Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Job-hunting tips from the July 10, 2000 issue of QuintZine.
Phone interviewing is becoming more important.
In a tight labor market in which expanding businesses
need to hire lots of workers in a hurry, phone
interviews are sometimes taking the place of
in-depth, in-person interviews. Electronics retailer
Best Buy, for example, plans to hire 1,500 people in
a hurry for its expansion into New York and New Jersey.
Interviewees will press 1 for "yes" and 2 for "no."
With such a simplistic scheme for responding to
interview questions, interviewees won't have to
know too much about phone interview skills. But
many other companies will employ in-depth,
person-to-person phone interviews. Look for a
future article in QuintZine on Phone Interview
Etiquette.
Think those first few minutes of small talk
in an interview aren't important? Learn from this
cautionary tale from a colleague of ours: He was a college
senior who had survived the on-campus interview process with
a major consumer-products company. The firm flew him to its
headquarters, a considerable distance from his college.
Because of bad weather, he didn't arrive at his hotel in the
company's city until 3 a.m. the morning of the interview.
Three hours later, the company sent a car to pick him up for
his day of interviewing. He first met with the senior
vice president of sales, whose first question was "How are
you doing?" "I am well," our friend answered. "Just a little
tired. . ." he said, as he went on to explain about the
delayed flight. He underwent interviews all day, meeting with
6-10 people. Two weeks later, he received a rejection letter.
He called the company to ask what he'd done wrong. He learned
that the company had based its entire decision on his response
to that seemingly trivial bit of small talk, the "how are you
doing?" question. They felt he was setting himself up for
failure. The lesson? Even a seemingly innocuous bit of small
talk can derail your interview, so watch everything you say
from the first moment you meet your interviewee.
How to get pumped up before an interview? In his
book, College Grad Job Hunter, Brian Krueger talks about
The Interview Psych Technique, in which you pat yourself on
the back and tell yourself or a friend how great you are the night
before the interview. The Pygmalion Technique is a variation
in which you get someone close to you -- your mother or
significant other are good choices -- to pump you up and
tell you how wonderful you are. A little ego-stroking
before an interview certainly can't hurt.
Read more from
Krueger.
Phone interviewing is becoming more important.
In a tight labor market in which expanding businesses
need to hire lots of workers in a hurry, phone
interviews are sometimes taking the place of
in-depth, in-person interviews. Electronics retailer
Best Buy, for example, plans to hire 1,500 people in
a hurry for its expansion into New York and New Jersey.
Interviewees will press 1 for "yes" and 2 for "no."
With such a simplistic scheme for responding to
interview questions, interviewees won't have to
know too much about phone interview skills. But
many other companies will employ in-depth,
person-to-person phone interviews. Look for a
future article in QuintZine on Phone Interview
Etiquette.
