Interview basics to help you shine in job search

Nyavula finally perfected her CV over the course of the past four Business Talk articles in the Business Daily and landed a coveted interview with an exciting new firm.

Interviews, though, present themselves as nerve-wracking experiences. Nyavula represented herself well on her CV and cover letter in order to reach the interview process as the interview panel sifted through dozens of applicants and shortlisted her for an interview.

So will her personal interaction match with their expectations?

Nyavula and readers must prepare themselves for interviews. Study each part of the expected interview process before you arrive. The first observation interviewers will make about you involves what you wear.

While your clothing seems superficial to your actual abilities, remember that research by Dr Albert Mehrabian shows, as discussed in previous Business Talk articles, up to 93 per cent of communication does not involve the actual words you say. The researcher found that 55 per cent of impressions come from non-verbal cues, including your clothing.

Bold colours

Women should know about their “power colour”. They should invite professional friends over and put different colours over their torso and ask their friends which one makes their face look the most professional, confident, and a go getter.

Interviewers crave these characteristics. It might seem odd, but high-end career coaches do such colour tests on television personalities as well as executive women.

Then women should follow the commonly known standards for interview clothing involving no flowery patterns or multiple colours.

Wear outfits with only one or two bold colours. No flat shoes for interviews unless you confirmed before the interview that the office environment exists as ultra-casual.

Unless entering an interview room for a technology sector job, professional men should wear a suit to interviews.

Avoid any type of bright or shiny suits or interviewers will stereotype you as non-professional. Wear dark blue, black, or dark gray suits.

Ensure that any pinstripes or checkered patterns are muted and not too pronounced so as to shout out for attention from the suit.

Men should wear long button up shirts with the suits. The only universally acceptable shirt colours for interviews include white, light blue, or light yellow.

You can wear a bold tie in the following combinations: yellow or orange ties for blue shirts, red or blue ties for white shirts, brown or dark green ties for light yellow shirts.

Avoid pink shirts or ties and do not have too expressive patterns on the tie. Then many younger men wear ties that are too short while older men often wear ties that are too long. The tip of the tie should just barely cover your belt buckle.

Regurgitating facts

Finally, men should wear dark socks with a suit. Never under any condition should white socks accompany a suit.

Employers often subconsciously segregate classes of workers based on the colour of socks. Men and women alike should not take fashion risks in interviews.

Next, how do you answer questions?

You want to impact their psychology. Research shows that if you can help the interviewers to envision a preferred future for what you can do for them, then that stands as far more powerful than regurgitating facts from your CV regarding what you did in the past.

As an example, if you enabled your previous employer to triple sales within a two year period, do not just declare it as a historical fact.

Say instead, “I expect that I could dramatically increase your sales and take off some of the pressure from the team in the same way I tripled sales in my previous employer”. Help mentally frame how the interviewers may experience work life with you.

Further, know about the firm and about the industry. Some organisations ask employees “who is our board chairman” or “please name our CEO” just to see whether you did your homework on the firm.

Showing that you took the time to research the organisation indicates that you actually care about the entity and the industry and were not simply trying your luck through the application process.

The second to last question in many interviews involves something to the effect of “if successful, when can you start work with us?” Many eager job seekers may jump at the prospective opportunity and say “immediately” or “next Monday”.

However, you do not want to appear overly desperate. It lowers interviewers’ psychological opinion of you and also hurts your negotiating position when salary discussions come later.

Interviewers also want to see if you will show decency to your current employer by providing proper notice. The standard response that interviewers for professional jobs expect entails anything from two weeks to one month before you start. Entry-level or lower paying jobs may desire one week.

Two-pronged approach

Finally, many interviews conclude with the dreaded salary question. Many executives recall how promising candidates sabotaged their prospects at the end of an interview by refusing to answer the required salary question.

So when you get asked “what is your expected salary for the position”, you cannot simply say you are flexible or it is negotiable. You must really give an actual figure.

Candidate fears encompass worries that they may either price themselves out of the job or they dramatically undervalue their skills. The correct way to handle job salary questions in an interview involves a two-pronged approach.

First you must do your homework. Research online and try to discover salary ranges. Some websites provide comparisons for various industries in Kenya, especially for NGOs and multinational firms.

Next, actively tap your professional network. Conduct informational interviews with your contacts and find out what reasonable salary expectations one might hold for such jobs.

If you failed historically to build a valuable network of industry contacts, then start to build one through LinkedIn online.

Once you discover roughly what salary you might receive, then put your answer into range. So if the industry average salary for the post equals Sh300,000 per month while your minimum standard of living requires at least Sh260,000 and you desperately need the job, then you should state: “I hope to earn anywhere between Sh260,000 and 350,000”.

Professor Scott serves as the Director of the New Economy Venture Accelerator (NEVA) at USIU’s Chandaria School of Business, www.ScottProfessor.com, and may be reached on: [email protected] or follow on Twitter: @ScottProfessor.

Next week Business Talk continues interview techniques with how to answer various typical interview questions. Discuss life planning with other Business Daily readers on Twitter through #KenyaJobs.