www.diversityinsteam.com Diversity in STE A M
51
Rule #2 - Understand the role of each interviewer.
How you answer questions depends on the position of the person asking them. Your answer to an immediate su- pervisor will be different than questions asked by middle management or even top man- agement. Tailor each question to the person asking it. Being able to do this requires some preparation in thinking about answers and some thinking on your feet.
Rule #3 - Make sure your body language is saying the same thing that you are speaking.
Body language should be say- ing the same thing as the words coming out of your mouth. However, an experienced inter- viewer will pick up differences between what you are speaking and what your body is say- ing. How you are si@ing, your facial expression, eye contact, posture, etc., all speak loudly about you. One place where many inter- viewees fail is not maintaining eye contact. Not only does look- ing someone in the eye show them you are actually listening to what they are saying, but it shows you are self-confident and assertive by being able to do so. Many people cannot as they are intimidated by the person asking questions. And it can be even worse if a panel is asking questions.
Rule #4 - Have more than one career story.
Because many upper-level jobs have multiple interviews, each with a different person, you should have multiple stories about your career. Why? Be- cause quite often interviewers will collaborate with each other after the interviews and if you told each one a different story of your career, it reflects well on your preparedness for that interview overall.
Rule #5 - Following up will not speed up an offer.
Most of the how-to-inter- view material written always recommends to following up an interview with a thank-you email or handwritten note the day or so after your interview. Some like to also send a follow-up email if they have not heard back by the follow-up date established during the interview. If that date did not come up during the course of the interview, be sure to ask, When should I look for a response? If after that amount of time has elapsed, and you have not yet heard anything, it is a good gesture to let them know you are still interested but know that it most likely will not speed up an offer, if there is going to be one. What can speed up an offer or decline is le@ing them know if you have an offer from anoth- er company. This is just good etiquette to let them know. You may be on a waitlist, meaning they want to hire you, just not for that position and they are waiting for a job to open up that is better matched to you.
Rule #6 - Check with the people actually working at that company.
People working at the com- pany you are applying to will give you a much clearer picture as to the company climate than the person interviewing you. For one, if they are in HR in the company, you will not get an unbiased answer. If the in- terviewer is a third-party hired to interview for the company, that person may not even know anything about the company culture, so they can't give you an honest answer either. Talk to some of the employ- ees that work there and ask their honest opinion of the company. Most likely, they will tell you the truth - good or bad. Besides the recommended preparation as far as dress, an- swers to commonly asked ques- ions and your own prepared questions, be sure to brush up on these six unwritten rules of interviewing and get ahead of your competition.
Source: ClearanceJobs
Previous Page