For your answer to ring the bells on this issue, you'd better know what style the company feels it has. When you visited the company's Web site you may have noticed a few words about "our corporate values" or "our culture." Above all, be sensitive to clues dropped by your interviewer. The "participative" style is usually in vogue, whereby your door is open to your subordinates and their ideas, and you get results through motivation and delegation.
But for some companies you should hedge your bet..."On the other hand, nobody wonders who the boss is or where the buck stops." Other possibilities include: "Problem solving"../! enjoy analyzing what's wrong, figuring out a solution, and implementing it." And "results-oriented"..."My decisions are highly concerned with how the result will impact the bottom line." You might add, "On the other hand, I also care a lot about my people; training and developing them and seeing they're fairly treated is extremely important." A pragmatic pastiche, plus taking the pulse of your interviewer, will you get you safely past this issue.
What Appeals to You About Our Job and Our Company? (CAPSULE)
Capsule or no capsule, you will have thoroughly studied the company prior to your interview. When you devour the company's Internet site, be sure to make notes with this question in mind. Nothing warms the heart of a tough, hard-to-convince interviewer quite like an immediate, enthusiastic, and well- informed answer to this question.
Current Status and Long-Range Trends of Your Specialty and the Overall Industry (CAPSULE)
If you know anything at all about your present field, you certainly have some good ideas on where the action is now and where the future may lead. Marshal them. Don't just pull them together on the way home from an interview where the CEO of a diversified corporation had more thought- provoking insights into your specialty than you did.
What Would You Like To Know About Us? (CAPSULE)
The easiest or the hardest of questions. Ironically, the more you want the job, the tougher the question is. If you're skeptical about whether the job will advance your career, you're loaded with questions that have to be resolved to your satisfaction.
But suppose you're thrilled to be considered for the job. It's with an impeccable company, and represents a career breakthrough in responsibility. Then what do you ask? Certainly not about benefits and retirement. Maybe about what they see as the key problems and opportunities to be addressed by the person who gets the job, willingness to invest in the business, and whether it's central to the company's future growth or a candidate for "harvest" and possible divestment. But be careful. Shouldn't you know what the problems and opportunities are? Check for a common view of such issues; but don't imply you can't see without being told what some of the key ones probably are.
The invitation to ask questions is inevitable. Be prepared for it.
Reading...and Writing...Between the Lines
You know dam well that your interviewer will be trying to "read between the lines" of your answers...looking for accidental unspoken nuances that may be even more revealing than your statements.
So, since he's reading, you may as well make sure you're writing.
For example, when you're asked about your creativity, give some instances where you thought up a great idea that worked out well. But also give some samples of outstanding creativity within the unit you're responsible for, but which you personally did not think up. Give credit to the lower-echelon research subordinate whose "far-out" idea you backed with some money from your "Venture Fund," and to your CEO whose unpopular idea worked out sensationally well after you and your subordinates removed the kinks from it, and to the advertising agency that came up with the winning campaign after you asked them to give it "just one last try."
Incidentally, that until-recently junior scientist now has her own sizable section of the laboratory to run. And, far from being fired, you were able to help that ad agency win a client relationship with another division of the company you work for.
We see, of course, that you're creative. But we also read what you've written between the lines. You care about, and listen to, what others around you are thinking...even your boss. With you in charge, the company isn't limited to your own personal creativity. You recognize anyone's good idea when you see it. Moreover, you probably get along well with others, commanding their respect and loyalty, because you reward them for a job well done.
You get the idea. When answering questions about talents and triumphs, you have a perfect opportunity to write between-the-lines messages about your other fine characteristics and management techniques.
The "Pregnant Pause"...and How to Deal with It
The "pregnant pause" is a gimmick some interviewers use to unnerve candidates, and to force them to reveal personal insecurity, and hopefully to voice unguarded statements.
Here's how it works. After you've finished answering his question, the interviewer says absolutely nothing to move his side of the conversation forward. Dead silence. No question, no comment. He just looks you in the eye, waiting for you to panic and rush in to fill the awkward pause.
This startling stoppage may come at random...or possibly when the interviewer suspects, or wants you to worry that he suspects, that you're not telling the truth, or at least not the whole story. One recruiter I know loves this gimmick so much, he tries to use it on his co-workers at lunch.
The only way to deal with this behavior is to nip it in the bud. The first time your interviewer breaks the rhythm of the conversation this way, pause with him long enough to make absolutely sure he's "pregnant pausing" and to make sure he knows that you know that's what he's doing...maybe 20 seconds or more. Then say, kindly and helpfully, as if perhaps he seems to have lost track of the rather complex discussion you've been having:
"Is there anything else you'd like to know about...(the question you just finished answering)?"
Treating the pregnant pause as a lapse of attention by the interviewer is the only way to deal with it. If you knuckle under to even one "cross-examination by silence," you'll signify that you're the insecure sort of person who submits to interrogation in this arch, smug fashion. If so, you're in for a tense, defensive interview. On the other hand, by kindly and inoffensively calling the interviewer's bluff, you create unspoken recognition and respect. If, by chance, your interviewer decides to try again, repeat the treatment.
