Prepare, prepare, prepare for that interview

What's the key to effective interviewing?

Preparation.

Knowing the position, the employer's firm, and the employer's industry is essential to a successful interview--an interview that leads to another opportunity, a second interview, or a job offer.

On-campus interviews should be only one part of your overall job hunting strategy. When interviewing at the Office of Career Services (OCS), make appointments with only those companies that interest you. Interviewing with companies "just for practice" wastes your time an opportunity another student might have used. Unprepared job candidates and "shoppers" discourage company recruiters from visiting our campus. That cuts the number of job openings available.

You can begin your pre-interview research in the OCS library. Useful directories include Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, and Dun & Bradstreet's Reference Book of Corporate Managements. We also get Business Week, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal. We also have a collection of the annual reports of recruiting companies.

Each company fills out a fact sheet about positions or training programs, location of employment, and required concentrations. Those are kept in a binder in the recruiting room. It may seem obvious, but you should have a basic knowledge of what your job involves. If you're interviewing with an investment banking firm, know what an investment analyst does and how she contributes to the company. You should also know such basic information about a company as: what its products are, where its offices are located, what subsidiaries it has, what its growth has been, and how it views its future prospects.

Show up 10 or 15 minutes early for your interview. This will give you a chance to get a feeling for the atmosphere of the employer's workplace. How are people dressed? What's the work atmosphere like? Here's where you can get insights that will help you during your interview.

If interviewing at OCS, arrive about 10 minutes early and check the interviewing bulletin board for the appointment schedule, the location of the interview, and the name of your interviewer. If there's more than one representative from the company, be sure you are looking at the schedule on which your name appears.

Personal appearance: In a short, 30-minute interview, it's definitely a big factor. Dress appropriately for the role you are aspiring to fill.

Interview format: It can range from a very structured, direct interview in which the interviewer has prepared questions, to an indirect interview in which the interviewer sits back and lets the conversation follow its own course.

Initially, the interviewer may try to break the ice by talking about anything but the job--such as sports, the weather or current events. One Harvard senior encountered an interviewer who spent an entire 30-minute interview talking about football. They had a great conversation--but the student didn't get a second interview.

If you see this happening to you, ask questions about the job they have available and discuss your qualifications for it! Don't be passive. Don't answer questions in monosyllables. Be informative, direct, and succinct in your responses. Steer the interviewer into discussion of your interest in the company.

Basically, the interview consists of two segments. In the first phase, the employer will probably try to determine your interest in the job, your qualifications, and whether your interests and those of the company are compatible. In the second phase, she will usually give you an op- portunity to ask questions. Necessarily, the first phase of the interview is the longer of the two.

In your answers, demonstrate how your past and present accomplishments qualify you for the available position. Answer a question whenever possible with specific and concrete examples. Cite instances where your contributions to a group or activity got results. Try to pick out the specific functions of the job that you can relate to your own experiences.

Emphasize the positive in an interview. One employer told students never to apologize for their concentration. Stress the value of your liberal arts education--you have learned to think, to communicate, to analyze problems and pose solutions. Don't downgrade any menial work experience you may have had. Some work experience is better than none; and at the very least, you have been part of an organization and learned how it functioned. If you worked your way through Harvard, that effort in itself will win the respect of many employers.

Your questions: The interviewer will usually leave about 10 minutes at the end for your questions. Have a few in mind before the interview. Don't ask questions that are answered in the recruiting material or the fact sheet. But you may want to investigate some aspects of the position or training program in greater depth. If you have done extensive research on the company, you may have an issue to discuss. Your questions should reflect an understanding and concern for the industry and company for which you hope to work.

Salary usually isn't discussed until subsequent interviews. But if the interviewer asks you what you expect to earn, you can respond by asking what the salary range is for that job. The company usually has a certain number of jobs to be filled in definite salary brackets. An OCS counselor can tell you an average starting salary for such a position. You may also wish to look over the Salary Survey, published by the College Placement Council, or look in the U.S. Government publication entitled The Occupational Outlook for College Graduates. Both are in the OCS/OCL library.

At the conclusion of the interview, ask about the next step in the selection process. The interviewer should tell you when you can expect to hear from the company. Follow-up letters are usually mailed within two to four weeks after the initial interview. It is unusual for someone to be invited for a second interview at the time of the first interview. Do not ask how well you did in your interview! You put the interviewer in an awkward position.

Thank-you notes: Always send one if an employer has taken time to see you at his workplace. Besides thanking him for the interview, reemphasize any point you feel may have been especially important. Also, if the employer showed any doubts about one aspect of your background, follow up with points that would help dispell any doubts.

It's debatable whether to send one after a recruiting interview. Some recruiters say they don't want to be burdened with an unnecessary flood of correspondence. But if you have a reason for writing--to reemphasize your interest in the company or your qualifications for the job--feel free to write.

Relax. Of course you'll be apprehensive. But remember, the interview is a mutual evaluation process. Relax and be yourself. The interviewer is basically trying to get a feeling for what kind of person you are and to find out what kind of person you are and to find out what your commitment to her company may be. If you can portray your own likeable self and demonstrate an intelligence about your career planning, you will be well on your way to getting asked back for a second interview.

Finally, help yourself and other future interviewers by filling out a post-interview questionnaire. This will give our office the valuable information that will help you prepare for future interviews