Job interviews can be cordial, challenging, or chilling. In this latter category I offer three "killer" questions that can scuttle your prospects in a flash. Be prepared.
If you do have a current job, your killer question will be the innocuous, "Why are you looking to change jobs?"
Yes, why indeed are you looking to leave your current job? Years ago I had one interviewee answer this with, "To be perfectly honest, my boss is a jerk." Not a confidence-building response. Don't do this. Never, ever be negative about your current job situation. You can say you want a change, or a bigger challenge. You can say you want more opportunity for advancement. You can say you want to pursue a career path you always wanted to follow. But do not say you are unhappy about your job, your employer, or your colleagues. Why not? Because the person interviewing you will be thinking, "OK, this candidate is a whiner and has personal issues we do not want to bring on-board." Always say you are pursuing a change to move to new possibilities, never that you are running from a bad situation.
If you are currently not working the chances are good you will be asked, "Why have you been out of work so long?"
Being out of work in this stagnant economy is not a stigma. But you will certainly stimulate some speculation if you have been out of work for more than the seasonally-adjusted, average unemployment duration which was 36.9 weeks as of May 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the median unemployment duration is much less: only 17.3 weeks. The median measure indicates that one-half of all job seekers were out of work for up to 17 weeks before finding a job, and one-half were out of work for more than 17 weeks before finding a job.
Why is the average so much longer than the median? One answer is that many people stop looking while they live off unemployment benefits. Some people have drawn unemployment for up to 99 weeks. That's two years. The longer you are out of work the harder it will be to find a job, and the more a prospective employer might view you as a freeloader. It might not be fair, but it is what it is. If you are just at the beginning of your unemployment journey, focus your energies steadily and continually on job search. Use the process I describe in my book, Hired!, to deflect and overcome the discouragement that will inevitably come. Just keep looking - but be smart about how you look.
And whether you are or are not currently working, vacant time periods on your resume will bring the question, "What were you doing in these gaps between jobs on your resume?"
Today the job market is so convoluted that gaps in a resume are not an automatic disqualification. I spend quite a few pages in Hired! discussing how I have handled this issue with people I have assisted. (This blog entry goes more deeply into this topic.) Whatever the reasons for the gaps in your work history, be honest with the interviewer and turn the gap from a potential liability into an asset. If you have been filling-in your time with short-term or lower-paying jobs to make some money, explain that you took these jobs while continuing your job search. That will convey continuing initiative. If a job you took to tide you over is outside the area for which you are interviewing, explain that you did not list this job because it was not related to your job or career objective. Did you gain a skill, knowledge, or useful insight in the fill-in job? Then tell the interviewer how this "gap" has enabled you to benefit them better as an employee.
These three questions are simple, but potentially dangerous if you stutter or stammer, trying to think of how you will answer. Prepare ahead of your interview. In fact, prepare now because you might have a chance encounter tomorrow where someone might ask, "Really? What kind of work are you doing now?"
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