Interview Tips from GQ Magazine
The February 2008 issue of GQ has an article by Cecil Donahue that deals with how to interview successfully (no matter which side of the table you happen to call home).
I think it pretty well captured in a couple of pages what you might pay $19.95 for in a much wordier book on the same topic.
In summary, if you’re the one who wants a job, you should:
Know that your success depends on your preparation
Research the company as best you can. Scour its website. Throw yourself before the gods of Google. Check out sites like Hoover’s and Edgar. Join a networking site like LinkedIn.com and see who you know in the target company. Ask your uncle’s neighbor’s best friend’s dog for info.
Research the person conducting the interview
Often easier said than done, since you might not know who will be deciding your fate until you walk in the door. That said, if you do find out who is going to be leading the interview (e.g. the HR person mentions it in a phone call), let the Googling and LinkedIn’ing begin. Your goal is to find common ground, not suck up.
Don’t lie on your resume, dumbass
Enough said.
Unless you can get away with it.
Just kidding, don’t do it, because there’s that12.5% chance that the HR person interviewing you actually understands the topic at hand and will know you are full of crap.
Go in ready to ask questions
Naturally the company is interested in you, hence the questions. If you don’t have questions to ask them, you’re obviously not very interested. Before I actually got into the role of interviewing people, I would have found it hard to believe that an interviewee would not ask questions, but it seems more the rule than the exception.
If you’re not curious about the job, the company, or anything else, I’m not all that curious about what letting you progress further in the interview process would be like (especially if you claim to have no weaknesses in response to another question - I kid you not, I have interviewed multiple people who are apparently perfect in their own mind).
Ask for the job
This is one that a lot of folks miss. They do the phone interview, get invited in for one or more in-person interviews, all goes swimmingly, and then they shake hands and leave with the only next step in their head being to send a bland “thank you” note. It’s like courting a pretty girl for years and forgetting to ask her to marry you.
Look, if things have gone well, ask for the job. Or, at the very least, ask if the employer has any concerns about your capability to suitably perform in the role.
I did this several years ago while interviewing for a job with a certain discount store that people often pronounce as if it were a fancy French word. It was a mid-level position in their Minnesota HQ. I had something on the order of eight interviews over two days. I thought everything had gone well.
At the end, I asked the lead interviewer if he had any doubts about my ability to excel in the position, because I really liked the company, loved what I had seen of the city, and wanted the job as it sounded like a great opportunity.
He said he did not, and then we talked salary.
That, alas, was the end of that, but I did ask for the job. Every time I see a frowning employee in one of their stores, though, I like to think I could have helped prevent that.
Ah well. Their loss. Besides, winter in Minneapolis really sucks, so I hear.
The article continued with tips on how to be an effective interviewer, but I wanted to focus on the job seeker.
I plan to get around to continuing the “how to write a resume” series in the very near future.