Top 3 Questions You Should Ask On Your Job Interview

Question MarkInterviewing is a 2-way street. Not only is the interviewer asking you questions to see if you’d be a good hire, you should be doing your own due diligence and asking questions to see if the position is good fit for you. There are a lot of good questions to ask (and you should), depending on the role you’re seeking and what you’ve already found out about the company, but there are three key questions that will help you excel in your job interview.

1. What’s most appealing to you about my background? This is a great question to ask early in the interview because it will enable you to frame your answers accordingly. If the interviewer is interested in your sales skills, you don’t want to be going on and on about your impressive operations expertise. You want to uncover the interviewer’s needs and goals and then tell them how you can help them achieve them.

2. Is there anything that would prevent us from moving forward? For some people, this is a scary question because it may actually prompt the interviewer to express why you’re not a good fit for the position. But, that’s exactly the kind of information the question is designed to illicit. If  you don’t ask this question, you’ll never have the opportunity to address the concern the interviewer has about hiring you. By asking this question, you have the opportunity to address any doubts and ideally, change the interviewer’s opinion.

3. What are the next steps? This question enables you to find out the interviewer’s plans and his or her time table for completing the interviewing and hiring process.

After the interview always write a followup thank you note. Not only is this is another opportunity to market yourself, the followup note gives you a chance to reiterate your interest in the position, to emphasize some key strengths that were important to the interviewer and to rehabilitate any area that you felt you handled poorly in the interview.

If it’s a close contest between you and another candidate (and many are in today’s competitive job market), asking the right questions and sending a well-crafted followup, thank you note can mean the difference between hearing the words “You’re Hired!” and crickets.

~Linda

 

Job Interview Tips With The Frontier Airlines Animals

You’re about to go on a job interview for that perfect position that will really make your career take off. That means you need to prepare. Like most things in life, if you want to be good at something it takes practice. A good way to polish your performance is by role playing with an expert career coach (like me) or learning by example. Take a look at the following Frontier Airlines Animal Auditions, there’s a lot that can be learned from these clever critters including the good, the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD: Polly the Parrot on why she’s on the market, “My pirate died.” Great answer for needing a new job. The answer shows she’s looking due to circumstances beyond her control and therefore it does not reflect poorly on Polly or her job performance. Since the death of an employer is not usually why professionals are on the market, it’s  a good idea to develop a communication strategy and answer to the question of why you’re looking for a new position before going on the interview.

Polly, an expert at mimicry, also bonds well with her interviewers. She takes the mirroring technique to a whole new level. Now while you may want to subtly mirror your interviewer’s body language, the way they act and the way they sound to create an unconscious bond, the key word is to be subtle and mirror as opposed to mimic. While Griz loved Polly’s antics, she may have overstepped and been a little too flip with Flip.

THE BAD: Fred the Walrus has difficulty communicating and answering basic interview questions. When interviewing you need to be able to articulate the benefits you bring to your future employer. If being a talking animal is one of the skill sets then you’d better be able to communicate and connect with all of the individuals with whom you interview, not just Griz.

Duke the Arctic Dog goes through a litany of things he doesn’t do before he gets to the one skill set that impresses his interviewers. If you don’t have the skills a company needs, go on the offensive and quickly show off what you do bring to the table.

Enrique the Tree Frog starts asking for concessions and accommodations, “Is it possible for me to be on the nose of the plane instead of the tail?” before he even has an offer. You definitely want to wait until you’re at the negotiation phase of the interview process before you start asking for special treatment. Once you have the offer, you know the potential employer likes you and wants to bring you on board, then you have more wiggle room.

THE UGLY: Doug the Dung Beetle. In an interview, if you really want to land the job you have to keep some s@#! to yourself, ‘nuf said.

~Linda

Acing Your Executive Job Interview

ExecutivesOver the years, countless executives have said to me that all they need to do is get the interview and they’ll land the job. Really? If everyone feels this way, including your competition, how can it be true?

I’ve worked with hundreds of very capable and competent executives over the years who excel at improving profits and stakeholder value, enhancing operating efficiencies, reducing costs, launching successful start-ups, orchestrating turnarounds, and myriad of other complex competencies, but for many, they’re just not that great at communicating that information.

Just because you’ve excelled in your executive role does not necessarily translate into being a stellar communicator. Case in point, who can forget BP CEO, Tony Hayward’s famous words regarding the 2010 Gulf oil spill, “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I’d like my life back.” A PR nightmare, he took a beating in the media for those words at a critical time for his company.

That’s just one very public example that illustrates even C-suite executives can use some coaching to brush up on their communication skills. interviewing, whether it’s with the media or for a job is a skill in and of itself. When it’s for a job, interviewing involves effectively communicating your strengths while avoiding highlighting any weaknesses and like most skills, it’s something that improves with practice.

I frequently work with clients who epitomize the saying “you don’t know what you don’t know.” What I mean is, frequently clients don’t realize that how they’re answering a question is not furthering their own cause until they’re role playing with me and I point out how their answer plays and a better way to frame it.

The bottom line is if you want to ace that job interview, put some time and effort into your preparation. Do some role playing with a seasoned coach who can help polish the diamond in the rough that may be your rusty interviewing techniques.

~Linda