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

II. WHAT COMPANIES ARE LOOKING TO HIRE

A. EVALUATION CRITERION

People evaluate you against other candidates generally based on three broad criteria:

1) Your current skills & ability - "since I have an immediate need, can you step in and quickly begin contributing to our business"?
2) Your talent & potential - "since I'm hiring you for the long term, and marketing is an "up or out" career, show me you have the ability to grow, develop, advance to and perform at an increasing level of responsibility."
3) Your fit - are your personality and character compatible with who and what we perceive ourselves to be?  Is the chemistry right?  Will I enjoy working with you?  This is probably the most important of the three in most hiring decisions.

The easiest way to assess current skills and ability is to ask direct questions with "right or wrong" answers, and we'll go through some of the usual ones later.

But assessing raw talent, potential, and fit is a much more subjective evaluation.  It's gut feel.  It's eye contact.  It's confidence. It's emotional -- not merely rational. The important points here, of course, are in answering all questions.

1) Be sure you sell yourself against both the immediate contributions you can make in the position you're interviewing for, and your long-term outlook, your desire to make a long-term commitment.
2) Build personal relationships, start friendships, try to get people to like you as well as respect you.