that will lead to success. It's hard, if not impossible, for you to prepare for these kinds of questions beforehand, which means you have to analyze an unfamiliar problem, on the spot, and develop a strategy to solve it, right then and there.
What most interviewers want to see is a combination of real-world experience, inspired creativity, and the willingness to acknowledge when more information or assistance is in order. (A good many interviewers pose hypothetical questions designed to smoke out people who find it difficult to reach out to other team members for help.) They are seeking someone who not only can do the work, but also will do the work—and contribute as an effective, motivated member of a team.
But what's good for them is often deadly for you. You will have to devote a great deal of thought to each of these questions. If you find yourself caught in this snare, stay calm and use the homework you have done on your personal inventory to untangle yourself.
The Hiring Interview
Your first interview with the person who will manage your prospective position is not likely to be a walk in the park. You may be stepping out of the range of the experience and interviewing talent of the human resources professional—into unknown territory.
And you could wander there for a while.
Why? Experienced interviewers are trained to stay in charge of the interview, not let it meander down some dead-end, nonproductive track. There is a predictability to the way they conduct interviews, even when they wield different techniques.
On the other hand, the hiring manager is sure to lack some or all of the screening interviewer's knowledge, experience, and skill—making him or her an unpredictable animal.
The vast majority of corporate managers don't know what it takes to hire the right candidate. Few of them have had formal training in conducting interviews of any kind. To make things worse, most managers feel slightly less comfortable conducting the interview than the nervous candidate sitting across the desk from them!
For example, a manager might decide you are not the right person for the job, without ever realizing that the questions he or she asked were so ambiguous, or so off the mark, that even the perfect candidate could not have returned the ''right" answer. No one monitors the performance of the interviewer. And the candidate cannot be a mind reader. So more often than is necessary, otherwise perfectly qualified candidates walk out the door for good simply because the manager failed at the interview!
Foiling the Inept Interviewer
But that doesn't have to happen to you. You can—and should—be prepared to put your best foot forward, no matter what the manager who is interviewing you does or says. That begins with having the answers to 101 questions at the ready. But it doesn't stop there—the interviewer may not ask any of these questions.
What do you do then? In the chapters that follow, you'll see how you can give even the most dense of managers the feeling that you are the best person for the job.
Simply put, you're a step ahead of the game if you realize at the outset that managers who are interviewing to hire are after more than just facts about your skills and background. They are waiting for something more elusive to hit them, something they themselves may not be able to articulate. They want to feel that somehow you "fit" the organization or department.
Talk about a tough hurdle! But knowing what you're up against is half the battle. Rather than sit back passively and hope for the best, you can help the unskilled interviewer focus on how your unique skills can directly benefit—"fit"—the department or organization using a number of specific examples.
One word of caution: Don't come on so strong that you seem to be waging a campaign. You will come off as overzealous and self-serving. You'll lose. Just keep quietly and confidently underlining the facts (your expertise) and enthusiastically showing (discovering together with the interviewer) how well these "puzzle pieces" seem to fit the job at hand.
In the next chapter—and for the rest of the book—we will explore the hundreds of potential questions you face ... and the answers that will help you get the job you want.
How to "ace" any interview
• Relax! Think of it as an adventure. As opposed to a tribunal, that is. Try to enjoy yourself. Imagine that the interviewer is a sports star, famous author, or movie celebrity you've always admired. (Try to overlook the middle-aged paunch or glaring bald spot.) You'll still be nervous, but you'll be able to focus more on the job and the company. Believe me, that will do wonders to cultivate the interviewer's interest in you.I'm reminded of a friend who was considering attending law school. Even though he hadn't yet made up his mind, he took the LSAT entrance examination—and scored pretty badly. Undaunted, he immediately signed up to take the exam again. But by the time the next test date rolled around, another career option had his attention.Even so, he went ahead and took the LSAT again—for the experience (and besides, he'd already paid the fee). This time he doubled his score! He wasn't any more prepared, but his attitude was different. Because he felt very little pressure to ace the test, he relaxed—and performed at his peak.
• Keep smiling. No matter what. Don't wear a fake grin that will wear down to a grimace. Just maintain a pleasant, relaxed smile that is, hopefully, a by-product of your involvement in an interesting conversation. Put yourself in the interviewer's place. Who wouldn't want to work with such an agreeable person?
• Be enthusiastic. About the position, your accomplishments, and what you know about the company.
• Be honest. Don't gush—if you're not genuinely enthusiastic, you'll come across as a phony.
• Make lots of eye contact. Have you ever known someone who wouldn't look you in the eye? After a while, you probably started to wonder what that person had to hide. You don't want your interviewer wondering anything of the sort. So meet his or her eyes while you're shaking hands and then frequently throughout the interview. Don't stare so that you appear glassy-eyed. Unrelenting eye contact is just as bad as none at all.
• Remain positive. In other words, steer away from negative words as much as possible. As we'll see when we discuss questions about your previous jobs, you must learn to put a positive spin on everything, especially loaded issues, such as your reason for leaving a job, troubled relations with your superiors, and so on.Here's a good exercise: Tape-record your answers to some of the questions in this book—and then write them down. How many negatives do you find "hidden" in your speech? Scratch them out and replace them with positive words and phrases. Then memorize each new answer.
• Don't let an unskilled interviewer trip you up. Make sure the confidence and preparation you've worked so hard for come shining through—especially when a manager throws you a curve. If need be, your advance preparation should give you the power to take control of the interview, allowing you to emphasize the many ways in which you will benefit the prospective employer.
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