How to Get the Job You Want

I. Introduction: Interviewing Guidelines

A. No-No’s

1. Arriving late or too early for the interview.
2. Refusing to fill out application or test.
3. Wearing inappropriate clothing. (Instead, dress in a plain navy or dark colored business suit. Men: White shirt and conservative tie, dark socks, and formal, well-shined shoes. Women: Light colored blouse, conservative pumps [color of suit], and light colored stockings.)
4. Heavy make-up; chipped nail polish; unpolished shoes.
5. Inappropriate hair style.
6. Not looking the interviewer in the eye and not sitting up straight.
7. Talking incessantly or not enough.
8. Interviewing the interviewer—taking control.
9. Negative/poor or “the world owes me” attitude. (Instead, be yourself, be confident, and have a positive attitude. Life is good!)
10. Being less than honest about work history, reasons for leaving, salary level, dates of employment, etc.
11. Asking questions about benefits, vacations or anything else the company can do for you. Wait until you’ve gotten the job offer.
12. Getting too comfortable and not remaining professional and on guard.
13. Being unprepared for the interview. (Instead, realize you’ll never get a second chance to make a first impression. Bring copies of your resume, references, and a pen and notebook to take notes before, during, and after the interview. Also, do research the company and examine sales books in order to brush up on your sales techniques.)
14. Accepting an offer with the intent of continuing to look and interview.

B. What is Really Important to You?

1. Why are you going to this interview?
2. Is the interview appropriate for you (skills, education and location)?
3. Are your expectations realistic, money and otherwise?
4. Will you fit into the environment/culture? Will it fit you?
5. Are you prepared to do a thorough job on the interview and do you have well thought out questions?

   Example:

   1. What are your expectations of the next person you hire for this position?
   2. What are the positives as well as the challenges of this position?
   3. What is the company culture?
   4. What is my supervisor’s management style like?

C. Prioritize Your Wants/Needs Into:

1. Job content
2. Salary
3. Benefits
4. Potential for growth
5. Location

(Re-evaluate these priorities as time passes, they can change.)

D. Professional Courtesies

1. Greet everyone in the office with a smile and hello.
2. Rise, shake hands and smile upon meeting and leaving.
3. Verbally thank the interviewers for their time, no matter how you feel the interview went.
4. Immediately send a concise “thank you” note to each individual you have met with, reiterating your interest and looking forward to a second or third interview or a decision. (This is important because if the position you interviewed for is not the right fit, the company may have another position now or in the future.)

E. Your Goals in Interviewing

1. Get the appointment and confirm it.
2. Meet with the initial interviewer.
3. Sell yourself. See Sell Yourself FABulously.
4. Get past the initial interviewer and meet all decision makers (overcoming any/all objections).
5. Close the interview.
6. Inform them of your desire for an offer.
7. Send a thank you note. See Writing a Thank-you Letter That Sells.

II. How to Overcome Objections

A. Know What Your Negatives Are Before Interviewing—Most Common Employer Concerns/Objections:

1. Short-term employment.
2. Being fired for a job due to poor performance.
3. Leaving a job without notice or without another job or plan for the future.
4. Unexplained gaps in history.
5. Light skills, overqualified, etc. Mismatch for position is perceived.
6. Unprofessional appearance, conduct.
7. Having made or making more money than the job is paying.
8. Poor verbal communication skills.
9. Poor attitude, lack of flexibility.
10. Personality (chemistry) not right or the position or manager.
11. Lack of enthusiasm.

B. Bring Up Potential Objections Before the Interviewer Does

1. Do not leave concerns/objections in the interviewer’s mind.
2. If you don’t bring them up and they don’t verbalize their concerns/objections, know that they will be thinking about them.
3. If asked about a problem, do not back down. Explain in a concise way what happened without going into a lengthy explanation. Long explanations may be viewed as an excuse or give the interviewer more cause for concern.
4. Suggest that the employer do a reference check to clear any concerns. If you have letters of recommendation or copies of performance appraisals, provide them.
5. Ask if there are any questions or concerns regarding your background that you can clarify for them.

III. Five Reasons Why You May Not Get the Job Offer

The psychology behind the interview is important to understand. The employer’s belief system, sense of security and desire for a “solid hire” all count. You may not get the job offer if the employer:

1. Believes you cannot do the job.
2. Believes you are not interested or do not want it.
3. Believes you cannot make a realistic time commitment.
4. Believes that the salary offer would not be acceptable.
5. Believes that the chemistry between you and the manager is not there.

IV. Five Ways to Get the Job Offer

Go in understanding the employer’s fears and needs in hiring someone new and show that you are a solid hire.

1. You can do the job and be specific and definite about why.
2. You are interested in the job and want it. Again, be specific and definite about why.
3. Remain open and negotiable on salary (on application and verbally). Do not commit to a specific figure.
4. Chemistry…it is either there or it is not.

V. Once You Have the Offer, What Are Your Options?

1. Accept.
2. Reject.
3. Pending. Consequences are:
   1. Time for both parties to think/re-think.
   2. Possibility of losing the offer to someone who will accept right away.
   3. Time to complete another interview—could lose first offer and never get offer from second interview.
   4. Puts concerns in employer’s mind of lack of interest. If minimal amount of time occurs, pending could be reassurance to both employer and you.

VI. Multiple Offers & Problems of Timing

1. If two or more offers come at the same time, put offers into concrete terms.
2. If two or more offers come at different times, weigh through your options.
3. Go back to the basics. Remember what your original priorities were.
4. Only you should make the decision.

VII. Conclusion

Looking for a job is time consuming and can be either exhilarating or draining. During this time, try to keep a level head and clearly review what is important to you as your priorities can change based on a number of factors (length of job search, more knowledge about the field you are searching within, etc.) Each time you go on an interview, you are getting experience in viewing various organizations, people and jobs. This will help you make a sound decision.

Remember to be as upfront and honest as you can be. Employers want to fill the position with the right person, and you may be it.

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What Employers Really Want to Know

Employers seek to predict a candidate’s potential. The skills of the candidate’s past experience and education help to predict future performance in the position. After the employer has chosen the top 10 resumes from hundreds that were submitted for the job, the employer looks at these key areas:

1. Can this person do the job?
2. Is there a fit both for the job and for the organization?
3. How does he/she relate to people?
4. What kind of person is the applicant? A leader? A follower?
5. What strengths does he/she have that we need?
6. Why the number of job changes so far? Or lack of changes?
7. Where is he/she weak?
8. How has the applicant contributed to other companies?
9. What are his/her ambitions? Are they realistic?
10. What is this person’s standard of values?
11. Does he/she have growth potential?
12. What is the nature of the “chemistry” between this applicant and our company?
13. What will the department manager think of this applicant compared to other applicants?

How You Can Prepare

Questions Commonly Asked by Employers

Most of us make two mistakes when we are being questioned in an interview. First, we fail to listen to the question. We proceed to answer a question that was not asked or to give out a lot of superfluous information. Second, we attempt to answer questions without preparation. Not even the most skilled debater can answer questions off the cuff without damaging his or her chances of success. Bottom line…BE PREPARED!

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What is your greatest strength?
3. What is your biggest weakness?
4. What are you looking for in a position?
5. What do you know about our company?
6. Why do you want to work for us?
7. Why do you want to work in this industry?
8. Why do you want sales?
9. What motivates you?
10. Why should we hire you? What sets you apart from others?
11. What qualities do you think a top sales representative possesses?
12. Why are you leaving your current company? Past companies?
13. Where else are you interviewing?
14. What is your biggest achievement?
15. What is your biggest failure? What did you learn from it?
16. Why did you select your college or university?
17. What motivated you to choose your major?
18. What are your goals over the next 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?
19. What do you see yourself doing in 5 years? What position do you see yourself in?
20. How much money do you want to make this year? 3 years? 5 years?
21. In your current or past positions, what features did you like the most? Least?
22. What would be your ideal job?
23. If you had your choice of companies, where would you go?
24. How do you define success?
25. What do you think it takes to be successful in our company?
26. How do you spend your spare time?
27. What books have you read recently?
28. Will you relocate? Does relocation bother you?
29. Do you have a problem with commuting to work?
30. How do you think those that know you describe you?
31. Give an example of a time you had a conflict with a co-worker and how you handled it.
32. Did you ever work for a manager you didn’t care for? What did you do about it?
33. Describe the relationship that should exist between a supervisor and sub-ordinates.
34. Give me a specific example of a time when you dealt with a disgruntled customer.
35. Tell me about an important goal you set for yourself in the past and how you achieved it.
36. Give me an example of a particular difficult time you had to be persuasive in order to get your ideas across.
37. Tell me about a time when you worked really hard for something over a period of time and did not get it?

Four Objectives

Michael Neece, president of Interview Mastery, suggests you have four objectives in a job interview:

1. Prove you meet the job’s requirements. You must make a case that you have the skills to do the job, including soft or “hidden” requirements such as an ability to learn new information quickly. You must do this for each individual interviewer; find out what’s important to him or her.
2. Communicate clearly. Get your key messages across. Confirm you’re understood accurately.
3. Build rapport. Get your interviewer to recognize you as an “ABC Company type of person.” It’s as simple as getting him or her to like you, and as complex as expressing your values in the context of the company culture. Rapport arises from those subtle clues, as well as from your demeanor.
4. Gather feedback. Get specific feedback from each interviewer at the close of each meeting with questions like, “What strengths do you feel I bring to this position?” or, “What concerns do you have about my background?” You won’t get feedback unless you ask in a professional manner.

Other Things to Keep in Mind

Not surprisingly, employers really like it when you listen. Not only listen, but also clarify the information back as to what you heard. Such as, “Just so I understand, you’re looking for someone with 3 or more years of sales experience. How do you see this experience being best applied to this role?”

Back up your statements with related, specific information. Instead of saying, “I do that all the time…so often in fact, I can’t think of a specific example,” quantify your statement with a story of achievement that outlines the situation, what you did, and what happened.

Convey your most important message. Answering questions with continual affirmation of your most important skills and abilities in relation to the employer’s desired skill set will reinforce your ability to meet the key aspects of the job. For example, if a salesperson’s message is “I regularly develop new business,” then he or she will want to mention “growing sales or developing business” several times during the interview.