Turn Interviews Into Jobs!

March 17, 2009.

Turn Interviews into Job Offers

In this competitive job market, how can you transform interviews into job offers? What does it take to close the sale?

Below are some suggestions on how you can transform interviews into job offers.

1. Know Yourself: It is critical that you identify your special skills, abilities, talents, values and knowledge that make you a unique candidate. If you do not know yourself and what you bring to the table, how can you market yourself? So identify your value proposition as it relates to the career in which you are interested. Specifically, identify your skills, strengths, knowledge, values, interests, accomplishments and key differentiators (what makes you different from other people) so that you can articulate this when you interview for positions.

2. Define your Preferred Job: Identify the key attributes of your dream career: location, industry, size of company, type of work/job function, type of colleagues and management culture, benefits, travel and other key aspects of the job. Doing this will enable you to know when it is the dream job you want or not.

3. Know the market and the company: Make sure you research the market to identify key trends. Research the company to see how they mirror these trends, what their major goals and plans are and what their unique needs might be. Network in the industry to find out more about the company, its reputation and challenges, meet people from the company and from the industry to get the inside scoop.

4. Put on a consultant’s hat when you interview: When you go for the interview, think like a consultant to find out what is going on at the company and the organization so that you can articulate how you can help them fulfill their plans and meet their challenges. Ask open-ended questions such as What are your goals and how are you planning on achieving them? What are some key challenges you are facing? These questions enable you to get a broad picture of what is happening at the company.

5. Ask questions about the company and organization: Interviewing is a two-way street with them interviewing you and you interviewing them. This is the time to learn more about the manager and the organization. As questions such as what are the key goals of the job? What are the most urgent things to accomplish? What needs to get done in the first six months? What does success look like in this job? What type of person are you looking for? If the shoe fits, go for it and you can wear it. If not, trust your instinct and walk away as nothing hurts more than shoes that do not fit!!!

6. Be prepared to summarize your experience, special skills and accomplishments in two minutes of less: the ability to be articulate and speak concisely speaks volumes about your professionalism so summarize your experience, skills and key accomplishments in less than two minutes

7. Be prepared to tell stories about your experiences and accomplishments and how you have handled difficult challenging assignments

8. Be prepared to discuss your career goals: reassure the interviewer that you are not interested in their job but that your main priorities are to learn about the company, contribute to the company and help the company achieve its goals.

9. Find out the timing of the hiring process, the next steps, your competition and how you compare to the competition.

10. Show your interest and enthusiasm for the job and state your interest in the job at the end of the interview.

11. Engage the interviewer and establish rapport: This is a key component of the interview as if there is no chemistry or click, you will not get hired. You have to pass the airline test – can you sit for 8 hours in a plane with this person? You establish rapport with a person by

-coming early to the interview and reading the organization newsletter so that you can start the conversation by discussing what you read in the newsletter
-researching the person prior to the meeting (on LinkedIn or his/her bio on the company site or through networking contacts) so that you can comment on his experience and shared experiences;
-when you enter the office, take note of the room – paintings, pictures, books, etc. and commenting on them. If the room is bare, then this is not an expressive person which leads me to the next point;
-identify the communications style of the person: is the person a relater, a thinker, a socializer or a director? A relater focuses on relationships, likes to work in teams and speaks slowly. A thinker is task-oriented, likes to work alone, focuses on intellectual matters and also speaks slowly. A socializer focuses on relationships, likes excitement and change, is persuasive and speaks quickly. A director is task-oriented, likes to get things done through others and speaks quickly.(Source: Communicating at Work, Tony Alessandra and Phil Hunsaker, Simon and Shuster, 1993). By becoming aware of the communications style of the interviewer, you need to adapt your communications style to mirror the communications style of the person interviewing you. So look and listen. Lean in to show interest. Mirror the communications style of the other person by speaking faster or slower. This is critical to developing a feeling of comfort. People hire people with whom they are comfortable.

12. Follow up your interview with an email thanking the interviewer for meeting with you and describes how can accomplish the goals of the job and meet the challenges of the organization. Reiterate your interest in the job. Ask for the opportunity to have another meeting to learn more about the job and the organization. A first interview is an opportunity to learn about the job and have other meetings to learn even more and to market yourself.

13. Last, but not least, follow up your interview to find out the status of the position. Send a brief email to show your interest. Place a call to find out how the process is proceeding.

Remember to have many opportunities in the pipeline so that you do not have all your eggs in one basket. Many things can happen to job opportunities such as budget changes, job freezes, plans changing. Hedge your risk. Focus your energy on multiple opportunities. This also gives you leverage when you negotiate your job offer.