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By Donald P. Orlando

An upcoming interview always seems to be good news and bad news. The good news is your chance to move up. The bad news isn't the interview at all. It is the pernicious folklore that surrounds the subject that makes people anxious. But those myths just don't stand up to critical thought.

In this article, I'll replace those threatening myths with good news: you already have tools to make each interview useful. Next, I'll offer a suggestion that has gotten second interviews for nearly all my clients. To keep ideas focused, I'll have to leave important interview related subjects like advanced interview preparation, targeting the right decision maker, and negotiating for salary, benefits, perks, and severance for another time.

Myth #1: The interviewer is trained and qualified for the task. In truth, many interviewers get no formal training since they interview so rarely. It's obvious many interviewers aren't qualified to match your excellence with corporate needs. Often, the first person to interview you is a human resources professional. Corporate America benefits every day from the great contributions people in that field make. However, unless you are interviewing for a senior HR position yourself, only limited progress can come out of such a meeting. For example, an HR professional probably is as uncomfortable with the expertise a Vice President for Knowledge offers as the VP is about the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Myth #2: There exists a list of top ten (or is it 15?) interview questions. In order for the myth to be true, a substantial number of interviewers across the country would have to agree on a single set of questions and answers. Even if they did, you'd face the impossible task of recognizing each question, no matter how it is worded and in which order it appears. Of course, you'd have to memorize the right answer for each question as well. No wonder so many are nervous about the interview. To them, the interview is theater - and they know they are not actors. There has to be a better way.

Interviewing Truths You Can Use

Companies generally interview only people they think qualified. That sets the stage for the second truth: the organization has needs; you have skills. Therefore, an interview should never be an interrogation. It should be a collaboration.

You've been collaborating (interviewing) all your professional life.

Think of your last project. Someone discovered a problem. They asked your opinion. The conversation broadened to other specialists. Together, after give and take, you came up jointly with a solution with which everybody could live. Those sessions are interviews.

The key difference between the "interviewing" you've been doing all your life and an employment interview is the context. When you helped solve a problem on the job, you knew the players, the company -- in short, the complete context. In an interview, you must help the untrained interviewer set the context. You can ask the following questions to establish a mutually acceptable framework and, as you will see later, evaluate the company as a good match for you.

Questions You Should Ask to Move Collaboration Forward

• "What is the most important problem I can help your organization solve?" This is the question that sets the interview on the right track from the beginning because each firm has different needs. Consider the answers a potential VP for sales might get when she asks that question of three companies. The first has concerns about a new competitor who sells on price while they have always sold value. The second company speaks about how they can increase sales with a new product, one never associated with their long history. The third feels its customer relationship system allows contracts to fall through the cracks. Each company wants a VP of sales, but for a different reason. If you're that prospective VP, you'll answer the most important question the interviewer has. In short, you'll provide value right from the start.
• "Which visible indicators of performance will you use to judge my success?" This question will help both you and the interviewer focus on where your energy will be spent every day. For example, a potential dean of a law school might be surprised when the answer to her question includes how many dollars she raises for the school! How much better to know how management sees your worth before you sign up, rather than after you are committed for several years.
• "Which resources, including decision making authority, will I have under my control?" This third question has saved many a client from unpleasant employment. You are checking to see if you'll have the tools to do the job. That's vital. Even someone as talented as you will fail without the right tools.

Notice several important links between these three questions. First, you should know the answers before you meet the interviewer. Second, each question does more than give you a chance to show how applicable your track record is to a given company. Each question reinforces the previous one as you evaluate the company.

The First Law of Employment applies. As you speak with a company, everything you see, everything you hear, is condoned or encouraged by the leadership-without exception.

Thoughtful answers from the interviewer are a sign of great leadership; non-answers are just the opposite. Here's an example of a non-answer. A national account representative asks which measures the company will use to judge his success. The interviewer cites sales goals. But the goals are only the metrics. If, to your first question, the interviewer cited the need to counter a new competitor, then he'd expect the company to measure increase in market share, not just raw sales numbers.

If the answers you get don't make sense, perhaps corporate leadership hasn't told its employees, including the hiring decision maker, what their vision is. If the interviewer is uncertain about company goals, and he is already employed, what chance do you have of making an excellent start?

Move toward a second interview if the answers do make sense. Let's look at the tool you use to do that, the Job Cinching Letter.

After the interview, assume you've been hired. Based on what you were told, what will you do in the first six months to move your company forward?

No detailed plans required. Just outline your concept in a letter addressed to the decision maker. Be sure to follow up by phone. Here's how you might start that conversation, "Mr. Mellor, this is Mr. Johnson. I am calling not just to thank you for your time during last week's interview. After our talk, I thought about how I might help you as your newest VP for sales. I put my ideas in a letter I sent last week and this is my question: Will my ideas work for your company?" The next words you hear from the interviewer are, by definition, the second interview. It's our favorite conversation, how you're going to make Mr. Mellor's company a lot more money than it costs to hire you.

As you suspect, there are details that flesh out the concepts you've just learned. However, I hope I've transmitted a central thought: the same skills that helped you collaborate your way to success on your current job can help drive your success in finding your newer, even better, job.

Don Orlando, MBA, CPRW, JCTC, CCM, CCMC, helps senior and very senior professionals win the careers they have always deserved, get paid what they are worth, and have fun in the process. A professional career coach before the industry had a name, Don is a widely published and speaker in his field. He can be reached at 334-264-2020 or yourcareercoach@charterinternet.com.

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