Looking for a job is tough even when times are good. In a deteriorating economy it provides new challenges. But, then it also provides you new ways to differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd. As a career coach I repeatedly encounter some behaviors that get in the way of clients being seen favorably by those who encounter them. Here, I am not talking about your job knowledge or your ability to overcome adverse chemistry with the hiring manager, but I am talking about many simple things that can make you stand out from the crowd. Here is a list:

1. Always write a great cover letter in response to all “A” jobs that you want to pursue.
2. Send your response in the required manner (Website, email, or whatever they have stated in the job posting) and, in addition, send it by some differentiated way to the hiring manager (US Mail, FedEx). You can even have it forwarded to the hiring manager internally through someone you know.
3. Follow-up after a week and remind the hiring manager of the way you had delivered the response (“My package had a picture of the Statue of Liberty on top”). It is a memory jogger!
4. When you send an email (to anyone) make sure that you completely identify yourself. It is best to have your complete name, email address in parenthesis next to your name, phone number, and even a clever tagline that defines you! This way if the recipient wants to call you right after they get your email they can simply pick up the phone and contact you. Even as a career coach I get over 300-plus emails every day. The ones I respond immediately are the ones with all these parameters I just listed. Others, I wait until I have time to look up who they are and their contact information. Hiring managers receive much more traffic because their regular job is not just to hire people! Make it easy for them to contact you
5. Make sure that you have a personal greeting on your voice mail. Most have their mobile devices as their primary contact point. Most of these devices, too, come with a generic greeting identifying just the telephone number and nothing else, in a robot-like voice. Take the time to record your own personal greeting in your own voice and completely identify yourself. I cannot even tell you how many times when I call a telephone number that I get this generic greeting, leaving me to wonder if reached the right person or I simply misdialed. Not doing this makes you look lazy; not a good thing!
6. When you have the first phone (or subsequent) interview try using the land line. Mobile connections are notoriously unreliable and you may lose key parts of your conversation with the interviewer. Even portable or cordless phones are not a good choice because they are noisy and can dropout when the power is out.
7. Always send a thank you note after each interview (even phone). The note should also have some additional points about the interview to fortify your position.
8. For important interviews send thank you notes by Mail. This is so rare that people will remember you, just for that!
9. Do not leave an interview without knowing what the next steps are and holding that person accountable. “So, if I do not hear from you on Monday, I plan to call you on Tuesday. What is a good time?”
10. Be positive, enthusiastic, and cheerful during each encounter. Even on the phone it is easy to “read” a person’s mood on the other end.

It is not that difficult to incorporate all of these habits into your life! Try them all and see how much difference it makes in how people respond to you!

Good luck!

The other day, an up-and-coming executive client was interested in getting into a growing company that has made a big name in the Valley and that had an open position that he was very interested in. I also had a senior executive at this company who has been my client and who was willing to help him navigate through the “entrance gate.” So, after I made the email introduction to them, I was hoping that the right things would transpire.

Well, they did not!

Without looking up the senior executive’s background, my client, who was in transition, sent him a short email asking him to look up both his LinkedIn Profile and the job that was open (of several) at his company, hoping to get a favorable response through this action. I was, of course, not aware of this and was quite surprised—and annoyed—when the senior executive suggested to me that my other client needed to be coached on how to handle such requests gracefully.

That got me thinking: How many times prospecting clients blow their introductions because they do not follow the most well-understood introduction etiquette, and not even know that they blew it; big time!

This etiquette requires that the person seeking a favor look up the contact and assess the tone in which he must handle the request, and all subsequent communication.  Showing proper respect and consideration, the supplicant must show enough care so that they ingratiate themselves with the contact to help them get what they are seeking, making them feel good for having done a beneficial deed. This is the social lubricant that keeps the moving parts moving without squeaks. Doing so reflects well on the person who made the initial introduction in the first place, too!

In this specific instance, my client in transition should have been graceful in his initial contact and should have shown adequate respect for the inside contact to get what he wanted. Such opportunities are often a gateway into your personality and in how you handle matters that deal with building and sustaining important relationships. Consistent with this behavior was that the client whom I introduced did not even send me note of thanks for making this introduction!  That is the last time I am going to introduce him to anyone else, unless he takes the coaching I gave him after this incident to heart!

So, those engaged in businesses that rely on introductions to other people to pursue their cause, please be mindful that, often, it is you that are making it easy for others to reject you!

A senior software engineer, who has been a high-level architect for several years and with nearly 20 years’ experience, came to me the other day with a frustrated look and an angry tone. He was complaining about how upstart engineers at prospect employer companies put him through a demeaning mill of interviews asking questions about syntax propriety and errors in a line Java code.

Asked why he let himself be subjected to such demeaning process, where he should been asked high-level questions about how to create customer value and how to create more user-friendly architectures, by those who deal with such issues at the employer’s place, he shook his head and said he could not help it. “They just walk in and start firing questions just glancing at my resume as it lays there on the table in front of me and them. How can I steer them away from such inane questions? How can I get them to really appreciate what I can do for them and for their customers? ”

Good question!

When I looked at his resume I could immediately see why he was positioned that way and why he was letting it happen to himself, despite his best intentions. His resume started with a Career Objective that said he wanted to be a Staff Engineer responsible of platform architectures (much like creating a new-model automobile, to steal a metaphor). Immediately following that statement he wrote, in details, about his technical skills that is an alphabet soup of different software languages, operating systems, tools, and such arcana. He then followed that with his detailed task-focused chronology of assignments, as most do in their resumes. This was yet another place where you found the alphabet soup, in full sentences, this time around.

Herein lay the problem. By positioning himself as a hands-on technical front-liner he had exposed himself to be asked questions by inexperienced engineers who did not really understand what he delivered through novel architectures and new platforms that created new and unprecedented value for those who appreciated it. He was not a programmer or a coder, (someone who can tune a car, to continue the metaphor) that can quickly get to the syntax and find a better way to write a line of code.

So, what did I advise him?

I advised him to re-write his top part of the resume (above the fold, in newspaper lexicon) that presented his high level skills: customer knowledge, user interface design, understanding how to create business value through great software platforms, and so on. Then I asked him to modify his details of professional experience and convert that from task-driven assignments to simple stories of leadership that showed how he thinks and how he executes. We completely eliminated the alphabet soup in the narratives and left that to the end of the resume under the heading of Technical Skills, at the bottom of page-two.

Viola! In the new round of interviews immediately following his resume re-do, he was positioned very differently. He was seen first by the CTO or head of engineering and then parceled off to senior architects to vet his skills with very different set of questions. Within just three weeks this client had two very good offers that not only delighted him but made him feel valuable in the way he was interviewed.

See how easy it is if you know how to position yourself from the get-go?

Telephone Calls

Telephone calls are the mainstay of networking and interview communication. And yet, few follow the etiquettes to make this a pleasant experience! The following etiquettes are a summary of some of the key telephone etiquettes:

Incoming calls:

1. Have a businesslike greeting on your voice mail.  Identify yourself and your telephone number in the greeting.
2. With the caller ID a standard feature now do not install security screens on incoming calls. These filters can be a barrier to callers trying to reach you, including your potential employers. Use voice screening instead, available on most recorded messaging machines.
3. Have a separate line for all your Internet activity. An Internet connection on a line can block it for hours and frustrate those who are trying to reach you, including your potential employers. With broadband connections now becoming common, this is less of a problem.
4. If a call comes at a time when it is inconvenient for you to take it, explain why and ask if you can call them back at a time that is best for them.
5. If you are angry, upset, or feel that you are not in balance, let the machine take the incoming call.
6. Do not betray your emotions or state of mind to the caller. Telephone calls are notoriously sensitive to the way your tone comes across to the other party. Be very aware of this and manage your emotional state for all calls, incoming and outgoing!
7. Use your cell phone line only for urgent and brief calls. Do not conduct a telephone interview on a cell phone.

Outgoing calls:

Make outgoing calls at a time that does not impose on the called party. Typically these times are on a weekday: 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM (9:00 PM is preferred) for calls made to a home, and during regular business hours for all business calls; weekends 10 AM to 6 PM for all home calls. Avoid dinner or lunch hours even for home calling. The only exceptions may be those within your closest contacts.

1. If you are calling someone on their cell phone, ask if they can talk or politely ask where they are so that if they are driving you may want to ask them for a more convenient time to for that call.
2. When the called person answers your call, immediately identify yourself fully-and not by merely saying “Hi this is Dave-so that you can engage in a conversation without the called person having to wonder “which Dave is this?” and losing time in engaging with you right away. Also, do not assume that even though they have answered the call that they are free to talk to you then; they may be in the middle of something important.
3. When leaving a message on the voice mail, immediately announce your name and call back telephone number, leave a brief message (20 seconds) and repeat your name and call back telephone number at the end. Include best time to call so that you do not play telephone tags.
4. If you want to get the caller’s attention make sure that your voice mail is at the top of the stack in their morning voice mail retrieval routine. Leave a message late at night or very early in the morning (emails are its exact opposite in how they are queued up in the mail box.).
5. If you called someone and the line gets disconnected, no matter what the reason, caller reinitiates the call. The called person waits for the phone to ring again for a few minutes otherwise they will go about their business. This is why calling on or using cell phone for critical calls is not a good idea.
6. Do not discuss sensitive, gossipy, or personally offensive, or insinuating information on the phone. If you want to give some adverse feedback to the person over the phone ask them to meet you and do it in person. Likewise, do not leave messages of similar nature on someone’s voicemail.
7. Keep your calls brief and to the point.
8. Always be clear on what the next step is and who is accountable for it before you hang up.

Interviews

Interview etiquettes range from how you appear for the interview to what to do with your briefcase when you are ready to sit down prior to the interview, to how you leave the lobby on your way out! The following is a suggested listing of etiquette that governs these behaviors:

1. Be on time for the interview. In fact the guideline is to arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the interview and get settled. This way if the venue is changes and you have to go across the campus to another building you’ll still have time to be on schedule.
2. Dress appropriately for the interview: dress up and not down. You can always remove one or more pieces of your clothing and carry with you if you suddenly feel that you’re overdressed!
3. Dress conservatively. If you need help visit a clothing store that specializes in business attire and seek advice of floor personnel. Do not plan to make a statement with your clothes; you may not get past it. Do not let your clothes enter the door before you do!
4. Introduce yourself to the receptionist and state why you are there, whom you are going to see and when. Mention that you are early and not to announce you quite yet. Make friends with this person by holding a casual conversation. Do not demand a beverage or any other service from this person. They have job to do–typically answering phone calls, and greeting visitors.
5. Do not make any adverse comments about the parking facilities, temperature in the room, coffee (too strong!) or any thing else to the receptionist (Lobby Ambassador). You really do not know how this person is connected. In one instance a candidate made an off the cuff disparaging comment about the person who might be running the company at which he was interviewing, not realizing that the receptionist was CEO’s daughter doing a summer internship there!
6. When your time comes to have you be announced to the host or the interviewer do not assume that the receptionist would remember this. A variety of duties in which they are engaged can easily distract them from your needs. If that person is on the phone for a while, wait patiently even though your time to be calling your contact is well past and you cannot get this person’s attention. If appropriate hand the person a note politely and unobtrusively.
7. If you spill something in the lobby as you wait for your time, clean up, even if the receptionist does not see the spill. Often, these people and others who causally come in contact with you are asked to report their impressions of you for critical positions.
8. When the interviewer or their representative comes to greet you, be cordial even if they have kept you waiting. Do not suggest their lateness by looking at your wristwatch. Smile and shake hands. Let them lead you to the place where the interview is going to take place. Practice some icebreakers with this person on the way to the interview.
9. At the place of the interview, asked to be seated and then sit down comfortably where you can put your briefcase or other interview paraphernalia. Place it down on the floor and not on the desk or table in front of you!
10. Do not interrupt the interviewer. Do not argue even if you know that the interviewer is wrong!
11. Take notes on a note pad and not on a laptop or a handheld device close to your face!
12. Do not ask any questions about the company’s woes to the interviewer, the answers to which may put that person in a compromising light. You are also likely to compromise your chances of getting in. Once a client, while being interviewed by a company’s CEO asked him about the SEC investigation that was announced in the media the morning of her interview. After several rounds of successful interviews she was a shoo-in. This question put off the CEO and the process died in its tracks!
13. When the interview is over get up, organize your belongings and quickly get ready to leave the area with the person escorting you out. Do not stretch their patience as you carefully organize your many belongings if they became disheveled during the interview. Do that later on your own
14. Shake hands and thank the person for their time and ask for what the next steps are and a timeline. Do not get overly obsessive about timelines or accountability about the follow-up. Do this somewhat naturally by practicing it on your own before the interview.
15. On the way out thank the receptionist for taking good care of you and ask the person their name!

Thank-you! Notes

Thank you notes following an interview are critical to making them remember you. They can also be used to recover from something that might have gone wrong during the interview. Mailed Thank You notes are more formal and memorable than emails. You may want to do both for interviews that matter. Thank You! notes are also a good way for you to reposition yourself after the interview. If you saw an opportunity that was not apparent until your exploration during the interview, a thank you note gives you the opportunity to reframe yourself in ways that suits your new perspective about the job.

Acing an interview is a chain of events, each of which makes its own mark on the interviewer. Knowing the subtle nuances that make a difference is a competitive edge to ace an interview and to get that offer you are after.

Multiple Targeting

Early in the planning stages, before you launch your job-search campaign, it pays to have carefully targeted companies where you hope to seek employment. By managing a campaign it is a good idea to plan the events so that many job interviews at companies that interest you run nearly concurrently. This is not as difficult as most feel. It just takes good planning skills. Once you start getting action on just a few fronts it is easy to leverage that into a full-blown campaign of interviews. Once one offer breaks lose (even though it may be an offer from a “C” company) it is easy to leverage that into getting an “A” company to make you an offer, even though it may not be quite ready to do that.

In addition to getting yourself situated for multiple offers the following items can greatly accelerate a good conclusion to your campaign.

References

A process where references are concerned can vary depending on the level of the reference. Although they all deserve to be treated with consideration and courtesy, those who offer to give you high-level reference need to be treated with special care and you should let them know that!

The following guide may help you finesse your references well:

1. Identify your references early in the process. Let them know that you are planning to include them in the reference process. Remind them about the aspect of your reference you expect them to provide.
2. Some companies ask for references early. You do not want to unnecessarily impose on your references, especially if you are going after a major campaign. The best strategy is to identify the references and give a list of names and titles/your connection, without contact information to the potential employer. Tell them you are doing this to protect your references and that you will give them full details at the final stage of the process.
3. Some companies have a policy of not providing a reference. Many managers, however, are willing to provide a personal reference. This is why asking early in the process can help you position your references so that there are no surprises.
4. Occasionally some will agree to give you a written reference. If this happens while you are in the job associated with this person it is that much more convenient. In any case if the person agrees to a written reference, write the reference letter yourself and pass it by the person. This way you can decide what is appropriate from that reference in the context of your needs. Do not assume that that person will reference you the way you need it. Usually, it is much easier to merely edit a letter and sign it than to draft it first. Use this advantage to modulate the message–within some constraints.
5. Carry these letters of reference in your interview portfolio and when the time comes for the reference discussion show the person asking the question. Sometimes this may obviate the need to calling your reference and hasten the process to your advantage (see #2)
6. When the potential employer is ready, call your references, even though you had put them on notice earlier. The reason is that for final referencing, you may need to remind them again, and it also gives you another chance to prepare them to respond in line with what the needs are to bolster your case. Request the reference to highlight that aspect of the discussion that you think is relevant.
7. If appropriate, request that they call you upon being contacted by the potential employer. This is a courtesy to you and this helps you confirm that the process is underway. Do not expect this courtesy from all references.
8. Once you know that the process is complete, either through the offer made, or rejection, or any other means, promptly call each of the references or send a note (email acceptable) of thanks. If the offer is made, going the extra distance–a Thank you! Card, flowers, or a gift as appropriate, can protect your references for your future needs.
9. During the referencing process check with the contact to whom you gave the reference list to see if there are any problems contacting the references. It is appropriate for the references to call that person as well, if you so chose.
10. It is not appropriate to call and ask the potential employer what the references said about you, especially if you are turned down for the job.
11. If you are turned down, it is a good idea to ask for a debrief. This, again, is a courtesy that the company is extending to you. If the debrief mentions any items related to a reference that surprises you, do not probe for details unless they are volunteered as a part of the debrief.
12. After you confirm that the process is completed, call all your references and inform them that the process is complete. Tell them the outcome if you already know it and thank them for being your reference. Some of them may not have been called and they should know that they are now off the hook! You must promptly communicate with all your references and thank them even if you did not get the job!

Negotiating Offers

The following is a summary of how best to navigate during this critical step:

1. Do not assume that you can negotiate what is being offered. Ask.
2. Always go back to the last person who made the offer and not necessarily to your hiring manager.
3. If you are negotiating a “C” offer, give heads-up to an “A” company that an offer is being made and that you would appreciate some response from them as they are your “A” target. Don’t tell them that the pending offer is from a “C” company or who they are, unless they are a big name or their competitor.
4. Do not assume that just because you are in negotiations that you will get what you are seeking. The offer can be withdrawn if he employer so decides. This is why having multiple offers is to your advantage at this stage.
5. Tread lightly. You should decide before entering into negotiations the down side. You should be willing to walk away if the negotiations take that route.
6. After you have been turned down and your offer is withdrawn, do not go back begging for the same or lesser job for a lower pay!
7. Decide on which items you want to negotiate, lay them out as you enter the discussions and then stop after the process is completed. If the outcome is not favorable, do not plan to move on to other items of your offer.
8. Above all be pleasant, flexible, and courteous throughout the process. Always remind them that you are excited about the job. You can always turn them down if a better offer comes along later, but before their time expires. Turn down offers by first calling on the phone and then emailing.
9. You should negotiate based on the value you see creating in the new job. Having comparative information (salary.com) can help you fortify your case. Always state that you see yourself as a top performer and expect to be compensated accordingly. Let the salary figure come from the employer and not from you.

Acknowledging Help

During your job search many provide help, even unbeknown to you or some even unexpectedly and pleasantly! Keep a list of all those who have helped you, going all the way back to the original lead that got you the first interview. The following suggestions list what you can do after the process is completed:

1. Depending upon the significance of the help you received from a person thank them appropriately. Those who provided help above and beyond acknowledge it commensurately: a gift, lunch, Thank you! Card can be some suggestions in this department.
2. Acknowledge your gratitude in a timely way. The times following a job offer can be hectic. Within the first month of your being offered the job is a good time.
3. Be specific about acknowledging the help that got you the job. Merely stating a vacant “Thanks for your help” is not as impactful and proper as saying “John your lead and the insight you gave me about where the company was and what I could present them during my interviews were instrumental in my landing this job. Thank you very much!” is far more appropriate. The person who went out of their way to help you likes to know that you acknowledged correctly what that person did to help you in the process. Do not skip this detail because you feel that the person already should know. It is not what they know it is how you acknowledge it that makes for the proper acknowledgement!
4. Do not forget to thank all those with whom you came in contact during the interview process at the company where you would be working. They are now your colleagues and associates. Even the person in the lobby who greeted you on the first interview is worth sending a thank you to! If you do that it would be much easier to make them your friends once you start working there!

Starting your New Job

Starting a new job can be exciting, especially if you are coming out of being jobless. The following guidelines are offered at this stage of the process of your transition:

1. On the first day show up on time. Dressed a bit more formally than you would normally at that company. You may be taken around and introduced to others that day; your photo might be taken. If you are senior staff (Director and above), you might even be introduced to important clients and dignitaries!
2. During the initial stages of employment be patient with all the administrative work that has to be done properly. Do not show your impatience with those who are trying to get this done. Let them do their job!
3. Express to your manager that you are glad to be on board and that you are looking forward to teaming with this person.
4. Many companies have initiation traditions that can be as benign as going out to lunches or bars at the end of the day. Accommodate these rituals, even if they seem odd, and enjoy them.
5. If you have some habits that define how you do your job, be open to seeing how things are done at your new place.
6. Do not criticize something just because it looks odd or different to you. Wait to offer your opinion. Go with the flow, at least initially.
7. Do not to gossip and talk behind someone’s back. Understand the power structure in the new place before you decide which camp you want to belong to! This can portend your future there!
8. One week after you have started in your new job, visit all the job boards and Websites where you had originally posted your résumé and delete it!

1. Be very clear about what your innate gifts are (your genius) and how they translate into marketable skills. A dream job resides at the intersection of what you love to do and what the market wants and is willing to pay for.
2. Identify a job that you consider a dream. In searching for such a job (and yes, it may not even exist), look for what comes closest. You can always fashion a job after you start the interview process. A recent Harvard University study showed that almost 70 percent of higher-level jobs were filled to accommodate the best candidate and not the other way around. Ditto titles and salaries.
3. If the dream job does not exist, send a prospect letter to the company’s executive with an intriguing idea without your résumé. Follow-up relentlessly but do not stalk.
4. Once you have zeroed in on the right job, develop your résumé to showcase your genius (Unique Skills) and to show how it links to the job requirements. Fortify your genius claim with compelling leadership stories presented as succinct bullets in the Professional Experience
5. Research the target company by talking to its customers, suppliers, and with others. Translate that discovery into a highly focused cover letter that addresses the pain points and your change plan. This approach works at all levels, even for hands-on contributors.
6. During the interview go fully prepared and ask tough questions. Use your discovery. Tell them how you will make their pain go away. Get excited and show how you will make a difference. This is a maker. Do not tell each interviewer how they should be doing their job. This is a breaker. Send well thought-out thank- you notes. Be specific.
7. Do not work your campaign with one target company at a time. The best strategy is to have multiple targets in various stages of gestation. You can hasten an offer if you show that others are interested in your joining them. Do not lie.
8. When you get the offer, listen; do not jump on it and start negotiating. Evaluate your options and carefully navigate through the negotiating process. You have more power than you think that you have.
9. Once you accept the negotiated offer promptly start and show your excitement.
10. After about two weeks, prepare a 100-Day Plan and present it to your manager.Make  sure that it serves both you and the manager.
11. Set up a mid-year review and carefully evaluate how things are going.

section of your two-page résumé.

Good luck!

So, getting a call for an interview is a big deal! No one is hired without going through an interview process, which can vary from something that you would see on Seinfeld, to one that can be quite prolonged and grueling! So, what are some of the strategies that give you a better chance at making your case for being hired at the end of the process? Well, the answer depends on how well you are able to master the interviewing process and how well you make your case. Sometimes, making your case after the interview is what gets you the job and not during!

This article focuses on not the everyday recommendations that abound on this topic (research the employer, get your facts right, etc), but on how to manage the interview process once you have done all the work prior to appearing for the interview. The following suggestions may help develop a better outcome if you follow them:

Your Attitude and Appearance:

Before you enter the interview space how you appear and how you carry yourself are important in making the first impression. Having a fresh-looking wardrobe that is appropriate for the interview is critical, but more important, how confidently you present yourself during the first few moments can set the tone for how the interview moves from then on. The final touch on your appearance is not just the straightening of your hair, but a confident smile on your face and an assuring manner. You do not want to overwhelm the interviewer, either, in such situations. Remember, the interviewer is often as nervous about the interview as you are about it. A pleasant smile can override the feeling of fear and anxiety; the two mortal enemies of a good interview.

Taking Control

After entering the room where the interview is taking place, you do not know how the interview is going to be conducted. Ideally, there is a dialog between the two and a good exchange takes place that gets both the information that is required to assess the mutual fit.

Sometimes you run into a poor interviewer or someone who may be nervous and you end up listening to them for the entire duration of the interview, without getting a chance to present your case or even to explore a fit by asking key questions you brought to the event. Unfortunately, with such people it is often too late before you discover that you have lost control over the process.

One way to avoid this situation is to set the ground rules before the interview begins. This may appear presumptuous or even arrogant to some, but it works! The best way to bring this up is to start by asking how much time is scheduled for the interview as you settle down after the initial handshake. This is a good time to say that you have some questions to ask about the job and about the company to explore your fit for the job and that you need some of that time to achieve that objective. You may also want to state that you prefer to ask these questions throughout the exchange rather than at the end. “Will this work for you?” is how you take control of the interview.

If this fails and the interviewer goes on with their logorrheic binge, then one way to get back on track is to detect this early and to stop the interviewer at an appropriate time early and to explore if making a physical break in the surrounding will give you the chance to recover from this situation. “Can we go and take a look at the QA Test area, please? I am curious to see how the work is organized and carried out.” If they take you up on it then you get another chance to ask questions about what you are observing during the tour and use that opportunity to getting back on track.

From your side, one way to manager your time is to mentally envision a “traffic light analogy.” If you start speaking, imagine as if the “Green” light is on for about 60 seconds. The “Orange” light goes on for 15 seconds after that and the “Red” light comes on at 90 seconds. You must stop on Red! Now the interviewer talks!

Another strategy that works is not to assume what is described in the job posting as what is expected of you once you are selected for that job. The best way to explore this is to say (about one third of the way into the interview), I have read the job description and I understand what the job entails in broad terms, but could you please tell me the three most important parameters that will make the incumbent a clear winner? Listening to the response to this question is important, and taking notes of the key items mentioned in that response will give you a way to position yourself as the candidate for the job.

Following up:

Once the interview is over, the best next step to make up for any deficiencies that surfaced during the interview is to send a great thank-you note. The main purpose of this note is not to just thank the interviewer, but, more importantly, is to provide a stronger answer to questions where you could have done better. A short paragraph that starts with, As I was driving back from the interview I realized that another way to address the customer issue is to sit down with the customer face-to-face and to explore what it would take to get their business back, etc. Showing first-hand experience having done this goes a long way in making your recovery answer credible. It also shows that you are willing to go the extra mile to make things right.

In most cases making a cut in an interview has more to do with Chemistry, Competency, and Compatibility (the Three Cs) than anything else. Some of the Competency is already vetted through how you presented your resume and the cover letter. So, focusing on the two other Cs can help shift the tipping point in your favor.

Good luck!

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