By Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
When someone I represent for a job with a client emailed to tell me he was scheduled for a dinner interview with three people on Monday, I was reminded how to do a meal interview is a topic I haven’t addressed in my articles and books yet.
Lunch or dinner interviews are actually very easy. It’s an interview. It is an opportunity to assess your knowledge and way, just as they would do in a “in the office” interview. The problem is that most job hunters succumb to the more relaxed surroundings to lower their guard and be sufficiently revealing to make it easy for an employer to disqualify them from consideration.
There are obvious ways that this arises – the person who drinks too much at the interview and acts as a fool. There is a more subtle way to order Incorrect dish that leaves food on their face and makes it difficult for them to be taken seriously (never order a bowl with lots of barbecue sauce).
Here are a few points to remember when you have a meal interview:
• Arrived on time; If you arrive late, please call on. When you arrive, apologize and explain the delay (the cab was lost; there was an accident causing a traffic jam; the GPS in your car gave you the wrong directions).
• When introduced to each person of your host, offer a friendly smile and a handshake (if the handshake is denied, there may be a religious reason to refuse the handshake; just move on in your mind and not get caught by it).
• When sitting, ask where they want you to sit. If you are asked to seat wherever you want, try sitting opposite your host.
• This type of interview is like a panel or group interview in an office setting, but it includes food.
• As I mentioned before, avoid slurked food. Avoid drinking an alcoholic drink. If you are encouraged by your party to do so, answer by saying, “as much as I would like, I am on an interview and want to make sure I am best.” If you are uncomfortable with this wording, select the language that suits your personality.
LinkedIn — Error people make
• Before ordering if you are at a restaurant you are not aware of, ask the members of your party: “Have you been here before? What would you recommend?” Ideally, choose something they recommend.
• Avoid the most expensive item on the menu; Choose something that is “In the middle of the road.”
• In general, the interview part of the “festivities” begins after everyone orders. Be ready!
• My favorite way of starting questions and answers that the job applicant starts it. As I suggest in traditional interviews, start by thanking them for taking time to meet with you. Then continue to say, “So far I have talked to (mention who you talked to the role) and they have given me their ingestion of the position, but I was curious about yours. Tell me about the role you see it and what I can do to help.” This can result in being asked what you have been told so far. Be prepared to answer!
• When asked a question in a panel or group interview, you would not just talk to the person who asked the question. You would talk to each individual who first starts with the person who asks the question changes to the other person, then one -third, before ending with the questioner. The same is true in a meal interview.
• Make sure you are not just talking about what you have done. Talk about what you have done in the context of what you have been told they are looking for someone to do (or have experience doing). Too often, people lose an overview of what the goal is in the interview – demonstrates that you have experience that fits what the employer needs. Nowhere does this happen more often than at a lunch or dinner interview.
• When the food arrives, start enjoying your meal. If they ask you a question, put your knife and fork down to make sure you are not tempted to eat and talk. Use manners that will make your mother proud of you!
• Be prepared with questions to ask when you have the opportunity to ask some. These may include milestones to be met, what success wants for you, obligations to be met reports the structure. . . Work -related questions, not compensation questions.
• Avoid dessert even if the others have it. Hold on to coffee or tea instead. Sweet things and after dinner, drinks have a way to get interviews to go bad.
• When the bill arrives, thank the person who charges the meal by simply saying, “Thank you.”
• Before everyone differs at the table or by the coat check (offer to pay the coat check for everyone if you can afford it), do you have to do a point of saying, “I just want you to know that I am interested in the role we have discussed. What would you expect the next steps to be?”
• Send a Thanks -Mail to each person and express your interest in the role. Do this only if you are interested.
If you follow my advice, you may not be hired, but it will not be because you committed a faux passport or “incorrectly listed” during the meeting. It will be because they perceive a skill deficiency they judge is important for the role.
And more often than not you will not be hired because it is that they are already asked to hire you and you have done nothing to change your mind about you.
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About Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
People hire Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter to give no BS career counseling globally because he’s doing a lot of things in people’s careers
He hosts “No BS Job Search Advice Radio”, # 1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2800 episodes.
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