After the Interview

Heed this excellent advice from David Perry, one of the co-authors of the creative Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0. When you really like a position, follow up with a last, brief marketing contact. Craft an e-mail saying that, after considering everything that was discussed in the interview, here is what you believe you bring to this relationship, how you see yourself fitting into the organization, and the immediate value you can deliver. Send this follow-up within 48 hours after your interview. This last, carefully crafted contact will convey a positive impression, and when they are considering your candidacy, every positive attribute can only help. Because speed is essential to this follow-up it is fine to send this letter via e-mail to each person with whom you interviewed. This is one reason why I urge everyone to collect the business card of each interviewer, and to verify it lists that person's correct e-mail address.

Send this "thank you" email to every person with whom you interviewed.

And what if you now think this is probably not the right position for you? Or you think the interview did not go well? Follow-up with a slight difference.

If you decide this is just not the right position or company for you even if they should make you an offer, send a follow-up e-mail to the both the HR person and the hiring manager (if you spoke to a hiring manager). Tell them very briefly that you have carefully considered everything you learned in the interview and you have concluded the position is probably not a good match for you. Thank them for their time and consideration, and don't say anything more. They will now not have to spend the effort of putting together an offer, or Letter of Decline. A professional and courteous communication like this will be remembered and appreciated.

If you think the interview did not go well, avoid at all cost sending an email follow-up with a lengthy explanation of what you really were trying to say, or apologizing for something you did say. First, the interview may not have gone that badly from their perspective. Second, too much correction will sound like whining. Third, let them show you their perspective by waiting to see if they make an offer.

In all of these scenarios you simply must follow-up with a note of appreciation. And the most important motivation I can instill in you is that you may be the only person out of a hundred who does this. Be courteous. Be professional. Be remembered.

Getting Pumped with Information

The biblical admonition of "Ask and you will receive" has always been a favorite of mine. I have never been afraid to just talk to people and ask for their help or insight, and I continue to be amazed at the valuable information I learn just doing this simple act of communication. Tonight I stopped at a gas station and a young woman was filling her car in the aisle next to mine. The brightly colored shirt she was wearing caught my attention immediately. I smiled and asked, "Do you work with a pediatrics office?"

"Yes, I do," she said.

"May I ask you a question? I am working with a young woman who is interested in going back to school and pursuing either phlebotomy** or becoming a Certified Medical Assistant. Are those good areas today?"

"Oh yes," she said without hesitating. "I am a CMA and a phlebotomist, too. CMAs are the new nurses. Doctor's offices are not hiring as many nurses now because RNs and even LPNs are too expensive. The offices are hiring Medical Assistants and having them do a lot of what the nurses do. And with a certification in phlebotomy she can work in either a doctor's office or a hospital. With a phlebotomy certification she can go in a dozen directions, and the jobs pay well."

"The local vocational school indicates that the starting salary for a phlebotomist is around $22,000 to $24,000 per year. Does that sound right based on your experience?"

"Yes, it does. And even more when she gets more experience."

I thanked her sincerely for sharing her experience and as I drove off I was thinking, "If I had not asked that simple question that led to a two minute conversation, I would now not have any of that data from someone working in that field." I immediately called the young woman I have been assisting, told her what I had learned, and encouraged her to get her school application in as soon as possible.

Sometimes it's so simple. There's no need to make this complicated.

** A phlebotomist is the person who takes blood or puts in IVs.

During the Interview

Things to Never Do In an Interview

• Never call, answer, or text. Turn off your phone and don't turn it on again until you leave the company location!
• Never smoke, even if they do.
• Never use profanity, even if they do.
• Do not accept any offering of food, coffee, sodas, or other refreshments.

You are there for a business purpose, to build a business relationship. It's not yet time to act like this is a social event.

Ask for a business card from everyone who interviews you, and verify that the card has that person's correct phone number, e-mail address, and surface mail address. You will need this information for your follow-up after the interview.

Ask the Interviewer(s) Some Questions

A relationship cannot begin without interest in both directions, so show them that you have already learned about their company as well as having an interest in a possible job. Visit the company’s website beforehand to learn what the company does, the products or services it provides, and the different lines of business the company pursues. Identify anything that is unique or notable. For instance, Zappos (www.zappos.com) is not just a shoe company. It has a business model built around extreme customer service, free shipping, and free return shipping. Netflix (www.netflix.com) started by mailing DVDs to customers rather than expecting customers to come to a brick and mortar store. Now Netflix is leading in on-line delivery of movies directly to your TV or compatible device. When you show interviewers you care enough to learn about their business, you cannot help but impress them.

What They Can, and Cannot, Ask during the Interview

Federal laws place numerous constraints on what an interviewer can ask in a job interview. Basically, the interviewer is not allowed to ask questions that do not apply to your prospective job or your performance of that job.

A detailed list of "30 Questions You Can't Ask", and 30 ways an interviewer can try to get around these, is in an excellent article published at http://www.hrworld.com/features/30-interview-questions-111507/. HR World is a website devoted to human resources issues. Here is a list of categories the 30 Questions fall into, and representative questions interviewers should not ask you:

• Nationality (Are you a U.S. citizen? What is your native tongue?)
• Religion (What religion do you practice? What holidays do you observe?)
• Age (How old are you? How long do you plan to work before you retire?)
• Marital and family status (Are you married? Do you have children?)
• Gender issues (How do you feel about supervising men, or women?)
• Health and physical abilities (Do you smoke? Drink? Take drugs?)
• Questions about "residence, legal troubles, and military service" (Have you ever been arrested? Were you honorably discharged from the military?)

This website article also describes "Sneaky, Legal Alternatives to Get the Same Info," so be aware that what sounds like an innocent question might be an attempt by the interviewer to get disqualifying information about you. Unfortunately, this happens all too often.

If you have the misfortune to run into an interviewer who tries to ask questions in the categories above, politely reply that your nationality or age or family status are not factors for your performing your work for them, and you do want to learn as much as you can about the job position and their company. This will satisfy any reputable human resources person, but some hiring managers are not versed in the 30 Questions.

Regardless, if you suspect an interviewer is pursuing potentially disqualifying information about you, you may have a hard decision to make. You can

• Give them the information that they should not be asking for, or
• Tell them the question is not relevant to the job position, and accept that this may result in ill-will toward you, or
• Recognize that this is a company whose ethics and morality are already suspect. You might do better to accept that this interview is not going in the right direction, and that you do not want to pursue a deeper, long-term, and financially-dependent relationship with them.

Canned Questions from the Interviewer

I have been on a lot of interviews with a lot of companies. I have been both amused and appalled at some of the spectacularly lame questions that some interviewers ask. I sometimes wonder if there is a cheat-sheet of interview questions that these persons are given to read. Here is a short list of some of these questions that I have been asked:

• Tell me about yourself.
• What really makes <fill-in your name> tick?
• How would you handle a co-worker who is difficult to work with?
• What are your 3 biggest weaknesses?
• What is the #1 area of your life that you want to improve?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• How would you feel if your manager asked you to work on a weekend?

Whatever the source of questions like these, you may hear some of them on an interview. They have no right answer, and obviously your responses are supposed to give the interviewer some insight into who you really are. Not only are these probably not specific to the job you would be working in, but they may allow the interviewer to indulge grave interpretive biases. Just be aware and answer these as best you can without being disrespectful or flippant. I recommend you try to keep all of your answers focused to be job-related, or school-related if you do not have much work history.

The strategy I eventually found that worked best for me when I was asked a very open-ended question like "Tell me about yourself," or "What are your 3 biggest weaknesses?" was to reply saying, "That's a pretty broad topic area. Can you narrow it down a bit for me?" This can buy you a little time to think about what they really might be asking, and puts them in the position of actually limiting the scope so you can provide a more specific, and less interpretation-prone, answer.

Pinning Down a Decision

Before you leave the interview you should ask the interviewer when you can expect to receive a decision on your candidacy. This time frame is important not only for your own continuing job-search schedule, but also to know when you can appropriately contact them if you do not hear from them.

Preparing for Your Interview

This is the season of job interviews. I confess that I am alternately amused and appalled at the self-destructive behavior of young people trying to enter the job market. So, I am offering this series on the proper performance of a job interview: preparing for the interview, the actual interview event itself, and what follow-up the candidate must carry-out.

Take Your Resumé

Even if you have already submitted a resumé with an earlier application, set out two or three printed copies of your resumé to take to your interview. The person interviewing you might have six other people to interview the same day as your session. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to accidentally misplace a resumé. You also might be interviewing with multiple persons over several hours, so take extra copies so you will have one for each person you talk with plus one for you to refer to, just in case.

Organize Your Interview Logistics

The following recommendations may seem like overkill, but you will realize how prudent they are when you have two or more interviews in a week, or if the day of your interview turns into pure chaos.

Capture in one location the specific information about each interview:

• The name of the company you are interviewing with
• The date, time, and location of the interview
• The name and position of the person who will be interviewing you, if you know
• A phone number for the person who will be interviewing you, or the Human Resources office (so you can call them if you get delayed in traffic, or get sick)
• Parking information if you will be driving to the location

Research the Company

The single biggest error candidates make in interviews is also the most devastating: they walk in knowing little or nothing about the company whose time and resources they are consuming. Too many people sit down with an attitude that the company is in total control, and the company is the only party making a job decision. Wrong! The interview is a forum just as much for you to decide if this company is right for you, as for them to decide if you are right for them.

Show the interviewers you can do your homework. When you walk into that interview you should have a clear view of the company's locations, branches, product lines and growth profile. Start with the company's own website. Product lines and locations are usually prominent on the site.

For publicly-traded companies you should additionally search the major financial websites for corporate information to validate what you learned on the corporate website. These financial sites include:

• Yahoo Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com)
• Forbes (http://www.forbes.com)
• Money (http://money.cnn.com)
• Google Finance (http://www.google.com/finance)

With this knowledge, even at a high-level, you will be able to ask informed questions when you actually get into the interview, and you will leave a very positive impression.

Dressing Smart

Choose your clothing very, very carefully. The basic rule for both men and women is "dress up one level." This admonition is easy to grasp if you think of it this way: if you dress for your interview in the clothing you will wear on the job, then you are under-dressed for the interview. If you dress one level up from what you would wear if you work for them, you are dressed appropriately.

For example, for a man, if the normal workday clothing is jeans and work boots (as in construction or trades), or just casual clothing (as in a shopping mall retail store) then one level up is a dress shirt and complementary tie, and chinos or Dockers slacks. If the workday rule is business casual (as in most office work) then one level up is a suit.

If you are a woman applying for a professional or management position, wear a neutral- or darker-color suit and high heels. If you are applying for a retail or any customer-facing position you have an almost infinite number of options from dresses to pant suits, and from high-heels to low-heels. Make sure your shoes are polished, and please do not wear any perfume! None! Not even a smidgen! Remember your make-up may have a perfumed scent in it.

Ladies, the quickest path to not even finishing the interview, much less getting a job offer, is to wear clothing that is too tight, too short, too revealing, or just too provocative. In other words, "too anything." If you have any question about whether an item is "too anything," then it probably is.

I have many more observations in Hired! including what you should use to take notes during the interview, the payment etiquette of lunch and lunch-time interviews, and how to prepare your list of references. Don't be unprepared for your interview.

The Personal Connection

Many years ago I learned a deceptively simple lesson that changed my life. After graduating from college with my first degree I actually got a job as a milkman. Yeah! I drove a truck and delivered milk, bread, and other items to residences and businesses. One morning I was riding with the man who was training me. He took a basket of items into a small store and I waited in the truck. And I waited...and waited. I was very impatient. When he finally stepped back into the truck my first words were something like, "What took so long? We're way off schedule now." He looked at me with some deserved disdain and and simply said, "Son, a customer will leave you, but a friend won't."

I have never forgotten those words. Everything in business, in job search, in interviewing is made immensely easier when a personal connection exists, no matter how tenuous that connection might be. This is why I wrote Hired! around the theme that job search is really relationship building.

In my blog on Tell Me About Yourself  I cover the kinds of answers you should avoid in a job interview, and some productive ways to raise interest in you without possibly offending your interviewer. But simply telling the interviewer about you is very one-sided.

Here is a scenario that may allow you to establish a more personal connection if the right elements are available, so this connection is more two-sided. Be aware, however, that if you do not have a genuine interest in people you will probably come across as stiff and manipulative if you pursue this approach.

Let's assume you are being interviewed by Ms. Johnson. If you are in Ms. Johnson's office look around for items that obviously reflect personal aspects of Ms. Johnson. You might notice photos of the beach, or a mountain climb. Or you might notice pictures of children on her desk. Perhaps one is a sports picture of a 9 year-old boy in a baseball uniform or a 14 year-old girl in a ballerina dress.

When she asks you, "Tell me about yourself," just pause for a moment and say, "I would love to, and I know we are going to talk alot about the job opening and what ABC Company is looking for. But perhaps you could first tell me a little about Ms. Laura Johnson? I notice the pictures on your desk. Are they your children? Are they fond of sports and dance?"

Or, "Is that a picture of you hanging off the side of the mountain?"

That is all you have to say. Just let the conversation go where it will. I recently walked into the office of a manager whose team I am helping with a big shift in how they deliver their software. I had never had more than an email exchange with him. I immediately noticed some U.S. Air Force plaques on his bookcase. After our handshakes and initial introductions I asked, "Were you Air Force? I'm an Air Force brat." The next 10 minutes were on his fighter pilot training and military life for children of officers. It was a great way to begin.

Eventually you will talk about yourself, but at the very least the two of you have had a brief exchange outside the narrow scope of the job opening. I am a techie but I really like people, and learning about what they do and who they are. My work decisions are based at least as much about the people I meet in the company as they are by the actual job responsibilities. In fact, the job in which I am currently working was a very difficult decision for me until I met the man I would be working for. He was the deciding factor because we have some common interests, and our chemistry was great. So keep your eyes and ears open for a way to make a personal contact even if briefly. It will make both of you more fully defined in each other's mind.

Tell Me About Yourself

One of the original reasons why resumé examples always recommended listing your hobbies and interests was for the reader to get a look into the real you as a person. However, today your hobby or interest may violate someone's sensibilities of political correctness. So this is why I always recommend you omit this personal information on a resumé.

But when you walk into an interview one of the questions you are virtually guaranteed to hear is, "So, tell me about yourself." What should you do? Well, first you should think about your answer before the interview.

Your answer should be honest, but it should not be too revealing. Let me explain. As I discuss in detail in Hired! there are certain questions that under Federal law an interviewer is not allowed to ask. These are questions that have no relevance to your ability to do the job you are interviewing for, but may consciously or unconsciously provide information to disqualify you from consideration.

Your response to "Tell me about yourself" should avoid providing answers to these questions that have not been asked. The topics you should avoid providing information about are

• Nationality
• Religion
• Age
• Gender issues
• Sexuality issues
• Marital and family status
• Health and physical abilities
• Residence, legal and military status

Of course it is prudent to avoid projecting political and economic biases as well because the person you are talking to may be on the other end of the political or economic spectrum.

So, what could you talk about? There is no one-size-fits-all formula because each of us is unique, but words matter and they matter a lot. I suggest that you prepare an honest and informative, but non-provocative, answer that you have scrubbed of content in any of the areas above.

For example, I have a single statement that I use as my answer: "I love puzzles and I have collected take-apart puzzles for many years. I like to go to the gym and I still play soccer in an over-30 league. I serve as assistant coach for a youth soccer team. And I am a real techie at heart. I am always reading technical material both about programming but also in other areas of science."

Any activity that involves serving others in a neutral setting, such as being a soccer coach, will create a positive impression. I do not, however, tell them that the youth soccer team is in a Christian soccer league. Am I afraid to say that? Not at all, but I don't want to add unnecessary "color" to the description that might raise a negative response in the other person's mind. If I am not the right person for the job I want that decision to be made strictly on the basis of my skill, knowledge, and experience. Period.

Note that I end my statement with a personal activity that relates directly to the technical nature of the job I would be applying for. Again, I am always thinking of a structure that will lead back to the reason why I am in that person's office. Otherwise, I could finish with something as personal as "...and I love Chinese food," but there would be no tie-in, would there? And is loving Chinese food really going to enlist a positive impression in the interviewer?

You are going to be asked this generic question about yourself. I have heard it as "Tell me what makes Gary really tick," or "What do you enjoy doing outside work." I strongly suggest you have the answer that is correct for you, long before you hear the question.