This cast gives our guidance on how to conduct yourself during an interview.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll probably say it again, interviews are nerve-wracking. For everyone. In some ways it’s like meeting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time. There’s that feeling of desperately wanting to impress and of being on your best behavior. We call the right behavior in that circumstance ‘etiquette’ or ‘manners’. Fortunately, etiquette rescues us during interviews too.

Debrett’s Guide to British Behaviour says of manners: Manners are valuable in this world for the simple reason that well-mannered people know how to set others around at their ease, know how to make the world feel a more civilised, friendly and calm place, and like to put others' comfort ahead of their own. Would you be more or less likely to employ someone who made you feel that way? Of course, you would be more likely, we all want to be around people like that. So, what to do?

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This cast gives our guidance on what to take to an interview.

In our experience interviewing, we’ve seen everything. People who appear to have been away from home several weeks judging by the size of the bag they bring. People who ‘travel light’ and have to borrow a pen and a piece of paper when we give them details of the next step. People who want to show us their artist’s portfolio. People who pull a large sheet of paper out of their bag and start drawing the intricacies of their invention.

There’s a wide range behavior in interviews. What though, are the right things to take to an interview?

Here's an example of a portfolio.

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This cast concludes Career Tool's recommendations for answering questions about your career history.

1. TELL THE TRUTH! Truth is Not Your Enemy – An “Answer” Is
2. Decide on an Answer and Practice
3. Above All Be Honest
4. Short, No Blame
5. Matter of Fact Delivery
6. Add In Follow Up Information
7. Stop Worrying About It

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This cast describes Career Tool's recommendations for answering questions about your career history.

We get questions all the time from members who feel that their career history is less than stellar and they have concerns about just what to say when asked "why did you leave this job?" or "what prompted that decision?" In fact, sometimes they go as far as not interviewing because they are so concerned about this question.

The good news is that there is a way to answer this question, and that actually, though it is often asked, it's much less important to interviewers than you might think. The art of answering it is to assign it it's proper importance in your mind, decide how you're going to answer and concentrate on the parts of your interview which demonstrate your competence. You might get a minus point here, but the rest of your interview can add up to so many positive points that it becomes irrelevant.

1. TELL THE TRUTH! Truth is Not Your Enemy – An “Answer” Is
2. Decide on an Answer and Practice
3. Above All Be Honest
4. Short, No Blame
5. Matter of Fact Delivery
6. Add In Follow Up Information
7. Stop Worrying About It

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This cast describes the importance of external interviewing in career management, and how to begin to handle the interview.

This cast started the same way our cast on internal interviews as a career management strategy did. Back then, we had gotten a question from a member who was being asked to interview for a particular job in his company. He called to ask what to do. He was wavering. Mark was STUNNED – OF COURSE you interview! It was one of those academic creep moments that we have pretty regularly.

For the record, for those of you who don't remember, we said: ALWAYS say yes, at least in part because saying NO is a significant career statement. And, you can yes to the interview and say NO to a forthcoming offer.

In this cast's case, Mark got a call from a competent and sharp engineer, who had been asked to interview at another company for a sales position. He wasn't really sure about sales (no engineer ever seems to be, much to most of their unknown chagrin), and wondered too about the location. As Mark was walking him through the basics, he thought, hey, we haven't done this cast yet; I'm such an idiot.

1. GO!
2. This is Career OPPORTUNITY Management
3. Don't Worry About Changes In Specialty Or Industry As Much As You Think
4. Be Quiet About It

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It seems that a lot of people still don't realize that we're all managing our own careers now. Yes, your organization has some say and power in the equation. But that ability to influence our choices is often misunderstood as managing what job we're in, why we're in it, and what other jobs we can have.

And one of the situations that confuses us is when our organization asks us to interview for a job without us applying for it. Maybe we really want the job, maybe we would have never considered it. But when they ask US – when the COMPANY seems to know more than we do, and we don't know what the invite MEANS ... it's confusing. And that's why Career Tools is here: to explain what to do and why.

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In today's cast, we conclude our conversation on Horstman's 3rd Law of Interviewing. As always, if you're new to Manager Tools and haven't listened to the first part, you may wish to go back and listen to that first.

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Lately, we've gotten lots of questions from our 28,000+ members about our interviewing series. Because of the uncertainties many are facing today, we thought it might be helpful to return to our guidance on interviewing.

Horstman's 3rd Law of Interviewing: We'll Take 90% Less Ability for 10% More Attitude Every Day of the Week.

When the market is tighter than normal (it's mostly supply driven and not demand based right now), organizations are even more particular about hiring the very best they can find. Sure, hiring companies want great backgrounds, with great accomplishments. But if you're interviewing in the next six months, what ability do you have to change your accomplishments?

What you can change is your preparation, and your attitude of energy and enthusiasm in the interview. As we like to say, here's how.

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This cast tells you how to handle requests for your references when engaged in a job search.

Even though "References Available Upon Request" is no longer a good idea, reference CHECKING is on the rise and will only increase in the coming years. It seems like since resumes don't include the age-old line -- the why of which we'll share -- somehow far too many job seekers are caught off-guard by reference requests. Ahh, Horstman's Christmas Rule!

We'll tell you how to manage and share your references in this cast. And hey, if you're maintaining your network, this one is EASY!

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This podcast is the second of two on the subtleties associated with being interviewed during a meal.

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