Advice: Job Interviews in Publishing
If you've ever had to undergo any kind of job interview you know the drill. Nervous knee jiggling. Your mouth-irritanginly dry. Sweaty palms. Worrying about talking to fast and too much. I think everybody has some if not all of these pre-interview feelings - and if you haven't then you're just one of those really annoying super-human people who is just too good at everything and you need to back off and stop stealing the jobs from all us mere nervous folk. If there's one thing that unites all humans, it is the nervousness and a hatred for job interviews.
In my first job interview, I spoke so quickly that at one point the interviewer had to actually tell me to slow down. In my second, I stuttered on my words, in my third I forgot words even existed. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much you prepare, how much you know the company probably better than the people already working in it, if you're nervous you often don't get to even show how much research you've done, you don't get to show what an amazing, brilliant and talented person you are and why you'd be an asset to their company.
It's only been in the last six months that I've finally learnt some tricks on how to make interviews, particularly in publishing, less daunting. That's not to say that they've always gone smoothly or that in a lot of cases I've managed to bag the job. But having been to quite a few and across pretty much every department of publising from editorial and sales to marketing and publiticy, I feel I can give some advice on how to make that interview run without as many hiccups.
1. Wear something you feel comfortable in.
By comfortable, I don't mean jogging bottoms and no make up. I read recently that in an interview and when you first meet someone, 90% of your judgement rests on their initial appearance and how they look. That's insane. With this in mind, I'd say being comfortable in what you wear and how you look is a pretty damn important point. By wearing something comfortable, I mean wear something that makes you feel good and positive. Don't wear something that has several itchy labels sewn into the seams or wear heels that you can't walk in. Don't wear your hair in that hairstyle that always falls out or wear eyelash extensions that keep coming off. Keep it simple: a nice dress, a smart blazer and a pair of black shoes will do the trick or if you're a guy: a suit that fits comfortably, a shirt that you can tuck in and isn't too tight around the shoulders and shoes that you can walk in and that look smart. My advice is to not wear heels, but that may also be because I'm nearly 6ft anyway. The better you feel and the more comfortable you feel, the more relaxed you'll be and the better you'll come across.
2. Strike up a conversation before you even get into the interview room.
I can't stress how important this one is. If you've ever had an interview before, you often either meet a receptionist or the interviewer first before you go to the interview. You shake their hand - not too firmly, not too lightly - and you usually either walk towards an interview room or are told to take a seat. This is a crucial time. If you're going into customer service or any kind of job where you're going to be talking to people, you need to show that you can communicate and that you are a down to earth person. I think it's always a nice touch to ask how someone is doing and how their day is going so far regardless of whether they're an interviewer or the cleaner who works in your building. Not only are you showing a genuine interest in the person but it also creates a much more relaxed mood and the interviewer is already warming to you because you're polite and on the ball. If you speak to a receptionist before you go in, you should be as nice and polite as possible, even if they may not return the courtesies back. Often interviewers will ask receptionists to feed back on how they thought about you and you don't want to give them any reason not to like you.
3. Try and bring in your positive aspects as early on as you can.
You want to go in with a bang. You want to have as big an impact as you can and as early on as you can. You want the interviewer to want to continue interviewing you, to want to ask you more in depth questions. And one way to do this is to bring your most positive traits to the table as best and most efficiently as you can. That doesn't mean that you should be start talking about something completely irrelevant from what they just asked, but if they ask you about why you want to go into this field, you should be able to say why and also give an example, for instance I want to go into publicity because I love meeting new people and building up relationships with people. At the moment I am starting a blog and I want to interview authors and people in publishing to be able to provide others with advice for getting into such a competitive industry. I am currently organising interviews with authors and as such I feel this not only shows that I love meeting new people and talking to them, but that I'm able to start relationships and grow a network of those who have similar interests to me.
4. If needs be, take time to think about the question before you answer it but only in certain instances.
First off - word of warning - you can only use this trick on some questions. Usually these questions are the competency questions (tell me about a time...) or those really tricky curve-ball ones that cause you to stutter and sweat and ask them to repeat the question (what is your biggest weakness?).But, whatever you do, if the first question they ask you is, 'why do you want to go into publishing?' you should not, under any circumstances, ask if you can have a minute to think about it. You may be nervous, yes, and the interviewer probably knows that. But they deliberately ask you an 'easier' question at the beginning usually and one they think you should be most confident answering. If you can't answer this immediately (at the end of the day it's one of the most important questions and you have to show your enthusiasm) then to them you can't be that excited or keen on the job. And even if you're the most qualified person, if you don't want to be there then they probably don't want you to be there either. In publishing, there is always someone who can do the job. And do the job well. The point is you want to be the one who they pick. The one that stands out in the interview as being the best of the bunch. Sometimes you need to take time to think through you answer so you don't just blurt out something which you'll late regret. On the other hand, you also need to know when to show enthusiasm and speak immediately and the 'why do you want to...?' questions are usually the ones you need to just go for.
5. Ask questions at the end.
Tying into the last point, you want to seem enthusiastic. One way of doing this is to have pre-prepared questions that you can ask the interviewer. Not only does this show that you're interested in the role and the company because you want to find out more about it, but it also means that you can subtly show off how much you've researched. The best questions to ask are those that you've not been able to find on the job specification or on their website. If the questions can be answered via either of these means then don't ask it. I usually ask two questions about the company itself: what campaigns are you most excited about launching this year? and is the company more client or candidate led? for instance and then I usually ask two questions about the role itself: what will be the most challenging aspects? and what imprints will I be working with? The most important question to ask is: when can I expect to hear from you? This question is good because it means you have a deadline on when you can stop worrying. It also gives an indication of whether they liked you as a candidate because if they do, they will usually mention something about another interview or a quick response - this is not always true but it often is.
I hope these pointers and pieces of advice are helpful. They've certainly helped me over the last few months. I also think they're quite simple things but they can make such a huge difference and impact on your impression. The final piece of advice I would give is to be yourself. If a company rejects you for a job it's usually because you're not right for it at that time or you're not ready for it. It also means that you may not have liked it. Don't take rejection as a bad thing. One of my first job rejections was from a company in recruitment. I remember being quite upset when I got through to the final stage and was told that they wouldn't take me on. But the more I read their feedback and the more I thought about it, I realised that I was not cut out to be in recruitment and I wouldn't have enjoyed it. The company rejected me for a reason and I'm glad of that now. Because if I had got that job then not only would I be working in an industry that I wasn't actually that keen on, and therefore probably wouldn't have performed as well in, but I would never have got into publishing and publishing is an industry worth going through the nervousness of interviews for.
Good luck! :)
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