hey everybody Don Georgevich here
welcome to seven days to mastering the
art of the interview this is module six
interviewing to take on the gold let's
get started so in this video we are
going to cover a company research or how
to do company research how to shake
hands I know we already covered that in
a previous module but we're going to
touch on it again it's really important
preparation but not memorization people
often confuse that questions that you
can ask the interviewer mental
preparation closing the interview and
the ever critical following up after the
interview interviewing is kind of like
being selected to compete in the
Olympics I mean you've already
outperformed hundreds or maybe even
thousands of competitors and you're down
to the final round and you're at this
point you were really competing with the
best to the best so how could you leave
with gold or they offer and become the
champion one of the most important
things you can do is research the
company that you're going to be
interviewing with because if you think
about it I mean how can you convincingly
show interest in a position that's going
to take you about 25% of the hours in
your week when you have absolutely no
knowledge of the general Job Description
the company its goals or its current
events now I'll tell you the short of it
is you can't but here's what you can do
and how to understand the company with
what you're going to be interviewing
with one thing you can do is go to the
company's website and get their annual
report and you can read through that it
might not be all that interesting but
you might be able to glean a few
important facts about it another thing
you can do visit their website read
about where they're headed the direction
were they going any media coverage on
them you can also look at their standard
& poor's
their corporate records their stock
records this might be a little overkill
for most people but it kind of just
depends on the position that you're
interviewing for the company that you're
interviewing with
for smaller companies you can always
call the cities a Chamber of Commerce
because smaller companies aren't going
to have all these big corporate records
and stuff so you can just call the local
community Chamber of Commerce in which
they're in and you can get some
information about them that way they're
going to appreciate any kind of
information that you can bring to the
interview about them or any little
pieces that you dig up for every company
that you interview with I would suggest
creating this following checklist that
I'm going to cover with you one of the
most important things is what services
or products do they sell you know find
out who is their competition who they
compete with this could be really good
conversation pieces when you're in the
interview and you can talk about the
competition and what they're doing and
you know you can be a little bit biased
and you know about how you know this
company that you're interviewing what
does it a little bit better than the
competition sales do they have any large
increase or decrease in sales I mean if
you do some digging and you find out
their sales are tanking maybe you really
don't want to work there after all do
they have any new products or services
available from the company this is good
stuff to find out about and if they have
some products that they're
soon-to-be-released
you can bring those up in the interview
international operations do they operate
outside the United States or Canada or
Europe you might want to bring this up
and you know just do a little bit of
digging and find out maybe you know are
they opening up new offices and whatever
is there any media information on the
company you can do a little bit of
searches on the internet and find out
you know what the media's take is on
this company or they in any kind of
trouble or legal problems good stuff to
know if they have legal problems you may
or may not want to bring that up in the
interview you could it could be a good
conversation piece you could say
something like hey I noticed you guys
have a lawsuit pending against you how
do you think that's going to affect you
know moving forward in the next year now
these are just some ideas to help you
discover more about the company that
you're going to be interviewing with do
you have to do them all no of course not
these are just some guidelines to help
you create a framework for the type of
research that you should be doing okay
let's move in
to handshake because this is essential
to taking on the gold and nailing the
offer I know we covered this in a
previous video but I just wanted to
touch on it again and stress its
critical role at this level of the
interview you see a handshake kind of
tells a story about each person so do
you come from the top do you give the
power handshake do your hands shake very
lightly and that these examples may seem
simple but it's easy to start off poorly
with a bad handshake you want to avoid
the light delicate handshake and the
powerful you know over the top
controlling handshake ideally you just
want to go in there give a good firm
full handed handshake for both men and
women and I suggest that men shake
women's hands
I suggest that women shake women's hands
and vice versa it should it's it's a
two-way street everybody really should
be shaking hands moving on here
prepare yourself but don't memorize you
see if you try to memorize a response to
the question like you know what are your
biggest strengths you're going to blurt
it out
you know privately you're going to be
congratulating yourself on your memory
but your interviewers going to kind of
stare at you and disbelief it how
quickly you know you answer this
question without seeming to give it much
consideration and then your interviewers
going to follow up with something like
you know so what do you consider your
biggest strengths and then you know
you're going to quickly realize that
when you really weren't prepared for
that one so instead what you want to do
is quickly think of some challenges in
your work background both positive and
negative and then tie your answer into
those challenges your response and the
results so let's look at an example of
the star formula that'll help you answer
this question so the first thing in a
star is the situation so let's say you
set up the situation as you know your
sales division so productivity decreased
and it seemed that your division would
not meet
or exceed their annual goals the action
that you took was you observed the staff
to see where the bottlenecks were
occurring you determine a need for
additional employee development and
training and you focused on employee
development through intense training the
end result was that you hit corporate
budget at a year-end and you were noted
by management for exceptional
problem-solving and turnaround
capabilities so now when they ask you
you know what is you know one of your
biggest strengths your response might be
well my biggest strength is my ability
to identify potential problem areas
solve the problems and produce results
you know and then you might give an
example and say something like you know
when my divisions productivity decreased
it seemed as though we would not meet or
exceed our annual goals and then you
really just continue on with your story
about not meeting the goals just like
the way I covered in the previous slides
you know and that's it that's a slam
dunk answer and this same scenario would
also work if the interviewer asks you
something like describe a difficult
situation and how you dealt with it or
you know what would management's say
about you
when you think through specific
situations that you've encountered this
is going to allow you to choose
scenarios that are really most most
appropriate to the question okay let's
move on to questions that you should
have for the interviewer and here are
some good ones first one here is how
does my job fit in with the mission of
the organization corporate performance
or profitability or you know what will I
be contributing to the organization you
could be setting yourself up something
like that because they might ask you you
know well I don't know what will you be
contributing but so you have to balance
that if that's a good question for you
to ask in the interview or not what
makes your company different from others
and don't just say that but you know you
might want to mention a competitor
like you know what makes your company
different from you know XYZ company
another good one you can ask is what is
your corporate culture and as with any
of these ask the interviewer questions
but don't just ask them questions for
the sake of asking questions make sure
you have a specific reason for knowing
the answer make sure that the answer to
that question is going to help you
determine whether you want to work there
or not so if you start asking them every
question Under the Sun they're going to
start to thank you crazy so make sure
your questions have a real purpose okay
the next one here is mental preparation
this one may seem a little hokey but
it's really proven to be a good tactic
in any high-stress situation as you
arrive early for your interview at least
15 minutes and you're waiting to be
called in mentally prepare for your
interview visualize this think about
this okay picture the interview going
smoothly picture the interviewer asking
you questions and you answering them
perfectly
just imagine the interviewer telling you
that you seemed perfect for the job as
you leave and you're even more excited
about the position you see these are
just some of the things that should be
going through your mind so if you're
nervous start your mental preparation by
taking deep breaths and thinking you are
you are and then you know fill in the
blank you know that could be you are
right for the job this is right for me I
can do this and you inhale and you're
relaxed and you exhale and you repeat
this procedure until you are totally
relaxed avoid thinking what if they
don't like me you have to get that out
of your mind or you know what if I get
stumped and you need to focus instead on
relaxing just try it
mental visualization it really works
it's worked for me my clients and I'm
sure to work for you too ok next closing
the interview you're ahead of the
competition and you're on your way to
the gold medal but you get a cramp do
you stop no not a chance
you have to cross the finish line so the
end of the interview this is your time
to
close with a positive very interested in
what you've learned kind of close when
the interviewer is closing with well if
you have no further questions then we
are done so this is your cue to say one
of the following and don't ask them all
you could say actually I'd like to know
how I should proceed from here should I
contact you or will you be in contact
with me or you could say how soon will I
hear from you or what is the process
from here you can also say what would
distinguish one potential candidate
joining your company from another or you
could say how do I prove my commitment
to the organization or you know what
would it take now like I said you don't
want to ask all these questions just the
one that is most relevant to your
situation okay let's wrap up this lesson
with follow-up okay you leave the
interview you feel good about the
position and now you go to your car and
you write down what just happened in the
interview and you write down the topics
that you discussed the characteristics
that the interviewer described and the
position and other details like that and
this is going to help you write a good
thank-you letter that shows your
interest and that you're a perfect match
for the position I've even got a special
book called perfect thank-you letters
and it'll show you how to write them and
if that's something that you think you
need that you can pick that up there are
of course many ways that you can succeed
in an interview and the purpose of this
video was just to give you some
guidelines on that but you see the best
advice is just to relax and be yourself
remember that your interviewer once
interviewed for his or her job and you
know they understand the intensity of
the interview process and by being
prepared as possible for your interview
you're going to enhance the qualities
that have already made you a great
candidate so just remember that it takes
preparation and knowing how to play the
game with strategy and excellence to win
okay that's all I have for you today in
the last module which you'll get
tomorrow I'm going to cover follow-up in
more
detail and and that lesson will be
titled following up after the interview
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of course I would love to hear your
comments have you used any of these
techniques in today's lesson to you know
get the job offer position yourself to
get the job and they worked or what has
worked for you I'd love to hear your
story and just what have you been doing
to stand out in your interviews hey
that's all I have for you today I'm Don
georgiyevich
stay on your game I'm here to help you
succeed so you can enjoy a prosperous
career and lead a lifestyle that you
love I'll see you in the next video
buh-bye hi Don this is dusty I just
wanted to thank you again for all the
help you gave my husband with his
interview process my husband has never
gone through an interview before he
works in the oil and gas industry and
was taking a career change he decided or
in the same industry he had to go
through numerous interviews in order to
obtain a position in fact four
interviews with one company your tools
helped him so much and helped him be at
ease with what he was going through
thank you so much my husband did get the
job after this year that we've had today
we smile I just wanted to thank you
again and I would recommend your product
to absolutely anybody we really
appreciate all of your help
face again and all I could do is say
you're awesome thanks bye