Winning the Interview Game: Everything You Need to Know to Land the Job

Susan finally got her first job interview after an intense four months of searching. Four months of searching to get a one-hour job interview is a realistic statistic in these times. It could be another few months, or more, before she has the next interview. This places immense pressure on her and other job seekers to learn and apply effective interview skills.

Susan must convince the first interviewer, and possibly additional five or ten interviewers, that she is the candidate who should receive the coveted job offer. Read on to uncover the secrets of getting beyond the front-line human resource professionals and executive recruiters (the gatekeepers) to the hiring manager and a job offer.

One morning Susan received a call from a friend she contacted a month earlier, [Hi Susan, it's Tom. An acquaintance of mine is the vice president of human resources at a local company, and they are looking for a marketing manager. If you are interested, I will give you the contact information.] She obtained the contact name, Scott Gilbert, vice president-human resources and graciously asked Tom if she could assist him in any way. Susan was excited when she hung up the phone. She immediately reviewed the company's web site and called Scott to introduce herself as Tom's friend. Scott's administrative assistant, Amanda, answered the phone and requested that Susan e-mail a copy of her résumé. Within an hour, Susan received a call from Scott's internal recruiting manager. The purpose of that call was for the recruiting manager to ensure that Susan had the experience necessary to warrant an interview with Scott. The telephone interview and other interview formats are discussed in Chapter 4. Susan made a compelling case for an interview with Scott, and she had

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