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Anatomy of an Interview
By Edward A. Denison
The following is a story, a case study about a very qualified Operating Room nurse who went looking for a job while visiting her daughter. Read the story first, and then I will take apart what went wrong, with helpful suggestions so that you don?t do the same, in an interview.
Mary had more than 20 years of experience as an OR nurse. She lived on the East Coast and had worked in a large university setting for most of her career. Her background was excellent; she had scrubbed and circulated on a variety of cases, and she enjoyed mentoring other OR nurses. Mary decided, however, that it was time for a change. Her daughter had relocated to the Western United States, and Mary wanted to be closer to her. After 20 years in the same hospital, Mary put together a resume and began looking for a new position. As she was visiting her daughter one week, she spent a few days looking for a job. She had an interview on Tuesday and wore a sundress because she was technically on vacation. The interview went something like this:
Interviewer: Good morning Mary, my name is Mrs. Smith, and I'll be interviewing you today. Could you tell me a little bit about your background and why you'd like to work for ABC hospital?
Mary: Of course, Mrs. Smith, but first, could I ask you a few questions?
Interviewer (puzzled look on her face): Go ahead.
Mary: Could you tell me what the salary is for this position? And, by the way, I hope your call schedule isn't too bad, because I've worked for many years in the OR, and I am not up for taking too many calls. My daughter just moved to this area, and I'd like to be closer to her. I think I'll be a grandmother soon, and I really want time off to be able to spend time with my new grandchild. And I hope.
Interviewer: Well, Mary, I appreciate your taking the time to come in today. We'll keep your resume on file and will call you if we have an opening that matches your qualifications.
SIX IMPORTANT GUIDELINES TO INTERVIEWING
This scenario is not as uncommon as might be expected. Mary actually was very qualified for the position, and she did not intentionally set out to disqualify herself from the job in the initial interview. She did forget, however, one of the first guidelines of the interview process, - to be attentive to what the employer requires.
- Focus first on the employer's needs, not your own.
- Dress for the occasion.
- Arrive early.
- Be prepared to answer behavioral interviewing questions.
- Ask appropriate questions.
- Ask for the job.
You are there as an answer to your prospective employer?s problem or need. Therefore focus first on the employer's need, not your own. Sometimes job candidates are so focused on the "what is in it for me" syndrome that they forget about the main interview objective. That objective is to get to the next step in the process. To be considered. If a candidate fails at the first step, salary, benefits, and flexibility, the keys to the washroom, a lap top computer? do not matter. Leave questions about compensation and benefits for later in the interview process, and only ask them after the employer has expressed some interest in offering you the position. Additionally, candidates who have the qualifications the employer needs and who can present themselves well, often can obtain a higher offer than they initially expected.
Dress for the occasion. Even if you are just going into a facility to pick up an application, dress professionally. Leave the sundresses, sandals, tank top, cutoffs, and other casual attire at home. If you wear perfume or after-shave, use it sparingly. Even if the new workplace is casual, it is best to be conservatively and professionally dressed. Interviewees may find themselves talking to someone on an impromptu basis. Dressing professionally makes an individual look and feel more confident also. First impressions count. One vocational counsellor suggests that "It takes 15 seconds to make a first impression, so make a good one." My experience as a Career Coach is that within 3 to 5 seconds, an opinion is formed.
Arrive early. Arrive at least 10 minutes early for the interview and know the exact spelling and pronunciation of the interviewer's name. You will have time to do this by asking the receptionist. Take note of the person's title, name, address, and the location of the organization, as this will be needed to send a thank-you letter after the interview. Spell the interviewer's name properly. Several employers I have talked to often reflect that they would be hesitant to hire someone who cannot pay enough attention to detail, to even take the time to spell their names correctly.
Interviewees who arrive early have a chance to locate the proper department for the interview and have a few extra moments to collect their thoughts and perhaps spruce up in a washroom and check their shoulders for stray hairs and their teeth for breakfast. Furthermore, arriving early gives them a chance to observe current employees and get a feel of the overall atmosphere of the potential new workplace. In one case that I know of, a health care interviewing employer had a last minute change in the interview location because of some ongoing hospital construction. When applicants arrived at the hospital for their interviews, they were instructed to walk across the hospital campus to another part of the site. This was a five-minute walk, so applicants who arrived a few minutes early had no problem reaching the new interview location on time. Applicants who arrived at the original location right on time, however, actually were late in arriving at the new location. This was actually quite interesting as some applicants blamed the interviewer for moving the interview room, and the interviewer was able to tell quite a bit about prospective employees from their reactions to this unplanned scenario. Of course, the applicants who began making up excuses or blaming the interviewer were not selected for the position. The employer believed that if such a small adjustment in location caused such distress, what would happen to those applicants if they were hired for a position and had to make adjustments in their work setting? Flexibility is a trait that every employer values.
Be prepared to answer behavioral interviewing questions. Behavioral interviewing is a technique that is becoming increasingly popular with many hiring managers. I have found that the best predictor of future behavior is one's past behavior.
In a behavioral-based interview, the hiring manager may ask a series of questions that probe deeper into previous on-the-job experiences or actions. For example, the hiring manager may say, "Tell me about a specific situation with your last employer in which you really were bothered by the actions of a co-worker." The manager then may follow up with another question that asks the applicant to describe the results and effects of his or her particular action.
The best way to prepare for behavioral interviews is for individuals to write down their skills and then think about how these skills were used to handle a particular situation in the past. Think of behavioral interviewing as a type of story telling, but make sure that the "story" is concise. If you have a fairly good list of your personal and technical skills and can translate them to the requirements of a new position, I call those ?trans? skills. Translatable, transferable, transposable. ?Trans? is the ability to carry across. Never, ever, in an interview say, ?Well, I don?t think that I can?..? You need to translate a past action in a different setting for a different purpose to ?Because I am.?.., I can?..? In using behavioral interviewing applicants will be asked to describe both positive and negative work situations they have encountered in the past. Take the time to recall certain specific workplace situations, and be prepared to provide examples describing how a less than optimal situation was turned around for a positive outcome. Behavioral interviewing questions can pose problems for candidates who are unfamiliar with the process.
Ask appropriate questions. The interview is not only an opportunity for applicants to share information about their background, but it also is a time for them to find out about their prospective employer. Questions initially need to be focused on the employer's needs and not, as mentioned earlier, be about salary or benefit packages. For example, the candidate may ask the employer about goals for the position in question, including immediate and long-term goals. What challenges has the department faced in the past? What opportunities are there for the future? Who held the position before this? If the predecessor received a promotion, what accomplishments led to the promotion? What personality style and cluster of characteristics would a successful person need to have to do the job well?
The information received from asking these types of questions during the interview will be invaluable, and applicants will understand the job, environment, and culture of the potential employer better if they ask the right questions. Additionally, by listening to the answers, applicants can tailor their further responses to the interviewer's questions more appropriately. This is important because if the applicant successfully shows the interviewer that he or she can meet the employer's needs, he or she likely will move on to the next step in the process.
Ask for the job. At the end of the interview, an applicant who likes the way the interview has progressed needs to ask for the job. This is one of the most important parts of the interview that so often gets omitted or forgotten. After thanking the interviewer for his or her time, the applicant must tell the interviewer clearly that he or she would like to be considered for the position. Unless you do this, the interviewer has no way of knowing that you are still interested. Not hearing that question, they may form their own conclusion that something in the interview caused you to change your mind about wanting that job.
Ask the interviewer what the next steps in the interview process will be and when he or she can be contacted. At this point, the applicant can advise the interviewer that he or she will be following up with a telephone call if there has been no word by the date specified. Follow up with a written thank-you note to the employer. In the note, thank the interviewer for his or her time and again mention your desire to become a member of their staff.
ACHIEVING SUCCESS
Interviewing is a skill. Sometimes, skills get rusty, especially if they have not been used regularly. Understanding the anatomy, the bones, of the interview can help anyone land the job that feels like their hobby.
Good books ?
- A M Sabath, Business Etiquette in Brief: The Competitive Edge for Today's Professional (Holbrook, Mass: Adams Media Corp, 1993)
- P C Green, Get Hired! Winning Strategies to Ace the Interview (Austin, Tex: Bard Press, 1996).
