Capsules: The Interview Pain-Reliever
Gapingly open-ended questions are one of the worst headaches of the interviewing process. They're painful as you grope for an answer that's appropriate, clear, and succinct. And if not handled well, they can lead to the serious complication of bogged-down monologuing, which can demonstrate that you're innately a poor communicator, disorganized, less-than-candid...and more. Indeed, open-ended questions are asked, in part, because they are troublesome to insecure, fuzzy-thinking people, who don't communicate well under pressure...people the interviewer wants to weed out.
I just administered a capsule for "Tell me about yourself." You may not need yours, but be sure you take it with you to your interview. Indeed, take along plenty of capsules. Like the Lomotil®, Dramamine®, Tetracycline®, Alka- Seltzer®, and Pepto-Bismol® you take on your foreign travels, you'll feel better knowing they're on hand, whether you wind up using them or not.
A "Tell-Me-About-Yourself ' Orientation (CAPSULE)
These are the topically organized segments of the fifteen-minute "salesperson's monologue" you'd love to deliver but can't in the conversational format of an interview. Have your selling points of experience and achievement clearly in mind, with specific figures stapled into your memory. Nothing minimizes an achievement more than failing to remember precisely what it was.
This one prepares you for any "Top Three" or "Top Five" question. Since your greatest achievements should also tend to be your most recent, you'll ponder the importance/time trade-offs in preparing this list. If there's nothing major to report from your most recent briefly held job, don't feel you have to make something up, just to "represent" the ill-fated career move.
Maybe you have one monumentally large achievement sure to command awe and respect...and clearly attributable to your being there as the instigator and not merely one soldier in the platoon; but it happened too long ago to be one of your "latest-and-greatest." Prepare it succinctly, and deliver it last...third out of three, or fifth out of five, depending on how many you're asked for.
Strengths and Weaknesses (CAPSULE)
Give this one some real thought. Your strengths are at the heart of your sales pitch, and they ought to be the right ones for this job...or you'll be better off not getting it. Be ready to name and-if asked-illustrate several. Include your high energy level.
Come up with a proper "more-good-ones-than-bad-ones" answer; the ratio should be overwhelming...maybe 4 to 1. But, within the boundaries of enlightened self-interest, also try to be honest. The standard formula for an interview-confessed "weakness" is "A strength carried to a faulty
Reason for Leaving
It's not enough just to avoid the "wrong answer" of saying you quit-or worse yet that you're still doing your job-when everyone who's likely to be asked knows you've been fired. Prepare an accurate capsule on what happened and what your current status is. And keep it brief and simple!
If the new CEO brought along his own person for your job, no harm in saying so. Add, if true, that you too might have brought along someone you knew and trusted if you were in the CEO's shoes and had such a limited time to effect such a major turnaround. Indeed, you went out of your way to cooperate with the woman who's now your successor, during those first awkward weeks when you were both on the payroll and she hadn't yet been named to your job. As you see it, what she has to do to be successful is to finish installing this-and-this program which you were putting into place when the upheaval occurred, and she seems to be taking basically that approach (if true).
There wouldn't be room in this entire article for the enormous smorgasbord of familiar firing scenarios...one of which may one day happen to you. A great many, like the one above and all sorts of consolidation and staff-cutting measures, can be frankly stated and endorsed. "Personality clash" with your boss, however, normally should not be the diagnosis. Say instead, "Fundamental policy differences," and cite some concrete examples. You simply can't afford to be categorized as someone who can't get along with people.
The trick in discussing firing is to take an open-minded dispassionate, managerial stance. Observe, comment, and react as an informed, objective observer, who's also a very skilled manager... not as someone subjectively involved, wronged, and wounded. You're willing to stand and be judged on the wisdom of your programs and the next administration may have to continue them. On the other hand, if you tried something that failed and you were in the process of changing course, say so. You'll be judged far more on the caliber and comprehension you demonstrate, than on the fact that you were fired. Chances are, your interviewer has also been fired at least once in his career.
