Your first interview

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1 Chapter Title Here Please Y OUR F IRST I NTERVIEW For Students and Anyone Preparing to Enter Today’s Tough Job Market Team LRN 2 Book Title Here Please Team LRN 3 Chapter Title Here Please Y OUR F IRST I NTERVIEW For Students and Anyone Preparing to Enter Today’s Tough Job Market By Ron Fry The Career Press, Inc. Franklin Lakes, NJ Team LRN 4 Book Title Here Please Copyright © 2002 by Ron Fry A ll rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press . Your First Interview Edited and typeset by Nicole DeFelice Cover design by Johnson Design Printed in the U.S.A. by Book-mart Press To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada:201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press. The Career Press, Inc., 3 Tice Road, PO Box 687, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 www.careerpress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fry, Ronald W. Your first interview : for students and anyone preparing to enter today’s tough job market / by Ron Fry.—4 th ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 1-56414-586-7 (paper) 1. Employment interviewing. I. Title. HF5549.5.I6 F76 2002 650.14—dc21 2001059872 Team LRN 1 Chapter Title Here Please Contents Introduction The Interview Process, in Good Times and Bad 7 Chapter 1 How to Develop Your Personal Inventory 13 Chapter 2 How to Get the Information You Need 35 Chapter 3 How to Get in the Door 51 Chapter 4 How to Create Your Network 61 Team LRN 2 Book Title Here Please Chapter 5 What to Expect During Your First Interview 77 Chapter 6 Make the Right First Impression 91 Chapter 7 Your Interview With the Hiring Manager 101 Chapter 8 The Finer Points of Interview Technique 113 Chapter 9 How to Answer the Toughest Questions 125 Chapter 10 How to Deal With Illegal Questions 149 Chapter 11 How to Follow Up Your Interviews 161 Chapter 12 How To Negotiate Your First Salary 173 Index 183 Team LRN 7 The Interview Process, In Good Times and Bad  7  Introduction Unemployment is at a record high…or record low. Jobs are plentiful…or scarcer than lilacs in December. We’re at war…or peace. And you’ve got a job interview, your first job interview, which is happening whichever of the above scenarios occur. To be truth- ful, they aren’t as important as you probably believe. Whether the economy is coasting down Easy Street or preparing to nosedive off the Wall Street pier has little to do with how you land your first interview, prepare for it, conduct yourself during it, and whether you emerge successfully from it…with your first job in hand. So don’t worry if the papers are full of doom and gloom, trumpeting the worst job market for college grads since the reign of George III. And don’t get too cocky when the business magazines tell you “It’s a Seller’s Market!” and visions of six- figure starting salaries start dancing in your head. Whatever circumstances you face, it’s still your first interview, and you are probably scared stiff. The Interview Process, in Good Times and Bad Team LRN 8 Your First Interview They can spot you a mile away Most hiring managers and recruiters have little trouble iden- tifying candidates who are waiting for their first interviews. There they sit in the reception area, those impeccably dressed collegians in standard-issue interview suits. The nervous thump-thump-thump of their hearts is almost audible. They all seem afflicted with Lady Macbeth Syndrome, constantly rubbing their palms on their thighs in hopes of drying them before they have to shake the interviewer’s hand. There are plenty of good reasons for you to be nervous. You are faced with the task of convincing a total stranger to invest company money and time in you. Indeed, selling your- self in a competitive market is a daunting task. And despite what I said just a few paragraphs ago, the situation as I write this is pretty darned dire—the remnants of the dotcom bust are still smoldering, Wall Street is in free fall, consumer confidence is somewhere between slim and none, and most of us have yet to recover from 9-11. And you’re more likely to contend with a tougher inter- view than your slightly older friends because of the rapidly in- creasing sophistication of those doing the hiring for America’s companies. Corporations are spending more money than ever on psychological tests, honesty tests, drug tests, assessments, and computerized screening systems. They are sending recruiters and supervisors to courses on interviewing and candidate-evaluation procedures. They are subjecting candidates to more and longer interviews. And they are using new interviewing techniques, some of which would make thumbscrews seem like an attractive alternative. Team LRN 9 The Interview Process, In Good Times and Bad Although it would be unrealistic to expect any new hire to come with a guarantee, many employers are taking that extra step to make sure they do not even consider someone they will quickly wish had never darkened their doors. Simply put, employers can afford to be choosy, and they’ve found better ways to choose. They are seeking “self-managing” employees— young people who are versatile, confident, and not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get the job done. But you can’t prove you’re exactly what they’re looking for without making it through the interview process. If you haven’t taken a lot of time to uncover the “real you” beneath the grades and athletics and clubs, don’t worry. By the time you finish today’s interview process, you’ll be ready to lead a self-help seminar on “Getting in Touch With Your Inner Child.” Help is in your hands But the purpose of this book is to ease your anxiety, not add to it. Of course, the best way to keep anxiety from hamstringing you during the interview is to be thoroughly prepared. Know yourself. Know the company. And, if possible, know the inter- viewer. Before you’re sitting in the reception area filling out an application. This book will help you do that. It will also help you write effective letters that will get you in the door to show your stuff. It will give you a sneak preview of exactly what to expect during the interview. It will even tell you what your “interview suit” should look like. Most importantly, this book will tell you, in detail, how to conduct yourself during every phase of the interview—how to make sure you’re taking the right approach once you get to know the interviewer a bit, and what you can expect to be asked. Team LRN . Please Chapter 5 What to Expect During Your First Interview 77 Chapter 6 Make the Right First Impression 91 Chapter 7 Your Interview With the Hiring Manager. with how you land your first interview, prepare for it, conduct yourself during it, and whether you emerge successfully from it…with your first job in hand.