Let's go meet the CEO !

This was the title of today's Employment column in the Suburban Journal. I tried to scan the article, but couldn't remember what Mary Ann did to get an earlier scan to rotate so it wasn't upside down. I think it will be quicker for me to simply type in the information. I thought it was interesting; as some of you will have interviews to go to, read this before you go.

Dear J.T. and Dale:
I was referred to a job by a friend and was told I was going to meet with her contact at the conpany on the day of my interview. But when I got there, the person wasn't in the office and I was instead sent to interview with someone who didn't know anything about me.

I felt uncomfortable and am certain I didn't do well in the interview. What should a person do in a situation like that? Cancel the interview? ---Evan

J.T. : You learned a hard lesson about interviewing: Be prepared to meet with anyone and everyone. This happens more frequently than you might imagine. Now, in hindsight, you might be thinking you should have asked to have the meeting rescheduled. However, what would that say about your ability to be flexible?

DALE: Exacely. Evan, you violated one of job searching's cardinal rules, one of life's cardinal rules: Don't take yourself too seriously. Come on, loosen up. After all, you came having done pre-interview research---you DID do research, didn't you?---and so you arrived with plenty of questions about the business and the people in it. Here was a chance to meet someone new and broaden your connections into the company--that's a good thing.

J.T. : I remember one time going for my first interview with a company and at the end of the interview, the human resources person said, "You know what, I'd like you to meet with the CEO right now." I thought I was going to fall over. I know I couldn't say, "No thanks," but I felt completely ill-prepared.

Good thing I had my foolproof three-question combo ready to go. Whenever I'm suddenly thrown into a situation where I must meet with someone in an organization unexpectedly, I simply ask the following three questions and then just sit back and listen:

In your opinion, what are the core traits of a person who is successful at your company and why?

What are the three biggest challenges the company will face this year?

How will the person who fills the role I'm applying for be able to assist in overcoming those challenges?

DALE: Once again, questions are the answer. Go into an interview determined to learn, prepared to be impressed instead of trying to be impressive, and you'll be eager to talk with anyone at the company. And they, in turn, will end up thinking they'd like to have you around to talk to.

LETTER OF THE MONTH:
J.T. : We get marvelous mail from our readers, often offering further insights on what we've said. For instance, we heard this from Kay, putting Dale in his place for his casual attitude about IMing (instant messaging) on office computers.

KAY : I ran the information technology department for a small business. We're talking 50 people or less. IMing became a huge problem. We'd get viruses left and right. We'd have attacks on our servers.

We had an all-staff meeting that went over the problem. Everyone stopped . . . except for the staff who were causing the problems in the first place. Even with the new policy against IMing they still kept it up. One person was IMing friends and family at least 3.5 to four hours a day. And she should be paid a full-time salary? Why?

So one Saturday morning, we came in and locked down their computers. So what happened? The two worst offenders go to other people's machines. We locked down every staff computer. So, to Dale: Don't assume IMing is just a casual thing that bosses are obsessing over. If a person got fired for it, there's a darn good chance there was a policy against it and the employee didn't pay attention.

DALE : That's just an excerpt of what Kay had to say. If you want to read more about how wrong I was, you can because thanks to J.T. we now have a blog option at our Web site, jtanddale.com You can add your thoughts to ours whenever you like, and I hope to hear from someone who occasionally agrees with me on something . . . anything.