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IT'S YOUR INTERVIEW, TOO; ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS With unemployment at a 30-year low, it might seem that you don't need to worry much about the impression you make during a job interview. Christie Hardwick Vianson knows differently. Vianson, director of staffing and community relations for Silicon Graphics Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., recalls one promising candidate who spent the first 20 minutes of an interview asking the manager about the details of the relocation package. Although SGI really needed someone with this person's skills, the manager chose not to make an offer. "This person did not have any passion for the work we are doing, and that just didn't engender any interest," Vianson said. "We didn't think we were ever going to be able to meet this person's needs". The moral of this story is to remember that job interview serve two purposes: You must find out whether the job meets your requirements, and you must impress the interviewer enough to get an offer. This means you must ask about the company's work hours, compensation and atmosphere, without sounding lazy, mercenary or self-centered. There is a way to get the information you want without jeopardizing your chances. Consider this the first stage of negotiations with your potential employer: Determine your priorities for your next job. Think about everything you want from a job, including salary, benefits, flexibility, stock options, telecommuting and opportunity for growth. Then decide what is most important to you. When and whether you bring up a concern such as flexible work hours or telecommuting will depend on where it ranks on your list. If a particular issue isn't crucial and you think asking about it might raise questions in the interviewer's mind, put off discussing it until after you've been hired. Research them ahead of time. Reading up on a company can tell you whether it is on solid financial footing and help you impress an interviewer with your knowledge and interest. Less formal research into the company's culture is valuable: It can help you decide what questions to ask about the atmosphere you'll be working in. The easiest way to gather this information is to talk with a friend or acquaintance who works for the company. But even if you don't know anyone, it's still possible to get a sense of the corporate culture. "Hang out at a restaurant close to the company to get a sense of the people, what they're like, and what the conversation is like," said Connie Brock, an employment development aide at the NOVA Private Industry Council in Sunnyvale, Calif. Keep the conversation focused on what you can do for the company. If you're asking whether you can telecommute, explain that you have found that you're more productive when you work from home one or two days a week, Marianne Adoradio, owner of Career Consulting in Santa Clara, Calif., suggests. If the issue is your schedule, make it clear from your question that you're willing to work hard. Use both open-ended and direct questions. If you're wondering about the company's culture, the best approach might be an indirect one. For example, if you want to know whether the company's managers are open to employees ideas, ask several people what they like about working for the company. If none of them mentions the management style, ask more targeted questions, such as, "How would you describe the company's approach to management?" Keep asking questions until you have all the information you need. When you ask about one of your high-priority concerns, don't let the matter drop after the manager's initial response. For example, say that you ask whether you can telecommute, but you're told, "We don't usually telecommute." Follow up by asking whether anyone has ever tried it, and if so, how it worked out. "Keep asking clarifying questions," Aldoradio said. "Then the (interviewer) feels I'm interested and that they're understood. It will be easier to see how to come back and ask for it again." Pay attention when your interviewer responds to questions. To gauge when to bring up a potentially sensitive topic, sense how the interview is going. This means both listening to and watching your interviewer. Watch body language, too. If your questions seem to be making the interviewer uncomfortable, it's probably not the time to begin a sensitive conversation. "You can see if you bring up a (sensitive) subject if the person immediately crosses their arms, looks away, rolls their eyes or looks uncomfortable," Brock said. Make sure you talk to potential peers as well as superiors. If your interview schedule doesn't include some of the people you would be working with, ask if you can talk to some peers. Prepare a set of questions that will flesh out your concerns. For example, Phillips said you might ask: "What are the really great things about working here? Why did you come here? What kind of workday is typical? What is this manager's style like?" Often peers don't know what to ask you, so if you're asking them about themselves, two things happen: First, you get the information, and second, their impression of you is that you were really interested." Time questions carefully. The hardest part of getting answers to sensitive questions is knowing when to ask them. Many questions -- such as whether the company will pay for your move -- are appropriate at some times during the interview process but can torpedo a job hunt if you ask them too soon. When is the right time? It depends on how complicated a request you're making, how important the issue is to you, and how committed you think the company is to hiring you. If an issue is critical for you -- for example, you must pick up your children every day at a certain time -- don't bring it up until you are sure the company is interested in you. Don't be afraid to improvise. In the end, you must rely on your own judgment about what and when to ask your interviewers. When Lisa North changed jobs a few years ago, she chose to lay the groundwork for one of her less crucial requests during the interviews, then make a formal request after she had an offer. North, who is currently a consultant in interactive branding with Landor Associates in San Francisco, was living in Oakland and was considering a job in Santa Clara. During the interviews, when she was asked how she felt about the commute, she mentioned that she planned to move south. When she got the job offer, she thanked the manager and said she was excited about the job. Then she asked what sort of relocation package the company offered. A few hours later, the manager called back and said the company would pay all the expenses of her 45-mile move. North said the key to asking for extras is to be relatively certain you'll take the job if the company obliges you. (by Bark Clothier, The Charlotte Observer, Monday, March 20, 2000) MAGAZINE RATES BEST SITES FOR BUYING OR SELLING HOMES Few things are as frustrating as buying something big and finding out later that you could have had it for less. Any maybe nowhere does buyer's remorse hit harder than when you buy a home. Realtors charge fees that can be negotiated. Mortgage company costs can be flexible, and the price of a home can vary, depending on location and time. The Internet can be a good source of information for all those things. The February issue of Yahoo Internet Life issues report cards on the slew of real estate-related Web sites. The critique starts with a thorough look at some of the sites that aspire to portaldom, grading them for the quality and quantity of listings, the site's tools, the research capabilities and the extras. Realtor.com rated highest, receiving an overall B+ ranking. It was praised for having "the mother lode" of listings, with 1.3 million homes in the database. Features such as saved search criteria and virtual tours gave it a B for tools. Extras such as articles, message boards and e-mails when a new listing matches your search criteria earned Realtor.com a B+. The Microsoft Network's Home Advisor, homeadvisor.com, received a B rating. The site was noted for its research features, which include guides, tips and FAQs that cover each aspect of the home-buying process. The site was criticized because of its spotty neighborhood information. Homes.com was average. The site had more than 700,000 listings, but the coverage was spotty: Manhattan had 1,400 listings, San Francisco 49. The research tools won't let users save listings of favorite homes, but the site sends users e-mail of new listings. Homeseekers.com and Cyberhomes.com graded poorly. j Homeseekers has an uneven distribution of 680,000 homes listings. The neighborhood information, however, is limited and the site offers no FAQs, guides or tutorials, often crucial for first-time users. Cyberhomes' coverage was weak. There were no listings for Cleveland; Austin, Texas; or San Jose, Calif. For people trying to sell their home, owners.com ranked highest. The site lets sellers list their homes themselves, replacing the Realtor and saving a fee that could amount to 6 percent or more. The listing is free, and users can post a photograph of their house. A link to homepricecheck.com gives users an idea of what prices other homes in the area are fetching. The basic listing appears for three months. A "premium" placement costs somewhere between $89 and $139. Moving.com was rated the best site for people looking to move. The site includes a database of licensed movers, including local, long-distance or international outfits. The site includes a link to the U.S. Postal Service's change-of-address forms. One site taps into some of the national interest in home restoration. Improvenet.com rated tops among home-building and remodeling sites. Users can fill out a form detailing their project, whether a repair or a home construction, and local contractors, designers and architects can bid on the work. The best home-financing site was eloan.com, according to the magazine. The site asks a few questions, then suggests the type of loan best-suited for the user's needs -- fixed-rate, adjustable rate or a mix. The site searches more than 70 lenders, including Chase, the Money Store and Fleet. The article also included these rankings: The best site for virtual home tours, homeseekers.com. Homefair.com offered the best information about neighborhoods, including unemployment rates, household incomes, climate information and student-teacher ratios. The best-rated place to find a real estate agent, should you decide to go that route, is homegain.com. Users can submit a profile describing what they want to buy or sell, and homegain.com sends the information to local agents. Interested agents then send proposals back to the site, along with their credentials, sales history and commission rate. (by Mark Clothier, The Charlotte Observer, Monday, March 20, 2000)
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