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Excerpt from Chapter 4: Ace Any Job Interview

 

Grad to Great: Discover the Secrets to Success in Your First Career (Dalidaze Press, $18.50)

Beware of Questions Designed to Trip You Up

 

Christine, a senior executive at an investment bank, warns, “Some questions asked during the interview process are meant to kibosh you.” Consider number 21 from the list of sample questions on page 50 (Can you envision having your boss’s job?). What’s the real meaning behind this question? The interviewer asks you this question to determine if you are ambitious and expect to be at your boss’s level within a year. If this company wants ambitious entry-level workers, they want you to say yes. But what if their corporate culture does not encourage new hires to advance too quickly? Then the response more likely to get you hired would be,”“Maybe in several years after I have gained enough experience.” How can you know how to interpret the real meaning behind the interviewer’s question? These tips were designed to help you get at the real meaning behind the question:

• Determine whether it’s a question that could be meant to “kibosh” you.
• Listen to the tone of the person’s voice.
• Give a culturally appropriate answer for the company with which you are interviewing. (Do your homework ahead of time and during your informational interviews.)
• Consider your tone of voice as you answer and think about what someone is likely to read into your tone.

Sally is a senior executive in Chicago. She advises to pay attention to the questions people ask you at a job interview because they say a lot about the company’s corporate culture:

• “Several years ago I was interviewing with a major retail company and they asked me a series of questions that all related back to what my reaction would be if my coworkers were stealing. They asked me what I would do if my inventory logs got stolen, or even, I think, if my purse were to be stolen. At the time it didn’t register, but guess what started to happen as soon as I started working there? My coworkers stole my inventory logs, and another colleague had her purse stolen. I later went to a different retail company and their questions were a stark contrast to my previous company. They asked me if I liked to make customers happy and if I genuinely liked people. It’s funny, but both companies told me in one interview exactly what their values were.”