What You Need to Know About Business

Asking Questions -- An Essential and Overlooked Step

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Putting a Spin on Work Experience

Let's quickly summarize the central principles that should guide your preparation for an employment interview:

1.Focus fully on the employer-their situation, needs, expectations.

2.Tap into their aspirations and calm their anxieties-that's what selling's all about.

3.Think about the organization's customers and how you can help deliver value to them.

4.Have specific examples of your past achievements ready to give credibility to your claims that you can help the organization achieve its objectives. But don't just be a storyteller.

5.Be ready to ask a lot of questions and try to make the interview a dialogue where you and the employer work together to discover how you can help them solve their problems.

6.Show your enthusiasm. If you really believe that the employer would be better off by having you work for them, then you should act as if what you offer can make a difference. Let the other interviewees be cool and detached.

Don't worry about having pat answers ready for every possible question -it isn't going to happen. And it's probably just as well-you'd likely end up sounding as wooden as a telemarketer reading from a script. Instead of memorizing answers, know the value you offer and how to make your claims as vivid and credible as possible.

Now comes the real work ...