OVERVIEW

There are five types of interviews you need to focus on. They are:

1. Screening (FIRST),
2. Call-Back (s)
3. Telephone Interviews
4. Behavioral Interviews
5. Problem Solving Interviews.

The interview process is analogous to a sporting event where you have to qualify to reach the finals. You have to pass the Screening Interview to be eligible for further contention in Call-Back Interviews.

It should be emphasized that interviews are precious commodities and each one needs to be treated accordingly. In a typical job campaign, an interviewee receives only a few interviews.

TIP  There is a human tendency to letup on the preparation that got you to a Call-Back status. What is required to prevent a letup is additional, in-depth, homework and keeping interviewing skills honed sharp through continued practice.

SCREENING INTERVIEWS

A screening interview is used to determine if you are skills qualified and to preliminarily determine if you are their kind of person, the cultural/chemistry question.

CALL BACK INTERVIEWS

A valid assumption to remember is that a Call-Back (s) Interview means continuing interest in your candidacy. The number of times a candidate is called back is variable. It's most often one or two times. Each return signals continued interest in your candidacy. The process ends with either a job offer or a rejection.

TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS

The importance of being proficient in handling Telephone Interviews has the potential for earning  a ticket to a Screening Interview through your telephone answers to interviewer screening questions. Employers will seek additional or clarification information prior to extending an interview invitation. The following are preparation guides for telephone interviews:

Develop a Telephone Script that is conveniently available (car, briefcase, next to phones). You never know when the call is coming and from who. A telephone interview is an opportunity to gather valuable information for a potential interview and to sell your candidacy. Ask the screener about the position i.e. position requirements, reporting relationships, functions, and career paths.

You will probably be asked what your current earnings are. Sidestep the question by asking the screener what the salary ranges are for the position. If acceptable to you, state " I can live within the salary range.

Before the interview ends, and you have determined the position is of interest, express your interest and ask the interviewer what the next step is.?

TELEPHONE SCRIPT INFORMATION

Keep your Script to one page and attach a copy of your resume.

The following is the information to include in your Script:

Brand Statement Job Objective Story Index Experience/Accomplishment Summary

 

BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEWS

A growing trend in corporate interviewing is Behavioral Interviewing (BI). The premise behind BI is that it represents the most accurate predictor of future candidate behavior, past performance patterns and experiences. Employers using Behavioral Interviewing believe it provides more objective information to make better hiring process decisions.

Interviewees need to learn how- to excel in Behavioral Interviews. Careful preparation is a must! What is principally involved is proficiently answering an interviewer's probing behavioral questions using the SAR answering technique. Desired behaviors are an indicator of success in the position. Answer examples can come from full time jobs, life experiences, volunteer activities and educational experiences. Negative experiences that turned out favorably can also be used.

Every answer to a Behavioral Interview question needs to be accompanied by a Story that supports the answer with detailed, concrete, evidence examples, in a story format, that is tailored to past behaviors and experiences.

TIP Answer detail contributes to claim believability

B.I. ANSWER CONTENT GUIDE

S.A.R.  (Situation, Action,Results)
S. Briefly describe the situation.
A. What actions did you take?
R. What were the quantified results achieved?

B.I. QUESTION EXAMPLES

1. Describe a challenging work situation and how you handled it.
2. Tell me about a time you tried and failed
3. Give me an example when you showed initiative

TIP  Behavioral questions start with such lead ins as give me, tell me, describe, what, how would, how well, and they are most often open-ended.

PROBLEM SOLVING INTERVIEWS

A second interviewing trend that has emerged is the use of Problem Solving Interviewing, a style that focuses on interviewee problem solving competencies as its major objective. The style is used mostly by technology based companies in Silicon Valley, Seattle, Boston and other technology concentrated areas. Problem solving questions can be real or hypothetical.

PROBLEM SOLVING QUESTION EXAMPLES

How many quarters on end would it take to reach the top of the Empire State Building which is 1076 feet in height?

Why does a tennis ball have fuzz?

PHASE	COMMENTS	ACTION STEPS
ARRIVAL	Ensure being on time (15 min. early).Listen, observe corp. culture and gather info. and impressions	Prelim. Assess. of corp. culture
1ST IMPRESSION	Greeting, handshake, appearance, smile, posture, small talk	Effectively implement.
BODY	Answer questions, sell candidacy, communicate Brand, listen, ask questions, utilize stories as evidence for claims. Show enthusiasm and interest	Answer questions effectively
CLOSE	Anticipate close,. express interest. communicate Brand	Summary sell, Clarify next step

As an interviewee you need to approach each interview with a mindset of winning the interview. The following are guides for establishing a winning mindset:

 

INTERVIEW MINDSETS

1, Start with acknowledgement that there is interest in your candidacy or you wouldn't have received the invitation to the interview

2. Get psyched prior to each interview. Tell yourself you are going to beat your competition and win the job offer. Give each interview your best performance. Visit the TOOLBOX  three days before the interview and tidy up any overlooked preparation tasks.

3. Often interviewees go into interviews with a wait and see if I'm interested attitude, WRONG! Interest is one of the key factors interviewers look for, and needs to be communicated from the get-go.

4. Don't allow the interview to become a one-sided interrogation. Be assertive , but not overly so. Achieve balance by asking the interviewer researched questions and through effective implementation of the Answering Mechanics. Remember the interviewer is in control, but it is O.K. for you to be proactive to insure the strengths of your candidacy get communicated.

TIP You can always turn down a job offer. The interview strategy objective is to get the job offer. Outstanding interviewing performance can convince employers that you are their kind of person, even if you are not their number one choice. When this is the case, employers will often invite you to interview for other position openings.

INTRODUCTION

The WEB is an excellent resource for researching Interview Homework information about a company's products, services, structure, hiring managers, revenues, financial status, market share, people, reputation, industry, image, goals, problems, the job, and other pertinent information. Prior to every scheduled interview, interviewees must perform homework on the company to be interviewed.

TIP A common complaint by interviewers is that interviewees frequently come to interviews will little or no information about the company. Interviewees who do their homework gain a competitive advantage.

WEB SITES

The following are recommended WEB sites to find company Home Pages, Industry Information, News Articles, and Associations in order to prepare for a scheduled First (Screening) Interview and subsequent interviews where you will want to know more about the company.

COMPANY SITES:

INSTRUCTIONS

Initiate your research by visiting the company's home page. If you can't locate it, try Yahoo, Google, Dogpile, Hoovers Online, Whois.net ,or call the employer where you'll be interviewing and ask for the domain address. If you are trying to locate a private company, use PublicRecordDatabases.com and Business.com.

When you have located the home page, capture the following information to use for your First Interview, frequently referred to as the Screening Interview. The researched information can also be used for call-back interviews. Next, go to the sites listed below and capture industry information and news articles.

• Major Products/Services
• What principal business are they in?
• New Products
• Identify new product introductions and their potential implications.
• Most Recent Financials
• Review the past quarter and past years financial results
• Organization Overview
• Develop a mental blueprint of the various divisions/business the company is engaged in.
• Annual Report (if available)
• Some sites will offer the capability to download their annual report or , how to subscribe to an off-line version. An alternative source for annual reports is major brokerage houses.
• News Releases
• Being aware of recent news releases communicates positive interest in the company and a source for interviewer questions. Articles can be found at the following sites:

NEWS SITES:

BIZJOURNALS.COM NEWSALERT.COM GOOGLENEWS.COM FINANCE.YAHOO.COM FORBES PEOPLE TRACKER.COM

NEWSPAPERLINKS.COM NEWSLINK.COM DOGPILE.COM NEWSDIRECTORY.COM

INDUSTRY SITES:

It is important to bring to an interview knowledge of the principal industry the interviewing company is engaged in. The following are sites to capture industry information:

YAHOOINDUSTRYNEWS.COM CORPORATEINFORMATION.COM MAGPORTA.COM FINDARTICLES.COM

ASSOCIATION SITES:

Associations can also provide valuable homework information. Sites to visit are:

YAHOOINDUSTRYNEWS.COM CORPORATEINFORMATION.COM MAGPORTAL.COM FINDARTICLES.COM

Company, industry and news information gained from researching, can be used as the basis for formulating and asking interviewer questions. In a typical interview, interviewers will ask interviewees if they have any questions. Three very likely asked interview questions are: 1."What do you know about our company?,  2."What do you know about our industry? and 3. "Why do you want to join our company?

INSTRUCTIONS

Review the information you recorded from visiting the recommended Web Sites and utilize it as a source for formulating questions for interviewers.

• Formulate six questions. There won't be time to ask more questions.
• Make your questions intelligent, provocative and demonstrative that you have done your homework and are interested in the opportunity.
• It's O.K. to have your questions on a 3x5 card or sheet of paper.
• If the interview is closing down, and you have not had the opportunity to ask questions, be assertive and tell the interviewer you have a few questions you would like answered.

INTERVIEWER QUESTION EXAMPLES

• I noticed a downturn in earnings last quarter. Would you comment on that?
• Your company's market share has slipped (increased) this past year. What are the implications?
• Who does the position report to?
• What is the importance of the work?
• The new product (s) introduced recently, look promising. How are they doing?
• I read an article that talked about competition in your industry. Could you comment on that?
• What visibility does the position have to decision makers?
• Where do you see the company going in the short term future?
• Who has filled the current position and has happened to him/her?

DON'T ASK QUESTIONS

Don't ask the interviewer any questions about salary and benefits until the situation is an offer stage.

1. BROKERAGE HOUSES
   Stock Brokerage Facilities contain a wealth of information that is beneficial to interview preparation. Annual reports, company profiles, financial information represent information available for the asking.
    
2. LIBRARIES
   Major public and university libraries are excellent resources for company information. Ask the Research Librarian for guidance.
    
3. NETWORK CONTACTS
   If you can identify individuals who have a current or prior connection with the company to be interviewed with, they can provide valuable insight for a forth-coming interview.

If you have passed the Screening Interview and received an invitation for a call-back interview (s), you need to perform additional research and formulate new questions. Use the Screening Interview researched information as a preparation source for call-back interviewers, but go into more depth. Again, formulate questions for interviewers that communicate interest in the position and the company and demonstrate you have done your research.

Follow-up to an interview is a "MUST TASK. The task requires two actions: 1. An email or follow-up letter needs to be sent to everyone you interviewed with. See INTERVIEW REMINDERS in the TOOLBOX for format guides. 2. Follow through with an email or phone call with the point you should have made in your interview close i.e. "I'll keep in touch with you to determine the progress of your search.

TIP Aggressive follow-up may seem like an over kill. It's not! Keep in mind there are multiple candidates in a search process with your candidacy being one of them. Status inquiries also communicate interest.