By Marshall Loeb
It could be the most important hour of your career. The job interview is the precious period in which you are sized up by a powerful person who may well decide whether or not you get the position you want. You can prepare for the interview just as you do for many other tests and enhance your chances of winning an offer.
A new book may help you do just that: Don't Blow the Interview (St. Martin's, 2006), written by Ralph Ferrone, a longtime advertising executive who has made a deep study of the art of the interview.
Ferrone argues that your goal in the interview is to stand out from the crowd of applicants. So, when you're preparing, learn all you can about the employer, its market and competitors.
"The greater your knowledge, the more confident you will be," he writes. "The more confident you are, the greater your interview success. The greater your interview success, the greater your potential for faster job placement."
Ferrone says that even before the interview, you must pay attention to every detail, such as something as specific as your e-mail address. "The initial impression that the potential employer receives begins with your e-mail address. Do not use one that is adolescent or plain silly, such as "hot dog," "mrcool" or "tampababe." Also, he advises, check your outgoing cell-phone message; make sure it's concise and professional.
If you use a person as a reference, let him or her know beforehand. In the interview itself, avoid tired words such as "you know" and "cool." They annoy some interviewers so much, they automatically reject the applicant.
Being prepared can really pay off. You can guess in advance what certain questions will be, and you have on-target, rehearsed responses.
When the interviewer inevitably asks you to describe yourself, limit your response to 60 to 90 seconds. If you are too verbose, the interviewer tunes out.
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