Employers seek to predict a candidate’s potential. The skills of the candidate’s past experience and education help to predict future performance in the position. After the employer has chosen the top 10 resumes from hundreds that were submitted for the job, the employer looks at these key areas:
1. Can this person do the job?
2. Is there a fit both for the job and for the organization?
3. How does he/she relate to people?
4. What kind of person is the applicant? A leader? A follower?
5. What strengths does he/she have that we need?
6. Why the number of job changes so far? Or lack of changes?
7. Where is he/she weak?
8. How has the applicant contributed to other companies?
9. What are his/her ambitions? Are they realistic?
10. What is this person’s standard of values?
11. Does he/she have growth potential?
12. What is the nature of the “chemistry” between this applicant and our company?
13. What will the department manager think of this applicant compared to other applicants?
What Employers Really Want to Know
4 Objectives in an interview
Michael Neece, president of Interview Mastery, suggests you have four objectives in a job interview:
1. Prove you meet the job’s requirements. You must make a case that you have the skills to do the job, including soft or “hidden” requirements such as an ability to learn new information quickly. You must do this for each individual interviewer; find out what’s important to him or her.
2. Communicate clearly. Get your key messages across. Confirm you’re understood accurately.
3. Build rapport. Get your interviewer to recognize you as an “ABC Company type of person.” It’s as simple as getting him or her to like you, and as complex as expressing your values in the context of the company culture. Rapport arises from those subtle clues, as well as from your demeanor.
4. Gather feedback. Get specific feedback from each interviewer at the close of each meeting with questions like, “What strengths do you feel I bring to this position?” or, “What concerns do you have about my background?” You won’t get feedback unless you ask in a professional manner.
Other Things to Keep in Mind
Not surprisingly, employers really like it when you listen. Not only listen, but also clarify the information back as to what you heard. Such as, “Just so I understand, you’re looking for someone with 3 or more years of sales experience. How do you see this experience being best applied to this role?”
Back up your statements with related, specific information. Instead of saying, “I do that all the time…so often in fact, I can’t think of a specific example,” quantify your statement with a story of achievement that outlines the situation, what you did, and what happened.
Convey your most important message. Answering questions with continual affirmation of your most important skills and abilities in relation to the employer’s desired skill set will reinforce your ability to meet the key aspects of the job. For example, if a salesperson’s message is “I regularly develop new business,” then he or she will want to mention “growing sales or developing business” several times during the interview.
