Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 1
Chapter 14 LECTURE NOTES
Interviewing and Following Up
Chapter Synopsis
Chapter 14 stresses the need for careful preparation before job interviews and describes the
necessary steps in detail. Students are introduced to two kinds of employment interviews:
screening interviews and hiring/placement interviews. Students explore the various types of
hiring/placement interviews that they may encounter, including one-on-one, panel, group,
sequential, and stress interviews.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the purposes and types of job interviews, including screening, one-on-one, panel,
group, sequential, stress, and online interviews.
• Describe what to do before an interview, including researching the company, rehearsing
success stories, practicing responses to potential interview questions, and cleaning up
digital dirt.
What’s New in this Chapter?
The authors made the following changes and improvements:
• Expanded coverage of interview types by addressing online, video, and virtual interviews
so that students can be prepared for nontraditional interview techniques.
• Presented the most up-to-date tips and advice for best practices before, during, and after
job interviews.
Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 2
• Added new Office Insider quotations with savvy advice from employment specialists on
topics such as group interviews, effective storytelling, and the utility of thank-you notes.
• Created memorable new figures that illustrate the job interview process, explain
undesirable interview actions, and highlight typical interview mistakes to help students
avoid disastrous mishaps.
Lecture Notes
I. Purposes and Types of Employment Interviews (p. 474)
Job interviews can be scary, no matter where students are in their careers. The best
thing they can do is to prepare. This chapter gives students the tools they need so that
they know what to expect in various interview situations. They will also learn to
compose a variety of follow-up and other employment documents.
A. Purposes of Job Interviews
• Convince the employer of your potential
B. Types of Job Interviews
• Screening: To weed out unqualified candidates. Often conducted by telephone.
• Hiring/Placement: To learn whether a candidate is a good fit for the
organization. Usually conducted in person.
One-on-one interviews
Panel interviews
Figure 14.1 Anatomy of the Job Interview Process
II. Before the Interview (p. 476)
Once active in the job market, job seekers must be prepared to be contacted by
potential employers.
Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 3
A. Ensuring Professional Phone Techniques
• Invest in a good answering machine or voice-mail service.
• Alert your family and roommates. Don’t let children answer.
B. Making the First Conversation Impressive
• Keep your résumé and a list of positions for which you have applied near the
phone.
• Treat any call from any employer just like an interview.
• If caught off guard with a phone call, ask if you can call back in a few minutes.
C. Researching the Target Company
• Scour the Web for important company data.
• Examine the company’s advertising and promotional material, including sales
and marketing brochures.
• Use social media network such as LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more about the
company.
D. Preparing and Practicing
• Rehearse success stories.
• Practice answers to possible questions.
• Clean up any digital dirt.
E. Traveling to and Arriving at Your Interview
• Allow plenty of time to get to the employer’s office.
F. Fighting Fear
• Practice interviewing, particularly with real companies.
• Prepare thoroughly.
Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 4
• Know that you are not alone.
• Ask questions about the company and the position.
III. During the Interview (p. 482)
A. Sending Positive, Professional Nonverbal Messages
• Control your body movements.
• Exhibit good posture.
• Use appropriate eye contact.
• Use gestures effectively.
• Smile enough to convey a positive attitude.
B. Preparing to Answer Typical Interview Questions
• Use the interviewer’s name occasionally.
• Be sure you understand the question asked. If necessary, clarify vague
questions, such as “By ____ do you mean _____?”
• Aim your answers at key requirements for the job and at characteristics that
interviewers seek.
Communication Skills: How well do you present yourself and your ideas?
Attitude: Do you have a positive attitude about yourself and your career?
Aptitude: Do your educational training and general life experiences qualify
you for this position?
Potential: How do your attitude and aptitude combine to contribute to this
company?
Motivation: What are your short- and long-term career goals? Why do you
want this job?
Figure 14.2 Ten Interview Actions to Avoid
Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 5
C. Anticipating Typical Interview Questions
• Get acquainted
• Gauge your interest
• Your experience and accomplishments
Figure 14.3 What Can Go Wrong in a Job Interview?
Figure 14.4 Using the STAR Technique to Answer Behavioral Interview
Questions
D. Ending Positively
• Ask your own questions.
Shows you’re interested in the position.
Helps you gain information to determine whether this job is right for you.
Impresses the interviewer with your thoughtfulness.
• When the interviewer signals the end of the interview, stand up and shake
hands.
IV. After the Interview (p. 491)
A. Thanking Your Interviewer
• Send a thank-you letter immediately after the interview.
• Avoid overusing “I,” especially to begin sentences.
Figure 14.5 Interview Follow-Up Message
B. Contacting Your References
• Alert your references that they may be contacted by the employer.
• Supply your references with information about the company and position you
have applied for.
C. Following Up
Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 6
V. Preparing Additional Employment Documents (p. 494)
Job seekers should be aware of other employment messages they may write and
documents they may have to complete. These include interview thank-you, reference
contact, application or résumé follow-up, rejection follow-up, job acceptance, job
rejection, and resignation messages. You will also learn how to effectively complete an
application form.
• Application form
Supplementary Lecture
25 Reasons Applicants Don’t Get Hired
1. Poor communication skills
2. Low grade-point average
3. Inability to articulate clear goals or future career direction
4. Personality of individual mismatched with corporate culture or environment
5. Lack of match between skills or academic background and position
6. Insufficient technical competency for job
14. Unrealistic expectations
15. Narrow interests (personal and professional) of candidate
16. Lack of relevant work experience part-time or summers
17. Failure to “sell” self in interview
18. Lack of ability to be a team player
19. Unwillingness to relocate or travel
20. Lack of preparation for interview: reading literature of company brochures, job
Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 7
24. Failure to be competitive within applicant pool
25. Appearance—wanting in professional presence, including dress, grooming, habits
Critical Thinking Discussion Guide
11. Online multiple-choice questionnaires are a hot trend in recruiting, experts say.
Employers may ask not only how applicants would handle tricky situations, but also
how happy they are or how much they have stolen from their previous employer. The
multiple-choice format poses a dilemma for the applicant whether to be truthful or
say what the employer might want to hear. Is this practice fair? What are some
advantages and disadvantages of this practice? (Objs. 1, 2)
The scenarios employers may introduce are designed to assess soft skills—a new twist on
the traditional multiple-choice questionnaire measuring aptitude, knowledge, and
12. “Like criminal background checks and drug tests, the social media check is quickly
becoming an automatic part of the hiring process,” asserts Melissa Bell, editor of
BlogPost for The Washington Post. Do you believe employers are justified or ethical
in making these kinds of searches before hiring? Does this assume that candidates
may be criminals? Isn’t this similar to snooping? (Objs. 1, 2)
Many employers who search for information about a job applicant online say that the
information they gather gives them a more accurate picture of the job applicant. Some
Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 8
13. What can you do to appear professional when a potential employer contacts you by
phone for a screening interview or to schedule a job interview? (Obj. 2)
To appear professional when an employer first contacts you, invest in a good answering
machine or voice mail service; tell those who might answer your phone at home about
14. If you are asked an illegal interview question, why is it important to first assess the
intentions of the interviewer? (Obj. 3)
Most illegal interview questions are asked in true innocence by inexperienced
15. A recruiter is checking the online presence of an outstanding candidate and discovers
from her social media posts that she is 18 weeks pregnant—and happily so. The
position involves a big project going live just as the candidate would take maternity
leave. He decides to eliminate this candidate. Is his action legal? Ethical? What lesson
could be learned about posting private information online? (Objs. 1, 2)
His action seems to violate numerous laws, such as Title VII, the ADA, GINA, and
ADEA. Many of these laws were enacted to prohibit discrimination in the following
Chapter 14 Lecture Notes ● 9
Communication Workshop
Let’s Talk Money: Negotiating a Salary
Rule No 1: Avoid discussing salary for as long as possible in the interview process. The
longer you delay salary discussion, the more time you will have to convince the employer that
you’re worth what you’re asking for.
Rule No. 4: Never say no to a job before it is offered. Wait for the job offer; then start
negotiating salary.
Rule No. 5: Ask for a higher salary first, and consider benefits. This will leave room for
this amount to decrease during negotiations until it’s closer to your original expectations.
Rule No. 6: Be ready to bargain if offered a low starting salary. Many salaries are
negotiable.
Career Application: Students are asked to role-play a scenario involving an interviewer and
interviewee. The role-playing should represent a mock interview in which the candidate is
asked several typical questions. The interviewer then offers a lower salary than the interviewee
would like. The interviewee should respond with one of the strategies suggested in the
workshop. Responses will vary, of course, but the important thing is to encourage students to
recognize that salaries are negotiable. They should be thinking about how to respond when
offered a lower salary than they think they are worth.
Workplace in Focus
Page 479
A job interview is enormously important because it is the student’s opportunity to convince
the employer of her potential, find out more about the job and the company, and expand on the
information in her résumé. To make a good impression in an interview, students should