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Employment interviews: simply unpredictable in the telecommunications industry. |
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Employment interviews: simply unpredictable in the telecommunications industry.
You’ve found your way through the job search maze and come to the payoff. No, it’s not a job, just the chance to be interviewed for a job.
Stripped of their emotional charge, interviews are little more than meetings with employers, or their representatives, about a matter of common interest. At least that’s what you tell yourself as you arrive at the appointed hour, keen, buffed and feeling well-prepared.
Try as you might to quell it, however, the emotional load is there, just below your polished exterior. And it’s understandable. Ahead lies the daunting task of presenting yourself to someone you don’t know, perhaps even several people you don’t know, whose job it is to evaluate and judge you. And we all know how much fun that is.
Interviews are especially nerve-wracking because they’re unpredictable. You seldom know in advance who is going to be sitting on the other side of the table.
If the stars are aligned in your favor, it will be your potential boss and the two of you will have an intelligent conversation in some detail about the demands of the position.
Interviews with line managers are the most satisfying, as a rule. They get you up close and personal with the ultimate decision maker, the one who has the best understanding of the job and the team of people with whom you’d work. They also give you an opportunity to take the measure of the person who would be your boss.
Then again, the interviewer could be a junior personnel clerk or recruiter who operates in several degrees of separation from the job itself, charged with winnowing the field of applicants down to a few candidates.
Screening interviews, as they are called, can be held with groups of people, as Bruce Kidd, a disenchanted job seeker, discovered a while ago.
“What a farce,” he recalls. “I am put in a room with up to 10 others and we are asked in turn a number of questions. Some of these could be better answered with a well thought out response but it’s obvious the interviewer has no time for this. She simply wants to get through it as fast as possible and I'm left hanging in mid-sentence as the she distractedly says ‘thank you’ and moves on to the next person.”
You can also be screened over the telephone, a point driven home to Suzanne Gautreau when she answered a call and suddenly found herself fielding questions about her application for a flight attendant’s job.
She didn't make it through the screening process, Gautreau says. “I don’t think I wowed them enough.”
Wowing someone in a screening interview is generally a faint hope. They tend to be superficial conversations that skim the surface in search of basic information, seldom providing much insight into the job itself. Still, they have to be endured and handled professionally because the people conducting them get to decide whether or not to refer you up the chain of command.
Some interviewers will try to engage you in an informal chat, believing that it’s possible to hire effectively based on “gut reaction”. Highly trained interviewers conduct far more structured meetings in which every candidate is asked the same questions in the same order. Some interviews can even stretch over an entire day or longer, and require you to make a presentation and meet with various people.
Regardless of the kind of interview you encounter, two different agendas are at play. And you’re wise to be fully aware of both of them; the best interviews close with both agendas having been met.
As a job seeker, your agenda can be simply stated: To present yourself, your background and skills in a targeted way to illustrate your suitability for the job under discussion; to be remembered favorably as a high interest job applicant.
The employer’s agenda can be clearly articulated as well: To examine, probe and assess your suitability for the job.
The tone and texture of the employer’s agenda may change depending to some degree on whether you, your skills and background are in demand.
If there’s a surplus of workers in your occupation or area, the recruiting atmosphere could be relatively demanding with interviewers who examine your application critically, even skeptically, looking for reasons to screen you out and narrow the field of candidates.
Alternatively, if your skills are in demand, the recruiting atmosphere may be far more supportive and forgiving. And your interviewers will be looking for ways to attract and court you.
During some interviews, there are hidden agendas.
I once worked with an executive recruiter with a confrontational manner. He asked direct, pointed questions and when he sensed a weakness, probed around it relentlessly. As people left his office, they often collapsed in relief against the door as it closed behind them.
My colleague was unapologetic. “I recruit sales people”, he explained. “They have to be able to take the heat. If they can’t take it from me, they won’t be able to take it once on the job.”
On the threshold of an interview, you have ample reason to feel nervous. You’re stepping into unfamiliar terrain, into a situation that’s largely outside of your control. Still, this is often your hard-won chance to talk to a real person and show them what you have to offer. Thoughtful preparation can help: More about this in my next column.
Author and speaker, Janis Foord Kirk, one of Canada's first career columnists, has been writing about career and workplace issues for major Canadian newspapers, notably the Toronto Star, since 1980.
Janis' work has chronicled the changes reshaping the Canadian workplace and the careers of individual Canadians. In her columns, articles and presentations she offers clear explanations of the shifts underway and the ways in which Canadian employers and workers need to adapt, emphasizing personal career self-management, work-life balance, and the need for truly "healthy workplaces". Find out more about Janis at www.survivability.net.
By Janis Foord Kirk (Source: www.wirelesspedia.com)
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| 15/01/2008 |
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