INSIDE TRACK: Tell them what they want to hear: JOB INTERVIEWS: The perfect
pitch is about body language, dress sense, forethought and, most of all,
never letting the interviewer know what you really think, saysTom Lester:
Financial Times; Apr 17, 2002
By TOM LESTER
What would you do if you were Osama bin Laden? Which way round do you put
the toilet roll in the holder? Why are manhole covers round?
The fatuous questions that people get asked at job interviews are a
testament to the patience of the candidates and the inexperience or
incompetence of interviewers.
But, as job tenure falls, interviews are becoming more frequent and - silly
questions or not - we all must learn to be expert in selling ourselves.
High fliers learn quickly to soar from job to job; low-fliers flutter
through dozens of interviews before finding a perch. For both groups,
dazzling the interviewer with dynamic, self-starting results-orientation is
not enough. The good candidate helps interviewers find out what they haven't
the wit to discover for themselves.
"The higher up the skill ladder, the worse the interviewing skills,"
contends Martin Yate, once a headhunter and corporate human resources
director. Mr Yate is also the author of Great Answers to Tough Interview
Questions*. It is not a deeply philosophical work, but more than 4m copies
have been sold in five editions - something of a phenomenon in job selection
as well as publishing.
Conceived primarily as a night-before crib for younger executives, the book
also addresses the growing market of unlucky 50-year-olds who find
themselves suddenly out of a job and being grilled for the first time in
their lives. Each sector can be expected to grow for many years to come.
Mr Yate's strength is that he knows and writes for both sides of the
interviewing game. He also knows what it is like to be rejected. His idea
for Great Answers notched up 64 rejections before it was accepted by a US
publisher under the title Knock 'Em Dead. It was first published in 1985
with a print run of 3,000. Latterly it has been a near-permanent feature of
the main business top 10 bestseller lists.
Mr Yate was born and educated in Britain and wrote the book with the UK
market in mind. But cultural and legal differences have demanded different
versions for each country, with updates every couple of years. Some 200
questions are listed with a short explanation for each of what the
interviewer is trying to get at, and how to turn it to deliver your message.
Thus the answer to: "What didn't you like about your last job?" should
depend on what you are applying for. If it is a job in a bigger company, it
is safe to criticise the restriction of a small firm. But if the job means
moving from large to small, then disliking the anonymity and forced
specialisation of a large unit is a good bet.
Mr Yate advises readers to "tell them what they want to hear". Under no
circumstances tell them what you really think - you'll be labelled a problem
or, worse, a troublemaker.
"The majority of people who do the hiring have no experience of
interviewing," Mr Yate says. "They're suddenly given a management role, and
they can't afford to show their weakness. Actually, women are more competent
interviewers than men. They're more conscious of the need to learn."
He speaks from experience. At a loose end in Silicon Valley in the 1970s
with virtually no qualifications, he got a job as a "bounty hunter" - a
headhunter working on commission only, finding engineers in the US and
Europe.
"I stumbled into it, but I set about learning how to do it," he says. Later,
in corporate HR, he travelled widely, and "as I travelled, I started to
write about what I knew about".
What he could see were the mistakes candidates made every day. Not just in
blurting out an ill-considered answer to "What is your greatest weakness?"
but in networking, attitudes and all the details from application letters to
clean handkerchiefs.
Mr Yate's book even advises on the contentious issue of women's business
fashions - skirts should be no more than 5cm above the knee, blouses should
never be sleeveless and scarves should be in plain colours or patterns that
won't distract the interviewer. He advises against wearing too much
jewellery or make-up and says to avoid linen because it creases.
On body language, he says holding your hands behind your head signals
smugness and superiority, scratching your neck suggests tension - even a
lie - and slouching in your chair with hands in pockets denotes aggression,
sometimes even conveying sexual overtones in certain situations. Dangling a
loose shoe can give the same message. Exposing the palms of your hands
suggests friendly openness, while putting your fingers together in a steeple
indicates thought and cool judgment. Leave them there too long, though, and
you will be thought to be condescending.
Mr Yate recommends rehearsing answers to the questions in front of the
bathroom mirror to achieve the right balance of informal, co-operative
authority. But keep the door shut.
*Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions, Martin Yate, 5th edition
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