How to ensure your interview is successful Preparation: Before you walk into any interview, you should know as much about the company and the position as you possibly can. If you found the position through Spirit, we will be able to provide that information for you. If not, search the web or go to the library. In today's world of mass communication, there's no excuse for lack of research. You should certainly visit the company’s own web site (and that of their parent company if relevant), and get as much information as possible. You could also “google” the company and/or the contact you’ll be meeting to see what else you can find out?
After you have studied the company, write out a list of questions to ask the employer. For example:
Why is this position available?
What type of training programs will be offered to the person in this position?
What are your goals for this position?
What obstacles must be overcome for the person in this position to succeed?
How will my performance be evaluated?
What opportunities are there for growth in the next 12 months? Two years? Five years?
What growth do you anticipate for your firm in the next 12 months?
What will be the biggest challenge in this role?
No one can predict the exact questions that an interviewer will ask, but your consultant should be able to give you a good idea of the hiring authority's personality, his or her typical interview demeanour, and a few important questions that the employer is likely to ask. To prepare, think about how you would answer the following questions:
Tell me about yourself. Keep your answer in the professional realm only. Review your past positions, education and other strengths.
What do you know about our organisation? If you've done your research correctly, you should have no problem answering this one. Be positive.
Why are you interested in this position? Relate how you feel your qualifications really match the requirements of the job. Also, express your desire to work for that company.
What are the most significant accomplishments in your career so far? Pick recent accomplishments that relate to this position and its requirements.
Describe a situation in which your work was criticized. Focus on how you solved the situation and how you became a better person because of it.
How would you describe your personality?
How do you perform under pressure?
What have you done to improve yourself over the past year?
What did you like least about your last position?
Why are you leaving (did you leave) your present (last) company?
What is your ideal working environment?
How would your co-workers describe you?
What do you think of your boss?
Have you ever fired anyone? What was the situation and how did you handle it?
Are you creative?
What are your goals in your career?
Where do you see yourself in two years?
Why should we hire you?
What kind of salary are you looking for?
What other types of jobs/companies are you considering?
Interview Do's and Don'ts Do's:
Arrive 15 minutes early. Late attendance is never excusable.
Clarify questions. Be sure you answered the questions the employer really asked.
Get the interviewer to describe the position and responsibilities early in the conversation so you can relate your skills and background to the position throughout the interview.
Give your qualifications. Stress the accomplishments that are most pertinent to the job.
Conduct yourself professionally. Be aware of what your body language is saying. Smile, make eye contact, don't slouch and maintain composure.
Anticipate tough questions. Prepare in advance so you can turn apparent weaknesses into strengths.
Dress appropriately. Make your first impression a professional one.
Ask questions throughout the interview. An interview should be a mutual exchange of information, not a one-sided conversation.
Listen. This is probably the most important ability of all. By concentrating not only on the employer's words, but also on the tone of voice and body language, you will be able to pick up on the employer's style. Once you understand how a hiring authority thinks, pattern your answers accordingly and you will be able to better relate to him or her.
Don'ts
Don't answer vague questions. Rather than answering questions you think you hear, get the employer to be more specific and then respond.
Never interrupt the employer. If you don't have time to listen, neither does the employer.
Don't be overly familiar, even if the employer is doing all of these things.
Don't ramble. Long answers often make the speaker sound apologetic or indecisive. Be clear and concise.
On the other hand, don't answer questions with a simple "yes" or "no." Explain whenever possible.
Do not lie. Answer questions as truthfully as possible.
Do not make derogatory remarks about your present or former employers or companies.
Closing the interview Too many people second-guess themselves after an interview. By closing strongly and asking the right questions, you can eliminate the post-interview doubts that tend to plague most interviewees.
If you feel that the interview went well and you would like to take the next step, express your interest to the hiring authority and turn the tables a bit. Try something like the following:
"After hearing more about your company, the position and the responsibilities at hand, I am certain that I possess the qualities that you are looking for in this position. Based on our conversation and my qualifications, are there any issues or concerns that you have that would lead you to believe otherwise?"
You have a right to be assertive. This is a great closing question because it opens the door for the hiring authority to be honest with you about his or her feelings. If concerns do exist, this is a great opportunity to overcome them. You have one final chance to dispel the concerns, sell your strengths and end the interview on a positive note.
A few things to remember during the closing process:
Don't be discouraged if no definite offer is made or specific salary discussed. The interviewer will probably want to communicate with Spirit Executive first, or interview other applicants, before making a decision.
Make sure you answer the following two questions: "Why are you interested in the company?" and "What can you offer?"
Express thanks for the interviewer's time and consideration.
Ask for the interview's business card so you can write a thank you letter as soon as possible.
Follow-up When you get in your car, immediately write down key issues uncovered in the interview. Think of the qualifications the employer is looking for and match your strengths to them. Call your recruiter! Follow-up now is critical. If you want to write a “thank you" letter this should be written no later than 24 hours after the interview, and even a follow up phone call could only add to your credibility. This simple act can separate your from other candidates.
Points to keep in mind
Knowledge produces genuine confidence, so find out all you can about the company you are interviewing with. They may have a website you can study. If not, ask around or check newspaper archives on the internet for information. Go into the office ahead of time and see if they have pamphlets. Tell the receptionist you've got an interview in a few days and ask her some general questions, like how long the company has been around and how many employees there are. If you can't find any information about the company, study the industry. At least this way you can have general knowledge to get you through the interview, otherwise it'll appear that you weren't the least bit curious, and that's bad.
Be genuinely friendly to everyone you meet at the interview site. Remember the interview begins with your very first contact at the company. That may even be the custodian if you meet him or her in the parking lot. The ability to make small talk is important, whether it is with the custodian, the receptionist, or the interviewer as you walk down the hall together. The recruiter may seek the opinion of everyone you came into contact with, and if you gave short shrift to the receptionist or the custodian, you will likely seem arrogant.
Share credit and accept blame as you speak of your accomplishments and past work. Projecting blame and hogging credit does not demonstrate confidence, it demonstrates immaturity. It also tells prospective employers that you think they are easily fooled. In most cases, they are not. Confident people can share credit, even if it is just to say, "The work environment at my current job has been very supportive." Arrogant people may be quick to blame others and absolve themselves. If you have to talk about a failed project at your last company you could say something like, "we all learned a lot from that misstep."
Don't make the job title an issue. Does it really matter if you are called a Specialist or a Technician? You hear job-title jokes all the time. But joking aside, you'll appear self-involved and overly concerned about your own prestige.
Get real. Everyone has to start somewhere, so if the job isn't exactly what you want but it's the best you can do for now, you may have to wait for your chance to shine. But you won't even get a foot in the door if you approach the interview as though the job is beneath your capabilities.
Pointers that will help you shine Hearty handshake Stand as soon as the interviewer arrives and give a warm and hearty handshake, web to web. Don’t wait until they grab your fingers — extend your hand and then hold the handshake for a beat as you look them straight in the eye and smile and tell the person how pleased you are to meet him or her. This simple gesture sets a strong tone right out of the gate. Small talk Don’t be shy about making pleasant small talk on the way to his or her office. Comment on the beautiful office space, the neighbourhood, the company or the weather. Confident people strike up a friendly conversation and try to relax the interviewer (they are always nervous, too). Use your notes Bring your notes and don’t be afraid to use them. It makes you look well-prepared. If something of interest is mentioned about the job, pause and write it down. Your CAR stories Rehearse your CAR stories so you can assert yourself and interject them. What is a CAR story? CAR stands for Challenge, Approach, and Results. This easy-to-remember mini-story format can be applied to your responsibilities to give examples about how you work and the results you achieved. So, rather than just waiting for the interviewer to ask a question, you are prepared to drop in a powerful mini-story at any point in the conversation. So, for each major area of responsibility that you are “selling,” come up with one or two CAR stories. Write down the Challenge you faced with that responsibility, the Approach you took to accomplish it, and finally, the Results you achieved. The more you rehearse out loud, the more confident and assertive you will sound. Prepare your questions Come prepared with questions about the job, such as expected results after the first year, expectations of internal and external customers, and what happened to the person who had the job before. After you have asked job-related questions, move into questions about the culture, the manager’s leadership style, the strategy, and other big picture questions. Candidates demonstrate their assertiveness by the questions they ask, as well as the questions they answer.
Take credit! Studies show (and I’ve observed) that people tend to soft peddle their accomplishments. Instead of using phrases such as, “I negotiated a 30 percent reduction in the vendor contract,” they soften it: “We were fortunate to get a 30 percent reduction…” If you did it, take credit for it. On the other hand, when a team was involved, be careful not to sound like a glory grabber. In other words, if you lead a team effort, it could sound something like this: “I intentionally chose three influential internal customers to sit on the Steering Committee, and I also invited some powerful external customers who were sceptics. I knew if the pilot project was successful, we would need champions to get buy in across the company. Focusing this team was a challenge but in the end, the pilot was a success and they played a key role in selling it to the rest of the organization.” You can still talk about the team’s efforts but be sure to play up your role in leading it. During your interview, round out your thoughts with examples and tell CAR stories to highlight your accomplishments and your style. This is not the time to be overly modest or too concise in your style.
The Counter Offer Any career move should be carefully considered as the act of resignation is a major step; working closely with your Spirit Executive consultant we will help you manage this most difficult of situations.
The act of resignation often prompts a counter offer from your current organisation. Prior to resigning you should, and we encourage you to, consider the consequences of your actions most carefully.
Prior to the event we urge candidates to:
Meet with their line manager to discuss promotion and development opportunities. Discuss future salary rise and career aspirations. Review training and development needs. Review advancement and promotion opportunities.
You will gain the respect of your manager and company by discussing these issues prior to delivering your resignation. You will gain an honest and frank view of what the future holds with your current employer. This allows you to view any potential offer in the full knowledge of where your career is going. Delivering a threat to leave does not always receive an honest response that is in your best long-term career interest.
Always consider that any offer from your current company made after your resignation has been delivered may not be what it seems, all too often it's a knee jerk reaction to keep you. The offer of more money may only satisfy you in the short term; rarely addressing the deep routed reasons for moving.
Working with Spirit Executive we will ensure you receive full counselling to not only handle the counter offer but to be able to evaluate its motives and understand your motivations for taking the next career step without jeopardising your current position.
Why You Shouldn’t Take a Counter Offer Thinking about using a potential employer's job offer to get your current company to counter and pay you more money? Stop right there. Using another job offer as a bargaining chip may be tempting, but too often, it ends badly. If you want a raise, then negotiate it on your own merits--or prepare to move on. Here's why: 1. Employers often make counter offers in a moment of panic. ("We can't have Joe leave right now! We have that big conference next month.") But after the initial relief passes, you may find your relationship with your employer--and your standing with the company--has fundamentally changed. You're now the one who was looking to leave. You're no longer part of the inner circle, and you might be at the top of the list if your company needs to make cutbacks in the future. 2. Even worse, your company might just want time to search for a replacement, figuring that it's only a matter of time until you start looking around again. You might turn down your other offer and accept your employer's counter offer only to find yourself pushed out soon afterward. In fact, the rule of thumb among recruiters is that 70 to 80 percent of people who accept counter offers either leave or are let go within a year. 3. There's a reason you started job-searching in the first place. While more money is always a motivator, more often, there are also other factors that drove you to look: personality fit, dislike of your boss, boredom with the work, lack of recognition, insane deadlines--whatever it might have been. Those factors aren't going change, and will likely start bothering you again as soon as the glow from your raise wears off. 4. Even if you get more money out of your company now, think about what it took to get it. You needed to have one foot out the door to get paid the wage you wanted, and there's no reason to think that future salary increases will be any easier. The next time you want a raise, you might even be refused altogether on the grounds that "we just gave you that big increase when you were thinking about leaving." 5. You may be told to take the other offer, even if you don't really want it--and then you'll have to follow through. Using another offer as a bluff is a really dangerous game. 6. Good luck getting that new employer to ever consider you again. If you go all the way through their hiring process only to accept a counter offer from your current employer, then the former is going to be wary of considering you in the future. If it's a company you'd like to work with, you might be shutting a door you'd rather keep open. Now, are there times where accepting a counter offer makes sense and works out? Sure, there are always exceptions. But it's a bad idea frequently enough that you should be very, very cautious before doing so.
Reason for Leaving Counter Offer
Consequence
Higher Salary
Increased Salary
Where is this coming from? Will you have a reduced pay rise next time around? If so what are your options in the future; threaten to leave again? This will be less of a threat the second time around and they may have already employed someone else for this contingency. Why was your pay rise not offered earlier, didn’t the employer value you until you put a gun to their heads or did they lie to you with their justification for not paying you more in the first place? Will the promised increase also be a lie? Offering short term cash is the easiest way to keep someone and takes no effort from the employer. It is an economic decision to save the immediate cost of recruiting a replacement. Salary often isn’t the primary reason for leaving so why is it the primary reason to stay? Have you been bought?
Overlooked for Promotion
Promised Promotion
Unless this is in writing it is an empty gesture. If the employer thought you should have been promoted they would have done so already. Will any promotion be a tactic to allow them to keep you in the short term until they can get someone at they want to promote without having to be threatened? Much like an increase in salary, if they didn’t think you were worthy of a promotion before you resigned, do they think you’re worth it now? How will it be viewed by your colleagues?
Quality of Work
Offered Better Quality of work
Where is this coming from? Can your employer really guarantee this? If they reassign work from another staff member of the team will this be permanent or a short term fix to their staffing problem?
Relationships with Superiors or members of the team
These issues will be addressed
You would almost certainly have complained about these before being driven to look for a new job. Why haven’t they been addressed before? Can they really be addressed in the long term or will this be a sticking plaster? Also, what knock on effect will there be to your internal relationships, not just with the people that you had a “problem” with, but by your wider peer group.
New Challenge
Promise of new challenges
Why were these not offered before and are they real new challenges or a repackaging of the same?
Reduced hours/more flexibility/better work life balance
Promise these will be addressed
Will this be a long term change or will it slip when you have turned down the offer? If the firms’ culture is one of “getting their pound of flesh”, how sustainable will it be for you to be given preferential treatment why everyone else works sixty hour weeks?
Of the 50% of Professionals Who Accepted Their Counteroffers:
93%
93% Left within 18 months 7% Stayed with the company
Just remember the reason you thought it was right to move in the first place, this is a big decision and we appreciate that and we are always here to help.