How to get Interview calls and face Interview successfully?

6 Steps to a Job Search Action Plan

Has it been a while since you planned a job search? Or maybe it’s your first time? At the outset, looking for a new job can seem like an enormous task. But if you break the job search down into simple steps, you’ll be signing that employment offer in no time.

Use this helpful six-step framework to guide your job search action plan:

1. Assess yourself.
The start of any good job search begins with a thorough self-assessment. Looking for a new job is a great opportunity to realign your goals—and it’s up to you to articulate exactly what those goals are.

Start by asking yourself these questions and spend some time reflecting on the answers:

• What are my values? Deep down, what guides me as I make my decisions? Is it a need to make a difference or make big bucks, be the center of attention or help others?
• What are my priorities and objectives for the next few years? What about five years from now?
• What are my core strengths?
• What provides meaning in my life? What is my purpose?
• Where does work fit into my vision of life?

For help with your soul-searching, take advantage of your career center’s self-assessment resources, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or look for self-assessment resources online. Participate in career center workshops or read some career-planning books, such as my book, The Ultimate Guide to Getting the Career You Want and What To Do Once You Have It, which includes self-assessment exercises.

2. Research your career goals.
Now that you’ve established your sense of purpose, you’ll need to do some research to keep your career dreams aligned with reality. Broadly explore industries, jobs, and organizations to generate your job options wish list.

Consider these questions as you research careers and industries:

• What product or service does this industry actually offer?
• Who are the major players and up-and-comers?
• What are the critical success factors for a company in the industry?
• What is the outlook and hiring potential for this industry?
• What type of talent does the industry attract, hire, and need?

While researching companies, ask yourself:

• What differentiates this company from others in the industry?
• What are this company’s culture, values, and priorities?
• Who are its leaders (CEO, CFO, and COO), and what do they seem to stand for?
• How does this company treat its employees?
• What is the company’s reputation?
• What would it be like to work there?

Websites are a great resource. Since there are more than 2,500 job- and career-related websites online, you’ll need to be selective about which ones you use. Sites with huge databases of company and industry profiles, like WetFeet, net the best return on your time investment. Also visit individual company websites to get more specific info. Major publications like Business Week, Fortune, Working Mother, and Forbes often rank top companies by industry.

Networking is another great way to learn about the functions, fields, companies, and geographic locations that interest you—not to mention make future job connections. Your circle of friends is a great place to begin building (or reviving) your network. Other valuable contacts include former and current co-workers, career services professionals, and alumni from your high school, undergraduate, or graduate programs. See what events your career services office, student clubs, and alumni groups are planning that might provide valuable contacts or learning experiences.

3. Lay out your plan.
Narrow your job options wish list based on a realistic assessment of how you fit into the industries, organizations, and roles that interest you (now possible with all the research you’ve been doing). Determine your top priorities along with those you’ll pursue for a backup plan. As a rule of thumb, focus on a maximum of two or three industries and ten to 20 organizations. Choose another ten organizations for your backup plan.

Sketch out the general timing of your job search based on when your top-choice industries tend to recruit. If you’re in school, expect to dedicate as much time to your job search as you would to an entire course. Graduates and mid-career job seekers should expect to spend one to two months searching for every $10,000 of their targeted salary. For example, a job paying $100,000, could take 10 to 20 months to find.

4. Develop a self-marketing strategy.
Now the real fun begins. It’s time to market your number-one product … you! To help plan your marketing strategy, think of yourself in terms of the classic marketing 5Ps:

Product: What do you have to offer? What key skills and attributes can you offer your “customers” (i.e., potential employers)?

Price: What is your value in the marketplace? Do your educational background, experience, and professional strengths qualify you as a premium product—something elite—or will you need to start “discounted” to get your foot in the door of your targeted industry?

Promotion: What themes or messages convey what you have to offer professionally?

Place (distribution): How will you distribute yourself on the market? Consider using multiple means of “delivering” yourself to potential employers. This could include on-campus recruiting events, job ads, career fairs, company websites, executive recruiters, and referrals from your network.

Positioning: What differentiates you from other candidates? What is unique about your skills, background, or interests?





Use these sample questions to kick off your informational interviews:

• Can you tell me a bit about your background?
• How did you get started in this industry?
• What’s the company culture really like?
• Can you describe a typical day or week?
• What advice would you offer to someone trying to break into this industry?
• What do you like the most and least about the industry? About the job? About the company?
• How would you approach a job search for this organization or industry?
• Could you recommend other colleagues with whom I can speak? Is it OK to use your name when I contact them?

5. Prepare for job interviews. Informational interviewing is also good practice for the real thing. Performing mock interviews and videotaping them is another way to practice and get feedback.

For more information on interviewing, refer to "Surviving and Thriving in a Tough Job Market: Acing the Interviews," "Decoding the Interview and Evaluation Process," and "Ten Executives Discuss What They’re Looking for When They Interview Candidates".

Develop at least three questions for each interview. For help, refer to "What to Say When It’s Your Turn to Ask Questions in an Interview."



6. Implement your plan, making adjustments along the way.
Now it’s time to put your well-laid plans into action. Work your network to spread the news of your job search. Continue asking for more contacts. Conduct informational interviews. Research job postings, write cover letters, and send out those resumes.

As you move your action plan forward, try to get feedback whenever possible to make midcourse corrections and improve your results. Ask for feedback from your career services advisors, colleagues who review your resume, your informational interview contacts, and those who have interviewed you for a job. Incorporate the constructive lessons you take from them to improve your approach.

And don’t forget to self-evaluate by asking:

• What is and isn’t working?
• Where can I improve?
• What help or advice do I need?
• Where can I go for help, resources, and expertise?
• Are there gaps in my performance that need filling in?
• How do I stay motivated to keep up my momentum?

Having a plan is an enormous benefit to guide and inspire the success of your job search. And broken down into steps, a seemingly insurmountable task is suddenly rendered manageable. Best of luck on your job search!

Ace Your Audition Interview
Audition interviews test how you'd perform on the job by having you perform the job as part of the interview.

Some employers realize that it is difficult to obtain a full picture of someone's capabilities and behavior in a normal interview. They may, instead, devise a simulation or put you in the real-life role before making a final decision.

Simulation
For example, the employer might ask a candidate for a training position to make a presentation; a programmer to create a small program; or a telephone salesperson to call an imaginary prospect.

Assignment
Or the employer might ask you to tackle a short assignment. (Usually these brief tasks can be performed in an hour or less; you will not be compensated. You should be compensated for longer assignments.)

Such opportunities should be welcomed, because they give both you and the employer a clearer picture of the job requirements and your likely performance. To prepare for a situation in which you might be asked to audition, simply practice your skills. Then approach the audition task as you would if you were a professional on the job.

Suggest an Audition
Note: In situations where other candidates appear to have an edge because of stronger educational qualifications or experience, you might want to suggest an audition. You could gain a lot, and you have very little to lose!

Acing Your Tech Interview

Three essential tips to getting through your tech interview and getting the job.

You might think technical-job interviews are no different from interviews for non-tech jobs, but in fact, they’re special situations with unique potential pitfalls. The three tips that follow will help you better prepare for them.

1. Be prepared to prove yourself.
Your resume will be examined from top to bottom, taken apart and put back together. Make sure you know what’s on it, and make sure you’re telling the truth. Edith, a business analyst at a technology-consulting firm, says “It may be tempting to load up your resume with experience you wish you had, but as soon as the interviewer asks you for more information, you’ve blown it.”

David, a systems administrator, is adamant that the biggest mistake you can make in a technical interview is to try to fake your way through it. “If you don’t know something, don’t BS about it.” And Johanna, a recruiter, warns that interviewers may even ask you questions that are impossible to answer, just to see if you’ll admit what you don’t know.

The best way to prepare is to review your resume and practice expounding on each and every part of it. If you say you know Java, can you prove it? If you say you have network administration experience, can you talk an interviewer through the process of setting up a mailbox and giving multiple users access to it? Be prepared to answer questions about how to build a particular application or tackle a specific problem.

The questions themselves, of course, depend on the specific position. But you can be sure that your interviewer won’t just take your resume at face value.

2. Watch your attitude.
Perhaps the worst mistake you can make in a tech interview (besides lying or trying to convince an interviewer that you know more than you really do) is to be arrogant. Techies often get a bad rap for lacking social skills, particularly when they’re dealing with non-techies. Be confident, yes, but don’t try to talk over your interviewer’s head and don’t be condescending. “You should come across as knowledgeable, relaxed, and sure of yourself—never arrogant,” says David, the systems administrator.

Don’t be careless in your dress, either. The rule of thumb for dressing for any interview—wear a conservative version of what you’d wear for the job one level above the one you’re seeking—applies to tech jobs, too. Sure, you might wear sweatpants and pocket T-shirts once you’ve got the job, but the interview is not the time to be casual. Emy, a dot com recruiter, says “It’s not necessary for a man to wear a tie or for a woman to wear a suit, but it sure does impress me.”

3. Ask well-informed questions.
At the end of each interview, when the interviewer says, “Well, that’s about it. Do you have any questions?” don’t say no. (That’s a good rule of thumb for any interview, not just for tech jobs.) But make sure that you ask questions that show you understand the business, not just the technology.

Johanna, the recruiter, says “Show you’re not only interested in money, but in what the position has to offer. Ask questions such as ‘What new markets does this company intend to go after, now that you’ve conquered this market? Looking to the future, how do you see me fitting into the company?’ Make a big deal out of the big picture. Don’t be too narrowly focused.”

It’s also a good idea to ask to meet people in other departments. Talk to members of the company’s marketing or business-development teams to find out how they represent the company to potential clients. You’ll show that you’re interested in learning how the entire company functions and that you’re not planning to hole yourself up in the server room all day.

Be Creative in Your Brainteaser Interview

Brainteasers are logic puzzles. Some interviewers use them to test your analytical and problem-solving ability.

Remember those little logic puzzles your crazy uncle used to throw your way after Thanksgiving dinner to see if he could stump you? Well, they have been given new life and function in consulting, investment banking, and high-tech industry job interviews. Brainteaser cases can take many forms. Some are straightforward logic puzzles (for example, "If you have a drawer filled with eight white socks and 13 black socks, what is the smallest number you would have to pull out without looking in order to be sure that you had a matching pair?"). Other questions might not have a single correct answer. Instead, they may serve as a platform for you to demonstrate your creativity and ability to think "out-of-the-box." For example, your interviewer might ask you to list all the ways you could find a needle in a haystack. It's always a good idea to let your interviewer know what you are thinking as you attack the question. Even if you don't end up with the right answer, your analytical ability will be on display. Also, if you do start down the wrong track, your interviewer may be kind enough to nudge you down another path. Even if an idea seems really outlandish, you should probably offer it up. Brainteasers are often designed to showcase an individual's creativity. The only sure way not to get any points on such a question is to sit there like a rabbit in the headlights. Thump! Sample Brainteaser This is a little logic puzzle that could be given to undergrads, MBAs, or advanced-degree candidates. You have eight balls, one of which is heavier than the others. All the balls appear identical. You have a balance-type scale, and you can perform trials on the balls. What is the minimum number of trials required to determine which is the heaviest ball? Solution Two. You start by putting three balls on each side of the scale. There are two basic outcomes: one set of three is heavier, or both sets are in balance. If one set is heavier, you choose two balls from that set and weigh one on each side of the balance. If the balls balance, you know that the remaining one from the set is the heavy one. In the second outcome from the first measurement, the two sets of three balls are in balance. That means the heavy ball is among the remaining two. Weigh them, and you'll have your answer.

Behavioral Interview Cheat Sheet

A step-by-step guide to acing the behavioral interview.

Chances are your next interview will be a behavioral one. Many Fortune 500 companies, as well as public and private firms of all sizes, consider behavioral interviewing to be the most accurate predictor of a candidate's potential for job success. Here's what you need to know to get past your next behavioral interview and get the job.

What Is a Behavioral Interview?
Behavioral interviewing is a standardized method designed to elicit information from a job candidate about relevant past behavior and performance. It is based on the premise that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

During a behavioral interview, you will be asked a series of standardized questions. With each answer, you'll be expected to describe examples of behaviors, which the interviewer will use to assess your proficiency in one or more job-related competencies. These competencies can include anything from adaptability to leadership to problem solving.

The interviewer will also observe, but not question, your impact or physical presence and communication skills (both verbal and non).

Questions You Should Expect
You will be asked to describe specific situations that demonstrate your abilities in a requisite competency. Here are some examples of typical behavioral questions and the competencies they demonstrate:

• Describe a difficult problem that you tried to solve. How did you identify the problem? How did you go about trying to solve it? (Demonstrates problem solving)
• Describe a time when you tried to persuade another person to do something that he/she was not very willing to do. (Demonstrates leadership)
• Describe a time when you decided on your own that something needed to be done, and you took on the task to get it done. (Demonstrates initiative)

How to Answer the Questions
A good answer should have three parts. Think of it as a “STAR” response.

1. ST: Situation or Task. Describe the context in which the behavior or action took place.

2. A: Action. Logically take the interviewer through the steps you took to handle the situation or resolve the problem. Keep your answer clear and concise.

3. R: Results. Explain your results Even if you weren't as successful as you'd hoped, it's important to make it clear that you understand the implications of the outcome and why it happened.

Preparing for a Behavioral Interview
1. Know your resume. This might seem obvious, but your resume is often the basis for many questions. Identify the competencies that your resume demonstrates.

2. Be able to draw from a variety of experiences that demonstrate your skills and abilities. Volunteer activities, military experience, clubs and organizations, and school and educational endeavors are all fair game.

3. Be familiar with the job for which you're interviewing. Discern the competencies that are required for success in the job and think of the components of your experience that best exemplify your abilities in those competencies. Remember that different companies and industries may require different competencies, even for the same position. For example, “self-managing” can mean very different things to a dot com than to an old-line Fortune 500 firm.

4. Develop a coherent and articulate STAR narrative for each competency that you think you will be questioned. You should prepare at least one STAR response for each bullet point on your resume.

Practice Question
Imagine that you have an interview at a dot com. One competency that Internet companies usually require is flexibility—as many have vaguely defined job descriptions, loosely structured reporting relationships, and rapidly changing business models.

In order to evaluate your flexibility, your interviewer might ask: "Describe a time when you had to function in an environment that was different from one you had functioned in before. How did you adapt?"

Use a STAR Response
1. ST (Situation/Task): Describe the situation. If you are a student with little work experience, you might compare your high-school and college environments. For example: "I went to high school at a small private school in the Midwest. Everyone knew each other. But then I chose to go to college at a large public institution in the northeast. There, I was virtually anonymous."

If you were in the military, you might think about your first job in the private sector. For example: "I went into the Navy straight out of college. In the military, there is a very defined hierarchy. When I took my first job as a civilian, I discovered that the hierarchy among subordinates, peers, and superiors was of a very different style."

If you were promoted, you might think about how it affected your relationship with colleagues. For example: "As a sales rep., I had a friendly rapport with my peers. But when I was promoted to division manager, not only did I suddenly have to relate to them as their supervisor, but I also had to deal with my former manager as an equal." If you changed firms, you might think about the cultural differences you faced. For example: "I first worked at a company with a formal office culture. We wore suits, made appointments to meet, and had rigidly set office hours. When I changed firms, every day was like casual Friday. We just stuck our heads into someone’s office if we wanted to talk about something and worked flexible hours."

2. A (Action): Explain what you did. "I soon realized I needed to adjust for my new conditions. I got a feel for who did what and how they did it. By talking to people and getting some on-the-spot experience, I discovered how things got done and modified my work habits. Then I set some personal and professional goals and determined how to best accomplish them in my new environment."

3. R (Result): Describe the results of your actions. "While I still find I work best when I do things a particular way, I now know that adapting to a new environment is one of the most important things if you want to make a significant contribution. I was able to build good and productive working habits and relationships in my new environment."

Behavioral Interviews and the Career Changer

Everything a career changer needs to know about behavioral interviews.

If you're changing careers, behavioral interviews can your best friend. In fact, they can provide the perfect showcase.

How Behavioral Interviews Work
In a behavioral interview, the interviewer will evaluate your competencies (such as teamwork, analysis, planning, and initiative) in relation to those she has determined to be required for successful performance on the job.

Behavioral interviewing is designed to elicit information from a job candidate about relevant past behavior and performance. The theory is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. The interviewer will ask you to discuss your past experiences in an attempt to assess your proficiency in one or more job-related competencies.

She may ask you to describe a situation in which a certain behavior occurred, your behavior or actions in the situation, and the results or outcomes of your behavior or actions. As a career changer, this will give you an opportunity to discuss how you successfully demonstrated these required competencies. These skills and abilities, and the aptitudes they reveal, are highly transferable.

You'll have lots of work experience to draw from when answering behavioral questions. But you can also take examples from non-vocational experiences, such as your volunteer activities or education. It doesn't matter if your work history doesn't have much to do with the job you're interviewing for: You can shine in a behavioral interview without ever having been near your new career.

Getting Ready for an Interview
How can you prepare to highlight your transferable skills in a behavioral interview? Start by making a chart with three columns.

In the first column, list the experience you have. Be specific. Use your resume, but don't forget volunteer activities, special training, military experience, and nonvocational experiences. In the second column, list the competencies each piece of experience required. In the third column, note how you demonstrated each competency.

Experience	Competency	Demonstration/Action
Designed new circuit system	Analysis	Secured relevant data Developed alternative courses of action Based solution on logical assumptions and factual information
	Initiative	Identified a need Took it upon myself to improve the situation Went above and beyond what was required
	Developed partnerships	Established shared goals Showed sensitivity and appreciation of partners' needs Expressed a willingness to compromise

Evaluating the Job’s Competencies
Carefully consider what competencies are important for your new career. They may be quite different from those in your previous career. For example, in a scientific career, technical expertise may be more highly valued than teamwork. But if you’re a scientist who wants to switch to a career in a less technical arena—such as business—technical expertise may be less important than other abilities.

To determine what competencies the interviewer will evaluate, carefully read the job description, classified ad, or job posting, and think about what qualities you know are necessary for success in the job.

Next, review your chart and develop a narrative that demonstrates each of the competencies. Adjust your description to focus on the aspects that are important to your new career. Remember to explain the situation, the action you took and the result you achieved.

Finally, study your chart and practice your answers—you don't need to memorize them, but know them well enough that you won't get stumped on interview day. When you go in for your interview, you'll be prepared and confident, and ready to answer any behavioral question that comes your way.

Take a practice question
Imagine that you are switching careers from engineering to marketing.

Question: Describe a time when you decided on your own that something needed to be done and took on the task yourself.

Good Answer: The circuit system in my plant was adequate, but I thought that if it were reconfigured, we would be more productive. I knew that if I wanted to suggest this to the plant manager, I’d better have a complete plan of action.

I studied our system after I completed my work each day. On weekends, I researched the latest developments. I talked with other folks at the plant to find out what improvements would help them be more productive. Then I put a design together, and I developed a strong set of reasons why we should undertake the redesign, including a cost–benefit analysis and a discussion of our long-term strategies.

When I had everything pulled together, I made an appointment with the plant manager. She was pleasantly surprised and impressed with my proposal and took it to the higher-ups. They approved it with a few minor revisions to satisfy some budgetary concerns. We are in the process of implementing my design right now.

Case Interview Cheat Sheet

Use this cheat sheet to ace your next case interview.

If you're applying for a job at a consulting firm, chances are you'll be confronted at least once with the dreaded case interview. In it, you'll be asked to analyze a hypothetical business problem and come up with solutions. Case interview questions are designed to test your ability to think analytically under stress, with incomplete information. While case interviews rarely have just one right answer, there is a right way to approach them.


Tips to help you crack the case every time:

• Listen carefully to the material presented. Take notes if you want to, and be sure to ask questions if you are unsure about details.
• Take your time. You're not expected to have a brilliant solution to a complex problem on the tip of your tongue. If you need a minute or two to collect your thoughts and work through your answer, say so.
• Offer a general statement or framework up front to serve as an outline for your answer. Although the framework can be something as elaborate as a 3C (customer, company, competition) model, it need not be anything more than something like: If you're asking about declining profits, then I'd want to check into factors affecting cost, and factors affecting revenues. On the cost side..." As you proceed with your answer, draw on the outline of your framework.
• Home in on key issues. Many interviewers will be checking to see if you operate by the 80-20 rule, which means you should first address the broader issues that will get you 80 percent of the way to a good solution.
• Orient your answer toward action. Theory is good for the classroom, but it won't fly in a boardroom. Clients want to know what steps they can take to solve a problem, not pie-in-the-sky philosophy.
• Think out loud. The interviewer is looking as much for evidence of a logical thought process as for a brilliant conclusion to the case problem.
• Be conscious of resources. A lot of consulting work involves figuring out how you are going to collect the information you need to answer a question—without costing the client a fortune. If it relates to the problem, ask your interviewer about the budget, capital, and other resources that the client can allocate to the solution.

Above all, have fun with the case! Consulting is really like a steady succession of case interview questions. To do well, you need to enjoy the intellectual challenge of analyzing tough problems and coming up with reasonable solutions.

Common Job Search Misconceptions

Dispelling some common myths for first-time job seekers.

Contrary to what you may think as you mop the sweat from your brow while contemplating your upcoming interviews, the recruiter who'll be sitting across the table from you wasn't born in a pinstriped suit with the keys to a Beamer in one hand and a Palm Pilot in the other.

In fact, at one point she was probably in the same position that you're in right now as you begin your search: Sitting in a one-room apartment eating ramen noodles and wondering if she'd ever find a job. Thinking that interviewers are genetically superior beings is one of the misconceptions that many job seekers seem to have as they prepare themselves for the interviews that will pull them out of their MSG-saturated college days and into the lightning pace of the business world.

Quite a few misconceptions seem to be floating around out there; WetFeet would like to explode some of them and, we hope, ease your pain.

Misconception Number One: My Resume Is a Comedy Routine
A lot of job seekers try to add panache to their resume by making them unconventional. Take it from us: Your resume is not the best forum for your dry wit.

It might seem like a great idea at the time to paste macaroni to your resume or describe your work experience in iambic pentameter. You're trying to prove your creativity and individuality, as well as give the recruiter a little taste of who you are. Trust us when we tell you that this isn't the you the recruiter wants to know. The you the recruiter wants to know would not create and submit a document called "The Resume Rap" that tries to rhyme the phrases "job experience" and "I think you'll dig this."

Truth: The Recruiters' Point of View
Recruiters want resumes that let them know what you will bring to the company and how you'll be a good addition to the team. They want this information in a format that is easily comparable to other resumes, a format that won't give them a headache. Your job is to make the recruiter's job easier so that he or she will want to hire you. Your job is not to show off your origami skills by folding your resume into a swan.

Misconception Number Two: The Recruiter Is Out to Get Me
One of the most popular fallacies among inexperienced job hunters is that the recruiter is out to get them. The fresh-faced grads coming out of college and heading to their first real job interviews seem to have a mental picture of the recruiter as a mustache-twirling Snidely Whiplash (from the "Dudley Do-Right" segments of Rocky and Bullwinkle) whose only goal is to mystify, humiliate, befuddle, and ding prospective job seekers, or at least tie them to some train tracks somewhere.

Truth: Bad Recruiters Don't Last
In fact, the interviewer isn't going to be hiding behind the door with a baseball bat waiting to ambush you when you show up in your freshly pressed new suit. Recruiters who dismiss everyone they interview probably aren't going to be recruiting for very long. They're supposed to be separating the wheat from the chaff, not just whacking everything they see with their scythe.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't be on top of your game when you're sitting across the table from your interviewer. Even though it isn't a recruiter's job to Shaq everybody who tries to get to the hoop, they do have to make sure that you've got game. The recruiter's job is to put you through your paces, making sure that you have the proper skills, education, and attitude to make it in the business world.

Even if it seems like malice when he puts the pressure on, he's just doing it to make sure that you can take the heat once he signs you on. If you've got your game with you, don't sweat it; your antiperspirant will hold up just fine—so will you, kid.

Misconception Number Three: I'll Fit in Anywhere
Say it's your first day at your new job. You made it past the interviews and won a cubicle of your very own. You arrive at 8:58 a.m. with the required first-day-on-the-job gear: A picture of your significant other or your cat, a couple of knickknacks to ensure that your desk has character, and the W-2 forms from the guys in HR.

You lay out your bric-a-brac, check your breath by blowing into your hand, and start asking around if there's any free coffee in the office. Suddenly, everyone around you stands up and gives a three-count. At three, your coworkers break into an a cappella version of "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. There is dancing and high kicks, and Larry from accounting flips the lights on and off to simulate a strobe. You look around for Allen Funt but realize to your horror that you're not on Candid Camera. Even though the guy over by the copy machine looks like he phoned in that split, for the most part your fellow employees are getting into it.

Truths: Do your Homework
If you'd done a little research on the company before you signed on, you would have found out that it's a subsidiary of Sporty Spice enterprises and that the dance routine is a mandatory morning icebreaking exercise. You'll be expected to participate in full tomorrow and for the rest of your life at the company.

Corporate Culture Is Top Priority
So, when you're sitting in front of your computer at three a.m. trying to get your resume to print after you spilled coffee on the keyboard, corporate culture might not rate high on your list of concerns. But once you get the job, it can become priority number one no matter how many times you tell yourself that you'll make do.

If you don't fit in with the culture of your company, it will affect your happiness, your ability to work, and possibly your long-term health. Find out a little about what you're getting into before you sign on. If you don't, you might regret it in the morning. Oh, and look—here comes Larry with a Scary Spice wig and a tube top for you!

Decoding the Interview and Evaluation Process

Veteran recruiter Sherrie Taguchi gives you the straight scoop on what to expect, how you are being evaluated, and what to do to put your best foot forward.

It’s another tough job market this year. Looking for a competitive advantage or new resources to help you prepare and perform at your best? Here are some insights into the interviewing and evaluation process.

Taxonomy of an Interview
A first-round interview typically has five distinct phases:
I. Breaking the ice
II. Asking questions of the candidate
III. Probing or circling back to areas for more in-depth information
IV. Directing questions to the recruiter
V. Following up and going over next steps—the close



I. Breaking the ice. Start with a firm handshake and a smile that convey your enthusiasm and energy. Then, either wait to see what the recruiter says and follow his or her lead, or start by saying something that connects you quickly. This can be something as simple as, “How are you?” or “Nice to meet you” (or “It’s good to see you again—we met at your information session last month …”). Though talking about the weather seems a bit trite, it’s universally accepted icebreaker material—for example, “It’s been raining the past few weeks, but it’s nice that it finally cleared up today.”

Of course, if you're more of a risk-taker and can think quickly on your feet, you can try something bolder. Maybe you’ve observed something on the recruiter’s desk—a magazine you subscribe to or a high-tech gadget that you also have. You can break the ice by mentioning some clever fact or piece you read in (if a magazine) or about (if a gadget) that item.

II. Asking questions of the candidate. Know your resume cold. Anything on it, including the additional information or hobbies and interests are fair game. Also, make no mistake: You need to have a thorough knowledge of how your career goals and aspirations relate to your background in advance of your interviews. This means clarifying for yourself what your values, purpose in life, and job/career goals and objectives are. Ask yourself: What are the key themes about yourself you want to get across to the recruiter? What motivates you? Why did you return to get your MBA, and so on. Knowing who and what you are about will provide a strong foundation. It will help you speak from a position of strength and confidence.

Just because this is the time when the interviewer is asking the questions, doesn’t mean you should let him or her take over, thus allowing the interaction to be lopsided. Instead, make every effort to actively engage the interviewer by using facial expressions and nodding your head in understanding or agreement. This is a surefire way to communicate your positive energy to the interviewer. By all means, ask for clarification concerning a question when you really need it; this way, you can buy some time to frame your thoughts and compose yourself before you respond with an answer.

No matter what, you’ll want to listen actively. Don’t think about what you’re going to say in answer to a question while the recruiter is talking because you may miss an important nuance or qualifier to the question. After listening to each question, take a few seconds to organize your thoughts, think before you speak, and answer succinctly and directly.

In my book, Hiring the Best and the Brightest … A Roadmap to MBA Recruiting, I’ve highlighted 15 executives’ favorite interview questions and approaches. Some snapshots include:

·  An SVP at Yahoo! who says that interviews involve give and take. She advocates the approach for second-round interviews in which many people within the organization interview a candidate in order to gain diverse perspectives. This, she says, is the most effective way to getting the best, most complete picture of who the candidate really is.

·  The COO of Del Monte Foods says that what’s most important is how well a candidate can work with and through people. “Arrogance or elitism is a kiss of death, no matter the credentials,” he says.

·  A VC managing director says he works on “sorting the doers from the posers.” He says he has little time for candidates who do not display the kind of hunger or genuine interest required for the job. It’s in that first interview where mutual trust and respect for the relationship begins, he adds.

·  A leading mutual fund manager and CEO of a start-up looks at how people make big decisions. He also cares about how candidates build and maintain personal relationships: Do they have long-term friendships, and how do they get along with their families?

·  A former MD at Goldman Sachs, who was head of recruiting and is now a principal in investment management, says she zeroes in on the hobbies and interests tucked at the bottom of the resume. She says she’s learned a lot about people, their character, and substance from probing on those activities. For example, someone she interviewed once wrote down that wine tasting was a hobby. When asked what kind of wine was her favorite, the candidate replied “white.” Isn’t much of a hobby if the person couldn’t name a specific wine type or brand name, is it? The point is that if you are going to put something on your resume, be prepared to talk about it.

·  A partner at Bain selects one of the most complex or specialized accomplishments on candidates’ resumes and asks them to explain it as if to their six-year-old sister. He does this to test “their ability to explain synthetically and simply very complex things”—something an effective consultant should be able to do with all sorts of clients.

·  A museum director and a CEO of a non-profit say they both “look and listen for values alignment” to the mission of their organizations. They also stress the importance of assessing how resourceful a candidate has been with limited funds. Both the director and the CEO consider how an individual would work with their board of directors and their ability to raise funds.

FAQs
Behavioral interviewing is still the most popular approach to assessing a candidate’s worth. Essentially, the premise is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. In my work as head of recruiting for a bank, consumer products company, and retail company, and in advising many recruiters while at Stanford, I have found these to be my favorite frequently asked questions across industries:

• Give me an example of a time when you ______. (Fill in the blank with what the job requires, what the interviewer is evaluating you for. Possible fill-ins are: handled a crisis; dealt with a conflict; handled a stressful situation; made a mistake or failed at something; had to become an expert at something quickly; had to influence people who did not report to you; implemented an idea; managed a large-scale project; solved a problem; implemented a creative solution; took a risk; worked on a team; accomplished something against the odds …)
• Tell me about yourself (in two minutes).
• Why did you decide to get your MBA, and why did you choose to do it at this school?
• What have you learned, or what’s your favorite course and why?
• Describe a time you failed and what you learned from that failure.
• What do you know about us, and why are you interested in working with us?
• How does your experience/background relate to this job? Or, why are you the best candidate for this job. Or, why should we consider you for this role?
•   What would your former boss, coworkers, and staff tell me about you?
•   Everyone has developmental areas—what are yours?
•  What do you see yourself doing in three to five years?

III. Probing or circling back to areas for more in-depth information. I will keep on probing an area if a response to one of my questions is too generic or not substantive enough. In both instances, I am unable to get a read on whether the candidate possesses the quality required for the job. Also, if a job requirement is absolutely essential, I will ask multiple questions around that requirement to make sure the candidate has what it takes to succeed in the job. For example, if managing people is a key requirement, I may ask something like, “Tell me what your direct reports would say about you” or “How did you motivate your team?”

If the candidate says something generic like, “My team would say I was a great manager and that I managed them by example,” I would probe further. Questions might include: Give me two or three examples of difficult people or people in difficult situations whom you have managed; what did you do, what was the outcome? If the candidate gave me examples of when she had to fire someone; do a painful layoff; manage people who were older, more experienced, or cynical about MBAs; or had to take on a new group after a beloved manager had left, I would have a strong sense that this candidate has the ability to manage and handle people with care. You get the gist. A recruiter will either keep probing while on the topic at hand or wait until the end to circle back. Sometimes if a recruiter is convinced the candidate just doesn’t cut it in a certain area, he will either move on or forgive it—only if there are so many other redeeming, overwhelmingly positive attributes to let that one area go.

IV. Directing questions to the recruiter. This is your chance to shine—to show how much you've research the company and prepared for the interview.

V. Following up and going over next steps—the close. A good recruiter will thank you and then let you know about next steps such as when he or she will get back to you. The recruiter might say, “A next step will include second rounds in X month at our offices in Y city.” If the recruiter doesn’t tell you about next steps, it’s your responsibility to inquire. Simply asking, “Could you tell me about timing and next steps?” is effective.

What’s Being Evaluated
To make it above the watermark, you need to have done your research on your chosen company/industry and be prepared to talk about yourself and the content of your resume as well as why you want and are qualified for the job. You’ll want to connect with the interviewer, answering questions directly, succinctly, with thoughtfulness, substance, and authenticity. These are the minimum requirements.

If you can go beyond these minimums and answer questions with any or as many of the following, you will set yourself apart: Inject humor in your responses; make your comments as insightful as possible; exude confidence (but not overconfidence), poise, the right amount of energy and enthusiasm, and genuine interest in the interviewer, company, and job. These are all personal qualities or intangibles that are key to interviewing effectively.

A recruiter will also evaluate tangible, technical dimensions. Put simply, these include questions such as:

1. Do you have the skills, abilities, and experience to do the job well? This means, do you have the competence, technical abilities, applicable work experience, and education to get the job done? How qualified are compared to other candidates? If you have a few gaps—deficiencies—this doesn’t necessarily rule you out. If there’s evidence that you're a quick learner, able to come up to speed quickly on what’s missing, you could still be considered.

2. Are you a good fit with the organization/people? Do your values, your personality, work style, and preferences fit with the company’s culture, the community of people, and the specific team you’d be working with?

Specific criteria are developed from these two broad dimensions of technical competence and fit. They're sometimes called different things by different organizations, but the most common are leadership and management potential, intellect, analytical ability, problem-solving skill, interpersonal and communication abilities, teamwork, initiative (are you a self-starter?), relevant work experience, ability to sell or present; strategic thinking; creativity, project management, and computer skills. The importance of each varies widely, of course, depending on the industry, company, and specific job.

Think about your background and experience and come up with as many vivid examples to convey/display how you meet the criteria. How have you shown leadership? Can you give examples of when you successfully analyzed complex issues or problems? When have you used people or communication skills for a project?

To get the best sense of what the company values and requires, read and reread the job description, the company’s annual report, and any other information you’ve learned about the industry and company. Think about what skills, abilities, experiences, and values the job and the organization are looking for. From your research, information from cohorts, the company’s information session or recruiting events, media stories, alumni, or what you’ve gleaned from informational interviews, construct a list of what you think the company requires and values. Relate these to what you have to offer in a compelling manner. If you cannot, then it just might be you’ve ascertained that you would not be happy there.

Interpreting the Signals
Be bold. If you sense some concern surrounding a particular issue, bring it out in the open. When it’s your turn to ask questions, and after you’ve asked a few of the more standard ones, say something like, “Are there any concerns or small question marks about my candidacy that I can have the chance to address before I leave?”

Most recruiters will appreciate your forthrightness and maturity in acknowledging that you’re not perfect and are “hungry” for the chance to give your perspective. I’ve always appreciated when candidates are confident enough to address any concerns right away; they have often been able to change my perception and decision to invite them back.

To be most effective, take the time before the interview to think about any areas of weakness related to the job/company that you may be perceived to have, and work out your responses in advance. Develop some good comebacks using rich examples that negate the weakness. To illustrate: Once when I was being considered for a promotion, I asked my future boss what concerns about my candidacy she had. She was honest in saying: “Well, almost everyone you’d be managing as well as your clients would be older than you. Though you seem very well liked, I wonder how tough you could be if you had to handle very unpleasant situations in which you’d be unpopular.” I had the chance to immediately offer examples of experiences in which I successfully managed and worked with older colleagues and was able to maintain a firmness and confidence that commanded the respect of these people. I got the promotion, but better yet, it started the relationship with my new manager on the right foot—fostering a spirit of open and honest communication.

Make the most of where you are in the interview schedule. Some people go into an interview feeling hamstrung by the order of their interview. Many people think it’s better to interview towards the end of a group of candidates. Certainly, there are pros and cons for whatever position you draw, but the important takeaway is that you don’t always control the time you interview. If you are one of the first, try to make a lasting impression. Be so thoroughly prepared and on the ball that you will be a hard act to follow. If you are in the middle, do something that will energize the recruiter and make you stand out no matter who goes before or after you. If you are of the last to be interviewed, make sure you have something fresh to say—to differentiate you from all who went before, and never mistake a weary recruiter as one who lacks interest in you.

Many recruiters continuously order and re-order the candidates as they go through the interviews. Another common approach used by recruiters is to categorize the candidates at the end of the day into three distinct groups—into the yes, no, and maybe piles.

The Evaluation Process
Long story short, the recruiters who have interviewed candidates will need to compare notes, combine their feedback, and discuss who they think should be invited back for further interviews. Typically, the head of recruiting, or someone in HR, or the school team captain will facilitate some sort of process—formal or informal—of collecting all of the feedback on the candidates and making decisions on who to call back, who to reject, and possibly who to put on hold.

If the recruiters use formal evaluation forms or take notes, these can be reviewed and evaluated. More often, recruiters get together and discuss the candidates to make decisions on who gets invited back. Then candidates can be contacted as quickly as that evening or the next day or within the next few weeks.

Recruiters’ valuation processes are based on the organization’s culture and how that culture dictates how information is processed, and the way recruiters communicate with each other and attend to difficult decisions. For some organizations, consensus will be most important. For others, lively debate will prevail, but in the end the majority will rule or that of a decision maker or group of decision makers who is ultimately responsible.

At this point, there’s not a lot you can do. You have done your best, hopefully, and it’s now in the recruiter’s hands. How you follow up within the next 24 to 48 hours can make a difference, however. Make sure to send your thank-you notes. See the reminders below.

Don’t take lack of communication from the organization as a bad sign. Some firms will get back to candidates the same night or within a few days. Others will need a few weeks or will stretch things out for more than a month. This doesn’t mean the firm is disinterested, disorganized, or planning to reject you. Keep your spirits up and your ego in check.

There could be many reasons why the company is taking longer than you’d hoped or said it would. It could be that gathering and evaluating recruiters’ feedback hasn’t been completed or that it’s taking some time to get a handle on the actual openings available. Budgets may be up in the air, or there may have been an overwhelming number of candidates to screen this year. Perhaps layoffs are looming, and the company is waiting to see who may be laid off and if those employees can take any of the openings ahead of any new hires. Check in periodically—just to touch base and reaffirm your interest and enthusiasm. Keep the momentum going.

Hear it through the grapevine. Do rely on your cohorts for information. If possible, find out who else interviewed with the organization so that you can keep each other in the loop as to when you’ve heard back from the recruiter(s). In general, communication at a given school should take place around the same time. Some companies will invite candidates back in waves, or in sequence (a company has a set number of openings and won’t invite the next person on the list unless the one before him or her has turned down the invitation). If jobs are in very different groups within the company (finance, marketing, operations), the timing for follow-up interviews may be all over the map, depending on that group’s needs, when the group’s managers are available to conduct the second rounds and so on.

A Few Reminders

• Preparation. Know the company, your resume, and what key themes you want to convey about yourself.
• Practice. Conduct mock interviews, meet with industry colleagues, videotape your rehearsal and get feedback.
• Mind your interviewing etiquette. Be on time, and bring a resume even if the recruiter is supposed to have one. Don’t bring in large drinks (gargantuan sodas or water bottles) or food. Wear professional, smart attire—it doesn’t have to be expensive and can even be borrowed if you don’t have your own. Bring a portfolio or notepad and pen, and do take notes. Ask questions when appropriate.
• Make your follow-up count. Something seemingly simple—in this case, a thank-you note—can make a difference, positive or negative. Within 48 hours of your interview, be sure to send personalized thank-you notes to all of your interviewers. Handwritten or e-mail are good choices. Make sure to write different thank-you messages to each person with whom you met. Assume that your notes are shared. If your letters are identical, the recruiters would wonder about your level of interest, judgment, and discernment. Certainly, your letters can all start and close with something similar, but for each, call out something unique to your conversation and interaction. For example: Dear Mr. Mendes: Thank you for the opportunity to interview with you for your brand management position yesterday. I remain excited about the possibility of working on your team. I would welcome the chance to use my market research, financial, and creative skills on the priorities we discussed. And I am confident that my interests and background are a great fit for the position and the company as a whole. I appreciated hearing about your past experiences and why you enjoy ABC company so much. I look forward to hearing about next steps. You remain among my top choices of companies where I’d most want to contribute. All the best, Kate Winsler.
• Learn from your mistakes and keep improving. Seek out feedback on how you are doing from interviewers who have let you go, your career center professionals, and as many other sources as possible. Work at improving what you can, and keep on trying to improve.

Gear Up for Fall Recruiting

Whether you're an undergrad looking for an internship, a senior looking for your first job, or someone looking to make a job change, fall is when the job market really starts to heat up.

Companies are most receptive to candidates during the fall. Hiring managers—the ones with the real hiring power in a company—like to make the most of the fall recruiting season: The rest of the year they have to focus on bringing in revenue so their companies can go out and hire more people the next year.

If you're in school, you're lucky: There's a good chance that many regional, national, and international companies will descend on your campus in the weeks to come to look you and your classmates over—and to be looked over themselves.

Career experts say that in today's job market, your first job is crucial to the arc of your career as a whole. Taking advantage of on-campus recruiting is a great way to make sure you get the best possible start.

What to do before the interview
Before you even think of heading off to a first-round interview—or mass-mailing your resume—you'd better do some detective work. Recruiters constantly stress the importance of doing adequate research before you start interviewing.

Think about it for a second, and you'll realize how important it is too: What are they looking for? Do you have what it takes? Most important, how are you going to convince your interviewers that they'd be making the biggest mistake of their professional lives by not extending you an offer . . . or at least inviting you back for another round?

While there are no easy answers when it comes to the job search, recruiters say that one factor clearly distinguishes the best candidates from the also-rans: their knowledge of the company and the industry.

The first rule of effective company research is simple: Do it. Surprisingly few candidates, even at top universities, take the time to get to know the companies and the industries with which they're interviewing. Those who do clearly stand out.

The second rule of effective company research is a little harder to swallow: Do it early. We can give you all the tips in the world for planning a successful company- and industry-research effort, but if you don't get started until the night before your interview, good luck!

Starting Your Research
To get you started in your industry and company research, we've put together a short list of questions you'll definitely want to explore. Add to this list to make sure it reflects the issues that are most important to you.

Questions about Industries

• Who are the key players in the industry?
• What is the history of the industry, and where is it heading in the future?
• What are some of the major industry trends?
• What skills are required to succeed in and contribute to the industry?

Questions about companies

• What role does the company play in its industry?
• What are the company's key products, and what is its market share?
• How has the company made money in the past, and what will its sources of revenue be in the future?
• What skills are in demand at the company—marketing, engineering, finance, sales, product development?
• What types of jobs are available for recent college and MBA grads?
• Does the company have special training programs for recent college and MBA grads?
• What makes this firm different from other firms in the industry—its customers, products, culture?

Go Surfing
A great place to begin your online research is at your school's career center site. Many career centers will post employers' recruiting and presentation schedules at their websites.



The next stop should be the websites of the companies you're interested in. Think of them as online brochures. An Internet search will also yield professional associations you can use to learn about industry trends, networking opportunities, and job openings.

Finally, keep up on your target companies' latest news by reading publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fortune, Business Week, and Red Herring, many of which offer free online access to archived articles.

Talk to Strangers—and People You Know
Take the initiative to set up informational interviews with people in your network (alumni, people referred to you by your career center or your personal network, or other people you have identified in companies or industries you are eager to learn about). They should last about 30 minutes and be held in a place convenient to the interviewee.

During the informational interview, ask about the person's daily responsibilities, career path, company, and outlook on the industry. You might also ask for suggestions about how to find a position within the industry, what kind of preparation is needed for a successful career in the company, and whether the interviewee can recommend any other people to meet. However, keep in mind that most people do not want to be solicited for a job during an informational interview.

Need some help in coming up with good questions for your informational interviews? Here are several to get you started:

• What are the backgrounds of most of the people in the company and the industry?
• What are some of the exciting areas to be working in across the company/industry?
• What is the culture of the organization like?
• What do you like about your job?
• What don't you like?
• Which companies do you think are the most exciting places to be working in this industry?
• What opportunities are there for people with a background in (your major) in this industry?
• What types of qualities or experience do recruiters look for in this industry?
• What kind of people do well here?
• Is there a lot of turnover? Why or why not?
• How much autonomy and responsibility do people get?
• Is this a good place for women and minorities?
• Do you know anyone else with whom I can speak to find out more about (the company or the industry)?

How to Answer Resume-Based Questions

Interviewers ask resume questions to get a deeper understanding of your background. In your answers, you can show your confidence, and enthusiasm.

Recruiters love to ask all candidates, from undergraduates to mid-career, about their resume. These questions give an interviewer a chance to dig a little deeper into your background and at the same time test your critical thinking abilities. The questions also give you a chance to show the interviewer your confidence, competence, and enthusiasm about a project or job you really understand.

Because resume questions take the discussion to your home turf, there isn't really a secret recipe for pulling apart the question. The way to be successful here is to follow a few basic interview rules.

Know Your Story
Nothing will make you look worse than not knowing what you put on your own resume. Review everything on your resume before your interview. Take notes about what you did at each job, and the main message you want to convey through each bullet point on your resume. Then think up a short story for each bullet point that will provide compelling evidence to support those messages.

The Parent Test
Interviewers will assume that you know everything there is to know about your area of expertise, whether that's molecular biology or a bike shop you worked at one summer. When they ask about your resume, the real question is: Can you tell somebody else—your parents, for example—about what you did without sending them into a coma? It may sound easy, but many people seem incapable of communicating what they know.

Let Your Excitement Shine
This is your home field, so use it to your advantage. Talk about your past work with energy and enthusiasm. If you're sitting there griping about a previous work experience, guess what's running through your interviewer's mind: "Whoa, Nelly. This cat could be trouble!"

How to Conquer Pre-Interview Jitters

How can taking your job search less seriously get you the job you want?

You just picked up your good suit at the cleaner's; it's as wrinkle-free as a Beverly Hills housewife's new face. Your dress shoes are gleaming, you've got them so well shined. Your watchband matches your belt, and your hair is perfectly coiffed. Take a look in the mirror: You're ready for that interview.

Make Your Nervousness Work for You
Or are you? Notice those beads of sweat racing down your temples? Feel that catch at the back of your throat? Those things are there to tell you you're nervous. Which can be a fine thing. Nervousness can make you concentrate harder, after all. It can hone your senses and improve your mental agility.

Nervousness becomes problematic only when it crosses an invisible line and starts diminishing rather than enhancing your performance. If you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed by the pressures of the job search—you're irritable, say, or can't concentrate, or find yourself getting tired for no good reason—then sorry, you're not ready for that interview.

Preparation
One good way to overcome pre-interview nervousness, of course, is to spend time preparing. Check out the website of the company you're interviewing with; canvass newspapers and magazines for relevant articles; speak with any contacts you have who can help you get a better understanding of the company; look into the various WetFeet.com products that might help you out.

But what if you've already done your homework? What if you know more about the company than the CEO, but are still nervous going into your interview? The answer: Your nervousness is the result of caring too much. It's blasphemous for me to say this, of course. After all, according to most career gurus, the job search is a matter of life and death, a sacred ritual requiring precisely the correct chants, ablutions, and offerings. If the job search is not approached with the utmost seriousness, then, surely, the job seeker will . . .

Will what? Be condemned to heck for all eternity? Be turned into a frog?

Time to Have Fun?
As far as I can tell, the only result of approaching your job search less seriously is that it can suddenly become a whole lot more fun. The job search is not a life and death matter. Putting on your helmet and picking up your rifle and marching into battle—that's a life and death matter. So is contracting the Ebola virus. Those are things that merit real nervousness—not a lousy interview.

I'm not saying you should slack in your job search, or once you get your new job. What I am saying is that it's possible to be passionate, eager, willing to learn, and responsible—all without taking career matters too seriously.

Get Perspective
Start by trying to give yourself some perspective. Take a step back and try to see the big picture. So what if you flail in your interview? If you don't get that dream job? It's not going to matter a whit to the future of homo sapiens. And after you get over the initial shock that accompanies failure, it's probably not going to matter much to you, either. You're going to wake up the day after the interview. You're going to eat your meals, and play your games, and feel the ache of new crushes, and live your life.

You're going to continue your job search. If you're smart, of course, you'll have learned something from your failure. Like, how you should never talk about your addiction to bungee jumping in an insurance-company interview. Not getting that job won't be a crushing memory.

If you're lucky, caring less about the job search won't just ease your pre-interview jitters—it'll also give you a new full-time perspective. You'll approach each interview the way interviews are meant to be approached: as an equal partner taking part in an exchange of information—not as a supplicant pleading for his life with the Career Executioner.

If you're really lucky, caring less about the job search will prevent you from being lemming-like in your career choices—from blindly choosing jobs just because all the cool kids are choosing them, too—and leave you free to pursue the career you truly want. But that's a subject for another column.

So, then. Go back to your mirror. Look yourself in the eye. Say, "I don't care whether I get this job."

Now you're ready for that interview.

How to Get a Financial Services Internship

Think it's hard to land a summer job with a prestigious financial firm? It doesn't have to be. Here's how to prepare.

It's not that hard to land a great summer internship at a financial services company. I know; I interview people for internships at my bank.

Basically, you just have to figure out your career theme—the career goal that will make sense of the string of accomplishments on your resume—and then exude enthusiasm in your interviews. Beyond that, though, there are a number of specific actions you should take to get the internship you want.

Study Your Resume
Before you go on a single interview for a summer internship, pull out your resume and read every single word of it. Think about everything listed on it. Think about what you accomplished in each experience mentioned on your resume.

If you spend some time on this exercise before your interviews, you'll never give another one of those startled, blank stares when an interviewer asks you a question about that job you had four years ago!

Make Your Resume Better


Also, have you done any traveling? List the places you've traveled to at the bottom of your resume in that miscellaneous "Interests/Special Skills" section. Most financial services companies do business around the world, and are looking for interns who have traveled, since travel suggests open-mindedness and familiarity with cultures other than one's own.

Find Your Career Theme
Now, pretend you are Joe Schmoe, interviewer, and have never heard of this person—you—before. Figure out the story that will make you the best possible internship candidate in Mr. Schmoe's eyes. How? Pick out the common thread of your professional story—the logic of how and why you moved from Job A to Job B to Job C.

Next, look at the experiences and accomplishments listed on your resume, and think about how they have made you the right candidate for the internship you want.

Practice Your Spiel
Now, look in the mirror, take a deep breath, and relax. Go through each bullet point on your resume and elaborate on your experiences. Talk out loud and be yourself. Watch yourself as you speak.

If you feel stupid doing this alone in front of your bathroom mirror, ask your best friend or someone else you trust to listen to you in action. Are you muttering? Are you making eye contact? Do you have a booger popping out of your nose, or are you presentable?

Imagine difficult or surprising questions you might be asked; try to be unflappable as you answer them. Doing this will help prepare you for whatever question an interviewer might lob your way.

Check Your Attitude at the Door
Don't be too cocky in your interviews. You need to be on your best behavior to do well. That doesn't mean you have to be boring and it doesn't mean you have to be phony. It just means you have to act like a professional.

Got a problem figuring out what that means? Think about how you act when you're with the parents of your girlfriend or boyfriend—respectful and respectable, but not too nervous to let your real personality shine through.

Be Specific
When I interview internship candidates, I'm not looking for seasoned professionals. All I want to see is that your skills fit in the most remote way to the internship you are vying for. That said, I still want specifics—to hear you describe your accomplishments in detail, and with an eye toward how they fit the internship you want.

If the internship you want is in commercial banking, talk about how you streamlined your company's letters-of-credit process, or how you helped cut costs in the treasury areas of your company.

If you are looking for a career in mergers and acquisitions, emphasize your negotiation skills with clients and vendors. A venture capital firm wants you to show your intuitive ability to read between the lines of companies' business plans and financial statements. If you're interested in corporate finance and risk management, know your derivatives inside and out.

A shop serving predominantly South American clients will want to hire people who are fluent in Spanish or Portuguese—and who can demonstrate how much they understand those cultures. Be sure to mention to your interviewer how you understand that Brazilians never like to rush headlong into business but like to talk about personal things first—their families, their weekend, soccer. I-banks might want to see if you possess in-depth knowledge of a particular industry—and if you have the stamina to work those killer hours.

Remember: Use specifics to sell yourself. Think of your interviews as an opportunity to flesh out the bullet points on your resume with interesting anecdotes.

The Personal Touch
While financial services companies will definitely want to see a demonstrated interest in their business, and numbers skills, these traits are just the beginning of what they're seeking.

For example, my firm loves people who worked in the Peace Corps or in engineering, as well as—believe it or not—people with liberal arts undergraduate degrees. Why? Because such people tend to be able to see the "big picture" and can come up with a coherent plan of attack to solve a problem. Folks like this also tend to enjoy exposure to a variety of different cultures and are more open-minded and adaptable to new situations. Selfish, illiterate boors need not apply!

Many interviewers will ask you what you like to do when you're not at work. They're trying to get you to relax and open up so they can see if you'd fit in with their company's culture. Don't dismiss the importance of these "soft" questions—they are just as important as the more technical questions.

What was it about working at that soup kitchen last semester that changed your perspective on the homeless? How did your first job out of college at a big construction firm make you realize you wanted to work in financial services?

What was it about waitressing in your father's Chinese restaurant that made you want to understand the financial workings behind the business? Did working with a bunch of burned-out, middle-aged, flat-footed waitresses stooped under trays of flaming pu-pu platters make you feel thankful to be taking out all those student loans? You better believe it, sister! Weave these stories into your interviews. They speak volumes about what kind of person you are.

Think Conversation, Not Interrogation
One of the worst things that can happen in an interview is that there are too many of those uncomfortable pauses; that means the recruiter doesn't know where to go because you haven't led her to her next question. Make your interviewer want to find out what happened next. How? By being enthusiastic and having lots of energy.

This does not mean that you should enter the interview and start talking nonstop for 30 minutes. Rather, you want to engage your interviewer in a conversation. Think dialogue, not monologue.

Most financial services companies conduct interviews for their summer positions with actual executives; HR usually does only the initial weeding out of resumes. Financial institutions also go out of their way to train employees to interview and recruit at their alma maters. Find out if your interviewer is an alum of your school; it will help you make a connection with that person. Work it!

During my "marathon day" of interviews at the bank where I work now, I tried to forget that I was being interviewed. Instead, I tried to make a personal connection with the executives interviewing me—and I aced all five of my interviews that day.

Don't Set Off the BS Detector
One of the interviews I faced to get my current job was one of those "psychological interviews"—which I was more than a little nervous about. I mean, what if they discovered I was some kind of whack job? But things ended up going very well.

The interviewer's first question was, "When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up, and why?"

I took a deep breath and thought, "Oh, what the hell," then proceeded to tell him that when I was young I wanted to be a classical musician. I explained that I had played the flute for years and loved it. I said that although I eventually lost hope of ever being good enough to play at Carnegie Hall, being immersed in the quantitative B-school world had made me realize how much I missed playing. I told him I was thinking of taking music lessons again to balance the left side of my brain with my right.

Should I have said I had dreamed my whole life of being a bond analyst? Not unless I meant it—otherwise, the guy's BS detector would have gone off in a big way. As it turned out, my interviewer had once been a professional jazz musician who played sax, clarinet, and flute (my instrument!). I was so happy I told the truth—and I got the offer!

Get Psyched Up
Remember that game in which you scored the winning goal, or the recital you gave in which you totally kicked ass? Everything flowed perfectly, right? How did you get into that zone?

Simple: You practiced like crazy, you knew your stuff inside and out, and you were pumped up and couldn't wait to get out there and strut your stuff. You need the same mind-set when you're going on interviews.

So—are you prepared? Are you psyched? Yes? Excellent. You've got yourself a head start on getting the interview you want.

How to Handle Hypothetical Interviews

When interviewers ask hypothetical questions during an interview, they're looking to find out how you'd handle a work situation.

An interviewer may ask you hypothetical questions designed to find out how you would handle a work situation. For example:

• "Suppose I asked you to put together a customer focus group relating to a new fashion item we might be introducing next fall. How would you go about it?"
• "Suppose I asked you to design a management information system for our regional sales managers. What would your approach be?"
• "Suppose you and a coworker had a strong disagreement about the qualifications of a friend who she had recommended as a new hire in the department? How would you handle the situation?"

In a real on-the-job situation, you would obviously have more information at hand—or you would be asking more questions. In this situation, you might ask a few questions, then set forth a few reasonable assumptions, which the interviewer may then tailor to what he or she had in mind. This way, you won't find yourself in the deep end of the pool, burdened with a conception that's very different from what the manager had in mind.

Dialogue
By asking questions and having a dialogue about the assignment, you are also showing the interviewer that you think before you jump into an assignment.

Your next task is to describe, step-by-step, what approach you might take. Then you can add that in a real-life situation you would, of course, look into previous efforts to deal with the same issue, consult with others, and consider other approaches, as appropriate.

One way to prepare for hypothetical questions is to pretend that you are the interviewer. What hypothetical questions would you ask? And what would you be looking for in an answer? What the interviewer is seeking in an answer is usually not the conclusion someone else might have come to after a month's analysis and contemplation, but a clear and sensible thought process.

How to Handle Market-Sizing Case Interviews

Market-sizing questions can seem intimidating. But once you understand the rules (and practice your technique), you can come to view these cases as slow pitches right over the center of the plate.

Consultants love to ask market-sizing questions. Not only are they easy to create, discuss, and evaluate, they are also highly representative of an important type of work done by consultants.

What Is Market Sizing?
In their simplest form, market-sizing cases require the candidate to determine the size of a particular market (hence the name). In the real world, this information can be especially helpful when gauging the attractiveness of a new market. In the interview context, a market-sizing question might be pitched in an extremely straightforward format (for example, "What is the market for surfboards in the United States?").

Or it may be disguised as a more complex question (for example, "Do you think Fidelity should come out with a mutual fund targeted at high-net-worth individuals?") which requires the respondent to peel away the extraneous detail in order to identify the market-sizing issue at the core.

The Next Level
In a more highly developed variation, the interviewer might ask a strategy or operations case question that requires the respondent to do some market-sizing in order to come up with an appropriate recommendation.

What's the Interviewer Looking for?
Market-sizing questions allow the interviewer to test the candidate's facility with numbers, powers of analysis, and common sense.

For example, if you were asked to size the surfboard market, you would need to make basic assumptions about the market. (How many people surf? How many boards does a typical surfer dude own? How often will he/she get a new one? Are there other big purchasers besides individual surfers? Is there a market for used boards?) You would also need to make a few basic calculations (number of surfers times number of new boards per year plus total quantity purchased by other types of customers, for example).

As you work through these issues, the interviewer would also get a glimpse of your common sense. (Did you assume that everybody in the U.S. population would be a potential surfer, or did you try to estimate the population in prime surfing areas like California and Hawaii?)

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself
Market-sizing questions can seem intimidating. But once you understand the rules (and practice your technique), you can come to view these cases as slow pitches right over the center of the plate. So, just how many golf balls are used in the U.S. in a year? You don't know, and the truth is, neither does your interviewer.

In fact, your interviewer doesn't even care what the real number is. But remember, she does care about your ability to use logic, common sense and creativity to get to a plausible answer. And she wants to make sure you don't turn tail when you've got a few numbers to run.

Number Basics
Even if you weren't a multivariate calculus whiz, you can impress your interviewer with your number-crunching abilities if you stick to round numbers. They're much easier to add, subtract, multiply and divide, and since we've already decided that the exact answer doesn't matter anyway, go ahead and pick something that you can toss around with ease. Good examples? One hundred, one million, ten dollars, two, one-half. The population of the U.S.? Two hundred fifty million, give or take.

Case questions are the ultimate "show your work" questions. In fact, your exact answer matters even less than the path that took you there. Remember, the market-sizing question is merely a platform through which your interviewer can test your analysis, creativity, and comfort with numbers.

Lower the Pressure
If you feel more comfortable writing everything down and using a calculator, do! Most interviewers will not care if you use a pencil and paper to keep your thoughts organized and logical. And if pulling out the HP to multiply a few numbers keeps you from wigging out, then by all means do it. Your interviewer will be more impressed if you are cool, calm, and collected, and if using props helps you, then go for it.

How to Handle Psychological Interviews

The majority of psychological interviews are designed to explore if you're honest and do your work well. There's no reason to fear them.

It's Just a "Fit" Test
In responsible hands, the purpose of a psychological interview is to determine whether you are one of the 90 percent of people who are honest and try to do their work well—or if you're someone who might terrorize the office, steal from your employer, or file fraudulent legal claims. A secondary goal, if you are in the 90 percent majority, might be to identify what type of assignment and management style to you would respond to best.

Most of the questions are likely to focus on your aspirations and your family background, with an effort to find a linkage between the two. Others may deal with topics such as what provides you the greatest satisfaction, what you would like to avoid, and past experiences that you enjoyed or didn't enjoy.

Relax and Tell the Truth
The most important thing to remember if you are to be interviewed by a professional psychologist is to be yourself (you don't want to look like you have something to hide). The second most important thing is not to overly dramatize your family background. If you have 14 siblings, just say you grew up in a large family, unless you're probed further. If you had an abusive parent, focus on the other parent. Don't give the psychologist a lot to feed on in terms of difficulties in your relationships with your family.

Work Questions Get Work Answers
In responding to work-related questions, use the types of answers recommended for other forms of interviewing. You want to be as proud and confident as you are in your other interviews. And avoid deception, inconsistencies, nervousness, or anxiety in your answers. You don't want to be one of the ten percent labeled untrustworthy.

In the Case of Weird Questions
Unfortunately, a few unqualified interviewers may try to play the psychologist role, coming up with such oddball questions as "If you were a tree, what kind would it be?" or "Picture yourself as a championship athlete. What sport and what position would you play?"

Give a boring but unchallengeable response. To the first question, oak (stable), maple (well liked), and redwood (long lasting) are great answers. To the second, basketball, tennis, baseball, and golf are fine. Running marathons is a bit iconoclastic, and rugby or ice hockey might suggest latent aggressiveness.

How to Handle Unusual Interview Situations

If you've been in the job market long enough, you're likely to have found yourself in at least one of the following five less-than-normal scenarios. Here's how you can make the best of the situation.

You think just because you're interviewing with some high-powered firm that your interviewer is going to act as professionally as you're dressed? Guess again. Interviewers are people, and people can be weird. Here are some examples and suggested responses:

1.       The interviewer talks incessantly about himself and his accomplishments.
Say you'd like to have the opportunity to learn from a person who has achieved so much. Then ask, "Where does the hiring process go from here?" Normally, this will either get the interview back on track or result in the interviewer setting up another interview for you. Another approach is to ask the person questions that feed his or her need to brag. That may result in you being described as a wonderful listener.

2.       The interviewer spends most of the interview talking on the phone.
Suggest that you reschedule the interview for a time that would be more convenient and when there would be fewer interruptions. Say something like, "You seem to have a lot going on just now. Could we find a time to meet when you might have fewer calls, so we can be sure to cover everything that needs discussion?" Alternatively, you might peek at your wristwatch—not rudely, but meaningfully.

3.       The interviewer is interviewing you for a different job than the one you came prepared to discuss.
Try to learn the source of the confusion and retrace your steps to get back to the path of your choice.

4.       The interviewer seems drunk or otherwise out of it.
Excuse yourself as quickly as you can politely do so. Call the next day to reschedule—if you still feel inclined to do so.

5.       The interviewer bad-mouths members of his or her department.
This is a good place to listen and not to comment or invite further criticisms. You'll draw your own conclusions as you go further in the interviewing process. But such criticisms made to a newcomer do not bode well for a peaceful workplace for you! You can also say that you'd like to have the opportunity to meet the department members before drawing any conclusions about them.

How do you handle such situations in general?
Keep your cool, maintain your dignity, and use diplomacy to achieve your goals. But also bear in mind that you are being treated to a preview of coming attractions. At the minimum, you should find out whether such behavior is the norm before signing on as an employee.

How to Handle Your First-Round Interview

In interviews, you'll often be asked to clarify your reasons for applying. Preparing specific rather than vague answers that clarify your reasons can help you land the job.

The types of questions you are most likely to encounter in your first-round interview include:

1.       "Tell me about yourself."
The perfect opening for your two-minute presentation! Describe your educational and work background, identify your key strengths and provide a couple of illustrations, and state your intended career direction. Usually, this is the first question asked. If it isn't, you can usually defer answering a different question by saying "It may help if I start by providing a bit of background" and following with your presentation. Then you can return to the interviewer's question.

2.       "Why would you like to work here?"
Explain what you have learned about the company, highlighting what you find appealing or admirable. Try to be specific—broad generalities sound trite.

Good answer: "I've researched the leading companies in this industry, and yours seems to be the one that does the best job in terms of customer relations, encouraging risk taking, and setting tough goals while giving people an idea of how they're doing. That appeals to me." (Shows that you've done some research and are basing your decision on specific criteria.)

Bad answer: "I've heard it's a good company, and I have friends here." (You don't appear to have done any serious research, and the interviewer may wonder if you're more interested in socializing than in working.)

3.       "What are your career goals?"
Focus on the idea that you want to grow professionally, but realize that there may be a variety of opportunities in the company as time goes on. Avoid naming titles—you may shoot too high or too low.

Good answer: "I've learned from the experiences I described earlier that I enjoy leadership, communication, and negotiation. I'm interested in learning to manage projects, people, and business situations. My goals are to work for a manager I can learn from, to develop on-the-job experience, and to achieve or surpass the goals that are set." (Ties together the past and future and shows business awareness and achievement orientation.)

Bad answer: "I haven't set any specific goals, but I know I want to work here." (If you don't have any goals, how do you know you want to work here? Are you focused on learning, or have you already completed all the learning you intend to do?)

4.       "Who is your hero?"
Pick someone—don't answer that you don't have a hero or heroine, because the question is about the traits you value. (If you don't want the job, you might say that no one lives up to your standards.) This should be someone you genuinely admire, and you should make sure to name the traits that give rise to your admiration. Also consider whether the values these traits represent will seem positive to the company. If you say, for example, "I've always admired my Uncle Al because he did whatever it took to pile up a fortune," you'll come off as greedy and selfish.

Good answers: "I've always admired a guy I went to high school with named Joe Curates. He was a paraplegic, injured in an accident when he was 12. He could have been bitter, but he decided that wasn't the kind of life he wanted. He became a fine chess player and trumpet player and was very popular. He taught me the value of managing your attitude and using what resources are available to you."

"The person who taught me the most was my graduate school mentor. By working with her, I learned how to research and debate scientific questions, work collaboratively, and share the credit. I admire her for her tactfulness, her trusting management style, and her generous recognition of good work."

5.       "Why should I hire you?"
Be prepared to cite the key strengths that you see as necessary to do the job, relating them to your own demonstrated skills, as illustrated in stories you've already told. Then try to name one desirable extra that you provide, such as your enthusiasm, your ability to work long hours when necessary, or your love of learning.

6.       "What are some of your values?"
You can answer this as you would the hero question, if that question hasn't already been asked. Or just name some things you genuinely admire or desire. Examples: a collegial environment, good teamwork, honesty, fairness, willingness to help, trust.

7.       "Do you set goals for yourself?"
Do not say no. Name a situation where you did and tell what you did to be sure you met them.

Good answer: "I knew I had to earn at least $4,000 during the summer to pay for my final year at college. My work as an interior decorator's assistant was contingent on her having extra work for me to help with—primarily ordering, sending and paying bills, and other clerical work. By the end of June I had only earned about $1,000. So I got busy and put together a brochure for her that she was able to use at her booth during the begonia festival. So much business came in that soon she was sending me out to make sketches and sign up new customers, for which I was paid a bonus. I surpassed my goal on August 10, and earned an extra $1,400."

8.       "What characteristics would you look for in a good manager?" Select the elements that are most important to you from the range of traits considered desirable in a manager: honesty, providing clear goals, encouraging resourcefulness, challenging employees, respect, giving feedback, offering recognition, inspiring, caring, being available. Don't give the whole list, or you'll seem impossible to satisfy.

9.       "What are your limitations on travel?"
If you have limitations, think about these beforehand and come up with ways to work around them as far as possible. And before you jump into telling the interviewer all your limitations (no flying, no trips of more than two days, claustrophobia, vegetarian meals only, and so on), find out what the person has in mind in the way of travel. If you can handle the requirements, say so with enthusiasm.

10.    "Tell me about your greatest challenge and how you dealt with it."
This is the perfect entre for telling another of the accomplishment stories you developed when you were preparing your two-minute presentation.

11.    "Do you have any more questions?"
Never say no! Keep several good questions in reserve for just this request (more than one, because over the course of the interview the manager may address one or more of them).

Some good questions:

• "Can you give me an example or two of teamwork in action here?"
• "How can I learn what I need to know about the organization's strategic plan?"
• "Assuming you hire me, how would you like me to spend my first month here?"
• "Have I said anything that causes you concern about my fitting in here?"

And to cap it off, make a final presentation of what you feel you have to offer, then inquire about how the decision-making process is expected to proceed. A good closing statement will reiterate the strengths you have that would be most valuable on the job; your enthusiasm for the work; and your desire to become a member of the team. It should go something like this:

"From our discussion, it appears that I could be an excellent sales representative for you. I understand the technology of your product and your competitors' products; I'm good at helping customers find solutions to their systems problems; and people seem to like doing business with me. For my part, I've been impressed with what you've had to say about the organization and your management style. I'd very much like to become a contributing member of your group."

This statement is another thing you should prepare beforehand.

Interviews: Turn Your Weaknesses into Strengths

Doubt-resolving questions help interviewers determine whether you're right for the job.

Sometimes, interviewers will pelt you with questions that require you to analyze your weaker traits. The types of questions you are likely to encounter in this style of interviewing include:

• "Do you find it difficult to work with some people?"
  Indicate that you get along well with people and work hard to understand other points of view. You can name one or two traits that disturb you, but make sure they're not overly broad, and give preference to those that a manager would also find hard to accept—such as dishonesty, incessant talking, or unreliability.
• "What are your weaknesses?"
  You can say you don't know of any that would prevent you from doing an excellent job in the position you are discussing. If pressed, you can turn this into an opportunity to talk about the kind of workplace you hope to enter. You might say that you prefer not to work in an environment where there's no teamwork or where you don't have a sense of why your work matters. Another good answer along those lines, which turns your "weaknesses" into strengths: "I work better in a team environment, despite the fact that I'm a self-starter and think well independently."
  
  Bad answer: "Well, I often oversleep, and I'm a terrible procrastinator." (You may get a few points for candor, but your interviewer will almost always assume that you're worse than what you say.)
  
  If you're asked to name your strengths as well as weaknesses, follow the same principles:
  
  Good answer: "I think my strengths are in my ability to understand the intent of a project, master the details, and organize and pursue a well-developed project plan. My weakness might be that I can be a little impatient with people who don't keep their commitments, although I'm learning that I get better results by being tactful and persistent in asking questions, rather than making demands." (Shows coherence and a learning attitude; turns a weakness into another strength.)
  
  Pretty good answer: "I'm a good detail person. I do what needs to be done, and I get it done on time. I don't know of anything that would prevent my doing a good job." (Less compelling, but fairly believable.)
  
  Bad answer: "I'm good at numbers, as long as I'm left alone to get the work done. I can't think of any weaknesses." (Turns a strength into a weakness! Refuses to think about weaknesses or opportunities to learn.)
• "What would your most recent boss say about you?"
  Say that you believe he or she would confirm whatever you have claimed as your strengths or your accomplishments.
• "Has your work ever been criticized, or have you been told to improve your performance?"
  If you say no, be prepared to back it up with a statement such as "I've always received excellent reviews." (And be sure your references will confirm this, or you will lose credibility completely.) If you can't say this confidently, answer honestly—but it's best to choose a situation in which your idea was criticized, not your behavior. All the better if you can explain why the idea made sense to you.
  
  Good answer: "I received some criticism when I introduced the idea of a customer satisfaction survey in the placement agency where I worked last year. It wasn't a popular idea with my boss, who feared the results. But I felt that if we were ever to correct our shortfalls, it would be important to know what mattered most to our customers."
  
  Bad answer: "I received a lot of criticism from my last boss, who was pretty insecure. When I suggested a customer satisfaction survey to deal with our loss of customers, he flew off the handle. Eventually, with the help of top management, he came around to my point of view." (Just a bit arrogant sounding, isn't it?)
• "What would you do if you were asked to do something that didn't make sense to you?"
  Indicate that you would say something like "Perhaps I'm missing something, but I'm not immediately seeing why that would be the best way to handle the situation. Could you help me understand?" If you can, provide an example of how you faced such as situation and successfully resolved it.
  
  Good answer: "That happened to me when I was working on a cruise ship and the activities director wanted me to shut down the entertainment early to save money. I felt that the several passengers still in the lounge and all the others had paid their fares and deserved their full value. When I realized that I wasn't able to influence her, I took it on myself to find a dignified solution. I explained to the passengers that the band really wanted to rest up for the tremendous party I had planned for the next evening, and I hoped they would plan to be there, because I would see that they got special treatment. I offered, instead, to play a terrific video that none of them had seen. All was accepted in good spirits, and my boss was grateful that I handled the situation well." (Shows resourcefulness in finding a solution that had integrity without undermining management.)
  
  Not-as-good answer: "My boss asked me to get up on the roof to fix a sign that had been knocked about by a windstorm. I have a fear of heights, told him so, and suggested he call the sign company. He did, and they did a better job of fixing the sign than I could have done myself." (Although the suggestion was sound, it would be better to have pointed out the hazards involved and to have suggested that the sign company was better equipped to deal with them.)
  
  Another mediocre answer: "My boss at the newspaper told me to cover a traffic accident nearby. When I reported what I had seen, he asked me to delete the part about the driver being cited for driving while intoxicated, because he was the son of one of the paper's executives. I went along, but didn't feel good about the decision." (There's no quality being illustrated here except following orders. Better to choose another illustration that allows you to demonstrate skills in creativity, resourcefulness, communications, diplomacy, mediation, or some other valuable attribute.)
  
  Bad answer: "I'd take advantage of the company's open-door policy and make an appointment to see the CEO." You also don't want to give an example in which you didn't handle the situation to your boss's liking or in which the result was to discredit your employer.
• "What kinds of work do you find difficult to do?"
  Mention things that would run contrary to your values or your employer's best interests. For example: "I'd find it difficult to promote a product that I knew had flaws that weren't disclosed" or "I wouldn't want to do anything that I thought could harm the company—although, of course, I'd try to be sure I really understood the situation." Don't say something like "I really hate clerical work." Though that may be true, it makes you sound like a prima donna.
• "If you encountered an unreasonable deadline, what would you do?"
  
  Good answer: "I'd prioritize, then seek out best methods to employ, communicate with the manager about what was going on, and go all out to achieve everything that was agreed to be feasible—and more, if possible."
  
  Pretty good answer: "I'd try to get my manager to set the priorities, because I'd want to be sure the most important work got done."
  
  Bad answer: "I'd tell my manager the deadline was impossible to meet and would have to be changed." (Shows unwillingness to work hard or seek solutions.)
• "What else should we know about you?"
  Here's your final chance for a sales pitch. Don't waste it on talking about your pet parakeet or your passion for limericks. This is a good place, however, to talk about some traits that would be valuable in the workplace: You have always been a person others have come to for advice, or people seem to like your ability to deal with stress using humor. For example, you could say "I'm the person who goes out at five a.m. to get a watermelon when we're pulling an all-nighter. " Or if you know of the interviewer's interest in model trains, for example, this could be the place to reveal that you're an enthusiast yourself.
  
  If this is the close of your interview, however, you should use the opportunity to make your closing statement to summarize your qualifications and ability to add value in the position you've been discussing and then inquire about the next steps in the process.

Keys to Following up after an Interview

A thank-you note shows your courteousness, savvy, and interest in the job. Here are some key things to keep in mind when writing one to help bolster your candidacy.

Your antiperspirant held up, you kept the butterflies in your stomach from flying away, and you feel reasonably good about the answers you gave to the multiple interviewers you spoke to. What's the best way to follow up?

Giving Thanks
Interviewers love to be thanked, and a thank-you note shows consideration and allows you to confirm your interest. Nevertheless, how you go about writing the thank you—what you say, how you say it, and who you say it to—could make or break your candidacy.

In fact, if you're not careful, you botch a thank you and lose a job you want. Recruiters say that ill-considered thank-you notes can kill your candidacy, especially if they have typos—and many do. Proofread your thank you.

And if you've talked to multiple people, you don't want to send them all the same thank you—interviewers regularly assemble all documents, including thank-you notes, before making a hiring decision. If the four you sent were identical, that's not going to look good when the recruiters hang them on the wall and compare. If you individualize your sentiments, you'll make a much better impression.

Don't Push it
Another gaffe: Appearing pushy. Remember, you haven't received an offer yet. Give your recruiters some time to make a decision. Letting them know you expect an offer, and quickly, will help them narrow down the list—by taking you off it.

Finally, think about the best form for your thank you. If the interviewer tells you she plans to make a decision that night, don't send a letter by snail mail—e-mail promptly, as soon as you get home; otherwise, the decision will have been made long before your letter arrived. On the other hand, if you're applying somewhere that prides itself on doing personalized work for clients, you might want to send off a handwritten message on a nice card. That shows an attention to detail that will be important on the job.

You might also considering faxing your thank you and putting the hard-copy in the mail. By faxing, the interviewer gets your sentiments immediately; and then again when the hard copy arrives. You'll get your name before the person twice with the same thank you—which will help keep you on the interviewer's mind.

The best advice is to follow-up with a thank you, but calibrate the form of the thanks (e-mail, snail mail, fax) to the company and job. If you're going into IT, for instance, you won't want to send a letter snail mail—you're going to be working with technology, so use it and send thanks via e-mail. Even if you don't want the job, it's worth letting your interviewer know that you appreciated their time and consideration. Who knows, they could be interviewing you again one day—and for a position you'll want.

You should also realize that an impeccably written and individually tailored letter will make your interviewer feel warm and fuzzy inside, but it probably won't sway the unsentimental recruiter who has already decided you're not right for the position. What it will do is leave a good impression if you decide to apply to the company again—or give you an advantage if whomever the company does hire doesn't work out.

The bottom line in following up is that you should do it—graciously, promptly, and carefully.

Prepare for Your Behavioral Interview

In behavioral interviews, the interviewer wants to know how you responded in a particular situation. How you performed in the past is often the best indicator of how you'll perform in the future.

Companies have increasingly adopted behavioral interviewing techniques as a key technique in screening candidates.

What is a behavioral interview?
Basically, it's an interview designed to elicit information that will tell the interviewer how you will perform on the job. The principle behind the technique is the belief that the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. The technique involves asking a series of questions designed to get the candidate to talk about how he or she handled certain situations in the past.

Stressful situation
For example, if a company has a high-stress environment, the interviewer might ask a candidate to talk about whether she has ever been in a stressful situation in the past.

If she says yes, the interviewer would proceed with a line of questions about what she had done in the situation, how it made her feel, how others had responded to her actions, how she relieved the stress of the situation, and so on.

Typically, the interviewer will have determined three or four behavioral characteristics that would be most important for on-the-job success and will have written out a definition of each such characteristic.
Examples:

• Good listening:
  The ability to listen empathetically to a client's problems, asking appropriate questions and paraphrasing the responses.
• Written communication:
  The ability to capture, in a succinct manner, the most important issues to be resolved, the recommended action plan, and the desired outcomes.
• Project management:
  Taking responsibility for organizing tasks, reaching agreement on individual responsibilities and goals, monitoring progress, resolving problems, and reporting on status.

In a behavioral interview, you will be provided with such definitions of desirable characteristics and asked for examples of situations in which you have exhibited those characteristics. Sometimes, after you have provided one example, you will be asked for another, just to test the depth of your experience.

One of the supposed benefits of this technique for employers is that candidates cannot prepare for these questions in advance. However, you can help yourself by anticipating the types of questions you might receive and dredging your memory for examples of past behavior. You may be able to guess at some of the questions by analyzing the job requirements beforehand.

Behavioral interviewing is a challenge, but preparation will help. You may feel that you didn't have perfect answers to each question, yet still be seen as much better suited than the other candidates who didn't anticipate behavioral questions.

As one swimmer said to the other upon sighting a shark: "Fortunately, I don't have to swim faster than the shark. I only have to swim faster than you."

Preparing for Behavioral Interviews in Consulting

Consulting interviews aren't just about the case. Here's how to crack a behavioral interview.

Behavioral interviewing, along with case interviewing, is the selection method of choice for most of the largest consulting firms in the United States. During a behavioral interview, an employer will evaluate you based on competencies that you'll need on the job.

How to Highlight Your Competencies
In a consulting interview, the recruiter is likely to ask you about qualities such as problem assessment, analysis, stress tolerance, leadership, and collaboration with others. He or she will ask you to describe a situation from your past experience that demonstrates a particular competency. The premise behind this kind of questioning is that the past is the best predictor of the future: the way you behaved once is likely to be the way you'll behave next time you're in a similar situation.

Be aware of this when you prepare for your interview. Think of the competencies that are required for success in the consulting industry, and, more importantly, in the particular job for which you are applying.

For example, if communicating through writing or speaking is an integral part of the job, expect questions about this competency. Develop examples from your past experience that demonstrate those skills and abilities. Make a list of situations in which you exhibited all the qualities important to a consultant. Practice telling the stories and adapt them to different possible questions.

Nonverbal Clues Say a Lot
Behavioral interviews aren't just about what you say. During your interview, the recruiter will also be observing your behavior and communication skills. In consulting, communication skills take on heightened importance. An individual in a consulting role must demonstrate strength in these areas regardless of the function or engagement.

The interviewer will be noting how you:

• Maintain eye contact.
• Listen.
• Speak (your tone, clarity, and volume).
• Make use of non-verbal communication and body language.
• Use grammar, syntax, and a complex vocabulary.
• Logically organize your thoughts and answers.

Interviewers also want to see that you:

• Pay attention.
• Exhibit self-confidence.
• Choose appropriate attire.
• Appear energetic and enthusiastic.

Before your interview, think about how you communicate. During the interview, remember to pay attention to how you are presenting yourself.

Take a Practice Question
Question: Describe a complicated problem you had to deal with. How did you identify it or gain a better understanding of it?

Good answer: I was a member of a process team looking for a way to reduce cycle time in producing marketing materials. I recommended that each of us use the necessary tools, including software and other instruments, to identify where the process was slowing down in each of our areas. I identified where the slow spots were in my function. I provided this information to the team and compiled the findings from the other team members.

Unfortunately, I found that some members of the team got too bogged down with minor details. Therefore, one of my major contributions was to keep us focused on our goal. I charted the process and highlighted the problem areas.

Then I asked each member of the team to write down what he or she thought were the major reasons our processes has slowed down, and to make suggestions on how we might streamline it. Putting everything in writing helped each of us to see how our part of the process impacted the others and enabled us to come to some realizations and, eventually, compromises.

Each of us made one recommendation. Amazingly enough, because everything was documented in writing, we came to consensus. What was really interesting was that the solution was really not a surprise to anyone.

Ultimately, part of our recommended solution was implemented, but we had to back off on some parts because some of the people in the organization were resistant to the change.

Salary Negotiation Basics

If you know what you're looking for when you negotiate your salary, you'll be that much more effective in getting what you want.

Many people see negotiation as a process of each party trying to get the most for what they have to give. And that's a reasonable way to look at it when you're buying or selling a car, a computer, or a carpet. It's tempting to look at job negotiations in the same way—but not advisable.

Shoot for Fair
When you're negotiating an employment contract, you're negotiating the basis for a relationship, and you want to live happily together. This doesn't mean that you have to arrive at a compromise, but that you should come to an agreement that both parties feel is fair.

There are at least four factors that can increase your perceived worth. All of them fit into the context of networking and interviewing, and all of them can be turned to your advantage without alienating potential employers.

1. How You See and Present Yourself
Are you confident? Do you speak convincingly about your accomplishments? Do you have a clear and credible objective? Do you understand and seem to fit in with the company's culture? You will generate more buyer enthusiasm if the company sees you as a long-term asset than if it sees you only as right for this particular job.

2. How the Company Sees the Value of the Work to Be Done
This is your opportunity to put the work in a broader context than the company may see. Instead of talking about providing good customer service, for example, you might discuss retaining valued customers and increasing business activity. If you present some convincing illustrations, the job might seem worthy of a higher valuation—including, perhaps, a bonus for achieving objectives that you help define.

3. How the Company Perceives Your Appropriateness for the Job
You want to demonstrate that what you've learned and achieved in the past, along with your understanding of the company's needs, makes you more qualified than other candidates.

4. How Your Discussion of Compensation and Benefits Plays Out
Your attention to the first three factors should already have raised the company's estimation of your value. The direct discussion—often thought of as the whole of negotiation—is where you apply your skills at recapitulation, listening, and politely asserting the value you have established.

Spinning the Negatives During Negotiation

A negative experience in your work history doesn’t have to drag you down. Learn how to restate your situation and maintain your bargaining power.

A savvy interviewer or negotiator may try to destabilize your presentation (or subsequent negotiation position) by tying your hiring chances, compensation, title, or responsibilities to something negative in your work history. If you have had some rough patches in your career, or you have had a manager who did not appreciate your style, it is imperative that you own these negatives and turn a question about them into an opportunity to either deflect to a positive story or demonstrate how you overcame those issues.

Here are some examples of negatives and how to deal with them when brought up in an interview or negotiation (usually to apply downward pressure on your compensation):

You were laid off from a previous job.

There is no shame in being laid off; in fact, it happens to almost everyone at one time or another. Come up with a breezy two-sentence explanation for the company’s layoffs, and finish with an upbeat recitation of the opportunities that the layoff presented. For example, you were able to finish school, you toured Europe, you learned some woodworking, and—best of all—you were freed up to look for more meaningful work at a great company like the employer’s.

The trick here is to have a quick gloss for the layoff and then segue directly into a positive wrap-up that conveys equanimity and readiness to take on the next challenge. Also, don’t be cheesy, but don’t underestimate a hiring manager’s desire to hear genuine enthusiasm about the new position and the prospective employer.

You were fired from a previous job.

This one is a bit tougher, but you absolutely should have a packaged explanation at the ready when the subject comes up, and it’s likely that it will. The best explanation will openly acknowledge that the situation wasn’t optimal and look for a way to tell the story with a positive ending. Above all, you do not want to get bogged down in a long-winded explanation of how you weren’t wrong in the first place or how other folks had it in for you. Even if you were mostly in the right, most hiring managers don’t want to hear the whole story—and will likely tend to sympathize with your former manager.

Instead, describe the problem in three to four short dispassionate sentences and then speak about what you have done in the interim to fix your contribution to the problem. If you were fired for poor attitude, you might talk about how you started volunteering and realized how much you took for granted. If you were fired for being constantly late, you might talk about how you saw a sleep specialist and now sleep 8 hours a night. Most important, don’t lie about either the problem or the solution; a prospective employer may check your story and blackball you in the industry or profession if the story doesn’t bear out.

You quit your last job.

Assuming you didn’t leave your former employer without notice, there is absolutely no shame to this. Characterize the decision as one you made, after careful consideration, to give you the time and focus to find a better opportunity at a great company like the employer’s.

If you did quit your last job without notice and for a thinly justified reason—and you know there is potential animosity remaining at your former employer, we suggest employing an approach similar to that given above for explaining a firing. Emphasize what has happened in the interim to develop your maturity.

Standing out from the Masses: What Counts at the Law Screening Interview

If you can show you've got a good balance of social and academic skills, and can demonstrate that you've done your homework, then you'll likely make it past the screening interview.

Your resume is impeccable, your grades are acceptable, and you've prepared a killer answer to any question an interviewer might hurl at you. According to the experts, the guidebooks, and the statistics, your preparation makes you a qualified candidate for a summer associate position at any firm.

But before you invest in a classy attaché case for your first day on the job, take a look around you. Chances are, you're surrounded by peers who've covered the bases as thoroughly as you have. Your interviewer will likely speak with hundreds of qualified law students. What sets you apart from the masses? With so many eligible candidates, how can you make yourself stand out at an interview?

Research Counts
Law students spend thousands of dollars on tuition and textbooks and dedicate endless hours to classes and reviews. This devotion is driven by the desire to land a great job once they've graduated. But in September, when recruiting season begins, law students tend to spend considerably less time researching the opportunities available at specific firms.

Partners and Practice Areas
When they do, however, it can lead to a significant payoff. Knowing the names of partners, practice areas, and other key details signals to the interviewer that you care enough about getting a job at his or her firm to do some investigative work. Sometimes an interviewer will probe to find out how much you know about his or her firm. If you're unfamiliar with the firm's practice area, don't count on getting a call back.

"The interviewers want to test your familiarity with their practice," says Mick Danforth, a 3L at USC Law School who landed a summer associate position during his second year. "So many 2Ls go in without a clue about the firm—they don't even know if it's a corporate or litigation firm. The recruiters have too many candidates to waste time on ones who don't care."

Start on the Web
Almost all firms' websites detail their practice areas and specialties-read through them before your interviews. Go to your career center for relevant information. Surf through Martindale-Hubbell or the National Association for Law Placement for cut-and-dried descriptions. Better yet, check out WetFeet's company resource pages for detailed profiles on 220 firms nationwide.

Personality Counts
During the screening process, revealing who you are is key. Recruiters can judge your legal expertise and academic success by reviewing your resume and grades. By talking with you, they can assess whether they would like working alongside you and if you would be a good representative of the firm. The ability to converse well and articulate thoughts are more important than any legal skill you could demonstrate in a 30-minute interview.

"Law students wrongly assume that they will impress the interviewer by droning on and on about their legal expertise," says Shari Patel, a recruiter at a large Chicago firm. "The students that monopolize the screening interview with legalspeak are not the ones that get the positions. During the initial meetings, I look for people who will fit in at the firm on a personal level."

Interviews vary depending on the firm-some hold them in hotel rooms, while others combine them with cocktail parties. But at this early stage in the process, they are generally laid-back and informal. Get an idea of each firm's interviewing style and prepare yourself accordingly.

Questions Count
You can bet that the interviewer is going to ask, "Do you have any questions about the firm?" And the fact is, you better have some prepared. Here are a few to start off with:

• Do you work with attorneys from the firm's other offices?
• How would you describe the firm's culture?
• Are new attorneys immediately assigned to one group, or do they rotate?
• What sets this firm apart from others in the city?
• Tell me about a case you're currently working on.
• What kind of mentoring possibilities exist for summer associates?

Perspective Counts
During the screening interview, it's crucial that you present yourself as a competent professional with a winning personality. Of course, it's difficult to convey such an image in a 30-minute chat—but if you can prove that your social skills are on par with your grades, and you're genuinely interested in the firm to which you're talking, then you'll likely earn a call back.

The more intense interviews come later in the game, so at this stage, relax a bit, take a deep breath, and remember what counts.

Surviving and Thriving in a Tough Job Market: Acing the Interviews

Sherrie Gong Taguchi of the Stanford Graduate School of Business gives tips on preparing for interviews.

Some candidates look fantastic on paper, only to disappoint in the interview. On the other hand, some people have a natural talent in interviewing. But interviewing is ultimately a learned skill.

Following are ten tips to help you be your best as you interview. For more insight into what interviewers are looking for, be sure to check out Ten Executives Discuss What They’re Looking for When They Interview Candidates.

1. Research the industry and company beforehand; over-prepare. Use every resource to your advantage: fellow students, professors, career-center resources, informational interviews with alumni of your school, the company’s recruitment literature and website.

2. Know what you’re looking for, what’s important to you, and why you are in the interview. What are your values, interests, preferences? What kinds of roles and responsibilities are stimulating to you? What are your top five criteria for choosing a company or accepting an offer? What drew you to interview with this company, for this job? Thinking through these issues will keep you focused in your interviews—and keep you from wasting time (yours and the interviewers) in interviews for jobs you aren’t truly interested in. (Again, you can find more information in Surviving and Thriving in a Tough Job Market: Ten To-Dos to Be Your Best.)

3. Understand what you have to offer: your skills, experience, education, talents, and strengths. What makes you unique? What are your points of difference? Understand how these make you a good fit for the opportunity the company is offering, so you can make the fact that you are a good fit clear to the interviewer.

4. Anticipate the questions you’ll be asked. Think about key points you would emphasize for each question you can imagine the interviewer asking. Additionally, prepare how you would handle any illegal, unfair, or politically incorrect questions in a firm but graceful manner. And remember: If it’s on your resume, it’s fair game.

5. Practice, refine, practice. Participate in mock interviews; practice on your own or with other students. Solicit honest feedback and work to improve. At a minimum, one practice interview is a must. (For case interviews, do two or more, since they can be quite complex. Check with your school’s consulting club and career center to see if they conduct mock case interviews.)

6.       Be on time, enthusiastic, and professional in your interviews. When in doubt, dress more formally (most of the time, a suit and tie for men, a pantsuit or jacket and skirt for women). Don’t overdo the accessories (scarves, jewelry, perfume, makeup). Bring extra copies of your resume, just in case. Make sure pagers and mobile phones are turned off. Present a firm handshake and eye contact when you introduce yourself. Wait to sit until after the interviewer does, or until he or she offers you your chair. Don’t rush to fill in silence. Think before you speak; take time to form your thoughts. Tell the interviewer that you can be reached by phone or e-mail if there are any follow-up questions..Show enthusiasm modulated to the interviewer’s. Speak with clarity and confidence. Close the interview with a handshake and genuine thank you; make a positive last impression.

7. Develop questions (at least three) for each interview. Examples might include: What keeps you in the company or makes you most excited about working there? How do you think the new players x and y and recent merger activity between a and b will impact you? Can you give me some examples of what kinds of roles MBAs typically have at the company after two, five, or eight years?

8. If the interviewer does not discuss next steps and the timing of the recruiting process, ask about them. If you think you’ll be invited for a second-round, this will allow you to block out the time on your calendar so you can participate.

9. Follow up—quickly—with a written thank-you note. In this age of e-mails, an old-fashioned handwritten note can be a breath of fresh air. You don’t need fancy, personalized stationary; a simple note-card or nice paper will do. Try to personalize your thank-you’s if you are sending them to more than one person in a given company; assume they will be passed around. Saying the same thing to everyone shows you did not take the time to differentiate between your interviewers, which could be interpreted as meaning that you don’t care about the position, or bring into question your level of business sense.

10. After each interview, assess your performance. Understand what worked, and what didn’t. Keep learning and improving as you go on interviews. Ask yourself questions like: What do I need to do to perform better for next time? Should I get additional practice—such as a videotaped mock interview, or mock-interview feedback? Your career centers, the people you’ve interviewed with, and fellow students with whom you’ve participated in mock interviews can all be a source of excellent feedback.

Feel free to write me with your feedback on this story, at staguchi@onebox.com. I won’t be able to get back to every single person who writes, but your opinions will be noted as I continue to develop stories and write my next book on career development!

Surviving and Thriving in a Tough Job Market: Top Ten To-Dos to Be Your Best

Sherrie Gong Taguchi of Stanford's Graduate School of Business gives advice on interviewing, resume writing, networking, and other job-search tactics.

Are you feeling anxious about this year’s job market? You’re not alone. It’s a tough job market. But there are steps you can take to be as prepared as possible as you start to look for your next job. Following are ten To-Do’s that will help you be your best as you enter the job market.

1. Assess yourself and develop your plan. Take time to do a thorough self-assessment. Understand what you truly want, without listening to the background noise of others’ expectations. Your career services office most likely offers resources such as MBTI, the BCII/CareerLeader, or DISC to help you learn about yourself. The core questions for reflection are: What are your values and interests? What are your preferences for industries, companies, functions, locations, job content, people you’d be working with and for, and organizational culture, style, and size? What are your strengths and skills, and, more importantly, which do you want to use in your next job?

From here, create your plan. First, explore/research industries and companies broadly. Next, winnow down your choices and make decisions on what you’ll target. Then, design your marketing plan (your resume, how you’ll connect into the industries/companies, etc.). Then it’s time to go to work on filling in some of your gaps. (Is there additional knowledge or skills you’ll need to be competitive? Can you do something sooner rather than later to differentiate yourself or make you a stronger candidate? Are you aware of the industry’s buzzwords and vocabulary?) Finally, implement your plan, assessing how you’re doing and making adjustments as you go.

2. Use your career services office. Participate selectively; use your time management and prioritizing skills to help decide which resources you should take advantage of. Your career center offers a variety of resources to help you, most likely including advice/counseling, on-campus recruiting, and a resource center/library or website which provides books, directories, website links, reports, research, and other resources.

Most centers offer workshops or programs with industry/function/alumni panels. Participating in these can save you many hours of research time on industries and functions, add to your job-search skills, and facilitate your networking.

Career centers also facilitate employer/company information sessions, which can be a valuable, efficient way to learn about a company quickly and meet the critical players who make the hiring decisions.

Your school, or on-campus clubs, may also offer conferences or symposia for specific industries or around a faculty research initiative (e.g. high-growth companies or startups; global manufacturing companies). These events are great ways to cultivate connections, leads, and referrals.

3. Research the industries you’re interested in. Do your homework—over-prepare. A common refrain I hear from recruiters about someone who is impressive is, “She really understands our business and asked some great questions.

As you research, ask questions like: What does this industry actually do—make, offer? How does it add value to the customer? Who are the major players and the up-and-comers? How do they differ? What are the critical success factors for a company to outperform the others? How does the trend look on metrics such as performance, size, growth, or contraction? What are the different models of doing business? What does the future look like for this industry? Are there common qualities/experience for executives who do well?

4. Research the companies you’re interested in. As you do, ask questions like: How does this company stack up against its competitors? What are its points of difference? What is the company’s culture? What are its values and personality? Who are the leaders? What are they like, and how do they value (or not value) people? What is the company’s track record with MBA hiring? What kinds of career portfolios have its MBA hires had? What is the company’s level of innovation, turnover, and commitment to developing and keeping its employees? What are its specific recruiting plans for your campus—key dates to note, positions hiring for, locations, recruiting team members? Read the company’s job descriptions, check out its website, and get evaluations of the company from any fellow students or contacts who’ve worked there as summer interns or full-time employees.

5. Develop a winning resume. Especially if you will be changing industries, your resume is extremely important in helping you stand out from other candidates. Remember that most recruiters make quick judgments about resumes--in just two seconds to two minutes. Also, this year you’ll be competing with candidates who are more experienced since so many MBA alumni and other talented professionals are on the job market. To develop the best resume possible, read some of the many books on resumes, and find out what kinds of resume-prep resources your career center offers.

These are my favorite pointers for resumes. There’s beauty in the basics.

• Make it one page.
• Use action verbs (e.g. created, developed, formulated, designed, contributed as team member, led, researched, evaluated, built, cultivated, grew, started up, implemented, wrote, served . . .).
• Develop problem/action/result (PAR) statements for the items on your resume. Ask yourself: What was the issue the Problem you were trying to solve; what was your Action; and what was the Result? Your resume should make these things clear.
• If you are changing industries, think about a functional resume which emphasizes two to four applicable categories of skills/strengths such as: Leadership and Teamwork, Planning and Analysis, Customer Service/Relationships, Communication, Project Management, Operations and Implementation, People Management/Teambuilding, New Product Launches. Start the resume with a two- or three-sentence summary of your objective, such as: “To utilize 7 years of experience in problem solving, managing projects, and working with diverse customers in dynamic, high-growth organization. Strengths in communication, creativity, and action orientation.”
• Review your fellow students’ resumes, and take a peek at peers’ resumes from other schools if you are able to.

7.       Refine your interviewing skills so you feel confident and stand out. Check out "Surviving and Thriving in a Tough Job Market: Acing the Interviews" to learn about the taxonomy of an interview, approaches to interviews, interviewers’ favorite questions, and interviewing philosophies. Keys to success in the interview include preparation and practice.

7. Network, connect, and follow up. In this job market, networking is more important than ever. Cultivate and tap into your network in traditional and novel ways. Broaden your network by contacting people like recruiters who come to campus; recruiters who have not been to campus for awhile for whom you can find contact information; alumni of your school in the industries, companies, or jobs you want to be in; students or alumni of other schools who are influential in the field (the MBA community is pretty collegial); your school’s advisory council, faculty, deans, career center staff, and admissions staff; colleagues from old jobs; referrals from referrals. . . .

Other sources of contacts include alumni of your undergraduate school; your family friends (and their friends); your doctor, aerobics instructor, pastor/priest/rabbi/spiritual advisor; and those people you met on the ski slopes, in the coffee house, on line at the theater, on trains, planes, or at social or charity events.

When you get in contact with people you want to network with, introduce yourself briefly, explain how you got their name/how you know them, explain what you want (e.g. you are trying to get up to speed on their industry, know they are an expert, and have a few questions…), and REQUEST--don’t expect--15 or 20 minutes of their time.

When you have conversations with new contacts, know what questions you’ll ask beforehand and don’t finish the conversations without asking if they can recommend a colleague or two who might have job opportunities or who are also knowledgeable/helpful. Let them know you’ll keep in touch to keep them informed on how you’re doing—and follow through. Keep your connections alive and dynamic.

You’ll need to use your judgment, but when connecting with your contacts, it is in-bounds to ask for: referrals to others who may have a job opportunity; a review of your resume and cover letter; and information on industries, functions, or places. Just be polite and genuine, and willing to reciprocate when asked to do so.

8.       Reflect, refine, and redirect your search if you need to. Be critical of yourself. How are you doing? Where could you improve? What help or advice do you need? Who can provide that to you quickly? Are there gaps in your performance that need filling in? Are they knowledge gaps (e.g. you aren’t up to speed on industry lingo), or skill gaps (e.g. your cover letters aren’t as sharp as they might be)? Remember: Knowledge is attainable, and skills can be developed.

9. Mind your recruiting etiquette throughout the recruiting process. In this tough job market, shining in this area can make a big difference. It’s important to show respect to everyone you are in contact with during your job search: your peers, those that are recruiting you, and the career center professionals who are helping you.

Etiquette means: attending a function if you RSVPed yes; waiting to be asked for your question in an employer information session; not attacking what a cohort says in that same session; and not walking out in the middle of an employer event (or, if you must, sitting near the door and being quiet when you leave). It’s introducing your classmates when you’re at a function talking with a recruiter; turning off your cell phone and pager during recruiting events; knowing your table manners; writing thank-you letters after interviews; declining an offer—not holding onto it—if you know you are not going to accept it.

Etiquette also means returning calls promptly, not over-negotiating your offers, and telling career center staff and others who help you that you appreciate their efforts.

10. Leverage the best job/career-related websites. Supplement your campus recruiting efforts by visiting the many excellent sites out there.  

Using School Experiences in Behavioral Interviews

Even if you don't have much work experience, you can still beat a behavioral interview.

"Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership. Describe a time when you were working on a project that suddenly changed in mid-stream." These types of behavioral interview queries are designed to unearth information about your past performance and prompt you to give specific examples demonstrating your skills and abilities. You can ace a behavioral interview even without much work experience.

Valuable Skills Don't Only Come from Job Experience
It's important to remember that you will be evaluated on intangible competencies, including skills you've acquired through a variety of experiences, not just at work. Some of the qualities behavioral interviewers look for include:

• Initiative
• Individual leadership
• Working well in teams
• Decision-making skills
• Problem solving and analytical skills
• Effective time management
• Working under pressure

Draw from School Experiences
Think of the varied experiences you've had as a student. Do any of the following situations sound familiar?

• You handled challenging relationships in the dorm, in school organizations, or within class teams.
• You decided what college to attend and which major to pursue.
• You simultaneously wrote a term paper, studied for a major exam, and met family obligations.
• You identified the value of a study group for a particularly challenging course and organized one.
• You chose between an internship, a semester abroad, and a job.

Analyze Each Situation
Each of the previous scenarios provides a wealth of material to use in a behavioral interview. Think about the processes that went into resolving each situation. You probably had to:

• Identify a need or problem
• Define ways to improve a situation
• Seek input from others, cooperate, and compromise
• Gather data and analyze options
• Determine the best way to manage your time in order to meet deadlines
• Base a solution on logical assumptions and factual information
• Take the initiative to finish a project or achieve a self-imposed goal

Answer the Questions
Once you've pinpointed a variety of relevant situations, you must learn how to use them effectively in a behavioral interview.

Remember that the interviewer will evaluate how logically, clearly, and concisely you express your experiences and the processes you used. Here’s what the interviewer wants you to do:

• Set up the situation. Explain it fully (but concisely), including all the circumstances that affected it. Choose a situation that really allows you to showcase your skills and abilities.
• Explain how you handled the situation or set about to resolve the problem. Stay on track; don't include unrelated details.
• Describe the result of your actions. This is a very important component of your answer and one that people often neglect. Tell the interviewer what happened even if you were unsuccessful.

Practice Question
Describe a time when you were a member of a team or group that had to achieve a goal or solve a problem. What type of team or group was it? What was the team or group trying to do? What was your role? How did you contribute to the team or group? Was the team or group successful?

Think it Through

·  What competency is the interviewer evaluating? Teamwork/Collaboration: Working effectively with others outside the formal lines of authority to accomplish a goal or resolve a problem.

·  What situation best demonstrates my skill or ability in this competency?
My dorm had monthly meetings where we discussed everything from someone taking too much time in the shower to how we wanted to represent our dorm in homecoming activities. Most people didn't like the meetings: they took forever, often degenerated into either squabbling or a gossip fest, and cut into study time. Although they weren't mandatory, there was pressure to attend.

·  What actions did I take?
Some of us began discussing alternatives to these meetings. We looked at the problem from several angles: Why didn't we get anything done? Did they have to be monthly? Were there other ways to accomplish our goals?

A group of us canvassed the dorm to get ideas on how to streamline the meetings. We got some great ideas and offers of assistance. For example, a couple of journalism majors suggested starting a newsletter where basic dorm information could be posted, but which would also include “gossipy” items. (Of course, we would be sure to use our best judgment with those.)

We also realized that nothing gets done in a large group, so we decided to form small committees. The committees could take on various projects, and with fewer members, could conveniently set meeting times.

Of course, there were some students who were quite attached to the dorm-wide meeting, so we compromised by meeting once each semester. We set a standard agenda format and procedure so the meetings would actually be productive.

My main contribution was in organizing our initial small group and all the information, suggestions, and offers we received. I also developed a plan for the committees—where they were needed and how to organize the volunteers.

In the end, we were able to reduce the number of meetings and make sure the ones we had were worthwhile. It required compromise, but most people were satisfied with the end result.

·  What was the result?
Less meeting time, but more was accomplished.

Why Is This Answer Effective?
It demonstrates your skills and abilities in several aspects of teamwork including: sharing ideas and information, seeking feedback from others, building upon ideas of others, and showing sensitivity and understanding. It also highlights your own contributions to the process.

What Are I-Banking Interviewers Looking for?

Find out what traits investment banks hope you have.

I-banking interviewers look for the best and brightest to fill their ranks. This means a candidate who is not only an academic powerhouse, but also someone who has a proven track record, great communication skills, and a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the job at hand.

Highlight Your Interpersonal Skills
People skills are a hot commodity in the I-banking world. “Wall Street ends up hiring tons of people who are very book-smart but complete and utter morons when it comes to life," says one I-banker. "They play with their little financial models all day, but God forbid you have to put them in front of a client."

Emphasize your "people skills." Give examples of leadership experiences and your success working in a team. Be sure you don't come across as arrogant or data-driven to the point of being tiresome.

Communicate Well—through Words as well as Body Language
A savvy use of body language shows you are able to communicate on a variety of different levels. “I [definitely] watch interviewees’ body language ," says another banker. "Outstanding candidates can read you and will unconsciously adjust to match your behavior to some extent. . . . During the interview the best candidates also ask questions to get your point of view." A successful candidate looks at the meeting as a relationship-building session more than as an interview.

Talk up Your Accomplishments
"I can't stress enough how important it is for candidates to show me how well they handle a variety of situations—managing people, stress, working on a team," says one banker. If you have an MBA, it is expected that you've made significant career accomplishments, and "you should be able to demonstrate your skills from previous job experiences in detail." Even undergrads are expected to provide examples of applicable accomplishments.

Show That You’ll Work Hard
Some I-bankers look for more aggressive traits. One says he wants to know “First off, are you willing to work your ass off for your career? How hungry are you? Second, you need to be curious and willing to ask questions about everything, even if it makes your boss nuts. Finally, you can’t be shy—you have to be aggressive, especially as an analyst. People will walk all over you if you let them.”

Be the Whole Package
Top banks want you to have it all: a combination of book and people smarts, superb communication skills, confidence, curiosity, honesty, flexibility, and a willingness to dedicate your life to your career.

What to Say When it's Your Turn to Ask Questions in an Interview

WetFeet helps you come up with the best questions to ask when you're interviewing for a job.

Are recruiters just being polite when they ask if you have any questions for them? NO. Are there questions you can ask that don't sound totally canned? YES.

Asking questions is a key part of the interview process. It shows the company how interested in it and its industry you really are. But there’s an artistry to not asking too many questions, or annoying ones, or those that make you seem unprepared or not thoughtful.

The best approach to developing the good questions for recruiters comes out of thinking through four dimensions:

1. Consider what stage you’re at in the process. If you’re early in the process—say, at a company’s on-campus information session—you’ll want to ask questions that are different from those you’d ask in a later-round interview in which you’re discussing the specifics of your job description or your compensation package. Earlier in the process, you’ll want to ask more general questions about the company’s strategy and priorities and how you’ll fit into them, company culture, career development opportunities, and so on. Later, you’ll want to drill down to more specific details in these areas.

2. Know yourself, the company, and the industry. By doing an assessment of yourself—what you want in a job in terms of title, responsibilities, career development, company culture, and so on—you’ll understand what your dealbreaker issues are when choosing a job.

For example, you may want to work at a small company with little hierarchy, and the company you’re currently interviewing with has assured you that that’s exactly what it is. However, it may be worth it to ask questions about the details of the company’s reporting structure and decisionmaking processes—because the small company you’re interviewing with may turn out to make decisions from on high despite having a flat formal structure.

Other areas in which you might want to dig deeper, as the interviews progress, include: company culture; the effects of an upcoming layoff, merger, acquisition, or expansion; and how others in your position have developed in their careers—broadly or more vertically, etc. As you ask questions, try to get at what you cannot find in the company’s published recruiting materials or elsewhere in your company and industry research.

3. Develop a core list of questions. You'll want to create at least three general questions you can use with all the companies with which you are interviewing. Beyond those, you should tailor questions to each company based on what you know about the company or have experienced with the company to date. Of course, based on the natural conversational flow of your interviews and what, specifically, you’ve been discussing with the recruiter, there will be some unscripted questions that will come to mind.

4. Come up with questions that help you “self leverage.” Where possible, ask questions that shine a light on your knowledge, insights, and thoughtfulness about the industry, the company, its people, its culture, and/or specific ways you will be able to add value in the job.

Following are some of the kinds of questions you might want to ask as you interview.

For Any Time in the Process

• What do you see as the priority challenges for the company/group? What are its key objectives? What is its reason for being?
• What are the metrics the company/group uses to measure performance?
• How do you define success?
• What exciting or challenging directions do you anticipate over the next few years?

Prior to the Interviews

• What’s your background? What do you like most or least about working with X?
• How is your recruiting going this year?
• What are your plans for recruiting?
• What do you think gets lost about your company in the recruiting hubbub that I should know?
• I heard about X—what do you think about it? (An industry or company event—something that’s been in the news or that you discovered in your networking and research.)

During the Preliminary Interviews

• Are there any issues or concerns about my candidacy that you have? I’d like to address them. (Yes, be bold.)
• What are next steps in general? (If the interviewer has not outlined these.)
• What are your deciding factors for callbacks? Timing?
• How have you liked or disliked working with X?
• When you look back on your experience with your company, what would you be proudest about? Do you have any regrets?
• How do you measure an individual’s success in your organization?
• I get the sense that your culture is very x, y, z (for example, team oriented, quick, and open/flexible). Is this an accurate assessment? What more can you tell me about the culture and its values, and how culture impacts how people work together?

After You've Received an Offer

For the Person Making the Offer

• Have you made other offers at my school? Gotten back to the nos? (This will help you ascertain if you should keep quiet about your offer out of sensitivity to your co-horts.)
• What's the timeframe for getting back to you?
• What is your ideal timeline for start date—earliest/latest?
• When will you be sending the formal offer letter?
• If I have follow-up questions or requests, are you the best person to contact?
• How do the options work (vesting schedule)? What kinds of intangibles and other perquisites are part of the offer? (For example, flexibility in title, cell phone, palmtop, continuing education, career development, etc.)

For Your Hiring Manager or Someone Senior

• What's your management style? How do you make decisions? Like to communicate? Lead people?
• What do you see as the group’s top priorities?
• What’s important to know if I come aboard—what will make or break if I’m effective and acclimate well?
• How do you measure success for yourself?
• How do you reward your people?
• What’s your view on developing people? Any examples you are particularly proud of?
• What’s the worst thing that someone new could do coming into the group?
• What do you see as the top three goals/objectives for my job? What are the metrics you use to evaluate them/my performance?
• How will my job performance be measured? How is the bonus structured—what percentage is based on individual performance, what percentage on group and/or company performance? What have been general payout ranges over the past few years?
• What are your ideas for how my role could evolve? What other opportunities would be logical or creative next moves?

After You've Accepted the Job or Are Close

• I’d still like more information on x, y, z—are there alumni from my school or other people within the company you could put me in touch with?
• Are there any upcoming company events that I could participate in to get a deeper understanding of the company? (For example, an all-hands meeting, a company happy hour or social gathering, a town hall with the CEO.)
• Among who have joined you and done really, really well, what was their entry strategy? What did they particularly pay attention to that helped them transition into the organization well and be effective quickly? Are there things I could be doing before I start to be better prepared?
• I’d like to volunteer to help in recruiting for my school. Is this possible? How can I go about it?

What Your Body Language Tells Interviewers

Body language speaks louder than words. Master it to gain confidence and get the job.

During a job interview, your body language can say even more than your words. Many interviewers can read the subtleties of body language, and even those who can’t will experience subconscious reactions to the clues you give off with your gestures and facial expressions. Let’s follow two job seekers through their interviews to see the difference body language can make.

Interview One: Allyson
Allyson enters the interview room and the interviewer offers her his hand. Allyson limply accepts the handshake, causing him to think she lacks confidence. She sits down before he does—which he finds rude—and crosses her arms, suggesting that she’s defensive and closed off.

She’s heard that it’s good to make eye contact with an interviewer, so she constantly looks at him—stares him down—which only makes him feel threatened. Sometimes she looks down, not making eye contact at all, which makes him think she lacks confidence or is being deceptive.

While she talks, Allyson twists a ring around on her finger, a nervous gesture. She also taps her feet and runs her tongue along her teeth. Listening to her, the interviewer begins to lean back in his chair. Allyson doesn’t realize that this signifies that he’s uncomfortable with the situation. She slouches in her chair, demonstrating a lack of self-assurance and interest in the job.

At the end of the interview, Allyson slinks out of the room with her shoulders slumped. The interviewer notices. He sighs, sits down, puts Allyson’s resume in the “no” pile, and calls in his next candidate.

Interview Two: Michelle
Michelle comes in and greets the interviewer with a warm smile and an extended hand. He immediately sees that she’s confident, friendly, and enthusiastic. Her handshake is firm, without being bone-crushing, another gesture that impresses the recruiter. He offers her a seat, and she sits down.

While they talk, Michelle sits up straight, leaning forward slightly. Her good posture shows that she’s alert and leaning forward demonstrates her interest in the conversation. When she’s not gesturing with her hands (exhibiting that she’s genuinely involved in the interview), her hands rest on her lap, palms open, which lends her an air of approachability.

Michelle makes eye contact with the interviewer, but she breaks her gaze occasionally, because she knows that many people naturally look away when they’re talking.

When the interviewer talks, Michelle nods attentively. He smiles at her and tells a few jokes. Michelle knows enough about body language to realize that this means he’s friendly and comfortable with the situation. When appropriate, she subtly tries to mirror her interviewer’s gestures—smiling and leaning back when he does. This allows him to feel a subconscious sense of bonding with her.

At the end of the interview, the interviewer again shakes Michelle’s hand, and they smile at each other. She walks away confidently—head up, shoulders squared—and he happily puts her resume in the “definitely” pile.

What’s the Difference?
How can you learn to be more like Michelle and less like Allyson? Start by becoming aware of the signals you’re sending. Next, work to replace your negative gestures with positive ones. Once you’ve begun to habitually project positive body language, you’ll find that you’re exuding enthusiasm, confidence, and interest in your interviews, and you’ll be on your way to a new job.

Body Language Glossary
Here are some examples of body language cues and their possible interpretations.

• Crossed arms – closed off or defensive
• Fidgeting, running tongue along teeth, playing with hair or jewelry, or tapping feet – nervous or bored
• Lack of eye contact or, conversely, staring too intently without breaking a gaze – untrustworthy
• Leaning back – uncomfortable
• Clasping hands behind the head while leaning back – looking to gain power
• Leaning forward – interested in the conversation
• Smiling or attempting to be humorous – friendly
• Eye contact with occasional, natural breaks in the stare – focused and curious
• Nodding while listening – attentive and alert
• Open palms – approachable and trusting
• Gesturing with hands while talking – genuinely involved in the conversation

When and How to Discuss Salary During an Interview

Essential tips to help you get the salary you deserve.

It happens in almost every job interview. Your potential employer looks you straight in the eye and asks the question that gets you squirming in your seat: "What kind of salary are you looking for?" It takes finesse and negotiating know-how to get the best possible pay and perks. You can learn how to navigate the rocky waters of talking about salary during an interview with the ensuing tips from experts.

1. Don't talk about salary too soon

“The time to talk about salary is when they say they want you for the job. Before that, it’s a moot point,’’ Chapman says. It can also hurt your chances of getting the job if you price yourself out of the ballpark. "Don’t give them a chance to eliminate you based on salary," he says.

“The biggest blunder made by job applicants is the tendency to jump to the issue of compensation too quickly,” agrees Deb Koen, author of Career Choice, Change and Challenge and vice president of Career Development Services, a nonprofit group based in Rochester, New York.

Ray Brizendine, the director of the Alexander Group, a national executive recruiting firm, warns that if you ask about salary in the first interview, “It makes you look as though you're applying for the job because of the money. That [can] seem too mercenary.”

2. If asked about salary right away, change the subject
If you don't want to answer the salary question right away, what should you do?

Change the subject, politely. Use statements such as: “I don’t want to box myself in terms of salary right now. If you don’t mind, I’d like to focus on the value I can produce for your company,” or “I’m sure we can come to a salary agreement if I’m the right person for the job. I’d like to see if we agree that I am.”

This is not hedging. Waiting until the potential employer wants to hire you is a savvy strategic move, Chapman says. “You need to wait until they really want you. Once they’re hot about you, they’ll do what it takes to get you.”

3. Do your research and prepare to negotiate
Before you go into the interview, know the going rate for your experience and position. Websites such as Salary.com can give you a good idea of your salary range, says Chapman.

Once you have an offer, negotiate. According to Chapman, the correct way to begin negotiations is to say "hmm." Next, he says, "Repeat the figure with a contemplative tone in your voice—like it's the start of a multinational summit meeting. Count to 30 and think."

When you’re done thinking—and this time the interviewer will be the one squirming in his seat—respond with the truth based on what you know you’re worth in the marketplace: "sounds great" or "sounds fair" or "sounds disappointing."

Just like that, the scales are tipped in your favor.