What to Say in Every Job Interview: How to Understand What Managers are Really Asking and Give the Answers that Land the Job

Book description

"TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF . . ." Decode the hidden meaning behind interview questions and prepare the perfect answer to land the job

During a job interview, there are no right or wrong answers, just better and worse answers. When you rethink the process in those terms, you'll gain a huge advantage over the competition.

What to Say in Every Job Interview shows you how to focus on the factors of the job, rather than answering questions "correctly." As a professional interviewer, Carole Martin has spent years on the other side of the desk. She knows exactly what she’s looking for in every job candidate and exactly how to find it. Now, she reveals all the secrets.

Martin gives you a holistic plan for preparing yourself to best answer every interviewer's three primary concerns:

  • Can you perform the job?
  • Are you a good fit with the company culture?
  • Can the company afford you?

What to Say in Every Job Interview shows you where to find the critical factor interviewers seek with each question and how to present yourself in the best possible way on the spot and under pressure.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. WHAT TO SAY IN EVERY JOB INTERVIEW: HOW TO UNDERSTAND WHAT MANAGERS ARE REALLY ASKING AND GIVE THE ANSWERS THAT LAND THE JOB
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication Page
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction
  8. Chapter 1: The Key Factors
    1. The Purpose of This Book
    2. How Is This Book Different?
    3. Everything You Need to Know About the Factors
    4. Identifying the Key Factors
    5. No Factors or Core Competencies in Posting?
    6. Reading Through the Job Posting
    7. Management Job Description and Factors
    8. Sample Quiz: Reading Between the Lines
  9. Chapter 2: Can This Candidate Do the Job?
    1. What Do You Have to Offer?
    2. The Three Categories: Skills, Abilities, and Personal Traits
    3. The Knowledge-Based Skills: Education, Knowledge, and Experience
    4. The Job Description or Posting
    5. Summarizing Your Knowledge-Based Education and Experience
    6. What Others Have Been Telling You
    7. Past Performance Comments
    8. Knowledge-Based Skills Requirement
    9. Essential Skills: “Must Haves” for This Job
    10. Your Knowledge-Based Skills
    11. Essential or Preferred?
    12. Examples of Knowledge-Based Statements
  10. Chapter 3: Do We Like This Candidate? Will He or She Fit In?
    1. Transferable Skills and Personal Traits
    2. Reading the Job Posting One Line at a Time: What Are They Looking For?
  11. Chapter 4: Can We Afford This Candidate?
    1. How Much Are You Worth?
    2. The Basic Principles of Salary Negotiation
    3. The Seven Rules of Salary Negotiation
  12. Chapter 5: Tell Me About Yourself
    1. A Tragic Example: “Tell Me About Yourself”
    2. Walk Me Through Your Résumé
    3. Focus, Script, and Practice
    4. A New Interview Technique
    5. The Five-Point System
    6. Writing Your Five Points
    7. Examples of the Five Points
    8. Bringing It All Together: Template
    9. A Tool to Remember: Your Five Points and Your Five Fingers
    10. The Statement Is There Anything Else You’d Like to Add?
  13. Chapter 6: Your Examples and Stories
    1. The Behavioral Interview
    2. Techniques for Writing Your Examples and Stories
    3. Situational/Hypothetical Questions
    4. The ARDIE Template
  14. Chapter 7: Building Your Inventory: Preparing Your Stories
    1. Using Key Factors to Write Your Inventory of Stories
    2. Most Common Factors
    3. The Backup Plan
  15. Chapter 8: The Five Categories of Interview Questions
    1. Category One: Who Are You and What Do You Have to Offer?
    2. Category Two: Why Do You Want to Work Here?
    3. Category Three: Sensitive or Negative Questions
    4. Category Four: What Are Your Salary Expectations?
    5. Questions and Answers
    6. Category Five: Miscellaneous Questions
    7. Keep Your Sunny Side Up
  16. Chapter 9: The Summary
    1. The Tools and Techniques of Interviewing
    2. The Three Categories of Skills, Abilities, and Traits
    3. Interview Principles and Rules to Discuss Salary
    4. The Five-Point System
    5. Your Examples and Stories
    6. The Five Categories of Interview Questions
    7. The Quiz
    8. What to Say in Every Job Interview
  17. Appendix: Salary Information Resources
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: What to Say in Every Job Interview: How to Understand What Managers are Really Asking and Give the Answers that Land the Job
  • Author(s): Carole Martin
  • Release date: December 2013
  • Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
  • ISBN: 9780071818018