Interviewing Tips

Can you answer YES to these “8″ interview questions?

by Larry Goldsmith on July 19, 2010

By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.

  1. Do you discuss company products and services with confidence and insight?
  2. Do you give examples that support you have the knowledge, skills & abilities the company seeks?
  3. Do you tell anecdotes that demonstrate you can hit the ground running?
  4. Do you reinforce with examples that you have a shorter learning curve?
  5. Do you expand your potential by establishing added value on topics not discussed in the interview?
  6. Do you have a personality that fits the existing business culture?
  7. Do you express passion and enthusiasm for the company and the opportunity?
  8. Do you ask for the position?

The most difficult interview question is the one that you do not practice before you sit down in the interview chair. The key to successful interviewing is to know what you are going to say before you go to the interview.  Identify your most challenging questions.  Work out a good response.  Practice.  Test your response with someone.  Your success in interviewing will go up if you identify interview barriers and issues prior to the interview.

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Will an Employer Recognize Your Value When You Can’t?

by Larry Goldsmith on May 1, 2010

By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.

[This week's lecture was Interviewing.  Students were instructed to respond to their most difficult interview question.  I share this encounter because it reflects the plight of many a job seeker.]

I think my most difficult interview question will be….

Several answers came across as long balls knocked right out of the park.  Still many responses to this question missed the target.  Focus was off.  Responses too literal.  Souls were bared leaving themselves completely unconnected to the position being sought [Tell me about yourself].    Responses were self-absorbing from a personal view not linked to company needs.  Probably the candidate put themselves in a hole from the opening question.  Their response may have resulted in being dropped from the selection process right away.
Do not give the employer reasons to eliminate you.  The employer obviously saw something of value if you are being interviewed.  Everybody has skills, value and talent.  It may be paid – it may not.  You might have been a volunteer.  You might be a stay at home parent.  Successful Interviewing is being able to demonstrate you can do the job.  Interviewing is a good time to forget what you what from the employer.  Huge salary, health benefits, vacation, paid schooling – it matters not.  Who cares? Not the employer. What you want makes no difference unless you are offered the position.  My suggestion is to find the nearest wastebasket and dump into it everything that you seek from an employer.  An effective interview is being able to focus on employers’ needs and demonstrate how you can fix the hole they are trying to plug.  you must be demonstrate you can hit the ground quickly.  Only when they offer you the position should you pull all of your wants from the wastebasket in order to state what you seek.  The time to negotiate is when you are offered the position.  What you want prior is irrelevant.
Success at an interview comes quickest when you provide clear examples to support your initial responses to the interview questions.  Job seekers who respond to an interview question by stating only “yes” will not be remembered as well as the candidate who states, ”Yes. At my last position I saved the company from having to reprint a 5,000 unit clerical error.”  Or, “Yes, for the past three years, I handled the annual awards banquet which served 1,500 attendees flawlessly. I was the volunteer coordinator of the program.”  It is responses like this that move you up at the interview.
Do not go into an interview without being aware of which skills are being sought.  Visualize the position.  Recognize how you fit.  You may not have worked as a cashier (or an analyst) but you certainly have errorless math skills and can make change without errors, or maybe your logic is unique and insightful and you have a unique ability to analyze and reason reaching decisive conclusions.  Another example is you may not have worked in an office however you are great on a computer, skilled on several software applications and am particularly good working with difficult people.  See?  There are lots of abilities, skills and talents you may possess.  Think about it for a minute. Can you speak and write well (Communication skills)? Did you enjoy digging deep into your assignments (research skills)?

How will an employer recognize your value if you cannot?  Your key to achieving interviewing success is to identify what you offer an employer and be able to match or connect those values conclusively to the position you seek.  In short, it is not always the candidate with the best talent that is selected but rather the individual that communicates their skills the most effectively.

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Is Your Focus Only on ‘Swinging’ for the Fence?

by Larry Goldsmith on September 26, 2009

By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.

A client expressed concern that they felt their search had lost its momentum.   They were hesitant where or how to further their job search.  I suggested they forget for a moment about looking forward and go back to their foundation; review some basics.

You know it is not always about trying to hit a home run.  Keep in mind that it is the little details which make us successful.  It is covering all the bases.  For example successful athletes don’t always swing for the fence or make every toss a 60 yarder into the end zone.  Instead they work at doing the little things right.

For example. a good baseball player will work on their stance, perfect their swing by keeping the shoulders level, maintain eye contact with the ball.  They worry about their feet, their grip and their attitude.  Imagine that one of the premier baseball pitchers of our time, Johan Santana of the New York Mets is pitching.  He is standing up against one of the greatest hitters of our era, New York Yankees Alex ‘A-Rod’ Rodriguez.  We have a match of heroic portion.  There is Santana on the mound, thinking how is he going to pitch A-Rod?   What is his strategy to keep A-Rod off-balance?  He thinks, does he throw outside the strike zone, change speeds, vary pitch location, change velocity or alter his grip and the break on the ball?  How does he keep A-Rod guessing, keep him off balance?  What did his pitching chart say?

60 feet away is A-Rod.  He watches Santana leans from the pitcher’s mound.  Do I use my power stroke, contact swing?  Will I be able to get my muscles into it and swing for the fence, he says to himself?  Timing the pitch is my key.  What’s coming, three balls is the count, advantage me.  It will probably be down low in the strike zone.  I have to gauge the speed.  Do I try to hit a fly so the runner can tag up? Can I do a hit and run?  Maybe I will get a good pitch to hit to the opposite field.  Maybe get behind it and hit it to the right side.

These are two all stars at the top of their game.  They are there because they did not leave their careers to chance.  They understand to be successful they need to understand not only themselves but how the competition thinks too.  Over time both Santana and A-Rod learned to play to their strengths and their opponents’ weaknesses.  They have refined not only their ‘hard skills’ of swinging and throwing but also the soft skills that attempt to explain and predict, trying to be objective and see things not only through their perspective but also the eyes of the competitor.

Same stands true for your successful job search.  Do the little things right.  Write a perfect Résumé.  Fine tune your cover letter.  Work on your voicemail message.  Prepare a telephone closing before you pick up the telephone.  In many cases, the job search is won or lost before the first résumé is distributed, the first phone call is made, attend your first interview or negotiate that first contact.  In other words, it is doing all the little things correct.  Be brilliant with the fundamentals.

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