Interview with a Headhunter

"During the conversation," Green continues, "I mention my employability and discuss the company's staffing needs. And one of two things usually happens: I get an interview, or I learn that we aren't such a good match after all -- and I'm glad that I didn't waste time sending a résumé to that company's HR department."

More often than not, as you drill down and investigate a company, you'll find that you and the company are not made for each other. "And that's a good thing," says Corcodilos, "because when you do find the right fit, you'll walk into an interview having already decided that this is a company that you want to work for. You won't go into the interview half-cocked."

4. Don't study for the interview -- practice doing the job.

Once you've researched a company -- you know its challenges and its goals, its culture and its competitors -- the next step is to practice doing the job. Prepare yourself, advises Corcodilos, to take on several "action tasks":

Show that you understand the job. "Ask what problem the manager hopes to solve by hiring you. And make sure that you also understand what goal the manager is working toward: higher sales? more profit? penetration of an account at any cost? Your task is to show how you can help the company achieve that goal."

Show that you can do the job. "Be prepared to highlight the steps that you would take to solve the employer's problem and to reach the employer's goal. Show the manager how you think and how you work."

Show how the company will profit from hiring you. "Be ready to tackle the issue of profitability: How is your way of doing this work going to reduce costs or increase revenues? Put a number on it. The number doesn't have to be right, but you should be prepared to defend it intelligently.

"These action tasks will help you take the interview where you want it to go -- straight to the job," Corcodilos concludes. "Just as important, they will help you take the employer along with you."

5. The shocking truth: The employer wants to hire you.

"A company holds interviews so it can hire the best person for the job," says Corcodilos. "The hiring manager will be ecstatic if that person turns out to be you -- because then he can stop interviewing and get back to work."

So give yourself an attitude adjustment. "If you convince yourself that the hiring manager wants to hire you, then you'll have a positive attitude when you walk into the interview," says Corcodilos. "And who knows: Your attitude might influence the manager to feel good about you."

6. It's not an interview -- it's your first day at work.

Most people treat an interview as if it were an interrogation. The employer asks questions, and the candidate gives answers. Headhunters go out of their way to avoid that scenario.

"Think of the interview as your first day on the job," says Corcodilos. "Your attitude should be that of an employee who's there to talk about a new project -- rather than the more obsequious attitude of a candidate who's hoping to get an offer.

"Candidates who think of themselves as employees immediately tip the scales of power in their favor, because they come across as people who understand the job and who are prepared to do it. Doing the job causes the most rapid shift in control that I know of. It turns a question-and-answer session into an exciting engagement between two people who have seized an opportunity to take a fresh look at their work."

7. To win an offer, do the job.

How do you do the job during the interview? Consider how Corcodilos coached Gerry Zagorski, now the manager of business development at AT&T Wireless, when Zagorski was pursuing an opening at AT&T. The vice president who was handling the interview told Zagorski that the meeting could last no more than 20 minutes.

Zagorski, now 40, walked over to the VP's whiteboard and outlined the company's challenges, as well as the steps that he would take to increase its profits. Fifteen minutes later, as Zagorski wrote down his estimate of what he would add to the bottom line, he looked up at his interviewer.

"The guy's jaw was on the floor," says Corcodilos. "He told Zagorski that an interview wouldn't be necessary. Instead, the VP brought in the rest of his team, and the meeting lasted for two hours. There was no standard interview nonsense: Zagorski's demonstration changed the whole tone."

8. Got an offer? Interview the company.

When a company makes an offer, it does more than deliver a title and a compensation package -- it cedes part of its control over the hiring process.

"At the outset of the interview, the employer controls the offer and the power that comes with it," says Corcodilos. "But upon making an offer, the employer transfers that power to the candidate. This is a power that few people in that situation even realize that they have."