Extra Tips
The following provides further tips and suggestions developed through trial and error from countless interviews:
Employers are looking for your presentation, attitude, preparation and knowledge of the company and questions.
You should review the company’s website and search through “Google News” for any relevant news articles.
To assist with any awkward behavioral based questions, it is recommended that you prepare a situation where a project hasn’t worked out, a client has been difficult or where they were in a challenging situation. These are hard topics to discuss on the spot if no prior thought has been applied. Rehearsed answers for these types of questions are great to have up your sleeve. Remember to put a positive spin on any negative situation.
Generally speaking, you should not bring up salary in the interview; this should only be raised by the interviewer. If it is not discussed in the interview, you should wait until a later date to broach the subject (i.e. at a second interview or if further interest is shown by the company following the initial interview) – raising salary discussions too early could result in the interviewer questioning your commitment to the job and your priorities for career growth (i.e. are your just after a quick buck?).
If salary expectations are asked by the interviewer, you can take either of two approaches:
Put it back on the interviewer and ask what has been budgeted for the role? Or simply state that you are looking for something that is fair and reasonable for the position and are happy for the company to propose a suitable figure.
If you are clear on your salary expectations and are happy to discuss / negotiate, you should be open and honest about it and propose your amount. There are many ways to negotiate a salary figure (e.g. through suggested performance components, review periods, etc) so again, research and preparation is the key here.
Following the interview, all things going well, you may get a phone call with news you are being offered the job. Obviously at this stage there are still many factors that will need to be reviewed / agreed (within the employment contract) before a final decision is made; you may also be waiting on other job offers and not want to commit just yet. Therefore, an enthusiastic but non binding answer is required – a great example is “that’s great thank you, I am really interested; what are the next steps required to move this forward?” You might want to ask if the employment contract or offer letter can be sent through for review before meeting again with the required people.