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.
• Explain how to prepare for employment interviews, including researching the target
company.
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.
• Reviewed and updated all employment questions to be sure they represent the latest
employment trends.
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.
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.
• Have a copy of your résumé available.
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.
E. Traveling to and Arriving at Your Interview
• Allow plenty of time to get to the employer’s office.
• Don’t smoke or eat anything messy or smelly.
F. Fighting Fear
• Practice interviewing, particularly with real companies.
• Prepare thoroughly.
• Understand the interview process.
• Dress professionally.
• Take deep breaths, particularly before the interview.
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.
• Listen attentively.
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?
• Use good English and enunciate clearly.
• Avoid answering with a simple “yes” or “no.”
• Do not lie.
• Never make negative statements about your present or former employers.
• Don’t inquire about salary, vacations, and bonuses until the interviewer raises
for me?”
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.
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
C. Following Up
• Call your interviewer within five days if you haven’t heard from him or her to
find out how the decision process is going.
• Don’t sound desperate or angry. Reiterate your qualifications.
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
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
11. Lack of participation in or contribution to extracurricular activities
12. No pattern or history of top performance or success
13. Questionable work ethic
14. Unrealistic expectations
15. Narrow interests (personal and professional) of candidate
16. Lack of relevant work experience part-time or summers
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
conversation; and reconfirm the date and time of your interview before hanging up.
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
interviewers who are ignorant of the law. They do not know what questions are proper
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. 2: Know in advance the probable salary range for similar jobs in similar
organizations. Be sure to consider such things as geographic location, employer size, industry
standards, the strength of the economy, and other factors to make sure that the range you come
up with is realistic.
Rule No. 7: Be honest. Honesty is always the best policy throughout the entire negotiation
process.
Rule No. 8: Get the final offer in writing. Once you’ve agreed on a salary and compensation
package, get the offer in writing.
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
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