By Warren Carter.

I usually advise professionals to think of themselves as a business or independent company with a service to sell. This seems to be especially beneficial to the inexperienced interviewer or someone who has been in the same company for the bulk of their career.

Consider that you have an opportunity to pitch your services to a potential customer (the potential employer), but put it in the context of thinking that the more you know about their needs, the better you’ll be prepared to properly communicate and “sell” the services of your business (yourself).

Assuming you’re qualified for the job, the outcome of your employment interview will be dependent on your ability to discover needs and empathize with the interviewer.

You can do this by asking questions that verify your understanding of what the interviewer has just said, without editorializing or expressing an opinion. By establishing empathy in this manner, you’ll be in a better position to freely exchange ideas, and demonstrate your suitability for the job.

In addition to empathy, there are four other intangible fundamentals to a successful interview. These intangibles will influence the way your personality is perceived, and will affect the degree of rapport, or personal chemistry you’ll share with the employer. They are:

Enthusiasm. Leave no doubt as to your level of interest in the job. You may think it’s unnecessary to do this, but employers often choose the more enthusiastic candidate in the case of a two-way tie. Besides, it’s best to keep your options open. Wouldn’t you rather be in a position to turn down an offer, than have a prospective job evaporate from your grasp by giving a lethargic or less-than-enthusiastic interview?

Technical interest.Employers look for people who love what they do, and get excited by the prospect of tearing into the nitty-gritty of the job.

Confidence.No one likes a braggart or someone with excessive ego, but the candidate who’s sure of his or her abilities will almost certainly be more favorably received.

Intensity.The last thing you want to do is come across as “flat” in your interview. There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a laid back person; but sleepwalkers rarely get hired.

Most employers are aware of how stressful it can be to interview for a new position, and will do everything they can to put you at ease.

Other Important Factors  

Since interviewing also involves the exchange of tangible information, always make sure to present your background in a thorough and accurate manner and gather data concerning the company, the industry, the position, and the specific opportunity. It is critical, that you be prepared to engage in “informed dialogue” regarding the company and the direction they are going in.

A worthwhile interviewing goal is to link your abilities with the company needs in the mind of the employer so you can build a strong case for why the company should hire you. The more you know about each other, the more potential you’ll have for establishing rapport, and making an informed decision.

Don’t Talk Yourself Out of a Job

There are two ways to answer interview questions: the short version and the long version. When a question is open-ended, I always suggest to candidates that they say, “Let me give you the short version. If we need to explore some aspect of the answer more fully, I’d be happy to go into greater depth, and give you the long version.”

The reason you should respond this way is because it’s often difficult to know what type of answer each question will need. A question like, “What was your most difficult assignment?” might take anywhere from thirty seconds to thirty minutes to answer, depending on the detail you choose to give.

Therefore, you must always remember that the interviewer’s the one who asked the question. So you should tailor your answer to what he or she needs to know, without a lot of extraneous rambling or superfluous explanation. Why waste time and create a negative impression by giving a long-rambling speech when a short summary would do just fine?

Let’s suppose you were interviewing for an operations management position, and the interviewer asked you to describe, “What types of operations management experience have you had in the past?”

Well, that’s exactly the sort of question that can get you into trouble if you don’t use the short version/long version method. Most people would just start rattling off everything in their memory that relates to their operations experience. We’ve seen cases where the candidate begins a lengthy accounting of their entire career history leading to the experience in question. Though the information might be useful to the interviewer, your answer could get pretty complicated and long-winded unless it’s neatly packaged and can result in your entire effort being a waste when you are ultimately rejected.

One way to answer the question might be, “I’ve held operations positions with three different types of manufacturing and distribution organizations over a nine-year period. Where would you like me to start?”

Or, you might simply say, “Let me give you the short version first, and you can tell me where you want to go into more depth. I’ve had nine years experience in electronic and automotive industries with three different companies, and held the titles of Operations, Business Unit, and Plant Manager. What aspect of my background would you like to concentrate on?”

By using this method, you quickly communicate to the interviewer that your thoughts are well organized, and that you want to understand the intent of the question before you travel too far in a direction neither of you wants to go. After you get the green light, you can spend your interviewing time discussing in detail the things that are important, not whatever happens to pop into your mind.

Warren Carter is an Executive Recruiter in Qualifind, Inc. You can share your responses with Warren by e-mail at:  wcarter@quali-find.com

Qualifind, Inc. provides professional and executive search services for specific disciplines and industries throughout the U.S. and Mexico. We are a U.S. based firm with our corporate offices in San Diego, California. We have branch offices and recruiting staff in the U.S. (i.e Chicago, Austin) and Mexico (i.e. Monterrey,  Mexico City).