I. The Purpose of Interviewing
II. What Companies are looking to hire
III. Selling Yourself :
  A. Preparation
  B. Homework
  C. In General
  D. Selling your Long term Potential
  E. Expected Interview Questions
  F. More Questions
  G. The Most Important Question
IV. Interview Followup

I. THE PURPOSE OF INTERVIEWING

Our purpose in presenting this information is to facilitate better communication between you and our client during the interview. The better each of you gets to know the other, the more likely you will both make a good employment decision. Our belief is that our clients should be evaluating your business skills, not your interviewing skills, and that interviewing should not be adversarial, but informational and communicative.

A. You have two primary objectives in interviewing:

First: "sell" yourself -- get an offer, and Second: "buy" -- get a feel for the company -- the people, ideas, attitudes, work ethic, marketing philosophy, management style, etc., to help you decide to accept an offer should one be made.

B. The Company has two primary objectives in the interviewing process:

First: "buy" -- select the best person for the opening, and Second: "sell" the Company -- providing the information you need to appreciate why this is the best career choice for you.

C. Interview "Choreography" As nice as it would be if both you and the company could pursue both of your objectives simultaneously, (i.e., both of you both "buying and selling" concurrently), that is not the best way for you to interview successfully. You should concentrate all of your active focus on your first o bjective, getting an offer, on selling yourself, until you are holding an offer.

Obviously, you will be able to gather significant information about the company concurrently, but your only priority should be getting the offer. That single-minded focus by you could be the edge which gets you the offer over another candidate. Think about how disappointing it is to spend your time learning that you really want to join a company, but not getting the offer because someone else concentrated their efforts on convincing the company to hire them (even though that person wasn't sure they wanted to say yes to the offer). Holding an offer gives the choice to you, and reduces the risk that your questions about the company might get in the way of getting an offer.

Let's look at the company perspective, what they want to hire, first; then review how you can sell yourself more effectively so you can increase your chances of obtaining an offer.