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Published: Aug. 6, 2018, 2:36 a.m.

Job Insights #8: The Job Interview – Get Prepped, You’re Going In!

Full Transcript Below

Welcome to Episode 8 of  Job Insights with Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson. We focus on Employment, Careers, enhancing opportunities and bringing you  the latest innovations from across the Vocational  Rehabilitation field to ensure your choices lead you down the career pathway that you want and succeed in gainful employment.

From getting started with services, to assessments, Individual Plan for Employment (IPE) to gaining the skills to succeed and tools for success, Job Insights will be giving you tips and tricks to help your journey to employment and break down the barriers along the way.

Job Insights Episode #8 is all about the Job Interview, from researching the company, finding out what exactly they do, what they produce and what is the latest news on this company? We discuss what to wear, what to do before the day of the interview arrives and how to be prepared so you can best let them know that you are the right person for the job.

Serina talks about the STARInterview Response Method and technique that will help you prepare yourself for the interview questions.

Glass Dooris a Job Search web site that will help you get the job that fits your life.

Join the Job Insights team, Serina and Jeff, as they jump right into the deep end of the Job Interview, Get Prepped, You’re Going In!

Check out episode 8 of Job Insights and send us your feedback and topic suggestions by email.

Follow the Job Insights team on twitter @JobInsightsVIP

Job Insights is part of the Blind Abilities network.

Thank you for listening!

You can find out more about Job Insights on the web at BlindAbilities.comand follow Job Insights on Twitter @JobInsightsVIPSend us your feedback and suggestions by email.

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FullTranscript:

Job Insights #8: The Job Interview – Get Prepped, You’re Going In!

Serena Gilbert:
So that when you're practicing and tailoring your answers to some of the commonly asked interview questions, you have an idea of how to frame all of your answers.

Jeff Thompson:
Job Insights. A podcast to help you carve out your career pathway and enhance the opportunities for gainful employment.

Jeff Thompson:
Three copies, you should be good. Your resume is a sheet of paper, a cover letter, maybe a sheet of paper. So it's not like you're taking in a briefcase on wheels.

Jeff Thompson:
To help you navigate the employment world and give you job insights and enhance the opportunities to choose the career you want.

Serena Gilbert:
Practice, practice, practice interview questions.

Jeff Thompson:
And you can find the Job Insights podcast on blindabilities.com, part of the Blind Abilities network, with host Serena Gilbert and myself, Jeff Thompson. And you can contact us by email at jobinsights@blindabilities.come. Leave us some feedback or suggest some topics that we cover. On Twitter @jobinsightsvip and check out the Job Insights support group on Facebook, where you can learn, share, advise, and interact with the Job Insights community.

Jeff Thompson:
Relate it to something that you've done, and we've all had experiences in different areas and stuff, so hopefully you have something that will relate to the question they ask. Learn about resources for training, education and employment opportunities.

Serena Gilbert:
If you can, getting contact information or business cards of the interview panel so that you can use that to send thank you emails to them when you arrive back home.

Jeff Thompson:
Little things, or just little tips that might help push you to the top of the list.

Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, would you like to learn something new today?

Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), always ready to learn.

Serena Gilbert:
Always. You're a good student, right?

Jeff Thompson:
... yeah?

Serena Gilbert:
That had a question mark at the end.

 

Speaker 2:
Now please welcome Serena Gilbert and Jeff Thompson with Job Insights.

Jeff Thompson:
Hey, Serena.

Serena Gilbert:
Hey Jeff, how are you?

Jeff Thompson:
I'm doing good. How you doing?

Serena Gilbert:
I am doing great.

Jeff Thompson:
I've got a question for you.

Serena Gilbert:
I don't know, I'm a little scared. What's up?

Jeff Thompson:
What's your greatest weakness?

Serena Gilbert:
That would have to be you, Jeff.

Jeff Thompson:
Ha ha.

Serena Gilbert:
You set yourself up for that one.

Jeff Thompson:
Because that's one of the questions, Serena, that will probably be asked at a job interview. Have you ever had that asked at an interview?

Serena Gilbert:
I've definitely had that question asked at every single interview that I've participated in. And it's a little bit of a catch-22, because you're torn between, "Do I say what my real weakness is, or do I pick a weakness that is kind of a weakness but can be turned into something a little bit more positive?" And spin it a little bit. So that's a question that we'll go over a little bit later in the podcast, and give you some tips with how you might tackle that and have somewhat of a prepared answer so that you can shine in that interview.

Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, we're gonna be talking about clothing, all the professionalism that you want to bring into this, about shutting your phone off, about your ring backs. We're gonna be talking about being prepared, what you bring to the interview and all this. What kind of interview is it gonna be? Are you gonna find out there's gonna be three in a panel or just one person? So we're gonna be talking about your approach to the whole thing, how you get yourself all ready, and I think it starts in the early morning when you decide what to put on.

Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, so I have kind of a pre-interview routine that I go through, personally. I know, it sounds so fancy, right? So basically, and this isn't all on the same day. This can be within the few days that you know that you have the interview. The first thing that I do is I look back at the job description that I applied for. Because you might've applied for a few different positions at the same company, and you might not quite remember the specific job description of the job that you applied for. So it's always a good idea to review the job description so that you can have an idea of, 'okay, what are the qualifications they were looking for again? What's some of the things that are really important that this person does?' So that when you're practicing and tailoring your answers to some of the commonly asked interview questions, you have an idea of how to frame all of your answers.

Serena Gilbert:
The next thing that I do is I research the company that I've applied for. So some of the things that I take a look at are some recent news items, maybe doing a google news search. But then I also take a look at their home page and click on the About Us part of it, because that's where we're going to find what that company is really about. They'll tell you what their mission is, what their values are. Some of them will have their vision as well. They'll also talk about what product or service they provide, or if they're like a government agency, what types of services they provide to clients and things like that. That's gonna also be important for you to take a look at when you're framing, again, the questions and answers that you would be asking and answering during the interview.

Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). It's nice to be able to have that in your back pocket for the questions that might come up.

Serena Gilbert:
The next thing that I do, is I take a look at where is this job interview going to occur? And there's a few different ways that you can research this. When the person calls you to schedule the interview, it is perfectly appropriate to ask, "okay, so are you the building on the northeast corner of Main and 1st Street?" That's a common question that a lot of people ask, and the person scheduling the interview definitely doesn't mind letting you know where they are, and even giving you some basic directions. That'll help you if you do need to take public transit or even para transit to kinda do a test run to see 'okay, how long is this gonna take me to get here?' It's important when you do your test run though, to make sure that you're doing it at roughly the time and day that your interview would be on. So don't do your test run on a Saturday at 2:00, because the traffic is not gonna be nearly the same as a Monday at 8:00. So whenever possible try to mimic what that type of commute would look like, so you can be prepared with how long it realistically will take for you.

Jeff Thompson:
And that takes a lot of pressure off you, because on the day of the interview most anybody is gonna have a little bit of butterflies and be a little nervous. Anxiety can build up. So if you've already been to a place, you know, it's so easy to return. You're not exploring anymore, you're just traveling to the destination and then you're gonna get to the door and go in. Just to alleviate some of the stress by knowing where you're going and that you can get there on time and it fits your agenda. Being there 15 to 10 minutes early is a good thing.

Serena Gilbert:
Well, and you had mentioned alleviating butterflies, and there's a couple of additional things that you can do to help alleviate those butterflies. They're never going to go completely away. If you're in a job interview and you're not nervous, then you might not want that job, because frankly, anytime you really want something you should have a little bit of nervousness going on. It's just human nature. But one thing you can do the day before, or even a couple days before, is pick out your interview outfit. Because that can be stressful, if the day of, you take it out of the closet and your significant other or your son says, "Why is that so wrinkled?" Yeah. That's not fun, right? So pick it out a couple days before, try it on. Make sure everything fits, make sure there's no buttons missing, because that, again, could completely throw you off the day of. Iron it, put it away where it's not going to get any sort of fuzz or hair on it if you use a service animal, that sort of thing.

Jeff Thompson:
Take off the dry cleaning tag.

Serena Gilbert:
That's helpful, because that might be a little itchy, right?

Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Serena Gilbert:
The other really big thing that you can do, and this is gonna be a little bit of a longer discussion, is practice, practice, practice interview questions. And we'll talk about some commonly asked interview questions coming up next, but it's gonna feel a little bit awkward when you are practicing these questions. I'm not gonna act like it's not. But the more you practice it, the more you gather your thoughts, the easier it will be in the interview to recall that information and be able to chat a little bit more naturally with the people interviewing you.

Jeff Thompson:
Now Serena, at vocational rehab in Colorado, they do offer mock interviews because in Minnesota we do the same thing where you can do mock interviews and gain some experience.

Serena Gilbert:
We do offer mock interviews and we typically do mock interviews where it's maybe the counselor that you're working with as well as two other staff members that you've probably never worked with before or are not familiar with. Because we found that when you interview with your DVR counselor, you're pretty comfortable with that person when you're at that stage in the game, so it's not quite as reflective of what the real job interview might feel like.

Jeff Thompson:
That's great. And that's a service that's available to you, so if you would like to get some more experience, I mean, you can do it with your friend, your mom, your sister and stuff like that, but I like that idea that bringing in some people that you haven't worked with because then the anxiety comes up, and that's how it's gonna be in the real job interview.

Serena Gilbert:
Exactly. So  Jeff, I've a question for you.

Jeff Thompson:
Go ahead.

Serena Gilbert:
This one's an easy one, I promise. So this next question is asked probably in 100% of interviews. I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but I don't think I've been to one that this wasn't asked. So Jeff, tell me about yourself.

Jeff Thompson:
Well, I'm very young, dashing. I like walks along the beach and sunsets, and I don't think I want to go there.

Serena Gilbert:
No.

Jeff Thompson:
I want to stick right with the professionalism. I've been in recording media for 14 years, I started out in a band and I transitioned into podcasting later on, and I've been doing that for five years now.

Serena Gilbert:
Exactly. Many individuals when they hear the 'tell me about yourself,' tend to go off on a tangent into their personal life. Most organizations when they're asking you that, that's not what they are looking for. They don't need to hear that you're a single mom of three kids and you recently got divorced and you just moved to Colorado. That, honestly, will maybe put some more questions in their head that are a little bit distracting to the interview, and frankly, not really relevant to your skillset and your abilities and capabilities. So this is the question where you would want to use, we call it either a two minute pitch or an elevator pitch. There's all kinds of different ways that people refer to it. Basically you talk about your skills, abilities, education and experience, briefly, as it relates to the position.

Serena Gilbert:
So as Jeff demonstrated there, if he was applying for a media specialist position, for example, it's great that he mentioned the background as a musician and how he's been doing podcasting for five years. That immediately, honestly, a lot of employers would be like, "Tell me more about the podcasting, tell me a little bit about that." And it'll open it up for them to ask you additional questions and it might even make you feel a little bit more relaxed in the job interview.

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. Yeah. I like that.

Serena Gilbert:
So Jeff, I think you asked me this earlier, so I'm gonna ask you another interview question for you.

Jeff Thompson:
Uh oh.

Serena Gilbert:
Tell me your greatest weakness.

Jeff Thompson:
My greatest weakness is I have a hard time not bringing work home. Because I'm always wired for doing stuff, and I want to get things done all the time. So when I'm at home, I'll still be working and that kind of thing. But you know, if you answer something like that, like you're an overachiever and stuff like that, wouldn't they rather hire someone that has a more balanced family life where they don't burn out? So that's why I kinda exaggerated that way.

Serena Gilbert:
Well, see you're gonna disagree with me. That's okay though. See, that one I don't see as like a horrible weakness, because yes, they want to see that work-life balance, but when somebody says that to me, it depends on how you frame it. Because when you first started talking, I thought, 'well, does he not stay on task at work so he has to take it home?' But then as you went on, it really seemed like it was more, 'I'm a hard worker and I really like what I do.'

Jeff Thompson:
Well, I usually have these cars that break down once in a while, so sometimes I'm late for work unexpectedly and stuff, I think. But you know, I really have a passion for these cars and stuff, so I should be getting better at that, but yeah, I'll probably be late once in a while.

Serena Gilbert:
Alright, so let's break down Jeff's answer. So Jeff mentioned that he has unreliable vehicles and that he is late to work, in his words, 'every once in a while.' So as an employer, I'm thinking, 'he's probably late all the time, because people tend to downplay that.' So it might be accurate, but that's not something that you'd want to share with an employer, necessarily. So we understand that that was a little bit exaggerated, but we wanted to demonstrate the kind of things that might distract an employer with a potential answer that you have to that weakness question. So one thing that if you really wanted to use what Jeff responded with is, "okay, in the past I have had some issues with being on time to work. However, since, I have gotten more reliable transportation. I have left my home earlier," that sort of thing. I would highly recommend, though, not using any sort of answer to that question that points out punctuality to an employer.

Jeff Thompson:
If I was asked that question again ...

Serena Gilbert:
Would you like a round two?

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.

Serena Gilbert:
Alright, Jeff, tell me about your greatest weakness.

Jeff Thompson:
I think my greatest weakness is, it come down to delegating and stuff. I believe leadership comes in a form of delegation to hand the ball off to some people, but when, in time crunches and stuff, I tend to build a narrow team to make sure the job gets done and it may seem like I'm not giving opportunities to everyone, but sometimes there's times to hand the ball off to some people, but sometimes you have to keep it yourself. So delegating is a good skill of mine, I like delegating, I think a teamwork works great, and I think my weakness is I need to branch out a little bit more with that.

Serena Gilbert:
See, and I think that's a perfect answer, Jeff, because it shows that you have leadership skills, and it shows that you understand that maybe you could delegate a little bit more, but the only reason that you're not is because you care about meeting a deadline and having quality work. So in an employer's mind, those are all great characteristics to have and it's nothing that would prevent them from hiring you. That's the trick to the 'what's your greatest weakness' question. You never want to say, "I'm tardy to work all the time," or "you know, sometimes I'm a little bit slower on the computer," because that's just really big red flags to employers.

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, I agree. Because you always want to leave with a positive. You always want to end it on a high note and not leave them wondering, or dragging it out into asking more questions than they really wanted to on this topic.

Serena Gilbert:
So there's some other types of questions that are very commonly asked in interviews called 'behavioral interview questions.' You might've heard of these, or if not, I'm sure you've been asked these and just not realized that they're behavioral interview questions. A behavioral interview question is a question that sounds a lot like, "tell me about a time when ..." Or "tell me what happened when this happened." So an example would be, "Jeff, tell me about a time when you had to manage multiple deadlines. How did you accomplish the task and what was the result?"

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. And those are questions that will come up, because it'll be situation, how you handle the situation, and so you gotta be ready for stuff like that. But if something never happened like that in your life, don't make up stuff on the spot. Relate it to something that you've done, and we've all had experiences in different areas and stuff, so hopefully you have something that will relate to the question they ask.

Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, would you like to learn something new today?

Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), always ready to learn.

Serena Gilbert:
Always. You're a good student, right?

Jeff Thompson:
... yeah?

Serena Gilbert:
That had a question mark at the end, so we'll see. But one method that I teach my clients to use when answering almost any question, this works on, even questions that aren't behavioral interview questions, is called the STAR method. So that's S T A R. So when a question is asked of you, you take the situation or task and explain that. So for the example of 'tell me about a time that you had to juggle multiple deadlines,'
Jeff can talk about, gosh, this last week that he's been editing podcasts like crazy and how he approached that, how he broke that down, how he mapped out what his work was. So that, the situation or task is the fact that he had tons of podcasts that he had to get done and he wanted them out in a certain amount of time so that they're still relevant. The action that he took is how he broke down his work and how he prioritized what he needed to do first. So the result would be that Jeff met all of his deadlines and was able to release all of his podcasts on time with relevant content.

Serena Gilbert:
So the reason that a lot of employers a) ask behavioral questions, or b) like when people answer questions in this method, is it shows historically how you respond to any types of situations that would be similar to the work environment that they're in.

Jeff Thompson:
I think that's great, because people used to tie a string around a finger to remember this, that, and the other thing, and if you can relate something to the STAR thing, there you go; situation, task, action, and results. There you go. And you can do that quick enough in a two minute answer to a question.

Serena Gilbert:
Jeff will google that and put it in the show notes.

Jeff Thompson:
I will. ... Click on this.

Serena Gilbert:
So you've prepared for the job interview.

Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Serena Gilbert:
You're there, you're entering the building, now what?

Jeff Thompson:
You're on time, too.

Serena Gilbert:
Yep. You're 10 minutes early, which is perfect.

Jeff Thompson:
Your phone is off.

Serena Gilbert:
You have a portfolio with you that has copies of your resume and cover letter.

Jeff Thompson:
And I suggest three copies. I don't think that there's too may times when you're gonna have five or ten. No one's expecting you to bring, but if you bring three copies you should be good. Your resume is a sheet of paper, cover letter, maybe a sheet of paper. So it's not like you're taking in a briefcase on wheels.

Serena Gilbert:
And I would suggest that you use the nicer paper for both the cover letter and resume, because although you might not be able to see it visually, but the print does look a lot better on the resume paper. It just pops a little bit more, and having that heavier card stock just presents a more professional image when you're handing those things to the employer when you sit down.

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, this is something that you do in advance. Make sure that you get these copies made. Have them ready, so on your journey there, don't fold them. Put them in a portfolio thing, a nice, neat, attache case or some type of case that you bring in. Open it up and if there's one, two, or three people, hand them each one. Yeah. And that's a professional way to do it because they don't all want to be sliding a piece of paper from one person to the other. Because they all want to just glance at it.

Serena Gilbert:
And you might not realize it, but your interview starts the moment you walk into that lobby door. The receptionist is going to let people know if you walk in and you're having an argument on your cell phone with somebody, or if you walk in and you smell like smoke. Those are things that we really have to make sure that we're cognizant of, because the smell of cigarette smoke or even just how you walked into the door could end that interview for you before you even start it.

Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So when you come in, announce yourself. You'll probably have a chair to sit in. You'll sit there and you'll just wait because someone's gonna come down and greet you. And that's when you want to make sure that you can start up a conversation with the receptionist, the person that comes down to greet you and to bring you back to the interview room. That's when you're gonna have that light, personality type of conversation. You know, how's the weather, typical thing. My nephew does hiring, he's in the human services department and he hires people, I think he said he's hired over 20 people, 25 people, and he just started a couple years ago. But he says the interview starts at the door and that walk back, you can tell who a person is just how you casually talk. So remember, the interview starts when you come into that door.

Serena Gilbert:
And I know we've talked about this before and everybody knows my soapbox about disability disclosure and things, but that's just one more thing just to remember and think about if you do decide that you're going to disclose during the interview or, you know, they're obviously gonna see if you have a white cane or a service animal. If you do typically use a white cane, but maybe have some usable vision and you opt to not take that white cane to the job interview, just know that it could impact you in your first impression.

Jeff Thompson:
Exactly. I would say use your cane and if it's best, if there's lots of turns, they might start calling out, 'we'll go left here,' and you know, just pay attention to that because it's a foreign area, you haven't been there before, and get to the room. And when you get into the room and you find your seat, everyone's gonna be sitting down and stuff, make sure you get their names, whether it's their first name that you remember, try to remember their first names. And like the STAR thing, maybe you want to take one finger, two, three, and try and remember those names because it's very polite to be looking at each of the interviewers. Turn towards their voice and everything, pay attention to the three people, the two people, or the one person, that's a lot easier, but don't forget that there's other people in the room. If you can use their names, you can answer them by name. All these little, little things, they're just little tips that might help push you to the top of the list.

Serena Gilbert:
And a lot of people get a little flustered, because sometimes there's really long interview questions. And believe me, I've been on interview panels, we understand when somebody needs to have a question repeated, especially when there's multiple parts to it. I would rather somebody asked me to repeat the question than to not answer a good chunk of the question. Because if it's there, they want you to address it. It's not there just to add words to the question, believe me.

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.

Serena Gilbert:
And it's also okay to take a moment to gather your thoughts before you answer the question. Again, I would rather see somebody take a couple seconds to really think about what they'd like to say rather than hear them ramble and make absolutely no sense. It's very distracting when that happens.

Jeff Thompson:
Typically what they really want to do is sell you on their company. And you want to sell yourself on the company. So the questions are just gonna be getting to know you, explaining what the kind of job details there are, and when they ask you are there any questions for them, you want to be prepared. You may want to ask, 'what are the expectations of this position in the next three months?' Or you might want to even ask one of the persons there, 'what do you like most about this company?' You're turning the tide onto them and they can then tell you some stuff about the company, and that might break into some more conversation. So remember to have some questions ready for them.

Serena Gilbert:
I really like those questions that you said, because that'll get people really excited about talking about their company, and everyone loves talking about things that they like about where they work. So Jeff, what do you think is probably one of the questions that we should avoid asking during an interview?

Jeff Thompson:
"When will I be making six figures?"

Serena Gilbert:
"What are the benefits?"

Jeff Thompson:
"When do I get the corner office?"

Serena Gilbert:
"How much money am I going to be making? What are the benefits?" That's ones that, if they're going to hire you, there's a time and place to ask and negotiate those particular things.

Jeff Thompson:
Exactly.

Serena Gilbert:
Another question that I really like to ask, and it'll take kinda getting the wording down for what you're comfortable with, but I like to ask, "What are the characteristics of an employee that you're looking to fill this position?" They will inevitably tell you, they will literally lay it out for you. You can follow up with, "well, that's fantastic. Here's some of my experience that matches some of these things." You don't say it like that, but basically, "you know, I heard you say that you like somebody that can juggle deadlines. I want to let you know that in the past I worked in a position in podcasting where I had to edit multiple podcasts a week on a deadline and I was able to successfully do that." Right Jeff?

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. There's that answer with the question mark at the end again.

Serena Gilbert:
Maybe. You know, you've only got like 400 episodes under your belt, right?

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, but those questions, they're just questions to get to know you. Questions to see what experiences you have.

Serena Gilbert:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). The interview is the time to really show your personality. Just like you were saying. They're interviewing you to see if you fit in basically with the office culture, honestly. That's the biggest thing that we're looking for when we're doing job interviews.

Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I would do some research by typing in 'questions to ask at interviews,' or 'questions that are asked at interviews.' You can always just research that because there might be that one question, you might read 30 of them, but there might be that one that just fits you really good and you might want to keep that in your back pocket.

Serena Gilbert:
So if anyone has been following the Job Insights Facebook page as well as our Job Insights support group, they would notice that I post a lot of information from a website called Glass Door. That is a website that has a ton of just articles and tips and things like that for job searching and interviewing. But most importantly, you can type in a company and you will find information specific about their interviewing process, and what types of questions are asked, what type of interviews they do, and it's basically like getting insider information because the information actually comes from people who have gone through the interview process before.

Serena Gilbert:
So this is irrelevant, but it's just a really good example, because you know, Toys R Us is no longer here, but for those who have applied at Toys R Us before, they do their interviews very uniquely. They would do group interviews and ask some very unique questions and the manner in which they narrow down people was way different. You're not gonna be by yourself at that job interview. And some of the more progressive companies do that, where it's this really weird, big group networking thing almost. So if that's the way that the company operates that you're gonna be applying for, it would be real helpful to know that before you got there, because that would be pretty overwhelming if you didn't know that that was gonna be the case when you arrived at a company.

Jeff Thompson:
Oh yeah. So be prepared. In this job interviewing process we went to the job hunt, now you're in the job interview, all this preparation work that you're doing, all this research on the company, is good practice because if you don't land this job, you're gonna have the next one, and you need to go through the same routines and stuff. And after a while you're gonna have these questions down. You know, you're gonna map it over to a different company, you're gonna change a few words here and there, and the same with your resume. Your resume is a working piece of document that works for that company. It might not work for the next company. So this is a good time to go through these, if you've got a mock interview you get to go through this process all the way through it, and then try it out on an interview, a real one, and you might have to try it out on a couple more. But as you go through this process, things are going to become second nature and you're gonna start to wing it a little bit better. And who knows, you might land that job you want.

Serena Gilbert:
So you're at the interview, and you just did a fantastic job answering all the questions, you've asked your follow up questions. Before you leave, there's just one more thing that you have to do. I would recommend, if you can, getting contact information or business cards of the interview panel so that you can use that to send thank you emails to them when you arrive back home. I am very traditional when it comes to that. A lot of people say that they don't send thank you emails, but it's one more opportunity to get your name in front of the hiring manager, to get your name in front of the panel, and to even bring up something that came up in the interview and discuss that. So a really good way to send a thank you email would be, "Thank you for the opportunity to interview for the Media Specialist position. I really enjoyed hearing about the new podcast content that you guys will be producing, and I hope I have the opportunity to contribute to your team. I look forward to following up with you," and then you can put your phone number, your email address, anything you want. Just to kinda tie that up and a lot of times people will even respond with a thank you. Which is kinda nice.

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, it's not where you want to say "peace out, brother," and all that stuff. You just wanna kinda be cordial and professional. Like we said at the beginning, this is where you up your professional game. I used to have an email called 'ezj101' and a person actually told me, it was a counselor in the disabilities services office, she said to me, "
Jeff, you're in college now. You're going to get opportunities and I just don't think this email address really carries that very far." So I got rid of the 'ezj' and I went with jthompson.

Serena Gilbert:
That's a good point. I don't know that we've talked about email addresses in our previous podcasts, but yes. Please, a very professional email address that's some form of your name, and sometimes numbers, but sometimes numbers can also date you, so be careful. Especially if you put your birth year after it. But some form of your name. You don't put 'ilovecows@gmail.com' or something like that, because that will not be a good, positive impression for your employer.

Jeff Thompson:
No?

Serena Gilbert:
No. I don't care if you love cows. That could be your personal one, but not for your professional job search.

Jeff Thompson:
Unless you're being hired on a farm hand position, that might work. So be aware of all the stuff that you're gonna be given. They're gonna give you business cards, you might have a business card to give to them. You're gonna have a resume, you're gonna have all this professional stuff going. You don't want to wear in the squeaky shoes or the shoes that light up, you know. You really want to knock this out. Get yourself a lint roller, get yourself someone, I don't know, some people have these amazon devices, the look or something like that? But put on an outfit, ask someone to give you their opinion of it, 'looks good, you look great, don't worry about it.' So go with that. Up your game, up your professionalism. This is real stuff, this is going for a job, this is a career, a lifetime journey and this is gonna be experienced, everybody remembers every interview they've ever had. And there's a reason for that, because it's a moment, and it's a moment that you really want to go in and bring your best game.

Serena Gilbert:
So what comes next is unfortunately that dreaded waiting game. So one question that we forgot to mention that you can ask at the job interview is "When do you intend on making a decision?" That's a perfectly appropriate question to ask. A lot of people are prepared to answer it, and typically they'll tell you something like, "oh, probably in about two weeks' time." If they tell you that it's going to be two weeks before they make a decision, I would recommend not following up before that two week mark, because if they're telling you two weeks, it's probably a reason that they're telling you that.

Jeff Thompson:
So you're saying not following up like sending a thank you? You're saying not following up by inquiring again about the job?

Serena Gilbert:
Definitely send the thank you as soon as you get home. But as far as actually making a phone call or following up and saying, "Hey, I'm just following up on the job interview." If they've told you it's gonna be two weeks I would wait til right around that two week mark to call them again.

Jeff Thompson:
There you go. Write it down, put it on the calendar.

Serena Gilbert:
Did we miss any topics, before we wrap up? Your chair squeaked.

Jeff Thompson:
Well, I had the thing, so I had to, you know. Put my hand up under my chin and look off into the wilderness. I know there's a lot of information that was given on here, and there may be more information that you might still be seeking. So I would talk to your counselor and see if you can set up a mock interview, because that experience, as
Serena was talking about, you need to keep asking these questions, going through the questions that might be asked and when all of a sudden you're stumped one of them, like you know, right at the beginning when Serena asked me a question, I was stumped a little bit there. It happens. So if you can practice this, once you're in the groove of job interviewing, repetitious, asking in the mock interviews, see what your counselor has in their employment team that could probably help you out.

Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, what's on the docket for our next podcast?

Jeff Thompson:
Well, Serena, I think next time we'll be talking about reasonable accommodations.

Serena Gilbert:
We are. Sometimes it's hard to figure out 'what can I request? What's reasonable? What's not reasonable?' So I think it might help a little bit, just to chat a little bit about what an employer considers reasonable.

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, because what's reasonable to one employer may not be reasonable to another one. And I see that word a lot and it's kinda vague. It's nice to hash that out, and I think if they can actually do something for you to get work done in an easier time, less money, there you go.

Serena Gilbert:
Well, we hope that you've enjoyed this episode of the Job Insights podcast. As always, you can always find us on Twitter @jobinsightsvip or on Facebook under Job Insights. Thanks so much and we will chat with you next time.

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, we'll see you next time Serena, on Job Insights. And you can follow Job Insights on Twitter @jobinsightsvip. Send us an email, jobinsights@blindabilities.com. We're part of the Blind Abilities network and you can find us on the web at www.blindabilities.com. And thank you Chee Chau for the beautiful music. And you can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @elcheechau

And as always, thank you for listening, we hope you enjoyed. And until next time, Bye-Bye

 

[Music]  [Transition noise]

 

When we share, what we see, through each other's eyes...

 

[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]

 

...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.

 

Jeff Thompson:

For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:

Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities

Download our app from the App store:
'Blind Abilities'; that's two words.

Or send us an e-mail at:

info@blindabilities.com

Thanks for listening.