Career Tools: Interviews: Be Prepared
There's an old story about a young job applicant. He'd spent six long months painfully searching for the perfect job; reading trade journals and scouring employment guides. He'd mailed off resumes and cover letters to those firms that met his job requirements to a T. Three weeks after mailing off a batch of resumes, he got a phone call. The voice at the other end told him his qualifications looked great. It asked if he could fly down to the company's headquarters for an interview.
“What for?” the young applicant asked. “You already know my test scores and my extracurricular activities.” See, the applicant, like so many others, had gotten everywhere in life – high school, college, study abroad program in Munich, summer learning programs – through pieces of paper, whether it was applications, AP exams, SAT tests or personal essays. He hadn't understood the power of personal appearance.
In college it's possible to be the Phi Beta Kappa scholar who actually achieved his greatness in a stained t-shirt and a five-day-old beard. In the business world, you can't just be smart and motivated, you have to appear smart and motivated. It might seem like a farce: looking like something instead of being something. But it's actually quite the opposite. The truly smart and motivated usually look the part. All of which is a long-winded way of saying resumes and cover letters are nice, but sealing the deal requires some personal charm and quick thinking. In other words, you better nail that interview.
