Powerful Phrases for Successful Interviews
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Q. What are the biggest problems in the department?
The answer to this question will be interesting. If you’re told the same things that you heard from the staff you were going to supervise, then you’re in real good shape. At least everybody knows what the problems are. If there were no problems that needed to be solved, they wouldn’t need to hire you or anybody else to solve them. The key here is to find out if everyone from upper management on down agrees with what the problems are. Even if they don’t agree, at least you will know what everyone’s point of view is.
Q. What condition is morale in and why?
This can be part of the previous question. After you’ve spoken to all the people you will be supervising, you will know how morale is. The reason you ask this question of upper management is to find out if what they feel and what the subordinates that will be working for you feel are the same. Don’t be surprised if they’re not.
Q. Who are the problem employees?
You’re probably going to find this out when you interview everybody on the potential new staff. But it is always better to get upper management’s opinion. If you are forewarned about who is going to be your biggest challenge, you might approach them a little differently. Don’t be surprised if you’re told that no one is a real problem, but you find out the contrary once you interview the potential staff.
Q. Who are the stars that can help my transition go smoothly?
Like with the previous question, forewarned is forearmed. You’ll get a great idea about who can help you and who can hinder you if you interview everyone in the correct way. But it doesn’t hurt to have upper management’s ideas about who will support you the best.
Q. Are there any staff members that are in line for a promotion? Did any of them apply for this job?
The first part of this question is asked in order to get an answer to the second part. It’s nice to know whom upper management thinks might be good to promote. But it is imperative that you know who among your potential new staff has applied for the job that you are considering. If you wind up supervising someone who applied for the job that you accept, their not getting the job may have a real impact on your relationship with them. These people can be extremely helpful in your transition as a new manager, if they want to be. They can also be your worst nightmare and sabotage just about everything you’d do. Supervising a person who thought that they were qualified to do the job you got takes a lot of careful communication and interaction.
Q. If I have budgetary responsibility, how large is the budget? Has the department been above or below budget, presently and in the recent past?
You need to know what kind of an economic situation you might be walking into. Hiring authorities may not want to offer this information. In recent economic times, budgets have been slashed and yet performance expectations have been high. If your two predecessors have left or moved on because they couldn’t get their job done with the budget they have been given, you need to know. If the department or group has gone over budget, you need to ask the obvious, “Why?”
Q. What kind of reports am I going to be responsible for? Are they internal company reports, or governmental ones?
In these days of Sarbanes-Oxley laws, public companies especially, but private ones, too, are much more careful about most everything financial. Departments such as sales, which traditionally didn’t have to be much concerned about reporting, now have to be very careful about how they report sales the company has made. They can no longer easily report sales that make things look good for a while, then go back and amend the reports later. If you’ve been in financial positions, you are probably familiar with all of the kinds of governmental reports you will be responsible for. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to make sure you have a clear idea about what you will be responsible for and what you won’t.
Q. Does the company plan to make any immediate acquisitions or be acquired or change in any way that might affect the job we are discussing?
Look for hesitancy on the part of the hiring authority when answering this question. If you do find out that the company is up for sale or looking to be acquired, think about the kind of position that you’re interviewing for and what kind of duplicity there might be in another organization. If you sense that there may be an issue here, it certainly doesn’t hurt to just bluntly ask the hiring authority something like, “Look, I really don’t want to accept a position and then be involved in a merger or acquisition and have the job I take be at risk. Is there a chance of that happening?” If the hiring authority has any integrity at all and there is some kind of pending event, he or she will tell you.
Q. What is the greatest opportunity facing the company? Its greatest challenge?
Asking this question allows the hiring authority to give a balanced answer. The “greatest opportunity” might be nice to know, but your real interest is in finding out what the “greatest challenge” is. If the greatest challenge is surviving a gigantic lawsuit, you need to know. The answer to this question will most often be fairly benign, but you just might be surprised at any answer you might get. It might be one that could change your whole opinion of the opportunity. Caveat emptor.
DISCUSSING MONEY
The hiring authority will usually have questions for you to answer regarding money. Most people think that these are some of the most difficult questions to deal with in the interviewing process. Frankly, if all of the other questions about being able to do the job, being liked, and being a risk are answered, even reasonably well, these questions about money are relatively easy to deal with. In fact, the answers to these questions are merely an outgrowth of all of the previous ones. The more an organization wants to hire you and the more you want to go to work for them, the easier it is to work out the money. So, the better you sell yourself and the more desirable you are to an organization, the more likely they are to compensate you fairly.
Q. What are you currently earning? or What have you been earning most recently? (This is a simple question and requires a simple answer. Just share with the hiring authority exactly what you have been earning or are presently earning. Whatever you do, don’t inflate the numbers.)
In my present (past) position I’m earning $_________.
Q. What kind of money would you like to earn? (Hopefully, you will have some idea about the salary range for the position that you are interviewing for. However, your stock answer in a situation like this should be the following.)
I’d like to earn as much as I can, commensurate with the service that I give. I am just as interested in a fulfilling and challenging position as I am in the money I want to earn. I have found that if the position is right for me, and I am right for the company that I’m going to go work for, the money is usually going to take care of itself. What kind of money for this position did your organization have in mind?
Always discuss money in relationship to the job that needs to be done.
Q. What kind of salary (or earnings) are you looking for? (This is a slightly different version of the previous question.)
Salary and earnings are important, but equally as important to me is the company, the job, the people, and the future. In the past (or presently), I have been earning $_________. What is the salary (or earnings) associated with this job?
Q. You have been making $______________ and the money associated with this position is significantly less. How do we know that you will be happy? (In this situation, you have to find out exactly how much of a difference there is between what you have been making and what this particular position pays. If you have been out of work for any amount of time, the truth is at this point you are making absolutely nothing.)
I realize there is a difference between what I have made (. . . . or what I am making now) and this position. However, I have found that if the opportunity is right and I am able to perform at my best, the difference in the money isn’t as important as the quality of the job and the opportunity.
Q. What is the most money that you have ever m
ade? (Answer this question judiciously. If you’ve been in sales, for instance, and your earnings have fluctuated over the years, give an average of the last few years. Bragging about making a lot of money will never help in negotiations. If you made an inordinate amount of money several years ago, I would recommend not even mentioning it. Again, the answer to a question like this has to center around not just what you’ve earned, but the challenge of the job opportunity itself.)
There have been a few years in which I’ve been fortunate enough to be with organizations where my bonus earnings were sizable. But I realize that those are very uncommon. I am more interested in the opportunity, the challenge of the job, and the potential. If those things are taken care of, my earnings will reflect my performance.
Q. What do you consider most important: a high salary, job recognition, or advancement? (Once again, combining earnings with job performance is the best thing you can do.)
I have found that the better job I do and the harder I work, recognition, advancement, and, especially, money usually take care of themselves.
Q. What kind of benefits are you expecting? (In the past few years, benefit plans, especially in the insurance area, have skyrocketed in costs, particularly for companies with a hundred people or less. So, there is no such thing as “standard” benefits. It is not uncommon for organizations to have drastically reduced their benefit plans for their employees. The purpose of this question is to find out if there is going to be a great deal of difference between the kind of benefits that you have had before and the kind of benefits that might be offered with this company. Again, you really don’t want concerns about benefits to interrupt the interviewing process until you have finally sold yourself.)
Benefits, like money, to me are not as important as the company, the job, and the professional challenge. I will certainly take the benefits package into consideration if an offer is made, but right now those kinds of things shouldn’t be an issue.
Some candidates jump the gun and start negotiating money before they hear the whole offer. It’s not a good idea to pick out one or two issues about an offer until you have heard and completely understand all of the compensation, benefits program, and any other aspects of the offer. Things like base salary, salary reviews, commissions, and so forth may have a great flexibility. After you’ve heard the entire offer and you want to negotiate the salary, here is the most successful way to do it:
Remember, Mr. or Ms. _________________, I do want this job. My employment here will be good for both of us. However, I need to ask, is that the best you can do regarding the salary?
Then stop talking! If the hiring authority responds with something like, “Why do you ask?,” you’d better have a good reason, such as:
Well, my last salary was (is) $60,000, and I’d like to see if we can get to $65,000. What can we do to get there?
Now is the time to negotiate. If you’ve managed the interviewing process correctly, you already have a good idea of what the salary and compensation range for the position is. Money is simply a part of the job offer negotiation. Treat money with grace and ease, like any other part of the interviewing process.
INDEX
The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below
absences from work
academic performance
accounting jobs, power phrases for
accounts payable departments, as interview contacts
acquisitions (corporate)
administrative jobs, power phrases for
advantages (of job candidates), defined
advertising jobs, power phrases for
age
architecture jobs, power phrases for
attorneys, power phrases for
auditing jobs, power phrases for
background checks
banking jobs, power phrases for
bankruptcy
benefit plans
benefits (to prospective employers)
defined
to offset risk of hiring
use in interviews
bookkeeping jobs, power phrases for
bosses
access to
criticism of
disagreements with
prospective
relations with
business analyst jobs, power phrases for
career changes
chemists, power phrases for
chief financial officers, power phrases for
chief information officers, power phrases for
child care issues
closing phrases
for cold calls
effectiveness of
for initial interviews
cold calls
closing
features/advantages/benefits statements in
follow-up
in-person visits as
power phrases in
purpose of
what to say
whom to ask for
collections management jobs, power phrases for
college. See education level
communication
with all employee levels
diplomacy in
of job qualifications
with management
oral vs. written
proactive
commuting
company culture/values
company morale
company ownership
changes in
as hiring liability
compensation
denial of raise in
lowered
negotiating
and performance
competition
comparisons with
in follow-up interviews
conflict management
construction management jobs, power phrases for
controllers, power phrases for
controversy, handling in interviews
corporate recruiters, power phrases for
cover letters
characteristics of
power phrases in
samples
coworkers
compatibility with
prospective, getting information about
prospective, getting information from
creative arts jobs, power phrases for
creativity/innovation
credit history
credit management jobs, power phrases for
criticism
of bosses
handling
customer service departments, as interview contacts
customer service jobs
power phrases for
skills for
decision making
about hiring (see hiring decisions)
as job skill
unpopular
delegating work
downsizing. See layoffs
DWIs
editing jobs, power phrases for
education level
e-mail
attachments to
crafting messages for
for interview follow-up
power phrases in
résumé delivery via
subject lines
employee turnover
employment duration
engineering jobs, power phrases for
entry-level positions, power phrases for
environmental engineering jobs, power phrases for
ethics violations
executive experience, as hiring liability
failure
definitions of
explanations of
features (of job candidates)
defined
use in interviews
finances. See also compensation
management of
personal difficulties with
reporting on
financial analysis jobs, power phrases for
firing. See terminations
follow-up e-mails
follow-up interviews
and candidate’s job skills
hiring authority in
mistakes made in
multiple
power phrases used in
setting up
strategy for
follow-up letters
follow-up phone calls
in cold calling
after initial interview
keeping records of
after subsequent interviews
goal setting
personal
by prospective employers
graphic design jobs, power phrases for
hiring authority
finding
in follow-up interviews
as interviewer
job offers from
risk assumed by
hiring decisions
conflicting opinions on
emotional basis of
as management job skill
speed of
hotel management jobs, power phrases for
human resources (HR)
bypassing in job search
power phrases for jobs in
industrial engineering jobs, power phrases for
information technology jobs, power phrases for
interviewers
as hiring authorities
job candidate’s knowledge about
soliciting support of
suggestions from
interviews. See also follow-up interviews
closing
cold calling for
duration of process
following up on
four basic questions underlying
importance of
initial vs. subsequent
multiple
nature of
with people you know
personal questions in