Career Management: Interviewing

Best Practice: Prepare
There’s no secret to honing exceptional interview skills: You simply must prepare! Too many otherwise qualified candidates rely on what they perceive as a natural ability to speak well and go into an important interview with limited or even no advance preparation, just planning to “wing it.” Don’t make this mistake. Do your research. Exercise due diligence in learning everything you can about the company, the position, the challenges, and the key players in the process. Use Google, Bing, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo, Dun & Bradstreet, Moody’s, Thomas Register, and Glassdoor (plus numerous other professional social media sites) to mine as much as possible in advance.

Contributed by Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW

Best Practice: Remember the Basics
Keep in mind that solid interview preparation includes an emphasis on the basic-but-fundamentals: confirm where and when you are meeting; double-check travel details and directions, building in extra time for unforeseen delays; ensure interview wardrobe is pristine, hair is freshly cut/styled, and other appearance details are considered; be certain to have sufficient originals of resumes, addenda, and any leave-behinds at the ready. Arrive to your interview location 15–30 minutes early—but don’t present yourself to reception until 5–10 minutes in advance of the interview time.

Contributed by Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW

Best Practice: Practice
Overcome anxiety and make your best impression by role-playing the interview in advance. While it’s ideal to do this with another person (with your career partner asking you the critical questions you’ve prepared), at a minimum, tape-record yourself so that you can really hear your responses and style. You’ll quickly find those areas that might trip you up and need further contemplation. You don’t want to over-prepare or memorize any responses. But getting yourself comfortable with answering a range of questions likely to be included in many interviews is not only smart, it’s expected. Anticipate that most interviews are likely to be behavior-based, that is, you’ll have opportunities to share previous experiences and discuss your role and actions taken (“Tell me about a time when you had insufficient resources for completing a major project with an aggressive deadline.”).

Practice describing hands-on actions you have taken and briefly walking through steps and results. It’s useful to think of this as “storytelling”—and having four or five key stories that demonstrate your top skills is a recommended approach. Also focus on being able to share CAR stories (ideally included on your resume) where you quickly impart key challenges faced, identify actions and initiatives you took, and reveal the results and overall impact on the organization. Endeavor to concisely present your knowledge, skills, and abilities with meaningful, quantified examples that back them up. Attempt to link examples and replies to the opportunity at hand and demonstrate transferability of your skills. Own your resume—a thorough review the night before is always suggested.

Contributed by Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW

Best Practice: Questions to Consider
You can find numerous resources that define “classic interview questions.” Do think about and consider responses to questions regarding aspects of your background that distinguish you from competing candidates, instances when you’ve overcome challenge or turned around a situation, examples of leadership and success, several accomplishments that have provided you with the most satisfaction, qualities you seek in your manager, and reasons why the company should consider you the best candidate. Try not to exceed 90 seconds to two minutes in responding to most questions.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t jump in with an immediate response to every question. It is good to be thoughtful and carefully considered. Seek clarification if you are uncertain about what was asked and/or a question is unusually lengthy and complex. You, of course, want to demonstrate effective listening skills and not find yourself in the position of answering a different question than what was asked. A very useful strategy when truly caught without any idea of a response: Acknowledge that the question is an excellent one, one that you’d like to spend a bit more time considering, and promise to follow up with a detailed response later that day—then do so. Finally, always know that your “ace-in-the-hole” strategy is your follow-up “thank-you” letter. (More in Best Practice #8.)

Contributed by Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW

Best Practice: Collaborate
The best interviews are highly interactive, two-way dialogues where each of you (in a one-on-one scenario) is trying to have the other person do more than 50% of the speaking. Interviewing should be all about collaboration and establishing a solid understanding of employer challenges and needs and candidate strengths and experiences. Ultimately, fit plays a tremendous role in the final decision and this should definitely be considered from your perspective as well as the employer’s. Attempt to glean as much as possible about the culture of the organization. Rarely are hiring decisions made on the basis of only one interview; therefore, it should be a clear objective to move to the next level in the hiring process—and clarify what that process is before the conclusion of the first interview.

Contributed by Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW

Best Practice: The Compensation Quotient
No topic is more fraught with questions for many candidates. If asked about desired salary very early in the interview process, your recommended response would be to better understand the position requirements before discussing compensation. Try to defer a discussion of actual numbers for as long as possible, noting that establishing a solid fit and making a contribution to the organization are more important than the compensation—with the expectation that once these factors have been established, there would be every confidence that agreement regarding fair and reasonable compensation would be reached. There is definitely some truth to the old adage, “S/he who goes first loses” when it comes to being the first one to put a number on the table.

At the appropriate time in the interview process (and, frequently, not until the second or third interview), when numbers are discussed, the goal should be to push the interviewer for an idea of the range being considered for the position. Likewise, at that point in the process, you should be negotiating from the standpoint of a range and not an exact number.

Remember that at the point that compensation is being discussed later in the interview or in subsequent meetings, there is clear interest in your candidacy. Never is your negotiating power greater. Keep in mind all of the perks that will be important to you in the negotiation process. It is always a good practice to include a provision for a 90- or 180-day review that includes a salary reopener.

Contributed by Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW

Best Practice: Prepare Your Questions
Always go into every interview with at least 4–6 carefully planned questions. (Pet peeve of HR folks and hiring managers: Being asked one of those “carefully planned questions” that was already addressed earlier in the interview!) It’s perfectly acceptable to jot these questions on a tablet in the portfolio you bring to an interview and, at the appropriate time (usually toward the end of an interview), refer to those notes.

As with questions you should prepare to answer in the interview, you can also source numerous “ideal” questions to ask at the conclusion of an interview. Consider a few of these as starting points in your own planning:

• What are the company’s long-term plans and goals for this department?
• What particular attributes or skills do you want the selected candidate to possess?
• When I have accomplished the key objectives in this position, where would my next step be?
• What is the most important thing I can do to help within the first 30 days of my employment? 60 days? 90 days?
• What do you value most in the ideal candidate for this position?
• How will my performance be evaluated and my success measured?
• What’s the next step in the candidate selection process?

Contributed by Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW

Best Practice: Follow Through
Immediately after the interview, capture as many of your interview impressions as possible. Pay special attention to any responses that you fumbled and use a paragraph in your thank-you letter to address, clarify, or reinforce key points (“With regard to the question you framed regarding my work on the conversion, I neglected to mention that in addition to …”).

Ensure you collect business cards from everyone with whom you interviewed. E-mail is customary for nearly all thank-you letters, which should be sent within 24 hours of the interview.

If you are working with a recruiter, touch base immediately following the interview for a debriefing.

Contributed by Jan Melnik, MRW, CCM, CPRW