The interview as a 'transaction'

Perhaps the best way to consider the interview is as a transaction, from which both the interviewer and interviewee gain something. For example, in a job interview the employer is 'selling' salary, prospects, working conditions and fringe benefits in order to 'buy' hard work, specialist skills, loyalty and integrity. Likewise the job applicant offers his skill and experience in return for a satisfying, rewarding and challenging job, or, more accurately, career.

The skills of interviewer and interviewee

Such a process requires the development of oral, NVC and social skills. The interviewer needs to do his homework before the interview, to decide exactly what the job entails, and the qualities needed in the person to do it. He then has to look carefully at the documents of all short-listed candidates and form questions to find out more about their strengths and weaknesses, so that their suitability may be assessed. Moreover, at interview he has to do this in such a way that the candidate is kept at ease and remains willing to answer questions fully and freely.

For his part, the interviewee also has to prepare himself before the interview—to draw up questions about the job and firm which will influence his decision to accept the job, should he be offered it.

Such a checklist of questions will include:

What prospects does the post offer? What are the arrangements for salary increases? Will there be an opportunity for further education or training? Will the job involve the opportunity for travel?

and to be considered but not always asked:

Would I enjoy working here? Could I work with the people I have met? Is the salary fair? Are there opportunities to grow in the job? Will I learn important skills here?

For his part, the interviewer usually rates the performance of each candidate against a checklist of required standards embodied in the following:

Checklist of what the interviewer is looking for

physique/health appearance intelligence

education/experience qualifications skills/specialisms

personality/character circumstances

The job applicant attending an interview will need to be smartly turned out, polite and alert and ready to impart information about himself. The way he 'holds himself during the interview, answers questions and poses his own will affect the way in which the interviewer assesses him. The interviewer is usually looking not only for someone to carry out the job on offer efficiently, but also for someone who will fit into the organization generally and who displays potential for development and promotion.

The following list gives the major points which the job candidate should keep in mind and attend to before, during and after the interview.

How to succeed at interviews

Before

• Ask people in good time to act as referees on your behalf. Never take this permission for granted.

• Read application instructions on advertisements carefully—don't waste time on a long letter of application if first you have to send off for an application form.

• Check the advertised job prospects and its potential. Is it really what you are looking for, or merely a dead end?

• Consider the organization carefully—its reputation, employee relations, location, etc.

• When short-listed for interview, confirm your acceptance promptly and then try to find out as much as possible about the firm.

During

• Above all—don't be late for the interview! You'll be flustered and the interviewer will be irritated.

• Check your appearance before entering the interview room.

• Control any nerves—deep breathing helps.

• Avoid 'fiddling' with clothes, rings, etc.

• Look at the interviewer posing the questions, and listen to them carefully—letting your mind wander can make you look silly if you have to ask for repeats.

• Don't mumble, gabble or restrict yourself to one-word answers—the organization is spending a lot of time and money to give you a chance to promote yourself!

• Remember to pause at intervals to check whether you are expected to continue.

• Take your time over tricky questions.

• Try to think ahead and anticipate what will be asked next.

• Don't forget to ask your questions—they are just as important as the interviewer's.

• Remember to thank the interviewer(s) for your appointment.

After

• If you are offered the job verbally at interview confirm your acceptance promptly in writing.

• Let your current employer have your resignation in good time—by letter if that is the custom.

• Always part from employers on good terms—you may need another reference one day, or you may work for them again later in your career.

Remember: Don't try to 'put on airs and graces' at interviews—it's much better just to be yourself—after all, that is whom the company will be employing.

Task 1. Read the text. Translate it into Russian, and render it.

Task 2. Memorize the key terms, concepts, expressions and their meaning:

a host of	много
interview	интервью, интервьюировать
interviewer	человек, проводящий интервью
interviewee	человек, которого интервьюируют
break rules or regulation	нарушать правила
panel	комиссия, группа специалистов для обсуждения общественного важного вопроса
deal with	иметь дело
rapport	взаимоотношение, взаимопонимание
alteration	изменения
occur	случаться, происходить
assess	оценивать
confirm	подтверждать
fluster	волноваться
irritate	раздражать
fiddle	бездельничать
restrict	ограничивать
anticipate	предугадать, прогнозировать

Task 3. Answer the questions. Solve the problems. Do the tasks

1. Draw up a similar checklist of what you think the applicant should be looking for.

2. What factors do you think a job applicant should keep in mind when being interviewed?

3. Assume that you are short-listed for one of the following positions:

audio-typist; junior office clerk; trainee motor-car or motorcycle salesperson; sales assistant; receptionist

A panel of three students should devise:

1. a display advertisement for the chosen post

2. an application form for the post

3. details of the post—pay, conditions of service, etc

A series of candidates should:

1. compose a letter of application for the post

2. complete the application form

3. devise a checklist of questions to ask

After both teams have completed their preparations, the interviews should be role played and ideally recorded on video-tape or cassette for later evaluation. The panel should award the job to the best applicant and give their reasons for preferring one application to another. Two groups of students should act as observers, one to evaluate the performance of the panel, the other the performance of the candidates. These teams should also give a report on their assessments.

At the end of the assignment, a general discussion should take place to determine what facts have emerged from the simulation, and what has been learned from it.

4. In order to gain an insight into the problems of interviewing people, devise a set of questions, and then conduct a survey by interviewing students in your department to assess their views on, for example, compulsory military service, solving the unemployment problem, participation in student association social activities, what sort of employment they will be seeking, etc. Such interviews could be conducted with a portable tape-recorder for later analysis.

Small student groups should write up the results of the survey and interviews in an account—perhaps for the college magazine.

Task 4. Listen to the current news on TV, specify interviews with well-known polititions, economists, scientists, etc. and render the context of these interviews in class.

Task 5. Do the tests. « World Leaders Quiz »

1. Who was the first woman prime minister of Britain?

2. Which American president was elected for the third and fourth time?

3. Which Russian leader introduced glastnost and perestroika?

4. Which British wartime leader said, ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’?

5. What was the nationality of Adolf Hitler?

6. Who was the first woman president of Israel?

7. Who said, ‘Je suis la France’ (‘I am France’)?

8. Which American president ordered to drop the first atomic bomb?

9. Which African leader emerged from prison after 27 years to lead the party again?

10. What is Vladimir Putin’s favourite kind of sport?

Answer key

1. Margaret Thatcher

2. Franklin D. Roosevelt

3. Mikhail Gorbachev

4. Winston Churchill

5. Austrian

6. Golda Meir

7. General Charles de Gaulle

8. Harry S. Truman

9. Nelsom Mandela

10. Judo