Daily Career Connection

Interviewing for a prospective job can be a daunting task. There are always so many things to consider before heading out the door for that all important appointment.

• Am I wearing the right clothes?
• Do I have the right credentials?
• How many people will I have to interview with?
• What will I say if they ask about my last job?
• Will I have to take a personality test?

When you’re about to step into the “new job” arena, the questions and doubts seem almost endless. The anticipation of being grilled by a potential employer, along with the realization that you’re in competition with who knows how many other candidates, can really raise your stress level. But there are certain things you can do to reduce your stress and ensure that you are prepared for nearly everything that will come at you.

In my experience, having been on both sides of this coin…that is…interviewee and interviewer, I have gotten a good sense of what works best and what becomes a complete disaster. There is no doubt in my mind that many factors play a role in becoming the successful candidate that is awarded the position they seek. But, looking at it from the stand point of the interviewer, I have come to believe that there are 3 things you MUST DO to put yourself in the top of the running. Missing out on any one of these can weaken even the strongest candidate’s chances.

1. Do Your Home Work
One of the most important things you can do is to research the company you plan to join. Check out its history, its mission statement and the direction it’s heading. Look up the corporate officers and see what they’ve done in the past. Make sure you know about the company’s products or services. Get a good picture of their philosophy of doing business. Knowing how they view their clients, customers and employees, arms you with the all important question that will inevitably come: Do you have any questions? This is the question that can trip up so many candidates. Answering “no” here, or asking about salary, vacation or personal days can lead to disaster. But, if you are armed with the company’s background you can ask questions directly related to their products or services.

For example, if the company makes guitar strings, and you’re applying for a foreman’s job, your answer to: Do you have any questions - might go something like this: “Well, I see that you currently produce both acoustic and electric guitar strings. I was looking at your company website, and noticed that you were planning on expanding your manufacturing to include banjo and violin strings. If so, would these be separate departments, or would they fall under the department for which I’m applying?
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Are you interested in pursuing a professional career in the restaurant business? One of the best ways to give yourself a competitive advantage in this field is to attend culinary school. The most successful professionals working in the best restaurants typically start their careers by getting the training they need to secure employment in the field at a chef school. The good news is that there are many excellent culinary schools all over the world. If you want to pursue a career in this growing field, you owe it to yourself to get the training you need to set yourself apart from others.

There are many benefits to becoming bilingual or multilingual, and learning to speak a foreign language can be a very rewarding experience. Individuals who speak more than one language have a significant advantage in the job market, and opportunities for multilingual professionals are going to continue to increase in the future.

Realistic Expectations
If you want to learn to speak a foreign language, it’s important that you approach the task with realistic expectations. Becoming fluent in another language requires effort, practice, and time. If you expect immediate results, you’re likely to get frustrated and quit before you actually put in enough time to start seeing your skills develop. Keeping your expectations realistic can keep you from feeling disappointed when you realize that most people don’t pick up foreign languages as quickly as they would like.

Choosing a Training Format
It’s important to choose a method of instruction that is appropriate for your learning style and your schedule. If you travel frequently, enrolling in a semester long class at your local community college might not be your best approach to foreign language study for. After all, you can’t learn from classes that you can’t attend. An online class that you can complete from anywhere, or a good set of self-study materials might be more beneficial if regular class attendance is likely to be problematic for you.

Practice for Perfect Pronunciation
Knowing words in another language and being able to speak the language are two very different things. It’s important to memorize words in the new language, but it’s also vital to learn how to pronounce them properly. The only way you can master pronunciation is by speaking the words you learn out loud. You can’t develop language fluency without a significant amount of speaking practice.

Test Yourself
Once you start to feel comfortable with the foreign language you are studying, it’s a good idea to put your new skills to the test. For example, you can get a book or a magazine written in the new language, and see how well you do reading and understanding the text. If you’re feeling really ambitious, translate the foreign language text into your primary language without using a dictionary.

Remember Your Motivation
When you decided to learn to speak a foreign language, you chose to do so for a reason. Don’t lose sight of the goal that motivated you to invest time, energy, and money into seeking foreign language training. If you keep the reasons why you chose to study a foreign language in mind throughout the process, you’ll be more likely to stick with your training until you accomplish your goal.

My best advice to clients about to interview for a job is to treat the interview like an IRS audit.

When the Internal Revenue Service thinks you are cheating on your annual tax return, and they ask you a question during an audit, it is a real good idea to answer the field auditor’s question and shut up.

The same strategy works during job interviews. When the interviewer asks you a job-related question, answer the question and shut up. Use my “Zip a Lip” theory and you will more likely stay out of trouble and get an offer when all is said and done.

Too many clients answer a question and then feel compelled to explain or justify their answer. This is almost always a bad idea. You have perhaps heard the expression “better to remain silent than remove all doubt”. A job interview is no time to be the life of the party or a chatty Cathy.

When asked a question, answer the question and invoke Ed’s Zip a Lip theory. If the interviewer wants more information, force him or her to ask a more specific question, then answer the question and again use my Zip a Lip theory.
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