-- Mike Alcock.

So, you Want a Job, Do You?

Here lies a list of interview tips that I've written. They come from personal experience. Please take them in context - I don't know what job you want to do, and all the advice I can give is based on the jobs I went for. For these reasons, it would be helpful to give you a personal background before I continue.

• Job description: IT sector/Software Engineer/Java Developer.
• Preferred job locations: All the major cities that I have heard moderately good reports about (Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Derby, Bristol, Oxford, but NOT Milton Keynes or London), parts of Wales, Ireland, and possibly world-wide.
• Getting to interviews: I had my own transport, so drove (sometimes hundreds of miles) to all the interviews.
• Previous job: Whilst looking for work, I was still working on a semi-permanent ("probationary") contract, in the same sector. This was my first job in the industry. This meant fewer working rights but a one-week notice period. I was entitled to days off, and had a one-hour lunch break. My employer didn't know about me getting another job until I resigned. On leaving, I had 9 months' commercial experience of Java development.
• Reason for leaving: No prospects for the future, no opportunities for advancement, no opportunities for personal development, boring work, laughable software (in my opinion), low pay, nothing to do outside work.
• Number of jobs out there: The IT sector is on an upturn at the moment, and I have been looking for a new job since last October. I have had about 12 telephone and 8 face-to-face interviews since that time.
• Reason for being unsuccessful at interviews: Clearly, I have been unsuccessful in a lot of interviews. I turned one job down, because it was in an area that I couldn't see myself enjoying. As for the rest, the overwhelming reason was "lack of commerical experience".

Please also note that the following are ADDITIONAL points that are designed to fit into, and not overlap or repeat, what you might have read elsewhere.

First Things First

1. Go on the dole if you're entitled to, and ASAP. As soon as you start paying taxes, student loan contributions, national insurance, council tax, water rates... you'll want to get as much out of the government as you can, and by the time you get a job it'll be too late! To give you an incentive, my last wage was modest and I was paying a total of over �650 per month with all this. I'm starting my new job next month, and I'm still claiming in the meantime.
2. Put yourself on www.jobsite.co.uk. It's the primary way of employment agencies finding you out.
3. Update your jobsite details daily. Agencies get a list of applicants from the search details they enter, and the ones at the top of the list are the most recently updated. Re-submit your CV, change a word, anything.
4. Be candid, specific and friendly to the agent. They're probably bored. If they are NOT from London, have a quick chat if you have the time - they simply want to enter your details, not interrogate you. If they ARE from London, then just try to give them what they want - they can be funny/short with you, they're under enormous pressure, and they're not happy. If you're pleasant and relaxed to talk to, then you'll be top of their list when they do the rounds.
5. Tell them what they need to know, even if they don't ask for it. This will avoid them telling you about jobs you're not interested in, which saves both you and them time and annoyance. The main details are: Preferred salary range, contract or permanent work (or both), preferred job location(s), interview availability, notice period at current place of work (if applicable), your commercial work experience.
6. Know what you want as precisely and quickly as possible. If you want a job, you may travel the country a bit, so you need to make sure it's what you want before you agree to an interview. Travel costs a lot of money, especially cumulatively.
7. Before you accept an interview, make sure that they know exactly how much COMMERCIAL experience you have. You can tell them "I know this inside out" to your heart's content, and perhaps you do. But in the eyes of most employers, this is irrevant compared to your commercial experience. It is very annoying to pay a lot of time and money to go to an interview, only to be unsuccessful because of something they could have known before the interview was arranged. If you hide your lack of it, you may regret it.
8. When looking for jobs, think holistically. You might rush into a job tailored to your skills and interests, but if there's bugger all to do in the local area (Halifax comes to mind here), you're going to get bored quickly.
9. If someone (e.g. an agent) comes to you wanting to arrange an interview, think about it and don't be afraid to turn an interview opportunity down. If you do turn it down, tell them why to avoid frustrating them. If they're good at their job, they will like the fact that you know exactly what you do and don't want - it helps them target you with the right opportunities.

At the Interview

1. Talk to the receptionist (and a cleaner or two, if possible). S/he's relatively impartial, has probably been there for a while, and sees things from the outside. So ask her/him about the surrounding area, the local house/renting prices, and the ethos of the company s/he works for. It's also good to show your interviewers that you've talked to her/him and at least know their name. It 'shows' that you're sociable, friendly and approachable, and that you care about people and the company as a whole. So get the receptionist's name, and remember it.
2. Base everything on the truth. Clearly, you should omit as many negatives as you can, and embellish the positives. But if you get the job, they'll be expecting you to act and be good at areas that you mentioned in your interview. And assume that they will hold you to it!
3. Don't necessarily go for a job with as higher wage as possible. It's best to go through an employment agency, as they know what you're likely to get for your experience and they're good at negotiating. Most agents get paid as a percentage of your salary when you get a job. Also, the more money you're on, the more they're likely to expect in return.
4. If you're working at a company whilst looking for another job, first request that the (initial) interview be done over the phone. That way, you can arrange to conduct it over your lunch break. If you only have half an hours' lunch break, tell your employer that there's something you need to do at lunchtime, and would it be okay if you had an hour and made it up at the end of the day. Do this as soon as possible - and obviously before you arrange a particular day for your interview! If you get a face-to-face interview, use up your holiday entitlement. If you need to do this, then be conservative on the quantity of interviews you agree to attend (see "First Things First" points 6, 8 and 9). If you're on a permanent contract, then you're legally entitled to attend interviews; however, it is rarely a good idea to tell your current employer or anyone you don't know well. Also, don't mention it in e-mails using the company's e-mail system - it's funny what people read when they shouldn't. If you run out of holiday entitlement, some agencies subtly suggested that you phone in sick for the day. Whilst I definitely do not endorse this, I'm not saying I didn't do it!
5. Companies often try to lull you into telling them the wage you're looking for, if you haven't already. Unless you're confident, don't give an exact figure of your desired salary. Instead, give a range, and say "the exact figure I'm looking for depends a lot on living costs and so on." If you do this, then you can always bargain up later on, especially if you've been successful in more than one interview.
6. If you get two jobs at the same time, then by all means bargain for a higher wage. However, don't forget point 3 - the more you want out of them, the more they want out of you. Also, the more (ludicrously) you bargain, the less interested you seem in the job itself - they can always withdraw their invitation.
7. If you're going to be late, then phone them and DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. If you arrive late, then either they'll have dismissed you already, or they'll be impressed that you're confident despite being late. Either way, it's pointless to worry about it. If you're driving, then there is a catch-22 situation: It can take time to find somewhere to park up in order to phone them to say you'll be late. But if you hadn't wasted time parking/phoning, you might have gotten there on time! There is no solution, but generally I'd say that if you don't know/are not confident about where you are, and your interview starts in 15-20 minutes or less, then phone them. This means that the following is important:
8. Put the company's reception/switchboard number in your phone, and remember to take your phone!
9. Switch off your phone when you get to the interview. If you make a show of remembering, and say "excuse me, I'll just switch my phone off", then it'll look impressive as well - you're organised and remember things.
10. Face-to-face interviews are brilliant and you should (try to) enjoy them. They give you a chance to have a look around areas of the country/world you've never been to. You get to visit people who will give you an insight into their line of work. The more you do, the more confident you become because you know what to expect and you know your interests. Enjoy and learn from them! Sure you need the money, but things could be a lot worse. You probably have somewhere to live in the meantime, and you want to start with the right job, not (necessarily) the first job.
11. A major thing that gets you the job, is that you have something impressive about you that no other interviewee has. On leaving, my former manager told me that of all the things I'd told him at the interview, the most impressive was that I was writing a piano concerto! If you play the tuba, say so, in your CV and in the interview (if you can wend it into conversation). If you play snooker or pool, or another sport, then mention it - the interviewer might do the same, and want to have a conversation about it. Hence the next point:
12. Try and turn the interview into a (semi-formal and respectful) conversation amongst friends. There are few jobs that don't involve socialising/working with/meeting others, so this is an important asset. If it was your job to find a suitable candidate for employment, what would you look for? There are few rules, and they arrange so many interviews it gets boring going through the drill. So in the end, they're likely to look for someone they get along with. It's a human trait - you want to help your friends and people you like as a person.
13. Don't slag off your previous employer(s). If they ask you why you left/want to leave, say something like "the technologies they used were not within my areas of interest" or "there were no opportunities for personal development." But before you say this, state that you enjoyed working at your previous company, that the atmosphere was positive and that you got on well as a team with the other people you worked with. If I had a company, and an interviewee said how crap the previous company was, I'm going to think, "what is he/she going to be saying to people about my company if I recruit him/her? There might be a volatile personality trait here." Furthermore, saying that the previous company's software was badly written and the company was run badly might backfire in interviews with big companies, which typically suffer these problems as standard.
14. Be nice. This encompasses a lot of the previous points, but the specific point I want to make here is that like attracts like. Interviewers will pick up on and be influenced by this, whether they know it or not. Also, chances are that some of the interviewers will either be your managers or coworkers if you get the job. If you seem to be a nice person, then you'll probably fit in well with the team if they're also nice people. If they're not, then you probably wouldn't be able to stand the job for long anyway. However, if the job is a stop-gap or a means to getting a better job, you might want to risk the attitude of your would-be coworkers. In reality, it's always a risk anyway. To take an extreme example, they might be swayed positively by a nicer person enough to give them the job, but they themselves might all be bastards.
15. Be good. Show off in a good (non-arrogant) way. This is a difficult art that needs to be mastered if you can't do it already. It shows confidence and draws attention to your ability in a believable way.
16. Be positive. But not so positive that you appear naive. Speak of your future aspirations (but be truthful and don't be too specific), of your enjoyment of the area of expertise you're expected to fit into (which includes willingness to learn) and of your impression of the company. In the latter case, mention its reputation if there's a positive one, and don't go over the top, otherwise they'll be afraid of losing you when you realise that it's not as fantastic as you make out.
17. The more interviews you do, the more you will know what you want and don't want out of a job. Make a list of these things, and ask them next time round. For me, these were: Is there a lot to do in the local area? Is it peaceful/quiet? How big and expensive is the city? How much travel is likely? How much scope is there to move within the company? What training is available, and is personal development/learning encouraged? How much direct customer contact will I have? Is the working environment a friendly one?
18. Tailor your previous job/experiences (if any/applicable) to this one. Say things like, "it's funny you should mention that, my research project involved..." or "in my last job, one of the things I found interesting/enjoyable was..."
19. Remember that you're interviewing each other. Both you and the interviewer wants to know whether you and the job (and the company) will get along. Don't be afraid to be bold and ask questions like, "one of my areas of great interest is X. Do you use/provide training for this?" If they say "no" and look concerned, explain that it is an interest, but if the job feels the right one for you then it would not have any negative impact on your decision to accept the job. Also, you want to be able to get on with your peers and managers, which is as important as the job itself (if you're looking at it as a career), so make a point of interviewing them a bit whenever you can (without being rude about it).
20. Don't worry about an interview after it has happened. Some of the worst interviews I felt I had gave me the best feedback, and vice versa. You can never predict the outcome based on how you think it went, unless you did something stupid (you were late and didn't tell them beforehand, you insulted someone, you said something negative about yourself without qualifying it with something positive, etc). Leave it a few days and phone back your agent (or the company if you arranged it yourself) for feedback. But before this, look forward - don't assume you will get the job just because you 'got a feeling', and apply for other interviews/jobs.
21. Don't let people tell you how to conduct interviews. This may seem more than a little contradictory, but let me explain. I've read a lot of sites for interview tips. The more I read, the more things I worried and about remembering, and the worse and more stressed I was at the interview. So pick out the bits you think are best, absorb them, put them to the back of your mind, and DON'T WORRY ABOUT DOING THEM. It must have been a nightmare to read all of this, but it shows that you have the right attitude. Use your common sense, trust yourself and be courteous. The more interviews you do, the better you'll be.

Additional Questions to Ask at the End of the Interview

• Is there a swimming pool/gym/leisure centre nearby? If so, what does it cost?
• Is there a probationary period/contract and (if so) how long is it?
• What accommodation is there locally and what are the rent/B&B prices like?
• What training and learning incentives are there?
• What tasks/technologies will I use in addition to the advertised role?

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