Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

 

|

SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEWING

It starts simply enough. A warm greeting. A passing comment about the weather. A light-hearted remark about a local sports team. Your resume is on the desk between you and the employer. She glances down at it and then back up to you. Her brow has a more serious cast now, “Well,” she says, “why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself?”  Her gaze stays fixed. The interview has officially begun. It’s your turn.

“I attended St. Mary’s University and graduated with a degree in Business Administration. I’m very interested in retail management, having worked part-time as a sales clerk over the past two years. Your company is a leader in retailing and I’d really like the opportunity to prove myself.”

Positive. Eager. Safe. You check out the employer’s reaction. A polite nod and a pleasant smile. You congratulate yourself on the fine start, thinking, “Fire away. I’m hot.”

But are you?

Probably not. Chances are good that the employer’s agreeable manner is only a professional veil to hide her true feeling, boredom. Why is she bored? A better question: Why shouldn’t she be? After all, all you did was recite the most skimpy, superficial, and obvious facts about yourself. Moreover, she already knew them from your resume. Making matters worse, you gave her your version of the same worn-out answer that she’s heard in almost every interview she’s ever conducted. Far from excited, she’s pigeonholed you early. You are predictable, commonplace, run-of-the-mill. You are like everyone else. That’s not good enough. The employer is looking for someone exceptional. For all practical purposes, the interview has concluded. It will drag on for another twenty minutes or so, but don’t kid yourself – it’s over.

You didn’t have to make this mistake. Behavioural science has given us legions of studies of the interview process. Boiled down, these studies have produced three documented-to-death findings.
 

• Interviews count. To the degree that the interviewer will influence the hiring decision, he makes up his mind during the interview. He decides then that he either wants to hire you or he doesn’t. Probably, this won’t get communicated to you during the interview, but the decision is real and it’s firm.

• The decision gets made early in the interview. Researchers differ on just how early – some say in the first minute or two, some stretch it to the first five minutes – but all agree the die is cast in the beginning. And it’s difficult to reverse the interviewer’s first impressions. If you get off to a good start, you can stumble later and be forgiven. The interviewer will stick to his earlier judgement. He knows you are wonderful. It works the other way, too. If you start poorly, it doesn’t matter that you come on like gangbusters at the end of the interview. A poor start can doom the candidate.

 

• The driving force behind the interviewer’s assessment is a subjective perception of your personality and capabilities.

Here’s a list of words drawn from studies which asked employers why they selected certain candidates over others:

• oral communications               ·    motivation
• initiative                                  ·    assertiveness
• enthusiasm                              ·    confidence
• drive                                        ·    energy

Another study ranked the top selection factors as communication skills and impression of personality. Different studies use different language, but considered collectively, they all reach the same generalized conclusion. It’s critical that you communicate to the employer that you are confident. Employers don’t want to hire people who feel that they might be able to do the job. They are looking for the sure thing.

 

Web careerxpert.com