Chapter 14

Interviewing for a Job and Preparing Employment Messages

Objectives:
1. Explain the nature of structured, unstructured, stress, group, and virtual interviews.
2. Explain the steps in interview process.
3. Prepare effective answers to questions often asked in Job Interviews, including illegal
interview questions.
4. Compose effective messages related to employment (including application, follow-up,
thank-you, job-acceptance, job-refusal, resignation, and recommendation request
messages).
Structured Interviews
 In a structured interview, the interviewer follows a pre-determined agenda, including a
checklist of questions and statements designed to elicit necessary information and
reactions from the interviewee.
 Since the interviewees answers the same questions, the interviewer has a comparable data
to evaluate.
 One type of structured interview is the behavior-based interview, in which you are asked
to give specific examples of occasions in which you demonstrated particular behavior or
skills.
Unstructured Interviews
 Is a freewheeling exchange and can shift from one subject to another, depending on the
interest of the participants.
 One goal of unstructured interviews is to discover unknown areas to determine the
applicant’s ability to speak about wide range of topics.
Stress Interviews
 Is designed to place the interviewee in an anxiety-producing situation so an evaluation
can be trade of the interviewee’s performance under stress.
 Interviewees must attempt to access the nature of the interview to adjust behavior
accordingly.
Group or Series Interviews
 Candidate meets individually with a number of different interviewers.
 Each interviewer will likely ask questions from different perspectives.
Virtual Interviews
 Help to widen the applicant pool and decrease the cost of travel and fill the position
quickly.
Preparing for an Interview
Step 1: Research the Company
Be sure to read news items and blog posts and sign up to receive news alerts from the
prospective company for current information up until the day of the interview. Information about
the company includes the following:
Company Information
Be sure to research the following on the companies which you interview:
 Name (previous and present name of the company)
 Status in the industry (share of the markets, its fortune, its sales, and its number of
employees)
 Latest stock market quote (current market deviations and trends)
 Recent news and developments
 Scope of the company
 Corporate Officers
 Products and Services (offerings, target markets, and innovative strategies)
Job Information
Be sure to know the following about the job you are seeking:
 Job Title
 Job Qualifications
 Probable Salary Range
 Career Path of the Job

Step 2: Study Yourself

Compare your qualifications to the company job profile. This systematic comparison of your
qualifications and job requirements helps you identify pertinent information (strengths and
special abilities) to be included in your resume.
Step 3: Plan Your Appearance
An employment interviewer once said that she would not hire a job applicant who did not meet
her extremities test (fingernails, shoes, and hair must be clean and well kept). Other guidelines
include:
 Avoiding heavy makeup
 Large and excessive jewelries
 Select conservative clothes (make sure it’s clean, unwrinkled, and properly fitted)
 Avoid smoking, drinking, or wearing heavy fragrance.
Additionally, talk with professors in your field, professors of business etiquette and professional
protocol, personnel at your career services center, and graduates who have recently acquired jobs
in your field.
Step 4: Plan Your Time and Materials
One of the worst things you can do is to be late for an interview. If something should happen to
prevent your arriving on time, phone an apology. Plan your time so that you will arrive early and
can unwind and review mentally the things you plan to accomplish. Be sure to bring professional
briefcase or notebook that contains everything you will need during the interview. These items
may include copies of resumes, a list of references and/or recommendations, a professional-
looking pen, paper for taking notes, highlights of what you know about the company, a list of
questions you plan to ask, and previous correspondence with the company.
Step 5: Practice
How listen and how you talk are the characteristics interviewers will be able to measure. Your
actions, mannerisms, and appearance will combine to give a total picture of how you are
perceived. Practicing will prepare you to handle the nervousness that is natural when
interviewing, however, do not memorize answers, as it will sound rehearsed and insincere.
Instead, think carefully about how your accomplishments match the job requirements and
practice communicating these ideas smoothly, confidently, and professionally.

Conducting a Successful Interview

 First, the Opening Formalities.
“Interviewers typically decide about a candidate in the first 60 seconds, you must enter the door
selling yourself.” –Dan Burns
 The Information Exchange
 Presenting your Qualifications
 Asking Questions of the Interviewer
 The Closing
Preparing other Employment Messages
Application Form
Before going to work on a new job, you will almost certainly complete the employer’s
application and employment forms.
Follow-up messages
When an application message and resume do not elicit a response, a follow-up message might
bring results.
Thank-you messages
A written message of appreciation is a professional courtesy and enhances your image within the
organization.
Job-acceptance messages
If a job offer is extended over the phone, request that the company send a written confirmation of
the job offer.
Job-refusal messages
Written inductively with a beginning the reveals the nature of the subject, explanations that lead
to refusal and a pleasant ending.
Resignation letter
Resigning from a job requires effective communication skills. You might be allowed to give
your notice in person or be required to write a formal resignation.
Recommendation-request
Companies seek information from references at various stages.
 BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER 14
Interviewing for a Job
and Preparing
Employment Messages

INOCENTES, ANA MARIA V. – LEADER

MONTERO, MAUREEN ANGELEEN – ASST. LEADER
MEMBERS:
EBIO, JERMAINE FRANCES
TORRES, SOPHIA ROSE
SAQUILAYAN, MA. THERESA