Page 263 - Marky Stein - Get a Great Job When You Don't Have a Job-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Get a Great Job When You Don’t Have a Job

3. Recognize the interviewer’s real fear or concern behind
the question.
4. Direct your answer toward the real concern behind the
question.

Let’s take a look at some of these types of questions. We’ll exam-
ine six sets of questions and answers, and I’ll explain the strate-
gy used to answer each question. Try to guess which of the
answers, (A, B, or C) is the favorable answer. After a few exam-
ples, I’m sure you too will be able to decipher the question
behind the questions.

QUESTION: What do you think you’ll be doing five years from now?

ANSWER A: I’d like to be the vice president of human resources
in five years.
ANSWER B: I would really like to make just enough money here
to be able to buy a plane ticket to Hawaii and pay my
first and last month’s rent.
ANSWER C: My goal is to grow and learn more as a professional.

Before we look at the preferred answer, let’s take a look at what
the question behind the question might be. What is the inter-
viewer really aiming at? What is the real concern or fear behind
the question?
In my experience, when the interviewer asks this question,
he or she is really asking two things:

1. Are you going to stay at the company for a while so
that the time it takes to orient and train you yields a
return on our investment, or are you here just for a
short stay?
2. If I hire you, are you going to try to take my job?

Saying you’re staying just long enough to get some money and
skip town violates fear 1.
Saying that you want to be vice president of human
resources in five years may mean that you will have to step on the
toes, or, worse, replace your interviewer on the way up the cor-
porate ladder. This answer violates fear 2.

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