Strategic preparation for an interview for a job

Pri Notowidigdo, The Amrop Hever Group, Global Executive Search, e-mail: jakarta@amrophever.com

If you need to interview for a job, let your philosophy about your work be your guide. In this way, you present yourself as the kind of worker an employer will always want to hire. Approach the interview process in the same way you approach doing your job. If you are good at doing your work, you can be good at the interview process.

Adopting this approach will help you develop a relaxed attitude towards the interview process. This will generate the confidence that a professional like you should have. You will be able to demonstrate your talents and project yourself from being simply a job candidate into the solution to an employer's problem.

How can you go about demonstrating this? First of all, it's important to be aware of a number of key questions you face when approaching a job interview:

Do your background and interests fit with the job requirements? The challenge of matching a candidate with a job is addressed before the interview. A good head-hunter, for example, never sends a candidate to an interview unless he already knows that the candidate can do the job. You must ensure the same fit for yourself. You cannot match yourself to a job unless you know exactly what the job objectives and scope of responsibilities are before you walk into the interview. Do your research before the interview.

Do you see the interview as an exchange of information or an interrogation? An interview is a meeting between you and the employer. You are equals. If you allow an employer to intimidate you and interrogate you, then that's your decision. But realize that you end up making yourself tense and anxious and the employer will sense this. Remember that a good employer will rarely hire a tense candidate. Regard the interview as an opportunity to address a problem or problems that the employer is facing in his organization. You will then turn the interview into a decisive problem-solving experience that will make the employer view you and treat you like a member of the team.

Can you solve a business problem for the employer? The employer wants only one thing from you and that is for you to solve a problem profitably for the organization. Most candidates don't solve the employer's problem because they don't know what the problem is. They're also too busy trying to impress the employer about their past achievements or work that may not have any relevance to the job at hand. Find out what problem you have to solve to win a job offer. Prepare yourself beforehand on any suggested solutions that will make the organization more successful and profitable. Remember that if previous employees had proved they could solve the employer's problem this way, the employer would not be talking to you. See what happens by solving one or more of the employer's problems during the interview.

Simply treat interviews as practical, problem-solving meetings with a purpose. The purpose is to show that a job candidate like yourself can do a job that he will be hired for - to show an employer the best way that a job can be done.

Job-hunting is not about credentials. It's not about resumes. It's not about interviews. It's not about references or aptitude tests or your personality or whether someone likes you. Isn't job-hunting really about the work? Isn't it about understanding and doing it the way the employer needs to have it done in a profitable way?