Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?: A Crash Course in Finding, Landing, and Keeping Your First Real Job (28 page)

Now that you’re familiar with the types of interviews you might encounter, focus on preparing for them. The most important thing you can do before an interview is research. Given a computer and access to the Internet, there is no excuse not to have done your homework on the company and the people interviewing you. Begin the process the minute you develop an interest in a company; don’t wait until the day before the interview.

Start with the company’s website—especially the “About Us” section and the executive biographies, if available—then move out from there, Googling any aspects you want to find out more about. Do a news search to see if the company has recently been mentioned in any major papers. The library and your network are good sources too, as are industry trade associations.

Study whatever information you can get your hands on: mission statement, annual reports, catalogs, company newsletters, or other publications.

The same goes for the individual(s) for whom you’d be working and the people interviewing you. Find out as much about them as possible before you go.

Basic information to investigate includes:

How long the company has been in existence

The nature of the company’s work

The breakdown of the company’s general divisions (a good thing to ask about in more detail at the interview)

The company’s most recent successes.

There’s no need to memorize the annual report or a person’s entire career trajectory, but you want to be able to show that you are interested in the position and that you are a thorough and resourceful person. (You should do this even for an informational interview.) Exhibit tact and diplomacy: In the event that a company has received negative press, tread with care. If asked “You must have read about what’s going on here,” say something like “Well, I’ve been reading the media’s version; how has the PR been affecting your department?”

If the information you’ve studied doesn’t come up naturally during the interview, find a way to work it in at the end. You might say something like
“I’d love to ask you one more question, if you don’t mind. I was studying your catalog and I noticed a shift in the way you’re marketing your products. Is this part of a global, company-wide outreach toward a new audience?”

Obviously, it’s not just what you say at an interview that’s important, but also how you say it. Not everyone is born with the gift of gab, so here are a few tips to help with your delivery.

Maintain an even and professional tone of voice. Avoid “up-talk”—do not inflect every statement as if it were a question. Don’t talk like a Valley Girl or in a baby voice, and don’t giggle. Do not answer questions in a monotone or in monosyllables. Don’t speak too loudly, too softly, too quickly, or too slowly. If you see the interviewer leaning in or asking you to repeat answers, speak a little more loudly. Don’t touch your face or cover your mouth when you speak. (It’s a habit common of shy people and people who have something to hide, according to body language experts.)

Don’t say “like” or “uh” or “you know.” Train these speech tics out of your lexicon by asking a friend to interrupt you every time you use them. Make sure your grammar is correct, too; refresh your understanding of pronouns. (“Me and him took a class together” and “Yes, the recommendations forms were sent to my professor and I” are both incorrect.)

Do not say “like” or “uh” or “you know.” Train these speech tics out of your lexicon by asking a friend to interrupt you every time you use them.

Here’s an obvious one: Do not swear or use slang or overly casual language. Don’t lapse into “shoulda,” “wanna,” “gonna” say “I should have,” “I would like to,” “I was going to.” (For the record, saying something “sucked” is equivalent to swearing.) “Freaky,” “totally,” “whatever,” “for real,” “for sure,” and “awesome” are other words to avoid in an interview.

Don’t interrupt. You should be doing as much listening as talking. Likewise, try not to ramble or go off on tangents. Get to the point. It’s easy to lose track of your train of thought when you’re nervous. If you realize you’ve gone off subject, wrap up your answer—better to leave something unsaid than to come across as someone who can’t self-edit. On the other
hand, you don’t want to be too brief, offering only yes or no answers, even to what seem like yes or no questions. Find ways to work in anecdotes.

Time yourself as you rehearse your answers to likely interview questions (see page 138). Generally, you shouldn’t be talking for longer than a minute at a stretch—there’s a fine line between answering in depth and going into excruciating detail. If you fear you’ve gone on too long but you haven’t finished your answer, pause and ask, “Should I continue, or would you prefer we move on?” or, “Would you like to hear more about that?” If something occurs to you after you’ve already answered a question, come back to it when you can. “I wanted to add one more comment about the issue of …”

When you’re job-hunting, the only good time to complain is in the privacy of your own home. Nobody likes a whiner, especially not a prospective employer.

Everything you say and do must project a positive vibe. The only attitude you should reveal is “can do.” If you know yourself to be a chronic whiner, complainer, or “glass-half-empty” type, do some serious attitude adjustment before your interviews—no reflexive complaining about the weather or the traffic.

When you’re job-hunting, the only good time to complain is in the privacy of your own home. Nobody likes a whiner, especially not a prospective employer. The only attitude you should reveal is “can do.”

Do not speak negatively of a former employee or colleague. For all you know, it’s your interviewer’s relative or friend or significant other, but in any case, maligning others will make you sound bitter or like a gossip. Complaining about your boss, professors, colleagues, or even about company policies at a former workplace or college or internship is not the way to bond with an interviewer. He is only making a mental note that he might be next on your hit list, and then ruling you out. Even if you picked up the slack for a lazy colleague or unofficially took over for an incompetent boss, you must never tout your accomplishments at someone else’s expense.

Never generalize about groups of people or departments, even in response to questions like, “Are there people you find it difficult to get along with?” If you catch yourself saying, “I was the only one who knew
how to,” “I shouldn’t say this but,” “I don’t mean to stereotype but,” stop yourself. A candidate who describes bosses or colleagues or clients as “stupid,” “demanding,” or “hard to get along with” sounds exactly that.

Without getting Pollyannaish, find ways to speak well of your previous bosses, colleagues, and experiences. “My boss was really smart and such a good mentor; I felt lucky to get to take on new responsibilities under his guidance.”

Everything is possible and nothing is a problem. That should be your internal mantra now. A question like “You live outside of the city; won’t the commute be difficult?” should not elicit an answer like “Gosh, the traffic really is terrible at rush hour.” Instead, try something like,
“I’ve commuted for years and have never been late except in the case of major storms or train problems; I always leave extra time just in case; I like reading the newspaper on the train; this is only temporary—I’ll be moving into the city as soon as I can.”

Camouflaging real or perceived problems on your résumé is one thing; dealing with them in an interview is quite another. An astute interviewer will attempt to discover your weaknesses, insecurities, and secrets. There’s nothing sneaky or shady about that—it’s just part of his job. Yours is to keep your skeletons in the closet. Obviously, there’s no reason to volunteer information about issues that will raise red flags (addictions, illnesses, family traumas, and so on), but you should also be prepared to sidestep or diplomatically address issues that do come up.

If you’ve been fired, recently or in the past, don’t bring it up; if you’re asked about it, explain briefly, honestly, and in a calm, neutral tone of voice. Do not place blame, bad-mouth, or complain about others. Do not explain the firing in a way that could reflect negatively on you and your judgment. (One candidate unwisely confessed that she had been fired as a young waitress for serving alcohol to friends under the legal drinking age.) Use phrases like “it wasn’t a good fit” if you were laid off within your first year, explain that you were the most recent hire when the company started laying people off.

It bears repeating that you are responsible for everything on your résumé, so you’ll want to make sure you don’t say anything to contradict your stated experience. But during the interview, you also want to make your résumé come alive.

Review it alongside the job description with an eye to preparing a narrative, with “headliners” at the ready—brief statements about how each item on your résumé is relevant to the job at hand and the employer’s stated needs. If the position requires working for more than one boss, you might say,
“I’m used to working for more than one person at a time; during my internship at a pharmaceutical company, I was assigned to both the communications and events departments.”

You’ll want to come up with anecdotes to amplify everything on your résumé. That way if an interviewer expects you to lead the interview, you’ll be able to run through your story smoothly. But don’t launch into a monologue unless you really think the interviewer wants you to take charge. If he doesn’t ask many or any questions and seems to be waiting for you to speak, start taking the reins. Even if you’re not put in this position, you should be packaging your achievements into anecdotes—people remember stories, not bullet points. If you rewrote the staff manual at your last job or internship, offer a story about what happened the first time you instituted a new procedure and no one knew what to do—and how you solved the problem.

Choose your stories carefully. Though there’s nothing wrong with introducing a little humor if appropriate, you don’t want to accidentally paint yourself as the class clown or reveal something you didn’t want the interviewer to know.