by Barbara Mulligan
When Lisa Portis first lays eyes on a candidate for a job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, she makes sure that the person has clean, neatly groomed hair and fingernails and is wearing an unwrinkled, professional-looking suit and carefully polished, unscuffed shoes. She does not look kindly on tattoos or body piercings.
When Christie Kallenbach chats for the first time with a candidate for a job at Intel Corp., she intentionally overlooks attire and immediately begins looking for a reason to hire the person for one of the firm’s many technical positions.
Portis, a regional recruiting supervisor at Enterprise’s Oak Park, Illinois, offices, and Kallenbach, an Intel campus recruiting manager based in Chandler, Arizona, both regularly interview students who want to work for their firms. Both seek candidates who will perform well on the job and fit into their corporate culture. Both ask questions that focus on how a candidate has behaved in the past to help them predict his or her future performance. But it’s the differences in their techniques that can sometimes confuse students who are trying to figure out how to make the best impression on interviewers and secure the best possible position, pay, and benefits.
“If you don’t dress seriously, we can’t really take you seriously,” says Portis, who meets with students from a variety of majors and hires them primarily for management trainee positions that require strong customer-service skills and high visibility. “If you come in not dressed well, you’ve taken away 50 percent of your chance to be hired.”
Portis says she follows a carefully structured 30-minute behavioral interview format that’s followed by most other Enterprise recruiters as well.
Kallenbach is much more laid-back about appearance—and about the interview itself. But, like Portis, she uses behavioral questions to identify the best people for the positions she needs to fill. It’s just that those positions are different—she needs to find engineering and computer science majors who have strong technical skills and experience, and who don’t need to interact much with the public.
Getting ready
How can you know what your interviewer will be looking for? How can you prepare to speak, act, and appear as professional as possible in that brief and urgently important meeting?
“Do advance work,” advises Eleanor Sanchez, associate dean of career services at Columbia University. “Learn everything you can about a company.”
Sanchez says that means reading about the company, going to the company’s on-campus information session, and asking as many questions as possible of any company employees or interns you know—or who your friends or family know. She adds that savvy researchers focus not only on a company’s statistics—its profit margin; products; and number of divisions, locations, and employees—but also on its culture and values.
“Make sure you know what is expected of you in that interview before you go in,” Sanchez says. “There is no excuse for not knowing about a company’s culture.”
Once you’ve done your homework, Sanchez says, you’re ready to start practicing.
“Think about the worst question you can face in an interview—the one you most dread,” she says. “Practice answering that. Do role playing. You must be prepared for that question. If you can answer it, the rest will be much easier.”
Sanchez says that once you’ve crossed that hurdle, you can practice for the rest of the interview.
“Be prepared to articulate your strengths and skills and what you can bring to the organization,” she says. “Even if you’re asked off-the-wall questions like ‘What is your favorite pet?’ or ‘What is your favorite color?’ be prepared to answer them in a way that focuses on what you can do for the company.”
Sanchez says one good way to practice is by doing a mock interview with a career counselor, family member, or friend—or in front of the mirror.
She adds that it’s good to practice both answering and asking questions.
“Applicants are finding that they can be much more assertive and honest about their values than in the past,” she says. “Students are feeling much more at liberty to say something like ‘I want to know about your policy on sweatshops,’ or, ‘Are you an environmentally concerned company?’”
But remember, Sanchez warns, that questions like those must be asked in a tactful, nonconfrontational way. And different recruiters will react differently.
Dean Fechner, national college relations manager for the consulting firm of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in New York City, says he welcomes educated questions.
“I like to hear questions like, ‘What is the future of Cap Gemini from your perspective?’ or ‘Describe the corporate values of Cap Gemini,’” he says.
Fechner says he’s especially impressed when students ask questions that are based on something they read about the firm, such as an impending merger or acquisition.
“I also like when a student describes the evolution of why they want to get into this industry,” he says. “That tells me a lot.”
Fechner adds that he’s put off by students who can’t elaborate on a topic or give specific examples of how they completed a project or report.
“It’s very frustrating when someone gives me a textbook or generic answer,” he says.
Julie Cunningham, global college relations manager at Tellabs Inc. in Bolingbrook, Illinois, says interviewers at her firm seek candidates who have both strong technical skills and good communication skills—and they ask questions designed to elicit responses that show those skills—or the lack of them.
“We’re looking for people who display a lot of enthusiasm,” she says. “We want good team players.”
Cunningham says that while it’s good for students to ask questions assertively, Tellabs recruiters would rather not listen to demands for stock options or unreasonably high salaries and signing bonuses.
Jeffrey Vargas, a recruiter and program analyst with the federal Department of Energy, says that students shouldn’t be shy about describing their accomplishments—or about asking about benefits other than high starting salaries.
“You’re hurting yourself and your possibility of advancement if you don’t,” he says.
Vargas, who conducts short, on-the-spot preliminary interviews at career fairs, says students should also be prepared to do a “60-second commercial about themselves.”
“Touch on your background, your current activities, your future goals, and your availability,” he says.
Portis says she most likes to hear students ask questions about what a typical day is like or about what kinds of benefits the firm offers.
“I like for them to form their questions around research they’ve done about the company,” she says.
Kallenbach says she’s more interested in finding out how practiced interviewees are in the skills they’ve listed on their resumes.
“We try to find out how deep their knowledge is,” she says. “We want to know if they can solve problems and be flexible.”
Once you’ve done your research, figured out what you’re likely to be asked and what you’re planning to ask, and practiced it all endlessly, you’ll need to make sure you look presentable and know how to get to the interview site.
“Wear the standard suit attire” unless the employer has specifically said not to, Sanchez advises. “Just be prepared for a recruiter who is dressed in a polo shirt and slacks.”
Sanchez says that if you run into that kind of situation, ask a question like, “I notice that you’re in casual dress. Is that what I can expect on the job?” to show that you’ve noticed the difference in attire, are comfortable with it, and want to learn from it.
Sanchez also advises driving to the interview site a day or two before the interview to make sure you know how to get there or, if it’s far away, getting specific directions from someone who’s driven there or through one of the Internet map sites that provide directions.
On the day of the interview, Sanchez says, try to relax.
“It’s all about attitude,” she says. “Learn how to psyche yourself up if you’ve had a bad morning. Make yourself a list of things that you know make you feel good. Call someone who is a strong supporter of yours. Listen to music, exercise, or do yoga. Do anything that will help calm you down.”
Then, Sanchez says, make sure you leave early and arrive at least 10 minutes before the interview is scheduled to begin.
And finally, Fechner says, don’t pretend to be someone you’re not, and don’t agree with statements that fly in the face of your values, because a savvy recruiter will spot it instantly.
“I see too many people who try to step out of their own values,” he says. “Be yourself.”