Table Of ContentChapter Title Here Please 1
Y F I
OUR IRST NTERVIEW
For Students and Anyone Preparing to Enter
Today’s Tough Job Market
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Chapter Title Here Please 3
Y F I
OUR IRST NTERVIEW
For Students and Anyone Preparing to Enter
Today’s Tough Job Market
By
Ron Fry
The Career Press, Inc.
Franklin Lakes, NJ
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4 Book Title Here Please
Copyright © 2002 by Ron Fry
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.
Your First Interview
Edited and typeset by Nicole DeFelice
Cover design by Johnson Design
Printed in the U.S.A. by Book-mart Press
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., 3 Tice Road, PO Box 687,
Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417
www.careerpress.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fry, Ronald W.
Your first interview : for students and anyone preparing to enter today’s
tough job
market / by Ron Fry.—4th ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-56414-586-7 (paper)
1. Employment interviewing. I. Title.
HF5549.5.I6 F76 2002
650.14—dc21 2001059872
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Chapter Title Here Please 1
Contents
Introduction
The Interview Process, in Good Times and Bad 7
Chapter 1
How to Develop Your Personal Inventory 13
Chapter 2
How to Get the Information You Need 35
Chapter 3
How to Get in the Door 51
Chapter 4
How to Create Your Network 61
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Chapter 5
What to Expect During Your First Interview 77
Chapter 6
Make the Right First Impression 91
Chapter 7
Your Interview With the Hiring Manager 101
Chapter 8
The Finer Points of Interview Technique 113
Chapter 9
How to Answer the Toughest Questions 125
Chapter 10
How to Deal With Illegal Questions 149
Chapter 11
How to Follow Up Your Interviews 161
Chapter 12
How To Negotiate Your First Salary 173
Index 183
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The Interview Process, In Good Times and Bad 7
Introduction
The Interview Process,
in Good Times
and Bad
Unemployment is at a record high…or record low.
Jobs are plentiful…or scarcer than lilacs in December.
We’re at war…or peace.
And you’ve got a job interview, your first job interview, which
is happening whichever of the above scenarios occur. To be truth-
ful, they aren’t as important as you probably believe. Whether the
economy is coasting down Easy Street or preparing to nosedive
off the Wall Street pier has little to do with how you land your first
interview, prepare for it, conduct yourself during it, and whether
you emerge successfully from it…with your first job in hand.
So don’t worry if the papers are full of doom and gloom,
trumpeting the worst job market for college grads since the
reign of George III. And don’t get too cocky when the business
magazines tell you “It’s a Seller’s Market!” and visions of six-
figure starting salaries start dancing in your head. Whatever
circumstances you face, it’s still your first interview, and you
are probably scared stiff.
(cid:138) 7 (cid:138)
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8 Your First Interview
They can spot you a mile away
Most hiring managers and recruiters have little trouble iden-
tifying candidates who are waiting for their first interviews.
There they sit in the reception area, those impeccably
dressed collegians in standard-issue interview suits.
The nervous thump-thump-thump of their hearts is almost
audible.
They all seem afflicted with Lady Macbeth Syndrome,
constantly rubbing their palms on their thighs in hopes of drying
them before they have to shake the interviewer’s hand.
There are plenty of good reasons for you to be nervous.
You are faced with the task of convincing a total stranger to
invest company money and time in you. Indeed, selling your-
self in a competitive market is a daunting task.
And despite what I said just a few paragraphs ago, the
situation as I write this is pretty darned dire—the remnants of
the dotcom bust are still smoldering, Wall Street is in free fall,
consumer confidence is somewhere between slim and none,
and most of us have yet to recover from 9-11.
And you’re more likely to contend with a tougher inter-
view than your slightly older friends because of the rapidly in-
creasing sophistication of those doing the hiring for America’s
companies. Corporations are spending more money than ever
on psychological tests, honesty tests, drug tests, assessments,
and computerized screening systems.
They are sending recruiters and supervisors to courses on
interviewing and candidate-evaluation procedures. They are
subjecting candidates to more and longer interviews.
And they are using new interviewing techniques, some of which
would make thumbscrews seem like an attractive alternative.
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The Interview Process, In Good Times and Bad 9
Although it would be unrealistic to expect any new hire to
come with a guarantee, many employers are taking that extra
step to make sure they do not even consider someone they
will quickly wish had never darkened their doors. Simply put,
employers can afford to be choosy, and they’ve found better
ways to choose. They are seeking “self-managing” employees—
young people who are versatile, confident, and not afraid to roll
up their sleeves and get the job done.
But you can’t prove you’re exactly what they’re looking
for without making it through the interview process.
If you haven’t taken a lot of time to uncover the “real you”
beneath the grades and athletics and clubs, don’t worry. By the
time you finish today’s interview process, you’ll be ready to lead
a self-help seminar on “Getting in Touch With Your Inner Child.”
Help is in your hands
But the purpose of this book is to ease your anxiety, not
add to it.
Of course, the best way to keep anxiety from hamstringing
you during the interview is to be thoroughly prepared. Know
yourself. Know the company. And, if possible, know the inter-
viewer. Before you’re sitting in the reception area filling out an
application.
This book will help you do that. It will also help you write
effective letters that will get you in the door to show your stuff.
It will give you a sneak preview of exactly what to expect
during the interview. It will even tell you what your “interview
suit” should look like.
Most importantly, this book will tell you, in detail, how to
conduct yourself during every phase of the interview—how to
make sure you’re taking the right approach once you get to know
the interviewer a bit, and what you can expect to be asked.
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