Memo Writing Sample 2-Professional Communications

Memorandum

TO:  Jay Baldwin, Instructor

FROM:  Cassandra Tuenge, Student

DATE:  March 31^st, 2009

SUBJECT:  Answering Successfully in an Employment Interview

Communicating effectively in an interview is essential and it takes planning, preparation and practice.  A positive attitude complimented by a concrete resume and appropriate appearance may influence how a future employer perceives you, but if you fail to communicate your skills, abilities, experience, perspective and intentions appropriately and confidently through specific, detailed answers you are likely to find yourself back on the job-hunt.  With Idaho at a 6.8% unemployment rate as of February 2009 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics), improving interview skills is essential to a shorter, less painful job-search process.

The 3 P’s of Interviewing

The chances of having a successful employment interview improve when following the 3 P‘s of Interviewing which are as follows:

Ÿ  Plan to do research

Ÿ  Prepare for potential questions

Ÿ  Practice for success

The effectiveness of an interview depends on the ability to communicate ones abilities, experience and intentions appropriately and confidently.

Planning, Preparing and Practicing for Success

You must be prepared to effectively deliver answers that provide detailed descriptions of these professional characteristics in order to improve your chances for success in an employment interview.  As the interviewee you will be answering questions that will give insight into your behavior, elicit opinion, demonstrate experience and reveal background on you.  Interviews, according to “Communicating For Results” by Cheryl Hamilton, are used to determine employee-fit, job motivation, communication skills, and work-related values of potential employees. 

Plan

Plan to research information about the organization you are interviewing for and information about your personal and professional qualities and experience.  In my nearly 20 years of interview experience it can be the most trivial personal questions that become the weak aspect of an interview, so it is not only important to plan to research the job position and company prior to an interview, but it is vital to not overlook the importance of being able to comfortably and confidently discuss your own personal experiences and qualities that may relate to your field. 

Prepare

It is essential to carefully prepare yourself for the type of questions you may receive in an employment interview, but keep in mind the importance of being positive and specific in your answers.  Hamilton offers the following example of “tough” standard questions:

Ÿ  What do you know about our company?  What attracted you to our company?

Ÿ  Describe yourself in three adjectives.

Ÿ  What is the best idea you’ve had in the last three years?

Ÿ    How would your coworkers describe you?  Your supervisor describe you?

Ÿ  Why should we hire you over others applying for this position?

Behavioral questions, which examine how you may react or behave when presented with certain job-related or applicable situations, should be answered using the Hansen’s SAR method as described by Hamilton; state the situation, action and result when answering behavioral questions like the following:

Ÿ  If you had to give a presentation to a group of clients with only two hours notice, how and what would you prepare?

Ÿ  How have you benefited from your mistakes?  Disappointments?

Ÿ  Convince me that you are a person willing and able to take initiative.

Ÿ  Describe one of the proudest moments you’ve experienced in your career so far?

Practice

Rehearsing answers to potential interview questions makes a world of difference to the success of an interview especially in a mock interview setting where you can benefit from feedback.  Cheryl Hamilton offers the following information-seeking questions to aid in mock-interviews with friends, family, coworkers, bosses and/or professors:

Ÿ  Exactly what does your job entail?

Ÿ  What are the educational requirements for this position?

Ÿ  What experience is required or recommended?

Ÿ  What do you like most about the position?  Like least?

Ÿ  What problems could I expect to encounter in a position of this type?

With thorough planning, preparation, and practice it is possible to improve your chances for success in the question-answer portion of an employment interview and in today’s economy you can’t afford to NOT interview to the best of your ability.