STEP FOUR: HANDLING THE INTERVIEW AND NEGOTIATING SALARY
Now you’re ready for Step Four: actually handling the
interview successfully and effectively.
Remember, the purpose of an interview is to get a job offer.
Eight “do’s” for the interview
According to leading U.S. companies, there are eight key
areas in interviewing success. You can fail at an interview if you mishandle just
one area.
1. Do wear appropriate clothes.
You can never go wrong by wearing a suit to an interview.
2. Do be well groomed.
Don’t overlook the obvious things like having clean hair,
clothes, and fingernails for the interview.
3. Do give a firm handshake.
You’ll have to shake hands twice in most interviews: first,
before you sit down, and second, when you leave the interview. Limp handshakes turn
most people off.
4. Do smile and show a sense of humor.
Interviewers are looking for people who would be nice to
work with, so don’t be so somber that you don’t smile. In fact, research shows that
people who smile at interviews are perceived as more intelligent. So, smile!
5. Do be enthusiastic.
Employers say they are “turned off” by lifeless,
unenthusiastic job hunters who show no special interest in that company. The best way to show
some enthusiasm for the employer’s operation is to find out about the business
beforehand.
6. Do show you are flexible and adaptable.
An employer is looking for someone who can contribute to his
organization in a flexible, adaptable way. No matter what skills and training you have,
employers know every new employee must go through initiation and training on the
company’s turf.
Certainly show pride in your past accomplishments in a
specific, factual way (“I saved my last employer $50.00 a week by a new cost-cutting measure
I developed”). But don’t come across as though there’s nothing about the job
you couldn’t easily handle.
7. Do ask intelligent questions about the employer’s
business.
An employer is hiring someone because of certain business
needs. Show interest in those needs. Asking questions to get a better idea of the
employer’s needs will help you “stand out” from other candidates interviewing for the
job.
8. Do “take charge” when the interviewer “falls down” on the
job.
Go into every interview knowing the three or four points
about yourself you want the interviewer to remember. And be prepared to take an active
part in leading the discussion if the interviewer’s “canned approach” does not
permit you to display your “strong suit.” You can’t always depend on the interviewer’s
asking you the “right” questions so you can stress your strengths and
accomplishments.
An important “don’t”: Don’t ask questions about salary or
benefits at the first interview.
Employers don’t take warmly to people who look at their
organization as just a place to satisfy salary and benefit needs. Don’t risk making a
negative impression by appearing greedy or self-serving. The place to discuss
salary and benefits is normally at the second interview, and the employer will bring it up.
Then you can ask questions without appearing excessively interested in what the
organization can do for you.
Now…negotiating your salary
Even if an ad requests that you communicate your “salary
requirement” or “salary history,” you should avoid providing those numbers in your initial
cover letter. You can usually say something like this: “I would be delighted to discuss
the private details of my salary history with you in person.”
Once you’re at the interview, you must avoid even appearing
interested in salary before you are offered the job. Make sure you’ve “sold” yourself
before talking salary. First show you’re the “best fit” for the employer and then you’ll be in
a stronger position from which to negotiate salary. Never bring up the subject of salary
yourself. Employers say there’s no way you can avoid looking greedy if you bring up the
issue of salary and benefits before the company has identified you as its “best fit.”
Interviewers sometimes throw out a salary figure at the
first interview to see if you’ll accept it. You may not want to commit yourself if you think
you will be able to negotiate a better deal later on. Get back to finding out more about
the job. This lets the interviewer know you’re interested primarily in the job and not the
salary.
When the organization brings up salary, it may say something
like this: “Well, Mary, we think you’d make a good candidate for this job. What kind of
salary are we talking about?”
You may not want to name a number here, either. Give the
ball back to the interviewer.
Act as though you hadn’t given the subject of salary much
thought and respond something like this: “Ah, Mr. Jones, I wonder if you’d be kind enough
to tell me what salary you had in mind when you advertised the job?” Or ... “What is
the range you have in mind?”
Don’t worry, if the interviewer names a figure that you
think is too low, you can say so without turning down the job or locking yourself into a
rigid position. The point here is to negotiate for yourself as well as you can. You might
reply to a number named by the interviewer that you think is low by saying something like
this: “Well, Mr. Lee, the job interests me very much, and I think I’d certainly enjoy
working with you. But, frankly, I was thinking of something a little higher than that.” That
leaves the ball in your interviewer’s court again, and you haven’t turned down the
job either, in case it turns out that the interviewer can’t increase the offer and you
still want the job.
Last, send a follow-up letter.
Mail, e-mail, or fax a letter right after the interview
telling your interviewer you enjoyed the meeting and are certain (if you are) that you
are the “best fit” for the job.
The people interviewing you will probably have an attitude
described as either “professionally loyal” to their companies, or “maternal and
proprietary” if the interviewer also owns the company. In either case, they are looking for
people who want to work for that company in particular. The follow-up letter you send
might be just the deciding factor in your favor if the employer is trying to choose
between you and someone else. You will see an example of a follow-up letter.
A cover letter is an essential part of a job hunt or career
change.
Many people are aware of the importance of having a great
resume, but most people in a job hunt don’t realize just how important a cover letter
can be. The purpose of the cover letter, sometimes called a “letter of interest,” is to
introduce your resume to prospective employers. The cover letter is often the
critical ingredient in a job hunt because the cover letter allows you to say a lot of things
that just don’t “fit” on the resume. For example, you can emphasize your commitment to a
new field and stress your related talents. The cover letter also gives you a
chance to stress outstanding character and personal values. On the next two pages you
will see examples of very effective cover letters.
Special help for those in career change
We want to emphasize again that, especially in a career
change, the cover letter is very important and can help you “build a bridge” to a new career.
A creative and appealing cover letter can begin the process of encouraging the
potential employer to imagine you in an industry other than the one in which you have worked.
As a special help to those in career change, there are
resumes and cover letters included in this book which show valuable techniques and tips you
should use when changing fields or industries. The resumes and cover letters of
career changers are identified in the table of contents as “Career Change” and you will see
the “Career Change” label on cover letters in Part Two where the individuals are changing
careers.’
In this section, you will find resumes and cover letters of professionals
seeking employment, or already employed, in the customer service field. How do
these individuals differ from other job hunters? Why should there be a book dedicated to
people seeking customer service jobs? Based on more than 25 years of experience in
working with job hunters, this editor is convinced that resumes and cover letters which
“speak the lingo” of the field you wish to enter will communicate more effectively than
language which is not industry specific.
This book is designed to help people (1) who are seeking to
prepare their own resumes and (2) who wish to use as models “real” resumes of
individuals who have successfully launched careers in customer service. You will
see a wide range of experience levels reflected in the resumes in this book.
Some of the resumes and cover letters were used by individuals seeking to enter the field;
others were used successfully by senior professionals to advance in the
field.
Newcomers to an industry sometimes have advantages over more
experienced professionals. In a job hunt, junior professionals can have
an advantage over their more experienced counterparts. Prospective employers often
view the less experienced workers as “more trainable” and “more coachable” than their
seniors. This means that the mature professional who has already excelled in a first
career can, with credibility, “change careers” and transfer skills to other industries.
Newcomers to the field may have disadvantages compared to
their seniors.
Almost by definition, the inexperienced professional—the
young person who has recently entered the job market, or the individual who has recently
received respected certifications—is less tested and less experienced than
senior managers, so the resume and cover letter of the inexperienced professional may often
have to “sell” his or her potential to do something he or she has never done before.
Lack of experience in the field she wants to enter can be a stumbling block to the
junior employee, but remember that many employers believe that someone who has excelled in
anything—academics, for example—can excel in many other fields.
Some advice to inexperienced professionals...
If senior professionals could give junior professionals a
piece of advice about careers, here’s what they would say: Manage your career and don’t
stumble from job to job in an incoherent pattern. Try to find work that interests you, and
then identify prosperous industries which need work performed of the type you want to
do. Learn early in your working life that a great resume and cover letter can blow
doors open for you and help you maximize your salary.
