Interviewing

In preparing for an interview, you should research the organization , the interviewer, and the salary range for the position.

You also need to prepare for the questions you might be asked. Behavior-based interviewing is built on the premise that your past behavior predicts future behavior. It might be helpful to review a list of sample behavior-based interview questions .

Use the Problem, Action, Result (P.A.R.) approach to answer questions. In the P.A.R. method you will

• State a problem or situation you faced,
• Describe the action you took, and
• Explain the results of that action.

Here is a sample P.A.R. answer to the question, “Describe a problem or challenge you’ve encountered. How did you deal with it?”

Problem: Advertising revenue was falling off for the student paper and large numbers of long-term advertisers were not renewing contracts.

Action: I designed a new promotional packet to go with the rate sheet and compared the benefits of the paper's circulation with other ad media in the area. I also set up a special training session for the account executives with a professor who discussed competitive selling strategies.

Result: We signed contracts with fifteen former advertisers for daily ads and five for special supplements. We increased our new advertisers by 20 percent over the same period last year.