From the book How to Prepare for an Employment Interview.
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This book shows you how to sell yourself in an employment interview.
[continued from here]...but there is good news. You can probably come up with a pretty close approximation to 75 percent of the questions you'll be asked-we'll go through how you can guess these questions later.
And, with proper preparation, you can know 100 percent of the "answers" you feel are essential to distinguish yourself and show the employer what you have to offer.
This is the second approach for getting avoiding the "too many questions" problem-don't focus on the endless number of questions in your preparation, focus on the answers-on how you'll communicate your value to the employer.
You don't control the questions, but you do control the answers.
With a little thought and research and a lot of empathy, you'll have a good idea of what the employer needs to hear to be assured or persuaded that hiring you would be a benefit to their organization.
Going in prepared gives you three key advantages:
1. You'll be ready to speak in detail about the areas where you can add value to the interviewer's organization-with examples ready -- and be able to spend a greater percentage of the interview time focusing on your strengths.
2. You'll lessen the damage of any less-than-wonderful responses to questions you weren't expecting because they'll be sandwiched between your thought-out answers to the many more questions you anticipated.
3. You'll stand out from the pack. With all the interview guides available at every library and bookstore, you might think that nearly everyone goes into an interview well-prepared. They don't, but you can be.
Don't blame the interviewer
How many times have you heard someone complain after a bad interview that the employer never asked the "right" questions? "I never had a chance! They never asked!" Maybe you've said it yourself.
You probably will come across interviewers who haven't thought out their questions very well, or who aren't very skilful in asking questions and following up. But you can't blame them if during the interview you never say the things that you feel are most important.
That's your job!
It's your responsibility to make sure that you go in knowing what you want to say, and to find a way to say it during the interview. You're fully responsible for the answers. There's no one else to blame if you don't present your evidence to show what you can do for the employer and why you should be hired.
The employer probably doesn't know anything about you other than what you say in the interview and what you wrote in your resume. You might think it's obvious how wonderful and capable you are, but how can the interviewer know what you can contribute unless you make the effort to communicate it to them?
