Candidate Services

How to Ace a Job Interview

Job interviews are a tough nut to crack. You have a short period of time to convince total strangers that you're the right candidate for them. Follow the tips below and your interview may end with a job offer.

1) Be Humble No one likes a pompous ass! A recent mistake I've witnessed is trying to exude confidence but instead coming across as a cocky know it all. Be sure to convey your knowledge and experience but don't turn them off by acting as though you're the best thing that's ever happened to your industry.

2) Be Google-Proof The inevitable question always follows an interview, "Has anyone Googled them yet?" Don't share anything online that you wouldn't want a prospective boss to know. I know of several cases where a promising applicant ruined their chances of being hired by details they revealed on their website.

3) Be Honest If you don't know the answer to a question, just say so. If they ask you to rate yourself on certain skills, keep it real. Otherwise they'll probe further and you'll lose credibility once they break through the facade.

4) Know Yourself My boss always asks some variation of the question, "What 5 words best describe you" or "What 5 words would your previous boss use to describe you." Who do you think comes across better, someone who can list off their strengths right away or someone who stares at the wall trying to figure out how to explain who they are? Make sure you can back your up claims, read the next tip for more on this.

5) Always Know Why An answer to a question often leads to another question. If you make a claim about yourself or your skills, make sure you can explain your answer to the interviewer. If you say "Java is the best development language hands down" but can't come up with a reason for your opinion then you're just full of hot air.

6) Share the Love It's important to figure out who the decision maker is in a group interview and sell yourself to them. However, avoid addressing all your answers and face time to them. What if you picked the wrong person? Or what if the boss will only hire based on a consensus from the team? For example, after a recent interview, our boss left it up to the three team leads whether we wanted the candidate.

7) Keep Skeletons in the Closet Beware questions like "Describe your worst job ever" or "Tell me about a bad experience you had with a co-worker or customer and how you handled it." Keep the answer short, to the point, and free of bad mouthing. Rambling on about your former boss or complaining about a previous co-worker puts a negative spin on things and may bring up questions in the minds of your interview panel.

8) Curb Appeal Show off your skills. Provide a link to your web-based portfolio before the interview and make sure you reference it during the interview as well. You'll have a limited amount of face time; give your prospective employer a chance to review what you're capable of both before and after the interview.

9) Go on the Offensive End the interview with questions of your own. In addition to answering your questions it reminds the interviewers that you're a valuable asset who is evaluating them as well. Suddenly they are trying to sell themselves to you, not a bad way to end the interview.

10) Make a Connection Make use of any personal details you pick up on during the interview. As you shake everyone's hand on the way out bring up these tidbits and it will stick in their head. Wish them well with their new baby son Joshua or good luck on their upcoming project. They'll notice your attention to detail and by human nature will appreciate the kind gesture.

There you have it, 10 tips to help you nail the interview for the job you always wanted.

Labels: interview

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Post-Interview "Thank You" Notes: A Ticking Time Bomb
By Frank Risalvato

Nothing can be more frustrating than having an offer withdrawn over misspellings and poor grammar contained in an emailed "Thank You" note that the candidate composed.

It never ceases to amaze me how many stupid mistakes are permitted to be passed on in an email. During the late stages of a search, where every move, motion, word uttered and behavior is being monitored with hawk-like vision by studious executives looking for any reason to validate whether or not they are about to make the right decision … it is imperative that the "Thank You" note be flawless.

I'm talking high clarity, brilliant, 10 carat diamond flawless.

Nothing else will do.

This must be so regardless of the intelligence level, education, or academic pedigree of the job interviewer.

In the "old days" of "classic recruiting," (using my son's terminology for what he calls the music I like to listen to), Thank You notes were often mailed in a letter or short card. Back then I used to tell each and every candidate to call me and recite the entire content they drafted before mailing. Knowing our client's sore points and sensitivities, I could at least prevent most of the damage that occurs when a "Thank You" note backfires instead of accomplishing its intended goal.

This is one step in the recruiting process you as a recruiter can fully control. Completely. Yet few recruiters ever bother to exert their ability over the one phase of search they possess almost complete control over. Why play with fire and leave writing of "Thank You" notes in the hands of those who only interview once every few years?

Since the digital age sprung upon us I have required each and every candidate to submit " … all thank you notes via email for immediate consultation prior to sending or corresponding with any client …" Despite my diligent efforts, some hotheads believe the last thing they need is some dumb recruiter's opinion on a thank you note and send such out to the client directly regardless. I'm glad they did so. The results of their lousy work now becomes subject material for this article which without I'd have nothing to write about this month.

In the past three months alone I learned of three offers that were withdrawn, (they were officially made internally but never extended to the candidate), due to flubs, flaws, goofs, and general lack of attention to English grammar and elementary school sentence structure. In one case the client stated in her email: "I can never hire anyone that careless about their grammar and writing skills. It would be an embarrassment to our region."

This is why our automated packet of instructional information that gets sent to every candidate prior to a send-out instructs them to never email "thank you" notes unless running them by an IRES recruiter first. Here are a few samples of some of the more classic botch jobs that occurred in "thank you" emails causing the interview process to come to a screeching derailment.

Actual "Thank You Note" Excerpts:

1. " …. I look forward to being relieved of the yolk my current position is placing on my career objectives and toward joining your organization …"

Frank: Would you like some toast, bacon or grits with those yolks? May I interest you in some albumen?

2. " … I was most impressed with the principals of your company"

Frank: Not only did you never meet any of the company principals, but you most assuredly never will either. Try "Principle" next time.

3. "…I'm looking forward to the opportunity to demonstrate how I can reign in the department's annual …"

Frank: I'm tempted to finish this by adding 'annual jousting event'. Listen up bud: not sure if this company is quite ready for a monarchy.

I get to see tons of this stuff -- an amount sufficient to write an entire book on the subject of "Thank You Note Etiquette" alone as the main topic. I believe an entire recruiter web-based industry could be enjoyed just from providing 24/7/365 Thank-You-Letter-Proof-Reading services to search firms nationally. If you're interested, let me know I may invest in that idea along with you.

But I digress. The fault does not lie with candidates alone however. Even multi-million dollar recruiters and … dare I say …. national recruiting trainers I have corresponded with have sent me emails that caused me lose respect rather than gain such by the lousy prose and poor thought given to sentence structure and format.

Here is a great web site for starters, which you may point your candidates to before they write anything: www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html This site contains the Top 100 most often Misspelled (that word being one of them) Words. These are real deal killers if used in the wrong context. They are also embarrassing to you, the recruiting firm.

By the way, I do not use www,yourdictionary.com for spelling purposes or definitions. I have found errors within the site itself. The only online dictionary I give credence to is Merriam Webster located at www.m-w.com. Furthermore, Microsoft Word auto spell checking does not help in this category unless you carefully utilize the grammar feature. Technically, none of the words are misspelled; they are simply the wrong word used in the incorrect manner.

As a final suggestion to help you prevent this nasty demon from hijacking your placements, try this:

1. Formulate two or three gleaming thank you notes you know to be perfect and save to a file.

2. The letters should be short, no more than two paragraphs, and use appropriate industry jargon familiar with your discipline

3. Save such in a folder on your hard drive labeled "SAMPLE THANK YOU NOTES"

4. Send them out to candidates either as a template to emulate or work from.

During the decades I've been in this business, I can only recall two well-crafted "Thank You" notes which impressed me so much that I actually added them to our sample thank you note file repertoire which contains 6 of the finest thank you notes ever written by mankind. I send the appropriate sample document out to each candidate (with all original names removed) as the example one should strive toward when crafting a thank you note.

It may be just a "Thank You" note -- but it can be a real deal killer.

Frank G. Risalvato, CPC is president of IRES, Inc. His newly redesigned recruiter training site is updated weekly with loads of original content and is found at www.searchwizardry.com. He has been speaking and providing recruiting training materials to the search profession's trade groups since 1987. His Recruiter Training Guide is available online for electronic download. Contact Frank by phone (973) 300-1010 or email him: frank@searchwizardry.com. Be sure to sign up and be the first for his soon-to-be-released book The Kentucky Fried Secret Recipe to Recruiting Millions®.
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