Control It

I have saved until last the worst possible scenario: the formidable obstacle at which all but those with alert minds can falter. Interviewers love it and it's the devil's own job to overcome. Nothing you can do in advance, or very little, will help you much with this one; you just have to play it by ear.

Picture the scene if you will, the first of two:

Scenario One:

You are in reception. Your prospective interviewer has been given a copy of your CV and other information as required. You have sent the relevant letters. You have done your homework. You have rejected the cup of coffee. You are cool, calm and collected. You have been waiting for a few minutes when a little person, a very junior little person appears on the scene and stuffs a three page, double sided application form in your sticky hand and while you are looking at it agog at it says;

"Mr. Interviewer says will you complete this please".

Before you can say a word little person then evaporates into thin air.

You are thrown. Your equilibrium is anywhere but where it should be, You look at the questions and your mind goes blank. The document demands dates of where you went to school, where your father went to school, where your mother went to school, your religion, everyone you have ever known's religion. It is horrendous. Bloody horrendous.

It is the work of a sadist. Usually from the personnel department.

It is a device for inflicting pain on a member of the human race.

Not just any member of the human race. YOU !

It is at this point you might ask yourself:

"What the B**** am I doing here ?"

You are a normal well adjusted human being, you have played by the rules as you progressed along the path that led to where you are now.

Do you really want to work with these bozos? It is a very serious question.

It deserves a very serious answer.

I have walked out of, nay stormed out of, reception areas when confronted with this situation leaving behind me these words:

"Tell Mr. Interviewer to shove his job where the sun don't shine."

I have written to Managing Directors at length. I have complained about such treatment in the strongest possible terms and nothing has done me the slightest good. True I have had letters of apology, after the job had been given to someone else. To my mind it's just bloody mindedness or simply the action of a group of the near brain dead who don't know any better.

You must decide in advance how you handle such a situation.

If you really want the job, fine, fill in the paperwork. Better still if you are able to put off the event until later.

The following may be tried:

A) Fill in your name only and mark the document:

"Information previously supplied", or "CV and personal profile enclosed." (Some forms state "all sections to be completed", a directive that may safely be ignored as it is usually in fine print and conveniently missed)

B) Fill in your name only with no comment. Go into the interview with this opening statement:

"I have not as yet fully completed the application form Mr. Interviewer, because until we have had this meeting I do not know enough about the job to know for sure if I want it and you don't have enough information to decide whether you want me. Naturally, if all goes well today I will complete whatever forms you require with pleasure. I have provided all the information you ask for in the application form in advance of this interview".

Example "B" may seem a little arrogant and counter productive at first glance but I can assure you I have had some success with it in the past.

C) Is to pre-handle the situation

Ring up or write to request an application form if one is not sent with the letter offering the interview and confirming date and time.

This may not be possible when an agency is involved as often they don't know until the last minute what the client will do. In fairness to agencies they may have prepared a comprehensive CV for the client, only to find on the day the client will also require an application form to be completed.

I mentioned two scenes you needed to consider.

Scenario Two

The is where all of the foregoing happens, but not until the interview is about to begin. To some extent the same options are open as in scene one but now you are face to face with your interviewer and have to think on your feet. The situation is a little more daunting than being alone in a reception area.

This may be no bad thing as it opens up an option not available to you with the reception scenario.

You simply look at the form for about a minute, carefully fold it, slowly and meticulously, looking your interviewer in the eye as you do so and place it in your briefcase, saying:

"I don't like shoddy work. I prefer to turn in a good job well presented. I will complete the form tonight at home and mail it first class from the General Post Office before midnight. it will be on your desk in the morning".

Then immediately change the subject. Ask a question, make a statement, do or say anything that will divert your interviewers attention from the form.

If you have the confidence to carry this off then the reading and study of The Job Seekers Guide has not been in vain.

You might get a bit of resistance. Don't weaken. If you have had the nerve to carry the bluff this far you should not turn back.

The form is in your briefcase, you took the initiative to put it there. Leave it.

You may consider that I am making heavy weather of a situation that does not warrant it. In my view it does. The first few minutes of an interview are most important if the meeting is to be relaxed and mutually beneficial.

At worst, words fail me; all those that spring to mind are unprintable.

Interviews are meetings where the possible coming together of people and companies is discussed to see if this joining together will be to their mutual benefit. The interviewee is entitled to respect and must, if the union is to be of lasting benefit, be treated with dignity.

Many interviewers forget this, or have never understood it in the first place.

The employer is providing the candidate with an opportunity to earn money and make progress with the company. The candidate is proposing a solution to the employers problem by offering to perform a number of tasks in exchange for money.

This is the "STATUS QUO" of the situation. Mutually beneficial, not one sided.

Let us assume you have overcome all the devious little tricks that interviewers get up to and are in front of a reasonably sane well balanced person.

You have been allocated a finite amount of time and more often than not you do not know how much. You are prepared, complete with check list of the points you need to discuss and perhaps a wish list of things you would like to discuss.

You have much to say.

If you don't get to say it, tough, you've missed your chance buddy, wasted your time, missed the boat, dropped off the edge, in short you have failed.

You have not done what you set out to do. You must, above all else, say the things you need to say and have your questions answered.

You are comfortably seated in your chair with the check list clearly visible on your knee, (not on the table as you do not want the interviewer to steal your thunder and answer certain questions before you are ready to ask them).

You must now adopt a posture:

This could be aggressive, subservient, begging, domineering, any combination of these or some other. Decide at this point and play along with it, being sufficiently flexible to change the posture should such action become appropriate or necessary. You cannot decide what posture to adopt until you meet the interviewer so there is not much time to make up your mind.

Harking back for a moment to what I have said before, you simply respond to the situation as presented at the time in each new environment.

Ideally the perfect interview should start like this:

Interviewer greets candidate and shakes hands. Two minutes chat about the weather or the journey the candidate has just endured to get there followed by the adoption of a relaxed posture.

Interviewer then organises refreshments, checks that the candidate is comfortable, opens file and arranges relevant papers. Interviewer then looks candidate in the eye, drops his voice a couple of decibels and says:

"Mr. Candidate, how I intend to conduct this interview so that we may maximise the amount of time we have available is as follows:

I will ask questions relevant to your skills and experience. I will then go on to talk about you personally so that I am in a position to make a judgement as to how well you would fit in here.

I will then tell you all there is to know about the job and how it relates to the overall activities of the company and as best I can what sort of person we are looking for.

After that it's your turn. You will be able to ask me anything you like.

Feel free to stop me at any time during the interview to ask a relevant question or seek clarification of a point but please bear in mind that we have a finite amount of time available and it's in everyone's interest to cover all the ground we need to cover in that time.

Now then, let's get on."

If only all interviews were like this.

If only all interviewers conducted themselves like this.

If only they went on some sort of course to learn how to conduct interviews.

They do not, or at best only very few of them do.

Actually, the interview I have quoted above is the perfect scenario for the candidate. All the information is up front with an invitation to interrupt if required, followed by a promise that time will be allocated for questions. There is no need to interfere with this; all that has to be done is to keep in mind how the time is progressing.

Most interviewers arrive at the starting point of a meeting more by accident than design. Nothing is thought out in advance. They have no structure or plan and no idea how to exercise control.

This causes you, the candidate, a problem.

It is a very different matter if no structure is provided by the interviewer.

Very different indeed for it is up to the candidate to take the initiative if any progress is to be made.

Interviews need a structure. In the presence of an interviewer who is without any semblance of an idea of how to do this, it is left to the candidate to provide one.

The task uppermost in your mind is to get across your message, your two pennyworth, your skills, your experience, your personality, YOU.

When faced with a wishy washy interviewer you need to be able to take over the provision of the structure without appearing to take over the interview.

You simply cannot order the poor inadequate to bend completely to your will or you would be interviewing the interviewer. Some would say that's no bad thing, The unfortunate you are dealing with, who is more to be pitied than blamed, will adversely react to such a course of action and as likely as not, your application will end up in the waste paper basket.

The situation needs careful management. Very careful management.

Do not allow yourself to become despondent, all is far from lost.

Chances are the interviews will be running late, they mostly do. If they are and you are summoned to the presence a quarter or half an hour later than your appointed time you are presented with an opportunity of turning the situation to your distinct advantage.

This is how you do it:

You say to your interviewer as you sit down:

"Golly gosh Mr Interviewer, you must have seen a lot of high quality and interesting candidates today to be running late."

Interviewer has to respond and you don't care a muckle what that response is.

You follow it with:

"Well I won't waste your time, I have a lot of things to tell you and I'm keen to get on with it. Where would you like to start - my skills and experience, personal details or at some other point?”

Not bad ? You have your interviewer responding to you and he or she doesn't suspect a thing. Not bad at all.

You are setting up a structure, one that YOU are in control of. If the interviewer launches into a structure for the interview, well and good; if not, you have provided one. It doesn't matter about the order of delivery, as long as you get to say what you have to say.

If your interviewer is of the type that has been planted on the planet with no more brain cells than a daffodil it is your duty to help the unfortunate individual.

You might just help yourself considerably at the same time but that is a bonus. We are all members of the human race and membership is limited by time.

If you do allow the interviewer to meander along for a time searching for enough words to put together some semblance of a speech, well and good. But if you decide to assist in the provision of a structure, simply smile and say:

"I'm very interested in the position that I have come here to talk about Mr. Interviewer, and keen to conduct myself properly during this interview. Tell me, will there be time set aside for me to ask you a number of questions?"

The answer has to be yes, it cannot be anything else. Go on to say:

"Good. How do you intend to cover the ground?"

Don't wait for an answer. Continue:

"Shall I outline my skills and experience first, and then go on to my personal details?"

You are searching for a commitment. Your interviewer has been placed in a corner from which there is no alternative but to give you that commitment.

Interviewer has to choose one or the other. It's all the same to you-as soon as a choice is made you have the floor. Go for it.

You have the ship Mr. Candidate, steer it where you will.

Inadequate interviewer is relieved of the task of providing a structure - not that the interviewer was conscious of the fact that one was needed - without realising what has happened.

You simply tick off the matters for discussion from your list one by one until you are satisfied you know all there is to know about what you are there to find out.

You have said all you set out to say: how clever you are, how right for the job, how well you would fit in to the company and everything else you needed and wanted to convey.

You close the interview by saying something like:

"Well Mr Interviewer, I must say you conduct a very thorough interview. I am delighted at what I have heard and I have no hesitation in saying that if you were to offer me the position right now I would certainly accept."

This is the preamble to asking another question, the most important question of all, and one which must be asked at exactly the right time.

That question is:

"Mr. Interviewer, are you authorised to offer the position, here, today if you wished, or do you have to discuss the outcome of our meeting with someone else?"

By asking this question you do something few interviewees ever do; you ask for the job and in doing so establish a link between you and the company.

You might be surprised to find yourself in danger of being offered the job.

By asking the question you will at the very least find out what happens next.

This is of vital importance and central to the whole effort.

What happens next you can influence in many different ways. Take the average job hunter. What would he or she do? This individual would shuffle backwards toward the door saying things like:

"Well Mr Interviewer, I hope to be hearing from you soon then".

WRONG WRONG WRONG

Let me paint a picture of when and how that vital question must be asked, for this is the key to the resolution of the dilemma. This is the expanded version of the question:

"Are you in a position, if you choose to do so Mr. Interviewer, to offer me the job here and now, (pause a little but not long enough for an answer. Go straight on to say) or do you have to discuss the outcome of our meeting with someone else?"

You put a question to which your interviewer has to say yes or no. There is no place else to go. You are cutting through the peripherals, going for a positive close to the interview, one that is distinctly to your advantage; a close that may well deliver the fruits for which you have worked and studied hard or at worst one that will open up a channel of communication that may bear fruit in the future.

If the interviewer says:

"YES, it's my decision who gets the job",

You are presented with a golden opportunity, one that happens all too rarely in the day to day activities of a JOB HUNTER. Opportunities such as this need to be used to full advantage. Here's how you do it:

You simply say, and you had better learn this collection of gems word for word:

"That's good to hear Mr Interviewer."

Pay attention to what follows: what you say now may well prove to be the cause of considerable shock. You are about to put the individual on the spot.

Smile as you say, "That's good to hear Mr Interviewer", pause for a moment, look at your adversary, as though searching for something in the facial expression, let the smile fade; take on a thoughtful, earnest look, lower the tone of your voice and say:

"Mr. Interviewer, bear with me, just for a moment. What has passed between us today, in confidence, amounts to this. You have responded positively to certain important points that have been central to our discussions. We have covered many aspects of the job and the company and taken many things into account.

You have said that:

1. My skills are exactly what are required for the job.
2. My experience matches what is needed to ensure that the operation runs smoothly and bumps in the supply and demand cycle are ironed out.
3. My personality is such that you have no worries about my ability to fit in with other members of the team.

In the light of what has passed between us today in confidence, is there any reason why you should not offer me the position here and now? Is there any reason why you should not say: Alaster, I am certain you are the ideal person for the position and I have no hesitation in offering you the position of Leading Saggar Makers Bottom Knocker with our company."?

You have put the words into your interviewer's mouth.

That's the way to say it; that's the time to say it. Unless you have the floor, the undivided attention of your interviewer and all has gone well up to this point,

Don't say it. The moment must be just right. There is no half right, half wrong, no fifty fifty chance.

Get it wrong and you will sound very very silly.

To try to put this across when all is not just as it should be is counter productive.

What happens if he says something else, I hear you ask. Let us examine some alternatives.

Interviewer"Yes, it's my decision but I must talk to my Managing Director first. Just as a matter of courtesy."

You"Naturally. Are you intending to put my name forward as the most suitable candidate?"

or"Will your Managing Director wish to see the recommended candidate before the appointment is made?"

or"Will anyone else be involved other than your Managing Director, local councillor, Michael Heseltine, the Queen?"

Interviewer"We have a policy of making the decisions by a team of people who are tasked with the project."

You"The best of committees is less effective than the worst of individuals. May I have the opportunity of addressing the team?"

Perhaps it's better not to ask questions quite like some of those above but you get my drift. If you do get a bit over aggressive, as I tend to do at about this point in an interview then control yourself. Take a step back, smile and say something soothing like:

"Sorry if some of my replies to your questions are a bit over the top. My enthusiasm runs away with me sometimes, particularly when I'm as sure as I am in this instance. This job is exactly what I'm looking for and I know I am right for it. I could bring a lot to the position, and the company." "Would you say I have got that message across Mr Interviewer?"

If you hadn't got the message across before, then rest assured you will have done so now.

You are in effect fishing, fishing for information, trying to latch on to anything your interviewer might let slip that will reveal how the land lies.

Probing questions, many and various are the key. The more information extracted the better your chances of being able to influence the direction of the selection when the interviews over. Information is after all:

Power.

Power to score points over the other guys and gals who are out there.

Watch carefully for your interviewer's reactions to those questions. If you go on and on you will reach a point whereby you will start to accumulate negatives and lose some of the positive you have built up.

If you can't come out with the job come out clean is the message.

As soon as you judge that the positive - negative pivotal point has been reached,

Come out. To overstay your welcome is simply to diminish your chances of being put forward to the next stage. Better a hard hitting, meaningful meeting than a protracted one that ends on a casual, nothing more to talk about departure.

Certain patterns have built up that dictate a sort of route that employers travel to arrive at a decision as to who to employ. This usually takes the form of an initial screening of application forms followed by a selection of candidates for a first interview followed by a short list, usually no more than three or four, from which the final choice is made. This is for the most part a time and resource wasting exercise. By the time the second interview the selection has often been made; candidates two three and four are usually padding.

The question is, how do you know if you are the chosen one or not?

You don't. That's all there is to it, YOU DON'T.

Don't take it as read that a good interview, from which you have come out buzzing, automatically means you are the chosen one.

Better to assume that you are a member of the padding contingent.

You have made all the right noises, said all the necessary polite remarks and bid the interviewer farewell. You have left the interview happy in the knowledge that you came as near to coming out with the job as it was possible to get in the prevailing circumstances.

Do you sit at home and wait for the 'phone to ring and a job offer to come rattling over the wires? NO. You most certainly do not. Even if you are utterly convinced the job is yours you stay with your disciplined routine. Go home and write up your record. Detail the salient points from the interview and record the replies you made, the ones that were well received, the clangers you dropped. Just so you can be sure not to say the same things again.

Then play a card that few of the other candidates will play. Send your interviewer a letter. You need to cement the link you have made with your interviewer. Send a letter; sample follows this section.

Send it when you know all the initial interviews have been done.