Interview Critical In Landing A Job

First of two parts

Melinda had spent months on her job quest: researching industries, mailing resumes and following up skillfully to reach the right people. She got the interview she wanted and exhaled.

Huge mistake. Our mythical job seeker let up just when she’d reached the most critical stage: the interview.

With plenty of applicants out there, a candidate who doesn’t prepare well for the interview is practicing personal sabotage. It’s a too-common mistake, say career consultants and behavioral specialists.

Employers are armed with clever ways to extract information and many still ask illegal questions. Candidates should protect themselves by recognizing interviewer’s methods, anticipating tough questions and practicing answers. Preparation breeds confidence and stifles anxiety.

“Most people assume you can wing it,” said Paul C. Green, an industrial psychologist and author of the book, “Get Hired! Winning Strategies to Ace the Interview” (Bard, $24.95). “It goes back to what our mothers told us, ‘Just be yourself.’ People think if they’re true to themselves then they’re effectively communicating. But what you have to do is honestly communicate that slice of yourself that’s going to get you the job,” he said.

“You need to give honest, specific examples of times when you’ve performed well, and that takes preparation.”

Green has spent much of his career showing Fortune 100 managers how to use strategic interview skills. But those same employers got so frustrated with ill-prepared candidates, they asked Green to share his knowledge with job seekers.

The interview is the most common tool in employment selection. More than tests or references, the interview can be the clincher because it allows for personal contact between the candidate and the manager. But many managers lack good interviewing skills. “It happens in big companies and small ones,” Green said, “but probably less so in governmental agencies because they’re well-trained on what not to do.”

There are basically two types of interviews: intuitive and structured. An intuitive interviewer has no set agenda, takes few notes and asks questions spontaneously. While that style might feel more comfortable for the prospect, it’s open to subjective judgments. The structured interview is “intrinsically more fair,” Green said, because it gets the same information from all the candidates and leads to more objective decisions, minus much of the politics.

Don’t resist the more regimented style, Green said. If you’re well-prepared, you’ll do fine. You’re also likely to get better questions. If you get stuck with a “gut-feel” interviewer, make a good first impression.

“You want to cooperate with that interviewer as well as you can,” Green said. “Your mission is to make him or her feel good about you and your skills.”

The “killer question” appears so innocent: “So, tell me a little about yourself.” If you’re not prepared for this ice breaker, it can stun you, says Ron Fry, author of “101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions” (Career Press, $9.99).

Fry’s advice: Cram your answer with a brief introduction, your key accomplishments, the main strengths demonstrated by those feats and how all that will be of value to the employer. Bonus points if you add where and how you see yourself developing in the position for which you’re applying. And work some modesty in there.

That should be your most rehearsed speech. But what if the interviewer comes back with this: “Are you still employed at the last firm listed on your resume?”

In the age of mass layoffs, there’s no shame in being out of work, Fry said. He also gives the example of Nick, who bluntly answered, “I was fired.” Nick explained that he and his boss had vastly different work styles, then quickly turned it into a positive by talking about what he had learned from the experience.

The answer to this one can speak volumes about you: “What’s the last book you read?”

“Right or wrong, many interviewers seem to think that people who read nonfiction are more interested in the world about them than fiction readers, who they may believe are looking for an escape,” Fry writes.

Pass on the latest thriller, and mention a book that shows your interest in self-improvement, such as “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” (Fireside, $12).

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