Think of it as a cross between information and entertainment. It’s “infotainment”—the perfect
blend of information about your skills and work experience, combined with the entertainment value that you bring to your interviews.
In this chapter, we have covered questions that will naturally lead to answers that are more entertaining than skills-based. By asking you questions such as these, your interviewer may be signaling that he wants to be entertained. And it’s your task to fulfill this directive. However, you also need to remember that your interviewer must come away with some information about you that will help him “sell you in” to others in his organization that may not be as entertainment- inclined.
Did your interviewer ask you one or two questions from another galaxy? By all means, go with the flow, and entertain him. But if you feel like your entire meeting with him has been more like a stand-up comedy routine than a sit-down interview, gently redirect the conversation.
Here are three conversational segues that will help you push the proverbial interview
“pendulum” back to a more typical interview, the kind where you get the chance to discuss your real qualifications.
1. “Gosh, we could talk about this for hours, but I know that your time is valuable. I’ve been so keen to meet with you, Harry, and I’m delighted that I finally got this golden opportunity. But I would hate to let it pass without discussing my credentials for this job. Along with having five solid years of experience under my belt, I also have…”
2. “Okay, now that you know absolutely every single thing about my personal values, I have a question for you. What, in your opinion, makes an ideal employee?”
3. “Gee, if you hire me, we can have conversations like this all the time over lunch. I brought you an extra copy of my resume today so that we could discuss my suitability for the position.
Take a look, and please feel free to ask me any question you want…” (Then, pull it out.)
200.
Which is more important to you, money or job satisfaction?A.
Job satisfaction, definitely. I find it difficult to get inspired by the number of zeroes in a passbook savings account. But I also believe that if you “follow your heart” when choosing a career, you’re far more likely to end up truly loving what you do, and that the money will eventually follow.Studies show that most people feel like it’s far more important to be satisfied at a job than to become rich from it. So always try to talk about your career in terms of “love,”
rather than “money.”
That’s a Wrap
1. If you are asked a question that’s dimly job related, do your best to focus your response to make it more relevant to the job. But if, try as you might, you can’t figure out a way do it gracefully, don’t fret. Instead, simply concentrate on making your interviewer respond positively to your personal charm.
2. When your interviewer asks about a life-changing event, don’t attempt to tie your answer to the job at hand, unless it comes naturally. Recognize that your interviewer may be going through some wacky life change of his own, and is probably more interested in finding out if you are a
“kindred spirit” rather than the world’s most talented executive.
3. Does an interviewer want to uncover your core values? Stop watching the clock and worrying about when the “real” interrogation will begin. Recognize that with today’s incredibly shrinking job pool, not all open positions always stay on the market. But if your interviewer likes you well enough, he might be able to help you out anyway. For example, he may know of an open job at another company, or in an entirely different department of his firm.
4. Don’t allow your interviewer to gaze into the “crystal ball” of your future, unless the exercise helps you make the case, in the here and now, for why you deserve the job. To land a job in the near future, keep your answers firmly focused on the present.
5. If a question strikes you as something that you might ask a friend of yours in a bar, go with your instinct, and make your response as engaging and entertaining as possible. Part of your challenge is to be the “most memorable job candidate,” so make certain that your interviewer will remember you vividly when you follow up with him.
CHAPTER 9 So You Were Fired
W
hile most people have been fired at least once in their careers (and many employees several times), let’s face it: being fired is not a stellar asset to have on your resume. For this reason, it really pays to ask yourself one question before you immediately update your resume with your last place of employment—namely, do you have to include it?If you worked at a company for six months or less, you may be far better off leaving it off your resume. Fibbing by omission is not the same thing as lying outright, and you might find it beneficial to fudge the facts a bit, rather than having to deal with the pernicious “Why were you fired?” question during an interview.
On the other hand, if you worked at a company for over a year, you will need to include it on your resume. Every job teaches us something—even if it’s only why we should never take the same type of job again! When questions about why you were fired are being fired at you, try to focus on what you learned from your last job and bring it out in your interview.