QUESTION #10 - Describe your ideal company, location and job.

TRAPS:  This is often asked by an experienced interviewer who thinks you may be overqualified, but knows better than to show his hand by posing his objection directly.  So he'll use this question instead, which often gets a candidate to reveal that, indeed, he or she is looking for something other than the position at hand.

BEST ANSWER:  The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific reasons, stated with sincerity, why each quality represented by this you're coming from a company that's the leader in its field or from a glamorous or much admired company, industry, city or position, your interviewer and his company may well have an "Avis" complex.  That is, they may feel a bit defensive about being "second best" to the place you're coming from, worried that you may consider them bush league.

This anxiety could well be there even though you've done nothing to inspire it.  You must go out of your way to assuage such anxiety, even if it's not expressed, by putting their virtues high on the list of exactly what you're looking for, providing credible reasons for wanting these qualities. If you do not express genuine enthusiasm for the firm, its culture, location, industry, etc., you may fail to answer this "Avis" complex objection and, as a result, leave the interviewer suspecting that a hot shot like you, coming from a Fortune 500 company in New York, just wouldn't be happy at an unknown  manufacturer based in Topeka, Kansas.

QUESTION #9 - Where do you see yourself five years from now?

TRAPS: One-reason interviewers ask this question is to see if you're settling for this position, using it merely as a stopover until something better comes along.  Or they could be trying to gauge your level of ambition.

If you're too specific, i.e., naming the promotions you someday hope to win, you'll sound presumptuous.  If you're too vague, you'll seem rudderless.

BEST ANSWER: Reassure your interviewer that you're looking to make a long-term commitment...that this position entails exactly what you're looking to do and what, you do extremely well.  As for your future, you believe that if you perform each job at hand with excellence, future opportunities will take care of themselves.

Example: "I am definitely interested in making a long-term commitment to my next position.  Judging by what you've told me about this position, it's exactly what I'm looking for and what I am very well qualified to do.  In terms of my future career path, I'm confident that if I do my work with excellence, opportunities will inevitably open up for me. It's always been that way in my career, and I'm confident I'll have similar opportunities here."

QUESTION #8 - Aren't you overqualified for this position?

TRAPS: The employer may be concerned that you'll grow dissatisfied and leave.

BEST ANSWER: As with any objection, don't view this as a sign of imminent defeat.  It's an invitation to teach the interviewer a new way to think about this situation, seeing advantages instead of drawbacks.

Example: "I recognize the job market for what it is -- a marketplace.  Like any marketplace, it's subject to the laws of supply and demand.  So 'overqualified' can be a relative term, depending on how tight the job market is.   And right now, it's very tight.  I understand and accept that.

"I also believe that there could be very positive benefits for both of us in this match.

"Because of my unusually strong experience in (               ) I could start to contribute right away, perhaps much faster than someone who'd have to be brought along more slowly.”

"There's also the value of all the training and years of experience that other companies have invested tens of thousands of dollars to give me.  You'd be getting all the value of that without having to pay an extra dime for it.   With someone who has yet to acquire that experience, he'd have to gain it on your nickel.”

"I could also help you in many things they don't teach at the Harvard Business School. For example ... (how to hire, train, motivate, etc.) When it comes to knowing how to work well with people and getting the most out of them, there's just no substitute for what you learn over many years of front line experience.  Your company would gain all this, too.”

"Most important, I'm looking to make a long-term commitment in my career now.  I've had enough of job hunting and want a permanent spot at this point in my career.  I also know that if I perform this job with excellence, other opportunities cannot help but open up for me right here.  In time, I'll find many other ways to help this company and in so doing, help myself.  I really am looking to make a long-term commitment."

NOTE: The main concern behind the "overqualified" question is that you will leave your new employer as soon as something better comes your way.  Anything you can say to demonstrate the sincerity of your commitment to the employer and reassure him that you're looking to stay for the long-term will help you overcome this objection.

QUESTION #7- Why should I hire you?

 

TRAPS: Believe it or not, this is a killer question because so many candidates are unprepared for it.  If you stammer or ad lib, you've blown it.

BEST ANSWER: By now you can see how critical it is to apply the overall strategy of uncovering the employer's needs before you answer questions.  Knowing the employer's greatest needs and desires will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else. Whether your interviewer asks you this question explicitly or not, this is the most important question of your interview because he must answer this question favorably in his own mind before you will be hired.  So help him out!  Walk through each of the position's requirements as you understand them, and follow each with a reason why you meet that requirement so well.

Example: "As I understand your needs, you are first and foremost looking for someone who can manage the sales and marketing of your book publishing division.  As you've said, you need someone with a strong background in trade book sales.  This is where I've spent almost my entire career, so I've chalked up 18 years experience exactly in this area.  I believe that I know the right contacts; methods, principles, and successful management techniques as well as any person can in our industry.

"You also need someone who can expand your book distribution channels.  In my prior post, my innovative promotional ideas doubled, and then tripled, the number of outlets selling our books.  I'm confident I can do the same for you.

"You need someone to give a new shot in the arm to your mail order sales, someone who knows how to sell in space and direct mail media.  Here, too, I believe I have exactly the experience you need.  In the last five years, I've increased our mail order book sales from $600,000 to $2,800,000, and now we're the country's second leading marketer of scientific and medical books by mail."

Every one of these selling "couplets" (his need matched by your qualifications) is a touchdown that runs up your score.  It is your best opportunity to outsell your competition.

QUESTION #6 - The "Silent Treatment."

TRAPS: Beware--if you are unprepared for this question, you will probably not handle it right and possibly blow the interview.  Thank goodness most interviewers don't employ it. It's normally used by those determined to see how you respond under stress. Here's how it works: You answer an interviewer's question and then, instead of asking another, he just stares at you in a deafening silence. You wait, growing a bit uneasy, and there he sits, silent as Mt. Rushmore, as if he doesn't believe what you've just said, or perhaps making you feel that you've unwittingly vibrated some cardinal rule of  interview etiquette. When you get this silent treatment after answering a particularly difficult question, such as "tell me about your weaknesses," its intimidating effect can be most disquieting, even to polished job hunters. Most unprepared candidates rush in to fill the void of silence, viewing prolonged, uncomfortable silence as an invitation to clear up the previous answer which has obviously caused some problem.  And that's what they do--ramble on, sputtering more and more information, sometimes irrelevant and often damaging, because they are suddenly playing the role of someone who's goofed and is now trying to recoup.  But since the candidate doesn't know where or how he goofed, he just keeps talking, showing how flustered and confused he is by the interviewer's unmovable silence.

BEST ANSWER: Like a primitive tribal mask, the Silent Treatment loses all its power to frighten you once you refuse to be intimidated. If your interviewer pulls it, keep quiet yourself for a while and then ask, with sincere politeness and not a trace of sarcasm, "Is there anything else I can fill in on that point?" That's all there is to it. Whatever you do, don't let the Silent Treatment intimidate you into talking a blue streak, because you could easily talk yourself out of the position.

QUESTION #5 - Why are you leaving (or did you leave) this position?

TRAPS: Never badmouth your previous industry, company, Board, boss, staff, employees or customers. This rule is inviolable: never be negative.  Any mud you hurl will only soil your own suit. Especially avoid words like "personality clash," "didn't get along," or others, which cast a shadow on your competence, integrity or temperament.

BEST ANSWER:

(If you have a job presently:)

If you're not yet 100% committed to leaving your present post, don't be afraid to say so.  Since you have a job, you are in a stronger position than someone who does not.  But don't be coy, either.  State honestly what you'd be hoping to find in a new spot.  Of course, as stated often before, your answer will be all the stronger if you have already uncovered what this position is all about and you match your desires to it.

(If you do not presently have a job:)

Never lie about having been fired.  It's unethical and too easily checked.  But do try to deflect the reason from you personally.  Examples might be your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, and division wide layoff. But you should also do something totally unnatural that will demonstrate consummate professionalism.  Even if it hurts, describe your own firing candidly, succinctly and without a trace of bitterness -- from the company's point-of-view, indicating that you could understand why it happened and you might have made the same decision yourself. Your stature will rise immensely and, most important of all, you will show you are healed from the wounds inflicted by the firing.  You will enhance your image as first-class management material and stand head and shoulders above the legions of firing victims who, at the slightest provocation, rip open their shirts to expose their battle scars and decry the unfairness of it all.

For all prior positions:

Make sure you've prepared a brief reason for leaving.  Best reasons: more money, opportunity, responsibility or growth.