Chapter 14 Interviewing for a Job and Preparing Employment Messages
Chapter 14 Interviewing for a Job and
Preparing Employment Messages
Learning Objectives
1. Explain the nature of structured, unstructured, stress, group, and virtual interviews.
2. Explain the steps in the interview process.
3. Prepare effective answers to questions often asked in job interviews including illegal interview questions.
4. Compose effective messages related to employment (application forms, follow-up, thank-you, job acceptance, job-refusal, resignation, and recommendation request).
Chapter Overview
Because it is probably the type of interview most familiar and of most concern to students, the employment interview receives primary emphasis in Chapter 14. Additionally, employment interviews are a logical continuation of the résumé and application message topics in Chapter 13. Students are exposed to traditional interview settings, as well as more contemporary techniques including computer-assisted, stress, group, and virtual interviews. Interviewing skills can be extended to the performance appraisal interview process, and practice of employment interviews may be transferred to other interview types as well. Give special attention to preparation for interviews, interview behavior and feedback techniques (paraphrasing and questioning), and dress and grooming.
Chapter Outline
UNDERSTANDING TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS 244
Structured Interviews 244
Unstructured Interviews 246
Stress Interviews 246
Group Interviews 246
Virtual Interviews 246
PREPARING FOR AN INTERVIEW 247
Research the Company 247
Study Yourself 248
Plan Your Appearance 248
Plan Your Time and Materials 249
Practice 249
CONDUCTING A SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW 249
The Opening Formalities 249
The Information Exchange 250
The Closing 253
PREPARING OTHER EMPLOYMENT MESSAGES 255
Application Forms 255
Follow-up Messages 255
Thank-You Messages 256
Job-Acceptance Messages 256
Job-Refusal Messages 256
Resignation Messages 258
Recommendation Requests 258
Key Terms
Stress interview 246
Structured interview 244
Unstructured interview 246
Virtual interview 246
PowerPoint Slides
· Lecture Slides — Students can review key chapter concepts on the Lecture Slides (found on the companion website (Student’s Resources)). Slides can be downloaded for convenient printing of handouts for taking class notes.
Slide Number and Title
1. Chapter 14 Interviewing for a Job and Preparing Employment Messages
2. Learning Objectives
3. Preparing for an Interview
4. Researching a Company and a Position
5. Conducting a Successful Interview: The Beginning
6. Exchanging Information
7. Skills Needed: Balance of Hard and Soft Skills
8. Standard Interview Questions
9. Behavioral Interview Questions
10. Sample Interviewee Questions
11. Other Employment Messages
· E-lectures — Slides with engaging narration of key concepts—useful as reinforcement of lectures and exam reviews—are available through the CourseMate site for BCOM3.
· Resource Slides — A larger deck of slides for instructors for displaying in the classroom; these slides for class enrichment and solutions to activities and applications are also available at the companion website (Instructor’s Resources) and on the Instructor’s CD.
Slide Number and Title
1. Chapter 14 Interviewing for a Job and Preparing Employment Messages
2. Learning Objectives
3. Learning Objective 1 Explain the nature of structured, unstructured, stress, group, and virtual interviews.
4. Types of Employment Interviews
5. Learning Objective 2 Explain the steps in the interview process.
6. Preparing for an Interview
7. Researching a Company and a Position
8. Learning Objective 3 Prepare effective answers to questions often asked in job interviews including illegal interview questions.
9. Conducting a Successful Interview: The Beginning
10. Appropriate Nonverbal Messages in an Interview
11. Inappropriate Nonverbal Messages in an Interview
12. Exchanging Information
13. Skills Needed: Balance of Hard and Soft Skills
14. Standard Interview Questions
15. Behavioral Interview Questions
16. Recognizing Illegal Interview Questions
17. Sample Interviewee Questions
18. Using Effective Techniques as an Interviewer
19. Using Effective Techniques as an Interviewer (cont.)
20. Learning Objective 4 Compose effective messages related to employment (application forms, follow-up, thank-you, job acceptance, job-refusal, resignation, and recommendation request).
21. Other Employment Messages
22. Thank-You Message: Why It Works
23. Follow-Up Message: Why It Works
Teaching Suggestions
Learning Objective 1
Explain the nature of structured, unstructured, stress, group, and virtual interviews.
UNDERSTANDING TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS
· Invite guest speakers to discuss the job search process, effective interviewing techniques, business protocol, and performance appraisal interviews. Consider former students, local human resources professors or managers, business protocol professors, communication consultants, officials in the school’s career services center, or local employment agents.
· Project the visual as you emphasize to students that the traditional one-on-one interview scenario is not the only possible interviewing arrangement. Discuss the various job interviewing arrangements.
· If time allows, ask students to discuss their experiences with job interviews.
Resource slide 4: Types of Employment Interviews
Structured interviews
· Lead a discussion of the purposes of the behavior-based interview.
· Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of computer-assisted interviews as an alternative to traditional face-to-face interviewing.
Unstructured interviews
· Emphasize that the goal of an unstructured interview is to determine the applicant’s ability to speak comfortably about a wide range of topics. Lead a discussion of types of unstructured interviews: stress, group, and virtual.
Virtual Interviews
· Lead a discussion as to how a virtual interview differs from a traditional one.
· How should the candidate prepare for a virtual interview? What factors would be of concern that would not figure in a traditional interview?
Learning Objective 2
Explain the steps in the interview process.
PREPARING FOR AN INTERVIEW
· Project the visuals below as you discuss preparation for an interview. Remind students that preparation is important as actually showing for the interview. Discuss the various places for obtaining information about the company, the position, and the career paths available.
Resource slide 6: Preparing for an Interview
Resource slide 7: Researching a Company and a Position
· Discuss when an interviewer forms an impression of the job candidate—in the first 15–30 seconds of the interaction. Remind students that overcoming a negative first impression is more difficult than forming a good first impression. They want to spend their interview time strengthening the tie between their qualifications and their job under discussion, not overcoming a negative first impression.
· Initiate a discussion related to the appropriate attire for an interview. Ask students if the culture of the organization for which the interview will be conducted affects the dress code for the interview? Stress that good advice is to err on the side of formality rather than informality when dressing for an interview. Students will benefit from actually experiencing and witnessing recommended attire. You may ask students to investigate the topic further by locating current articles on the topic.
Learning Objective 3
Prepare effective answers to questions often asked in job interviews, including illegal interview questions.
CONDUCTING A SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW
· Introduce the discussion by noting the typical interview has three parts: (a) the opening formalities, (b) the information exchange, and (c) the close. Then, initiate a discussion of effective strategies for each part.
· Ask students if they have ever heard the expression, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
· Remind students that most interviewers make their decisions about “no” or “maybe” as a potential in the FIRST FOUR MINUTES. Stress the importance of that first impression based on dress, nonverbal communication, confidence, and demeanor.
The Opening Formalities
· Lead a discussion of effective interviewee behaviors and discuss the top five most common faux pas candidates commit during a job interview: arriving late; talking negatively about previous employer(s); dressing down; avoiding discussion of personal weaknesses; demonstrating ignorance of the company or position sought. Use this time to emphasize that texting or looking at a cell phone during a job interview has been noted as a negative interviewee behavior.
Resource slide 9: Conducting a Successful Interview: The Beginning
Resource slide 10: Appropriate Nonverbal Messages in an Interview
Resource slide 11: Inappropriate Nonverbal Messages in an Interview
Resource slide 12: Exchanging Information
Resource slide 13: Skills Needed: Balance of Hard and Soft Skills
· Emphasize the importance of nonverbal behaviors and messages in the interview process.
The Information Exchange
Presenting Your Qualifications
· Project and discuss the visual as you discuss this section:
o Standard Interview Questions
o Behavioral Interview Questions
· Remind students that they must be able to present job-related skills and people skills during an interview; Most employers are not interested in an applicant with zero people skills, even if he or she has more applicable job skills than other candidates.
· Project the visuals that summarize standard interview questions and typical behavioral questions. In small groups, have students practice answering both types of questions.
· In small groups, have students prepare a list of behaviors that might convey a professional attitude to an interviewer.
· In small groups, have students role-play the interaction of an interviewer and an applicant concerning salary.
Web Enrichment: Typical Interview Questions
· Refer students to the web enrichment found at the companion website for additional interview questions, both basic and job-focused. Consider asking them to provide their answers to five of these questions (or any of the questions discussed in the text or on the slides) as part of their assignments from this chapter. Writing their job-specific answers to these questions will help them prepare for the interview process.
Resource slide 14: Standard Interview Questions
Resource slide 15: Behavioral Interview Questions
· Remind students that everyone has weaknesses. Their answers should show awareness of a weakness that will not have a negative effect on their job worthiness.
Asking Questions of the Interviewer
· Show the visual as you lead a discussion of typical questions an interviewee might ask an interviewer.
· Remind students an interviewer is not the only one making a decision during the interview process. The job applicant or interviewee also must decide whether the position and the company are right for him or her.
Resource slide 17: Sample Interviewee Questions
· Remind students that they should be prepared to “interview the company” as part of the process. Tell students to consider: “Are the company’s values the same as yours? Does the work environment fit with what you need? Does this position fit the goals you outlined at the beginning of your job search process?”
· If you wish to cover interviewing from the interviewer’s perspective, discuss the visuals as you discuss effective interviewing techniques for interviewers.
Resource slide 18: Using Effective Techniques as an Interviewer
Resource slide 19: Using Effective Techniques as an Interviewer (cont.)
· Assign Application 5 that requires students to prepare a short presentation from selected readings related to the role of the interviewer.
· Arrange for two volunteers to demonstrate an effective (and ineffective) job interview before the entire class to provide a model for mock interviews in teams. This demonstration is an excellent opportunity to use the expertise of resource persons, for example, human resources management professors or practitioners, career services personnel, or students with special communication abilities (students who have completed a full semester course in interviewing).
· Have students participate in mock interviews. As a suggestion, have four students work as a team. One plays a role as interviewer, another as interviewee, and two serve as observers to provide critiques of the effectiveness of the interview. Teams should continue mock interviews until all members have an opportunity to be interviewer and interviewee. Require students to distribute copies of their résumés to other team members.
To increase the effectiveness of the mock interviews, complete these activities prior to the interviews:
o Assign Activity 2 that requires researching a company and writing ten original questions that could be asked during a job interview.
o Assign Activity 3 that requires students to write interview questions based on a peer’s résumé. Discuss students’ responses in class. Refer to the teaching suggestions in the solution that follows.
Following the interviews, have students discuss or describe the following:
o Summary of the strengths and detailed description of the areas needing improvement before the next interview.
o Significant points discussed during the interview that can be used in a thankyou letter.
Illegal Interview Questions
· Project the visual as you discuss possible illegal interview questions and strategies for answering them.
Resource slide 16: Recognizing Illegal Interview Questions
· Assign Activity 4, an email assignment that requires students to respond to challenging interview questions, including some that are possibly illegal.
Web Enrichment: Making the of the Performance Appraisal Process
Refer your students to the companion website so that you can discuss another employment “interview” situation, the performance appraisal or on-the-job evaluation. Remind students that this meeting with a supervisor should be thought of as an opportunity to show how they are performing in a position. A worker should not wait for the employer to discuss what is good and what is not. The employee should go into the meeting with a list of accomplishments from the last year, goals for the next year, strengths, and areas for improvement.
Learning Objective 4
Compose effective messages related to employment (application forms, follow-up, thank-you, job acceptance, job-refusal, resignation, and recommendation request).
PREPARING OTHER EMPLOYMENT MESSAGES
· Show the visual as you discuss the various employment messages other than the résumé and application that students will be required to write.
Resource slide 21: Other Employment Messages
· Refer students to the good examples illustrated in the text as you discuss each message. Assign one or more of the related activities.
· Discuss choosing an appropriate medium (letter or email) for sending the types of messages indicated in the table below. Tell students to consider the company and the preferences of the interviewers when determining the channel for these messages. Project the visuals to show example of appropriate follow-up messages.
Resource slide 22: Thank-You Message: Why It Works
Resource slide 23: Follow-Up Message: Why It Works