Ask
any hiring authority the two most traumatic moments
in their professional career. They will say hiring
and firing. Ask any candidate the two most traumatic
moments in their professional career and they will
tell you the same: being hired or being fired. Therefore,
with the interview, you are entering one of the two
most traumatic moments for both sides. Is there any
wonder therefore why we have confrontations instead
of conversations. What is it that causes this trauma?
Is it the fear of the unexpected? Will the hiring authority
make a mistake in hiring? Is the candidate going to
make a mistake taking a job he or she should not take?
All of these fears are very present and it is only
because both sides are totally unprepared for the interview.
Therefore the axiom: it's not the most qualified candidate
that gets an offer, but the one best prepared for the
interview.
Too
many people know that a job is available. To actually
get the job you may have no idea how much you need
to know about the company before you interview. For
example, you should know the organizational structure
of the company, how you will fit in, and what the work
will be. To have really done your homework would be
to determine what are the functions, the disciplines,
the structure, who will report to whom, and even the
personalities of some of the managers. Then, if you
are asked, "how do you expect the reporting process
to be?"
you will have an appropriate answer and you will be able
to communicate what you have done in the past and how
it would now relate to the new job. This is one of as
many as 64 questions that you will want to anticipate
in the interview process.
You
need to write down many, many questions that might
be asked during the course of the interview. A qualified
job counselor should be able to supply you with a full
list of questions and may even be able to give you
the training that a headhunter receives when filling
a job order. You will need to prepare extensively to
succeed in your interviews.
Being
able to respond articulately to any question is not
an accident. It requires practice. It is much like
learning a script. Unless each of these questions is
firmly implanted in a your mind, and the correct response
to these questions is also firmly implanted, then you
are going into an interview totally unprepared. You
must be prepared to answer any question that is asked
of you. You can't say, "Oh, I will do what you
do." You've got to further determine under normal
circumstances what is the process that you will follow.
In
order to answer a question correctly, you must also
understand what is really being asked. If you don't
know, ask the interviewer to clarify what he or she
means. It is said that a New Yorker responds to a question
with a question. Well, in this case I now encourage
you to become a New Yorker. The oldest maxim in the
world is that you are there to sell yourself. Obviously
you must be able to sell what the buyer is buying.
If you do not know what the buyer is buying, you need
to actually determine what they are really looking
for, or you will never get the job.
Action
point: Practice your responses to questions.
Have in front of you a minimum of 100 questions that
might be asked during your interview. Practice your
responses. The point is to become totally fluent.
At the moment the fluency ends, so does the interview.
How do you get fluent? Practice, practice, practice.
It is refreshing to know that you can actually prepare
for an interview in a way that will get you the job.
Phil
Ross is the "Dr. Phil" of the employment
industry, according to Paul Hawkinson, publisher of
the nationally acclaimed Fordyce Letter. He is a leader
in the employment industry. He offers seminars to job
seekers throughout the U.S., Canada, and the world.
Phil trains hiring authorities within corporations.
He has trained thousands of outplacement professionals
and is considered the headhunters' headhunter.
The PROS® Seminars, Interview With Confidence
Houston: http://www.professionalcareeradvantage.com/
Email: theprosseminars@msn.com,
281 293 PROS (7767), 866 665 PROS (7767) Represented
by Anurad Coaching, P. O. Box 2236, 50 S. Cromwell,
Fairfield, Iowa 52556; (641) 472 9920 or (641) 472
7066; Fax: (641) 472 2086; Princeton, New Jersey: (609)
716 4761 www.anuradcoaching.com
