The Essential Job Interview Handbook: A Quick and Handy Resource for Every Job Seeker

215 Pages·2013·0.9 MB·English

by  Baur

“Overseeing a job search and re-employment system that helps 13,000+
customers a year looking for employment, I highly recommend that jobseekers
read, The Essential Job Interview Handbook. It not only provides you with
multiple ways to answer key questions, but also helps you understand why the
questions are being asked and what goes into hiring managers’ decisions. You
will consult this book over and over!”
—John Beauregard, executive director, Eastern CT Workforce Investment
Board
“The Essential Job Interview Handbook offers specific strategies to ensure
greater comfort and confidence in interviews. Baur offers numerous examples of
how to effectively answer challenging interview questions and includes “good,
better and best” candidate responses. This format allows candidates to see the
logic behind questions they will be asked so they can more effectively reference
their relevant skills and experiences. Baur’s MAP and ZAP strategies empower
candidates to think strategically about their job search, mapping their relevant
skills and experiences to the position, reframing questions when necessary, and
closing with a thoughtful summary of their fit for the position. Most importantly,
Baur emphasizes the fact that interviewing is a skill that can be learned and she
offers candidates the educational roadmap for mastering this skill.”
—Nancy Burkett, director of Career Services, Swarthmore College
“Jean Baur’s The Essential Job Interview Handbook is a practical primer for
job seekers, recruiters and managers. It underscored for me how thoughtful
preparation is the critical differentiator to having a successful interview. These
insightful reflections and tips will assist applicants at any stage in their careers.
As students and graduates ask me about the next steps in their careers, I will
refer them to The Essential Job Interview Handbook as a solid resource to help
them reflect on their experience and frame their answers.”
—Thomas P. Chester, senior HR manager, Office of Human Resources,
Princeton University
THE ESSENTIAL JOB
INTERVIEW HANDBOOK
A QUICK AND HANDY RESOURCE FOR
EVERY JOB SEEKER
JEAN BAUR
Copyright © 2013 by Jean Baur All rights reserved under the Pan-American
and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in
whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the
publisher, The Career Press.
THE ESSENTIAL JOB INTERVIEW HANDBOOK
Printed in the U.S.A.
To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada:
201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information
on books from Career Press.
The Career Press, Inc.
220 West Parkway, Unit 12
Pompton Plains, NJ 07444
www.careerpress.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows: Baur, Jean,
1946-
The essential job interview handbook : a quick and handy resource for every
job seeker / by Jean Baur.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60163282-1 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60163-511-2 (ebook : alk.
paper) 1. Employment interviewing--Handbooks, manuals, etc.. 2. Job hunting--
Handbooks, manuals, etc.. I. Title.
HF5549.5.I6B375 2014
650.14’4--dc23
650.14’4--dc23
2013034207
For my husband, Robert.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to Orville Pierson for introducing me to Career Press, to Mary
Glynn and Frank Harvey for reading a draft of the book, and to the talented team
at Career Press. And to all the others who helped: You’re the best!
CONTENTS
Introduction
PART I • PREPARATION
Chapter 1 • Where to Start?
Chapter 2 • Get Your Stories Straight!
Chapter 3 • Figure Out What Employers Want
Chapter 4 • Rephrase and Reframe
Chapter 5 • Final Preparation: First Impressions
PART II • TYPES OF QUESTIONS
Chapter 6 • Ice-Breaker Questions
Chapter 7 • Preliminary Questions
Chapter 8 • Substance Questions
Chapter 9 • Fit Questions
Chapter 10 • Other Questions
PART III • TYPES OF INTERVIEWS
Chapter 11 • Phone Screenings: You Are What They Hear
Chapter 12 • HR Screenings: Are You a Match?
Chapter 13 • Recruiter Interviews
Chapter 14 • Behavioral: Let Me See You in Action
Chapter 15 • The Panel: One of Me, So Many of You
Chapter 16 • Bull’s-Eye: Meeting With the Hiring Manager
Chapter 17 • Presentations
Chapter 18 • When There’s Travel, Meals, Skype, or Assessments
PART IV • MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
Chapter 19 • Too Many Cooks and Unclear Job Requirements
Chapter 20 • Watch Your Pride
Chapter 21 • But I’m So Nervous!
Chapter 22 • Other Challenges
PART V • PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Chapter 23 • Closing the Deal
Chapter 24 • Evaluating Your Interview and Processing Feedback
Chapter 25 • Effective Follow-Up (How to Show Interest Without Being a Pest)
Chapter 26 • Negotiating an Offer
Chapter 27 • You’re Never Not Looking
Index
About the Author
INTRODUCTION
A huge challenge in the interview process is preparing for the unknown. Even
with a fairly detailed job description or a briefing by a knowledgeable recruiter,
job candidates often don’t know the company’s needs or what will happen
during the interview. Huge shifts take place that we—the ones being interviewed
—can’t predict. That is one of the reasons why interviewing successfully is so
difficult; we have to pay close attention to what we’re told and what we’re not
told, as well as to the many non-verbal signals we receive. And many people
conducting the interview aren’t well prepared, haven’t been trained in
interviewing, and often don’t like the process.
The Essential Job Interview Handbook takes a practical approach to this
critical challenge, and will help you prepare effectively for interviews; become
familiar with different types of interview questions and answers that focus on a
wide range of functions including science, IT, finance, and marketing; know
what to do after an interview; and then put it all together. You will learn how to
integrate the intangibles with solid practice. What’s unique about this approach
is that it’s both proprietary and road-tested. These are strategies that I’ve
developed throughout my 19 years as a career coach and I’ve seen firsthand that
they work.
The body of the book consists of sample questions with answers—multiple
answers with an evaluation of what makes the best one. By going through these
common interview questions, you are not only given an immediate way to do
better on interviews, but you will also gain an understanding of successful
strategies. In other words, instead of a list of questions with possible answers,
this book puts those samples into a context that will prepare you for any
situation.
Other interview books don’t:
use the MAP that is a critical part of both preparation and doing well in
all-day interviews.
give you a systematic way to probe for needs.
explain what makes the best answer.
base the interview questions and answers on years of coaching job seekers