Career Start : Men Shouldn’t Wear Earrings to Job Interview in Most Cases

OK, you made it inside the door for a job interview. That’s an accomplishment. But given the recession, expect plenty of other candidates in the waiting room ready to plead their cases, too.

So how do you walk out with the job?

Start by not making a mistake before you can even say hello: Show up on time and dress properly.

“If you’re a man, don’t wear earrings unless you’re going for a job in movies or TV,” said Martin Yate, a former headhunter in the computer industry and author of “Knock ‘Em Dead With Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions.” “Stay away from muscle T-shirts, or spandex-ribbed trousers. I’m not recommending you dress like someone in Vogue or GQ magazine. But there are rules of behavior.”

Yate added: “If a woman is going for an office job, take a briefcase. It improves your business profile. But don’t ruin it by carrying a shoulder bag too. It looks like you’re going on vacation. Second mistake: very high heels. Two inches are the maximum. Any taller and you look like an industrial accident waiting to happen.”

He also recommended that men and women don’t load up on cologne or perfume. “You’re trying to get hired, not dated.”

Fine, now you look and smell right. You’re ready to talk. Well, not quite.

Beforehand make sure you’ve visited a library and researched the company and industry you’re trying to be hired on with. Marge Cragle, corporate manager of human resources for Amgen Inc., the Thousand Oaks biotechnology concern, says her company gets 1,500 unsolicited resumes a week. So when someone is called in for a job interview, even for an entry-level office post, Cragle is impressed by candidates who know something about the arcane science of biotechnology.

And Chuck Gruden, human resources chief in Torrance for IKEA, the Swedish-based furniture store chain, likes a job applicant who has already toured an IKEA store and knows how the furniture is laid out.

“It shows they have done some planning,” Gruden said. “You can maybe deduce that’s how they would conduct themselves on the job.”

Obviously, most of the interview centers on how well candidates answer questions. One Gruden asks is: “Tell me about accomplishments in your last job and how it benefited the company?” In the trade this is called an “open-ended” question, and the hope is to spur an impromptu, revealing answer.

However, Yate said applicants can prepare strong answers even to these queries. How? Go over your school and work history and develop stories that show examples of your drive and determination, even on unimportant jobs.

Yate tells about a young man with a summer job in a warehouse. When his foreman said that a 20-ton printer was going to arrive the following week, the young fellow “came in on the weekend and on his own time cleared out the warehouse for that printer,” Yate said. “Now he’s got a 60-second story to tell. For the interviewer it’s like watching a movie. He doesn’t see this kid working at the warehouse, but sees this kid working for him.”

In telling about your past jobs, however, beware of complaining about former employers or bosses. “People occasionally do that. It’s a red flag,” Amgen’s Cragle said. “It doesn’t necessarily eliminate someone, but it does cause you to delve into it further.”

IKEA’s Gruden doesn’t like those who gripe, either. “They look at the interview as a therapy rap-speak to have somebody to listen,” he said. “It becomes a major complaining session. It does tell me a lot about them. And it’s not positive.”

Keep in mind that during the interview you are the one who has to make the sale, not the company. “People focus more on what they want the company to do for them, rather than let us know what they can do for the company,” Cragle said. “It’s like a football player trying to run before catching the ball.”

Granted, the interviewer guides the conversation, but that doesn’t mean you avoid asking questions. “Not many people ask them,” Gruden said. “You should have questions prepared on what you want to know about the company. Don’t be shy. Most interviewers are looking at the quality of those questions as another gauge” of a candidate’s talent, he said.

Another delicate matter is when an interviewer cross-examines you on your resume. “Many people’s resumes tend to be exaggerated,” said Sandra Quinn, vice president and director of national staffing at Countrywide Credit Industries Inc., a Pasadena-based mortgage company. “When you ask for specific examples, they can’t give you specific accomplishments.” The moral: Embellishing a resume is one thing, but outright lies make for a quick exit.

Interviewers are also supposed to be upright. And the law says interviewers can’t ask you about a physical handicap, religion, politics or if you plan to marry or have children. But sometimes they do.

Yate said often these illegal questions are unintentional, and the “interviewer in effect is saying, ‘I like you. Are you married? Do you have kids?’ It’s like meeting someone at a barbecue. People ask these kinds of questions.”

So what do you do? Answer the question, Yate said, even if you fudge it. Why? “You’re there for one reason only, to get the bloody job offer. You can always turn it down.”

How long is it before somebody decides if a candidate is worth hiring? Sometimes, Gruden said, he knows “within 10 minutes.”

After the interview, nearly every guidebook, including Yate’s, urges the candidate to send a prompt thank-you letter. Five years ago thank-you letters did stand out, said Cragle, but now they’re so common that they don’t mean much. Unless, she said, “the candidate is a good listener and really thought about the company and how they could contribute to it.”

Should you have any doubts during an interview, perhaps it’s best to recall another Yate aphorism: “If the interviewer asks, ‘Are you prepared to make coffee?’ The answer is not: ‘Is it in the job description?’ It’s: ‘Yes, and how do you like your eggs?’ ”

Writing a Resume

Don’t type RESUME or CURRICULUM VITAE. Every personnel manager knows what a resume looks like.

OK, your typewriter got stuck. You really know how to spell California. But one error can kill your chances for a job. Proof read carefully.

Joan’s cover letter will explain that she hasn’t had a paying job in years because she stayed at home to raise her children. But her resume needn’t cover this.

This section not only gives Joan’s job titles, but emphasizes her accomplishments as well.

Since Joan stopped working, personal computers have changed, so she recently took a trade school course to catch up. This can show employers that she has extra initiative and new skills.

Joan did not earn a degree. But listing the number of credits she earned and highlighting some business courses may help broaden an employer’s interest.