Ask your host for suggestions on what to order. If he or she says, “We come here for the steaks,” that may well be code for what the interviewer will order. If you select a chef salad, you’re stressing difference.
If you can, order something user-friendly. Given a choice, skinless, boneless chicken breast—easily cut and mounted on a fork—with mashed potatoes and green beans is not tricky stuff. Beware of dishes swimming in sauce.
The host will ask you to order first. Even if you’re uncomfortable with that, do it. Keep it simple. A host needs to match the number of courses with the number you order. If you order a five-course menu, he or she will be compelled to do the same. Think simple starter and entrée.
My single most important piece of advice: It’s not about the food. Eat before you go—an apple or a power bar. You will be better focused. You won’t be expected to clean your plate.
Handling serving personnel is another test to keep in mind.
Be kind and polite to the waitstaff. The interviewer isn’t just checking out how you handle the silverware, he or she is also reading how you manage other people. Don’t send your order back to the kitchen.
If it’s not about the food, it must be about the conversation. How can a candidate help an interview move smoothly?
Smile. Don’t be crazy silly. People like other people who are enthusiastic and positive. They also respect others who are in control of themselves. Your behavior should validate the following message: “I know the rules. I’m comfortable being a key player.”
Make good, confident eye contact. That’s a major measure of managerial strength and confidence. Hold someone’s glance for two to three seconds before you look away briefly. Project that you are in control yourself, holding gestures to a minimum. Keep your voice in a steady moderate volume range. Be careful about ending every sentence with a question—many young people do. Constantly interjecting the words “you know,” “um,” “ah,” and “like” broadcast insecurity and a poor command of the English language.
Regarding eye contact, one of the best tricks I’ve ever learned is to look at only one of the interviewer’s eyes. This takes lots of practice but presents you as a person who is totally focused and engaged in the conversation.
During a meal conversation, small talk is more likely to be part of the interaction than in an office interview. You think the interviewee is obliged to be prepared for this, don’t you?
There’s small talk versus power talk. Small talk will inevitably be part of the conversation. Be prepared to elevate the game in a natural way that shows you are a serious player. Reference a front-page article you saw in the
Wall Street Journal
that morning or a book you just read. Have something interesting to say.
Because you’re out of the office, your résumé may still be an important topic of conversation. Right?
Based on research, consider asking the interviewer before or after the meal is served, “I know you are extremely busy. Have you actually had a chance to read my résumé? This is not intended as an insult, but I know that résumés are often read by prescreeners, and you might not have had the opportunity to see mine.” Here’s a statistic that stuns just about everyone: 85 percent of the people actually doing the interview have not seen the résumé for the person they are meeting!
At which point, you should be ready to offer a crisp, clean copy of the document (have at least two) in the folder or case by your feet. Know your strengths really well and be prepared to point out how you would be a great fit for this company. As to weaknesses, be ready to identify them—and most important—what you have done to improve upon your shortcomings. Don’t raise the questions of compensation, benefits, or vacation during the visit unless your host does.
While the dialogue is going on, are there any other behaviors to guard against?
There are many little tests that go on during corporate interviews, and a candidate needs to know they are happening. No matter how hot it is, don’t take off your jacket or suit coat, even if your interviewer does. That can be a test as well.
Be conscious of your bearing. People who have been fired or engineered out of a job can gradually start slumping or give off signals of being defeated as a conversation progresses.
Make sure your cell phone is turned off before the meeting starts. That’s another reason for arriving early. If it rings during the meeting, do not answer the call. Just turn off the phone. Or, better yet, don’t bring your cell phone into an interview.
I’ve often maintained the most important dessert in an interview lunch is when the candidate asks the interviewer questions.
Is that ever the truth! Do your homework. When the lunch is over, the interviewer will probably ask, “Well, do you have any questions for me?” The comment not to make: “Nope, I think you’ve covered just about everything.” Ask interesting questions. That means going beyond topics easily answered on a company Web site or the entry about it in Wikipedia.
The most important consideration in framing your questions? Personalize. Ask the interviewer, “What do you like best about working at Firm X?” or “What’s the most interesting project you were ever assigned?” Engage the interviewer, and then be quiet and listen. This is the opportunity for interviewers to unfold what they are about. Don’t shortchange them of this chance to talk about themselves or to weigh what you hear and determine if you’re a good fit for this company.
If you don’t attempt to pay the bill, is that considered rude and presumptuous?
Don’t argue with the interviewer paying. It’s clear in such a situation that the interviewing company pays.
On the other hand, not knowing basic table etiquette might have a hefty price tag.
Indeed, it can. An accountant was up for a six-figure job. He went through the entire interview cycle without any exposure to other managers over a meal. Since he was going to be responsible for entertaining clients, the company figured it would be smart for someone to take this numbers guy out to dinner to make sure he could navigate through a place setting. He never took his napkin off the table during the entire meal . . . He wasn’t hired. He didn’t have basic dining manners down. If you can’t deal with the protocol of a basic table setting, how will you ever handle a business or entertain a client?
Yogi Berra said it best: “It ain’t over till it’s over.” A business interview is far from over when you and your host part company.
One of your last questions to the host or hostess should be, “How would you like me to follow up with you?” Immediately after the interview, send a short thank-you e-mail, and then be sure to debrief yourself into your notebook after the lunch to record what you did badly, what you did well, and especially which questions you answered clumsily or which stumped you completely.
Within twenty-four hours, mail what’s known as a “correspondence card.” This is about three and a half by five or four by six inches. Several fine stationery companies make them. A correspondence card is a blank, heavy-stock, formal card with no printed message or decoration on it. You handwrite a thank-you note, briefly reinforcing one or two points you made at your interview and include your business card. You mail this in a hand-addressed envelope with a first-class stamp.
Students of mine counter this suggestion with skepticism: “If everyone does what you recommend, no one would be special.” Based on history, only one half of one percent will actually do this, so you end up special, I reassure them.
I’ve shared national speaking forums with a business coach named Burt Dubin. Burt says he saved every handwritten thank-you note he ever got in twenty-four years of life in corporate America—all four of them. The handwritten note is still very powerful, as you have emphasized on countless occasions, Harvey.
By the way, even if you are unemployed, you should have an attractive, professional business card printed up. It’s very important that it have a suitable job title for the kind of position you are immediately seeking, let’s say “Insurance Actuarial” or “Marketing Analyst.” If you are actively searching two or three somewhat different kinds of jobs, business cards are inexpensive to print these days, so have them printed up with different titles.
Even among experts, there are different schools of thought regarding the pros and cons of aggressively following up on an interview. You warn candidates that their insistence can make them look vulnerable.
It’s OK to make one follow-up phone call after one week. If you don’t hear anything, they just may not be that into you. Or they could be busy. Don’t panic. Don’t appear desperate—that is very negative and can undo all the good work you achieved in the interview. Wait it out.
Mackay’s Moral:
An interview lunch weighs how you butter
your bread . . . and decides whether you’ll be getting any
bread at all.
Chapter 49
Art of the Ask:
It’s Not Just Your Answers
Countless job candidates come to an interview beautifully prepared to answer questions. The mistake they make is they’re not prepared to
ask
them.
At some point in every serious professional job interview, you’re going to be asked if you have any questions of your own. This is not the time to ask about salary and benefits. Your tactics aren’t to probe for information on your personal needs. This is the courtship phase. You’re still a long way from any permanent relationship. You have to strike sparks, differentiate yourself, show your people skills, and be perceptive.
Do you know what kinds of job interviews your cold interviewer really likes? Answer: when he or she gets to recommend a candidate for the job. There are so many, many interviews where the interviewers don’t. Successful candidates are the interviewer’s handpicked selections, and interviewers root for their choices the way handicappers root for their horses.
Interviewers serve as the gatekeepers not only of the company’s personnel but also of the company’s values. They are there both to screen out candidates who don’t fit and to be the first to tattoo “company” on the foreheads of those who do.
Give them the chance to do the fun part of their jobs—reveal the corporate soul:
1.
Ask about the company’s values.
Nothing is dearer to a company than its values. If you can ask a positive question that links the company’s values to its performance, you’ve already gone a long way toward demonstrating that you’re with the program. For example, “Last week I read in
Modern Envelope Reporter
that your quality program is knocking the industry’s socks off, and your sales prove it. Isn’t it pretty tough to maintain that standard of quality day after day?”
2.
If the company is one of the industry leaders, have them tell you more.
Successful companies, just like successful people, usually do not count modesty among their greatest virtues, and they’re not immune to skillful flattery. Ask the interviewer how the company got to be so good at what it does. “What does the competition see when they look at you?”
3.
If the company’s in the pits, ask questions that suggest solutions
. Companies in trouble are like people in trouble: They want solutions. They’re looking for role models, action plans, and action people to help transform them into winners again. They’re hiring because they’ve got some ideas about what it will take to put them back on their feet. They need the people who can help them execute those ideas, and provide some of their own. Ask, “Which companies in your industry do you feel you’d most like to resemble?” “How do you plan to achieve that?”
4.
Listen to the answers.
Don’t make it appear that you’re more interested in your own clever questions than you are in hearing and reacting to the responses.
5.
Be perceptive, not contentious.
Don’t show off by asking for the interviewer to act as a company spokesperson and explain some embarrassing gaffe like an environmental fine. You’re not there to sit in moral judgment. If the company’s behavior has offended you, this probably is not the place for you to seek employment. Be an interested and respectful listener.
6.
Don’t forget to read the walls and desks.
You may be talking to the consummate company person, but he or she is still a human being. Is there a three-year-old’s finger painting framed and propped up on the desk, perhaps next to a team photo or a Rotarian award on the wall? You should somehow be able to relate to one of these.
The late Victor Kiam (“I liked the company so much, I bought it”), one of history’s great serial entrepreneurs, told of a young man who wanted to work for him at Remington. After looking over the applicant’s résumé, Kiam said there was nothing available. Rather than ending the interview, the young man offered Kiam a plan. He would work for free for a month, betting his free labor that he’d find a position for himself at Remington. You guessed it—he found some problems during those thirty days, and devised a plan to solve them. He got a job.
Mackay’s Moral:
You may not be interviewing for a sales job,
but you have to be a great salesperson to sell yourself.
Quickie—One in a Hundred
Among financial services firms, few have been as successful as the North Star Resource Group, a firm with seventy thousand clients. Its chairman and CEO, Phil Richards, has taught business at the Carlson School of Management and lectured at universities in Beijing and Shanghai. He’s written a book titled
25 Secrets to Sustainable Success
.
A 2007 Malcolm Gladwell article in
The New Yorker
reported that North Star “interviewed about a thousand people, and found forty-nine it liked, a ratio of twenty interviewees to one candidate.” The candidates undergo a “training camp” where they act as financial advisers. That period lasts four months, and during it they are each expected to acquire at least ten real-world clients. “If someone can obtain ten clients, and is able to maintain a minimum of ten meetings a week, that means that person has gathered over a hundred introductions in that four-month period,” says Ed Deutschlander, co-president of North Star. “Then we know that person is at least fast enough to play this game.
“Of the forty-nine people invited to the training camp, twenty-three made the cut and were hired as apprentice advisers.” North Star figures it takes another three or four years to see if people really have the right stuff and hopes to retain about ten of those twenty-three.
Some of the very best businesses make book on these odds: Only one in a hundred of the people you see is likely to have the goods to be a star . . . and to keep burning bright. As a candidate, you might groan about having to march down this trail of white-hot embers. However, if you make it, think of the security of working with a firm this strong—and of the eye-popping clout that just being picked adds to your résumé.