The Industry

     ONE MORE SLEEP! It’s like the night before you leave to go to Disneyland or Christmas Eve! The night before my interview for promotions representative and community cruiser. I’ve blown off the dust and took the tags off of the brand new interview clothes. Even though it is supposed to be something like 28 degrees… I’m wearing my new sports jacket… BRING IT! With the excitement comes preparing… or what I like to do the pre-interview.. i.e. the interview I conduct by myself to myself… it’s the best when there are other people around, you get the “What in the world…?!” looks, it’s hilarious!

The pre-interview makes sure you are prepared for the real thing. Treat it as a real interview and if you have friends or bored family members get them to interview you, you can even make it into a fun game for the whole family HAHA.

There are three main sections to any good interview that I like to think as Jeopardy:

1. The Introduction
2. The Question Round
3. Final Jeopardy

If we stay with this fool-proof, amazing metaphor, the introduction represents the moment you get into the general vicinity of the place of the interview. You want to look professional, be smiling and generally looking happy. I would strongly suggest turning on your “interview face” as soon as you leave your house. Who knows if that lady you just cut off works at the station you’re going too. Or maybe that person who bumped into you is the person who will be conducting the interview in 10 minutes. So dress the part, smile and treat everyone you see as the potential interviewer because, as my Mother would say, “it’s better to be safe then sorry!”

Now in this metaphor, Alex Trebek as already come over and shook your hand. You’ve smiled, made a quick witty comment and now it’s time to play the game of Jeopardy! You are now entering the Question Round. Normally interviews have some standard questions or categories. You can pretty much hear the sound of the category appearing at the top of the blue board…

BING! About You.
BING! About Us. 
BING! Career Goals.
BING! Situations.

But don’t stress we know how to play “the game” bring it on Trebek! 

The “About You” category is where you can expect to find questions like: “Tell me a little bit about yourself”. “Why do you want to work for Company ‘X’?” and my least favorite question “What is your biggest strength and weakness?” These are standard and I believe, while they do provide some insight into who you are, they are also used to loosen you up, because talking about ourselves is easy!

The category is cleared.

The category that a lot of people forget to study for… the “About Us” or about the company you are applying for! DUH! I know a couple people that have forgotten this step and well, let’s just say they didn’t even make it through the whole interview… that sucks! But what should you know? Well for example I was doing research today about the station I was applying for. When did the station start, what’s the format, what company owns the station, what’s the target demographic. In addition to this, as I am applying for a promotions job, I made sure to review all of the current contests that are running as well as all the upcoming station-sponsored events. Each interviewer is different. They might want lots of detail, they might just want to make sure that you are in the right building. I would say if you don’t know anything about the company, you might as well turn around and walk out the door. I don’t know of any employer that would hire someone who knows nothing about their operations. Just sayin’. You could try it, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

CLEAR!

Career Goals. Now that you have had a bit of a pop quiz, talking about your knowledge of the station, you can go back to talking about you, which is easy! This category is about getting to know you more. Are you ambitious? Do you have a dream job? A career path? Or did you just apply here because you heard it might be cool. Be honest, but not dumb. If you don’t actually see yourself working at the place you are being interviewed for in 5 years, don’t say something like “NOT HERE SUCKA!”, you could say something like “Well the future is, of course, hard to predict, but I am striving for my dream position as ________. So in five years I hope I am there or well on that road.” You’re not lying, you’re not bashing the station and you’re showing your dedication and passion… SCORE! 2000 points.

CLEAR!

Situations. According to my Mum who is in human resources, situations are big in interviews right now. “What would you do if……” or “Can you describe a time when….”. These can catch you off guard, but don’t panic. The best piece of advice I got when it comes to interviews, I believe, also came from my Mum who said: “It’s ok to think about it”. She’s right. You don’t have to spit out the first thing that comes to your mind. Say that you “have to give that some thought”. Think it through, or ask if you can come back to that “because that is a great question, I just have to give that some thought”. I think its safe to say an employer would prefer if you thought things through, rather then wing it. 

That’s it! The Question Round is over… the only thing left is “Final Jeopardy”.

If you have ever watched Jeopardy you know that in Final Jeopardy, it’s anyones game and it’s no different in an interview. You could get cocky, bet all your earnings (in this case, bet every brownie point that you have established throughout the meeting) and turn out to be wrong. BOOM! You lose, no job! So what is the question in this metaphor version of Final Jeopardy?!

“Well that’s all my questions, do you have any for me?”

I made it bold so you understand how important this is! THE ANSWER?! YES… IT’S ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS YES!!!!! You should always have some questions. Some that I have prepared for tomorrow incase they don’t come up in the conversation are things like:

• What is the pay?
• Can you clarify what “part time” means. Does that mean 10 hours a week, 20? 
• Is their room for growth? Can I move into a full time position?
• Am I entitled to any benefits?
• Seeing as how I also really love production is it possible to get studio time after the producers have left for the day to continue to develop my skills?
• How many staff work here?
• How would you describe the working environment here?

If you have any experience in radio, you know that a few key questions like this can really open a dialogue. Combine this with the information you absorb in the “Question Round” and you will come across, again, as a passionate and driven person. My Mum told me this herself, she never hires someone who has no questions at the end, because it looks like they don’t care. Don’t be that person.

One last thing that falls out of this perfect metaphor (DAMN!). You want to always make sure that you have a copy of your cover letter, resume and anything else you originally submitted (Demo’s, creative package etc). This shows you’re organized and it might help in the case it turns out to be a panel interview (don’t panic if it is… the same rules apply above… but add the fact that you need to make eye contact with everyone!).

If you follow these tips they should help you leave with the jackpot… a job! At least that is my goal!

I will let you know how it goes in tomorrows post!

Man, I think I set a record for brackets and exclamation points in this post!

WOOT!

- Mitch

Today’s Extra: Fun for the Whole Family
Yesterday’s Daily Blog: Day Thirty Four - Say What?!