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INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES
WITH ACTION ENGLISH
Table of Content
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Introduction
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Before the Interview
Is this the right job for you?
Find out more about the company
What should my application letter do?
What is the role of "references"?
Prepare a list of questions
Anticipate Questions
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During the Interview
Listen Carefully and Talk Articulately
Do Not Pretend You Know Everything
Ask Your Prepared Questions
Be Attentive To Your Non-Verbal Communications
Observe How Your Interviewers Interact Among themselves
You Are A Contributor To The Company
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After the Interview
Write a Thank-you Note
When will the company contact my references?
What can happen during such reference contacts?
Introduction
Interviewing for a job can be many things to many people. It can be a nerve-wracking experience to the novice, especially to those who are not entirely sure what they want to do with the job or their career. It can also be a very pleasant experience because job interview represents an important first step for the motivated individuals in forging a potentially long-lasting professional relationship with their prospective employers and institutions.
In the remainder of this column, I will address some of the key issues in three important stages, that is, before, during, and after your job interview.
Please note that you should relate what I am sharing with you in this column to what Brian and Lisa are chatting about in their TV conversation and what Christina has prepared for you about some of the English expressions you may use during your interview. If you pay close attention, you will see a lot of connections among what we all are saying about this subject.
Before the Interview
The followings are some issues you should be concerned with before your job interview or even before you send in your application.
< Is this the right job for you? >
This is a question much bigger and more complex than it seems. Indeed, another version of this question is, and as Brian said in his chat with Lisa in our second TV program: What is your career goal? Of course, this is a question only you and you alone can answer. But I have a few ideas to help you think through this issue.
First, on the more immediate level, ask yourself if you can do this job competently. Then ask yourself what else you can bring to this position in addition to the basic job descriptions. This is an important question to address because you do not want to be stuck with just this job. You want to be able to grow with and beyond this job. Your future employer will like this prospect too.
Second, make sure you are very honest with yourself. If it is clear that you are not qualified for the job, or the job is not something you will enjoy, do not send in your application. It makes no sense for you to invest your time and energy into something that can make a negative mark on your resume or employment history.
Third, on the more long-term level, ask yourself about the role of this job in your overall career development. How and to what extent will this job or company allow you to acquire the kind of experience or credential necessary for your professional growth or achieving your career goal? Unless you have no choice but to leave your current job in a hurry, always apply for jobs that will take you to the next, higher level in your professional development.
<Find out more about the company>
Once you see the job advertisement (or "ad" in short), find out as much about the company (and the position) and as quickly as you possibly can. Go to the company's website, if it has one. Talk to its current or former employees in similar positions, if such an arrangement can be made. Call and ask the secretary to send you any available information on the company, such as annual report, organizational structure, public relations materials, etc. Find out who will be on the interview team and their brief biography, if it is at all possible. Information like this will help you address some of the issues raised above.
The information you have on the company and the job will also help you better position yourself in your application letter. It will tell you how best you should highlight what strength you have vis-a-vis the job and make a case for why you are the best candidate. This allows you to think and write your letter more thoughtfully and strategically.
< What should my application letter do? >
The key objective of your application letter is to make the all-important first impression on people who decide whom they would invite for interview. Your application letter should clearly indicate the following key points:
(1) your credentials meet the basic job descriptions;
(2) you can bring more than what the position basically requires and you can grow with and beyond the position;
(3) you are a team player and a person they would love to work with; and
(4) you are serious and enthusiastic about this position.
< What is the role of "references"? >
Your prospective employer wants to learn more about you as a prospective employee as much as you want to learn more about the company as your prospective employer.
It is a common practice in the US that prospective employers expect their job candidates to provide them with references. References are people who know the candidates and can provide testimony about the candidates' qualifications and personal characters. References usually are the job applicant's current or former employers and colleagues.
So be very attentive and careful about who you include in your application letter as your references. Ideally, your references should be people of a high standing in your profession or company (such as your supervisor) who really know and can speak on your qualifications as a worker and as a colleague. You may add a couple of co-workers to the list.
At the end of your cover letter, or perhaps on a separate page, clearly identify your references, their (former or current) professional relation to you, and their current positions, as well as their contact information.
Remember this principle: Do not expect your references to say things about you that are not true or, simply, to lie for you. It just will not work. Interviewers call their job candidates' references for HOW the references give their testimony about the candidate as much as WHAT is being said. For example, those of us experienced interviewers can smell trouble if we hear a reference saying good things about a job candidate but saying it in hesitation, such as saying things in an iffy tone of voice.
What is the moral of the above point?
Always be a productive worker and a nice colleague to your supervisors and co-workers. If you are good, you will have plentiful of wonderful references when you need them.
What if you do not want your current employer to know about your intended departure but your supervisor or colleagues in the current job are good references?
In your cover letter, indicate to your readers that you can provide additional references (from your current job) if and when they are seriously interested in offering you the job. Clearly ask them to treat your application confidentially, at least until they are ready to make an initial offer.
I will have more discussion on the issue of references in the section on "After the Interview" (see below).
< Prepare a list of questions >
If you get an interview, my first congratulations!
After your research, you should know better about the company. However, you should also have more questions about the company and the job simply because you cannot possibly find out everything in such a condition and short time frame. Make a list of your questions that will get you answers about the following key issues:
(1) the company's expectations of you vis-a-vis the advertised position;
(2) the resource and support you can get to do your job right and well;
(3) an initial understanding of the position's compensation, as well as the prospect of upward mobility, or incentive system, within the organization;
(4) human relations within the organization; and
(5) add any other questions you might have for the particular job you are applying for.
< Anticipate Questions >
Based on your research, do your best to anticipate what kind of questions your interviewers may ask you during the interview, such as your professional backgrounds, your specific skills for the position, how you work or relate to others, what your expectations of the company are, and so on. Prepare yourself for these questions.
During the Interview
Your application package serves to give your prospective interviewers the all-important first impression. The interview is the process whereby you make an important advance into the hiring process. For this reason, I would like to share with you several ideas.
< Listen Carefully and Talk Articulately >
Most job candidates want or even eager to impress their interviewers. This is understandable. But do not allow this need or your eagerness to rush you into re/action that gives off an impression that you are inattentive to what people say or you act or react without thinking or articulation. Interviewers judge you by how thoughtful and articulate you are in the ways you interact with them and address their questions.
Careful listening gives you better information and helps you understand people's questions more thoroughly. Be patient with yourself in thinking through your response. Speak slowly and clearly. People enjoy speaking with you more if your speech is clear and composed.
< Do Not Pretend You Know Everything >
It is alright if you do not have the answer to any given, specific question. Do not be defensive about the fact that you do not have the answer to any question. No one expects you to know everything. You are better off telling your interviewers that you are not entirely familiar with the issue than saying things unfamiliar to you.
But while you tell to your interviewers that you do not have the answer at the moment, also indicate to them that you are also interested to know ("That's a good question. I have to think about it. May I get back to you on it later?"). This signals a health and mature attitude about your capacity to acknowledge short-term deficiency, to learn, and to grow.
< Ask Your Prepared Questions >
At appropriate moments, you should ask your prepared questions. Listen very carefully and take notes. Do not allow unclear information to pass by because the interview is your best chance to clarify it. Think quietly to see if you need to ask follow-up questions to clarify any given point that is unclear to you.
< Be Attentive To Your Non-Verbal Communications >
Your non-verbal communications, such as how you talk, gesture, or relate to other spatially, speak very loudly about yourself and your state of mind. You want to (at least) appear to your interviewers to be composed, at ease, in control of the situation, attentive, sincere, interested, and socially appropriate. Maintain good eye contact, especially when you are interviewing with Americans, as well as when someone is speaking with you. Oh, if someone on the interview team asks you in the beginning if they can offer you a cup of tea, coffee, or water, get a cup of water. You are going to need it.
<Observe How Your Interviewers Interact Among themselves>
One of the most important things you want to find out about your prospective employer's company is how well or the extent to which co-workers relate among themselves. No matter how desperate you are in getting or needing the job, you certainly do not want to get into a hostile work environment. It is true that your interviewers, themselves co-workers in that workplace, will put up a good face before you; this of course makes it difficult to detect any hostility or tension among them during a relatively short interview. But you still want to pay careful attention to this aspect of the people in the company.
After the Interview
A few things should or may take place after the interview.
< Write a Thank-you Note >
You may or may not feel very positive about the interview, such as your own performance and or what you saw about the people and the company. But regardless of what happened at the interview, it is good form that you write them a note (a short letter) thanking them for taking the time to meet and speak with you. You should at least write such a thank-you note to the chief interviewer. If you know all the names of the other folks, send the a copy (c.c.) each.
Your thank-you letter after the interview serves another extremely important function: You should briefly elaborate or address certain key issues that you think were inadequately addressed at the interview, such as certain aspects of your credential. BUT remember, address only those issues that are truly very important that can ADD to your interview performance and enhance your candidacy. And, address them concisely. A one-page thank-you letter is good enough; do not go beyond two pages.
At the end of the thank-you letter, clearly indicate your heightened interest and confidence in the position because you think YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE to the well-being of the company (well, assuming you really want that job).
< When will the company contact my references? >
Employers in the US usually contact the references when they get serious about particular job candidates, such as when the applicants make it onto the list of finalists. They usually call the references on the phone because it is the most convenient means.
< What can happen during such reference contacts? >
References usually collaborate on the employer's findings about the candidate. After all, it is the job candidate who hand-picks and provides the references to begin with.
But there are surprises once in a while. For example, some references may say unflattering things about the candidate. Or, as I mentioned above, while they say good things about the candidate, they may say them in a way that gives off to the interviewer an element of doubt about how truthful the testimony really is. This is why supervisors routinely ask me to pay attention to the tone of voice and timing in HOW the references give their testimony about our job candidates.
We can never be sure how the interviewer may use less-than-positive reference information because every case is unique in itself. And, no one has absolute control over what his or her references will say and HOW they give their testimony. Life is not perfect. And this is an element of "risk" that we always have to live with in any job application process.
In short, make sure you always do a good job and be a team player and nice colleague with your co-workers and supervisors.
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