I Am An Unemployed Christian … Now What Do I Do?

Do you believe that you can control a job interview? Well, contrary to popular belief, you can! The objective of this chapter is to put you in control of your interviews. You will be provided with the knowledge and techniques to ace just about any interview. First, you will learn about interview mechanics or the time structure of an interview session. Most interviews last about an hour. The interview does not start the minute you walk in the door; there is time up front to greet your interviewer and other staff, obtain a beverage, hang up your coat, and perform ice-breaking small talk. This generally lasts about five minutes. The end of the interview is pretty much the same, with the addition of closing remarks about next steps, and so on. This also lasts about five minutes. That leaves approximately fifty minutes for the actual interview. You need to realize that, on average, it takes about three to five minutes to ask a question and get a complete answer. Therefore, only about ten to fifteen questions will be asked and answered during an interview session. You and the interviewer have an equal right during the interview to ask questions. In a typical interview session, the interviewer will ask you five to seven questions, and you will ask the interviewer five to seven questions. Now, here is how you can control the interview: You can generally guess which questions you will be asked since you have probably been interviewed before. You will learn in this chapter the appropriate techniques for preparing answers to those questions. That covers that five to seven questions that the interviewer will ask. Next, you will have prepared five to seven questions that you will ask based on your research of the company. That covers the five to seven questions that you are going to ask. In reality, that means you are prepared to handle all of the questions that will be asked during the interview session. In most cases, the interviewer is going to be as nervous about the interview as you are. So, in reality, who is actually controlling the interview? That’s right—you are! In this chapter, I will also teach you how to learn about your interviewer. Many people these days post profiles on social networking sites. This information is generally available to the public. Some restrict viewing of their profiles to just their professional connections or friends. If this is the case, join the social networking site and connect with the interviewer. You can even begin to exchange information before you have the interview. It will be like you are old friends by the time you actually have the interview! In this chapter I will also talk with you about understanding the interview venue. Know the location of your interview and practice going there if possible. Nothing tells more about your character and work habits as arriving at an interview on time or, better yet, a little early. Finally, I will cover the most important topic in this book: how to ace the interview!