Job Interview Etiquette – Part 2 of 3

EXECUTE the plan.

Job Interview Etiquette Top 10:
1. Be on time. Give yourself enough time to get there and plan for traffic or elephants falling from the sky – it happened once in Miami….

2. When you arrive at the place for your interview, be ready for the interview. Let me repeat that, BE READY FOR THE INTERVIEW. This is NOT the time to take a call from someone else. This is NOT the time to check your Blackberry. This is NOT the time to look at material for your next interview. Be in the moment with THIS interview. Give it 100%.

3. Always act like a guest.Treat those who greet you courteously, not curtly. In some organizations the receptionist contributes remarks on your candidacy…. You’ve been warned.

Good job interview etiquette means act like a guest but not a sycophant. Don’t bring the brownies your mom baked until the third round of interviews. Got it? Good.

4. Display good personal hygiene. Teeth brushed, hair combed, clean hands? You sassy beast. Well . . . get to it!

5. Don’t open doors, enter rooms or otherwise take command unless/until invited to do so. If you are currently working for a competitor there will be things you do not need to see. Respect the wishes of your potential employer. Unless you’re really just job-hunting as a ploy to check out your competitor . . .

6. DO NOT use job-hunting as a ploy to sneak in all spy-like for photos of top secret documents from your shoe camera unless your name is Bond, James Bond. The world is not enough to protect you from the wrath that will ensue. While you only live twice, your professional circle is TOO small for you to try this tactic more than once. Dr. NO!

7. Check your ego at the door. Make the recruiter, human resource contact aware before the interview(s) start if you have a potential emergency brewing (i.e wife is expecting any minute, DISASTEROUS crisis at current job). Then it will be acceptable to check your phone BETWEEN (never during) interview sessions.

8. KEEP YOUR COMMITMENTS! The person interviewing you may have traveled long and far just to meet with you, particularly if you are interviewing for a top spot. Unless you are in the hospital incapacitated, GET THEE to the Interview!

If you no longer wish to interview, give at least 24 hours notice. If that is not possible, let your interviewer know in person. The world is perilously small, your behavior will be remembered and shared, good and bad, particularly bad….

9.Watch your language! Even if you are a guy interviewing to be a trader for Big Bank X, watch your language. Expletives though used in some work environments are NOT appropriate DURING the interview. You may get away with it at the drink fest that night, but NEVER in the office.

Seriously. Expletives = BAD job interview etiquette.

Miss Mentor: “I’ve been in the construction world and the finance world and both rely on expletives to get through the day, but if a candidate used one in an interview – game over. “

10. Remember, they said yes to an interview with you. Don’t make them feel like fools for doing so. Let your best side shine! Show them you can make their bottom line sing. Be the rockstar you are!