Excellent Tips for 2007 Part 2
Monster’s Contributing Writer, Carole Martin has 10 Tips to Boost Your Interview IQ. Take a look and see what you think. She began by discussing the need for preparation. I absolutely believe that if you "Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail". Take a look at more tips. I have added my two cents as a coaching tip. Enjoy!
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4. Don’t Talk Too Much
Telling the interviewer more than he needs to know could be a fatal mistake. When you have not prepared ahead of time, you may tend to ramble, sometimes talking yourself right out of the job. Prepare for the interview by reading through the job posting, matching your skills with the position’s requirements and relating only that information.
Coaching Tip: This is an excellent tip! It is critical that you have a plan, a strategy before walking into an interview. If you walk in and wing it, you have wasted your time and their time. PREPARATION is one of the keys to a successful job search. Not only should you read the job posting prior to the interview, I recommend that you anticipate and prepare for the questions you may be asked. For example, if the job posting says, "Strong organizational skills." You must anticipate that at least two or more questions will be asked about the strength of your organizational skills. What specific examples can you share that will clearly communicate your strength in this area? How many examples can you prepare ahead of time? If the job posting says "Strong organizational skills", you better be ready to discuss this skill.
5. Don’t Be Too Familiar
The interview is a professional meeting to talk business. This is not about making a new friend. Your level of familiarity should mimic the interviewer’s demeanor. It is important to bring energy and enthusiasm to the interview and to ask questions, but do not overstep your place as a candidate looking for a job.
Coaching Tip: What a great time for me to share my "Dave Parke" story! Years ago after leaving AT&T Universal Card on a management buyout. I ended up working for another company during a startup operation. I had about one and half years of operations management experience at that time. I was hired as a Supervisor. It was a VERY fast-paced growing operation with plenty of opportunities for advancement. Approximately 5 weeks into the job, I was promoted to an Operations Manager. How in the world did that happen, you may ask?
Well, Dave Parke was the Operations Director who hired me as a Supervisor. One day when he was walking by my team, I heard him sigh under his breath in frustration. I decided to say something silly in hopes of just giving him a moment of levity and a break from the never ending challenges he faced in this start-up. I had a thought in my mind that started to come out of my mouth. "If you hired me as an Operations Manager, I could take care of some of the issues you are dealing with…" I didn’t say it, but somehow I telegraphed my thought. I stopped mid-sentence. I got as far as "If you.." He said, " You were going to say, "If I hired you…" I was caught. And I laughed and said your right that was what I was thinking. He said, "meet me in my office tomorrow at 2:00 and let’s talk about it." He also said, "This is not an interview. Let’s just talk, and see what happens." Just like that, I had an interview for a job, I already knew I could do and so did Dave.
Here’s the point, "It is always and interview" if you want the job. Dave and I enjoyed each other as colleagues (technically I was a subordinate, but I was VERY good at my job and that helped to have an excellent working relationship with my bosses boss). Again, it is always an interview, even when they say it isn’t. I went home that night and I prepared for an interview. I wanted the promotion and I was not going to allow my great relationship with my bosses boss to get in the way of me communicating my value, my strengths, my skills, my abilities that would make me an excellent choice to become his next Operations Manger. Dave may never have thought it was an interview, but it was to me and I got the job. And that job led to more promotions and more opportunities and so on.
If you are too familiar, you will miss the mark. You’ll have a great relationship with "your bosses boss" but someone else will get the job.
(By the way my Sales team was the top sales team at the time of my promotion. The team remained the top selling team until my predecessor was promoted and went on to do great things. I coached him and groomed him to take the Supervisor position. I also coached him when he was ready to interview for a more senior position in the organization, which he subsequently received.)
More tomorrow!
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POSTED IN: Coach's Cornor, Preparation & Planning, The Interview
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