True Story:

Last week, I was in a business reception area waiting to be interviewed for a job. I was fully prepared for my interview and very relaxed. Another applicant came in and sat down next to me, so I introduced myself and asked if he was there to meet the same interviewer I was scheduled to see.

He said "I don't know. I'm not even sure what job I'm interviewing for."

I thought "WHAT?? Did I actually just hear that??"

Sadly, I did.

I eventually realized he was meeting the same interviewer and, to make matters worse (for him), we were interviewing for a senior-level consulting position with a high-level consulting firm. We were meeting with an Executive Vice President of the firm who was as sharp and observant as they come. To give you an idea of the type of interview it was, at the end, the Executive Vice President asked me (as well as the other applicants) to write an outline of our conversation and leave it with the recruiter before we left to test how well we listened, retained, and could document the 40 minute discussion we had!

Without being in the room, I can only imagine the "deer-in-the-headlights" interview the applicant who initially sat next to me in the reception area must have had.

How well do you prepared for interviews?

Do you research the company you are applying to work for? You should know as much about the company as you can before ever stepping foot in front of an interviewer. Know the company's strategy, its position in the market, its competitors, its growth and everything else you can find out. Be able to tell an interviewer how you can help them solve one or more of their problems, why you want to work for that company specifically, etc. The last thing you want to do in an interview is throw out a cliché phrase like "I want to work with your company because it is growing and I will have opportunity to grow with you" when the company has actually declined over the past year. To be honest, if you haven't researched the company, what makes you sure you would want to work there in the first place?

Do you ask for the interviewer's name ahead of time and learn as much as you can about them? If not, do so for the same reasons as researching the company. Before my last interview, I spent hours researching the company and the interviewer. I downloaded and read articles he had written. I downloaded an interview he had given and listened to it several times. I walked into the interview feeling like I knew him - and KNOWING I would like to work with him because I learned we shared the same philosophies relating to work, business and customers.

And I learned we had things in common beyond our work philosophies. For example, we were both veterans and served in time of conflict. That allowed me to walk into the interview with something in common beyond an employer/applicant relationship and was actually the beginning of our discussion!

Because I realize interviewers often have little or no time to read through resumes and other supporting documentation prior to the interview, I brought along copies of mine to share as discussion and supporting points during our interview. It was printed on bond paper and professionally bound to make an additional impression. It included 19 references I had gathered- not just names and phone numbers, but actual written references. I opened and shared several of the references to strengthen points about my abilities during the interview. At the end, I gave it to him to keep and referred to it again in my thank you card- prompting him to remember me, the time I took to be the professional he was looking for, and quantity/quality of referrals I came with.

Do I have the job? I don't know yet; the second round of interviews haven't started as of the time I wrote this. There is one thing I can tell you, though- the interviewer knew I was professional, that I cared enough to take the time to prepare, and would better represent his company to clients better than the applicant who didn't know why he was there.

When you go to an interview, make it YOUR zone and not allow it to become an episode from the Twilight Zone!