Page 145 - How To Sell Yourself

144 How to Sell Yourself
There are two possible outcomes to this sort of interview: It becomes an actual job interview (with the discovery of what a wonderful addition you would be to his team) or you turn it into leads to other interviews. There is, of course, a third possibility— a dead-end failure—but that’s likely to be your own fault.
Ask for help and guidance
Even here, guilt and wasted time may be avoided simply by pressing for other leads. “Who else do you think I might talk to in order to explore other possibilities in my field?” Get names, titles, and other information to the extent that you can without being pushy. Ideally, you may even impress your interviewer enough that he’ll volunteer to telephone his leads on your behalf and let them know they’ll be hearing from you.
Door opening of this sort is devoutly to be hoped for, if not actively pursued. Your contact can hardly call his friend or asso- ciate on your behalf without saying something favorable about you. Your ultimate objective here is to create a network of con- tacts who are familiar with your abilities, who are impressed by your credentials and by you, and who know you’re available. Re- member: More good jobs come through such networks than through the want ads. A friend, or a friend of a friend, can be an invaluable lead to the right job.
If your general interview becomes a job interview, it means you’ve done well and can shift gears. The job interview usually has a predictable structure:
• You describe your background and skills.
• The interviewer describes the job.
• You relate your skill and experience to the job.
• If the interviewer becomes interested in you, then it is
your turn to interview him or her in detail about the job. Find out what you can about the responsibilities, author- ity, opportunity, job description and flexibility, budget, supervisor, staff and associates, company standards and expectations, resources, procedures, personalities, pros- pects for the future, and anything else that might be rel- evant to you.
• You and the interviewer discuss salary, benefits, ameni- ties, and other details.