Control Your Contact
You don’t want to get hiring calls while you’re at your current job or while you’re making lunch for your kids. You need to be in a private area that allows you to focus on the conversation. In addition, you need your resume, your list of questions and a notepad in front of you to jot down important thoughts and details and you need to be prepared. Provide your prospective employers with a single number to reach you. Typically this is your mobile number. If you receive an unscheduled call, ask if you can call back when you’re available to speak privately or have them reschedule the call at a time when you can be prepared. Make sure you have a very professional voice mail message on your mobile phone and check your messages regularly. Return every call as soon as possible and if you end up in a phone tag situation, be persistent and proactive.

Focus
Only conduct interview calls when you are able to devote 100% focus to the call at hand. If you get a call while you’re in your car or out in a social situation, ask to reschedule the call. The hiring manager wants to conduct the best interview possible and will understand that you can’t focus on the interview if you’re distracted. They will be understanding and accommodating and will respect your desire to perform your best.

Practice Your Answers to the Tough Questions
You know exactly where your professional weaknesses are, and you should expect that they will be revealed during the interview. Do you have a lot of project experience but not much management experience? Are you competing with MBA’s when you only have an undergraduate degree? Did you move to four different companies in three years? Be especially prepared to discuss these difficult issues, and determine how you can position your weaknesses in the best possible light. Knowing how you are going to respond to tough questions makes them much less intimidating.

Google Yourself
Every job candidate should be aware of all the information that will be revealed about them during a public web search. Every employer I know conducts at least a quick Google search on every job applicant just to discover what’s out there, so make sure you conduct an Internet search on yourself to preempt any surprises. In this new age of social media dominance, you need to be aware that your social media activities will also be reviewed by many employers and recruiters. Expect your Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter pages to be examined, and if you have anything on your sites that can be considered offensive or inappropriate, either remove the items or shield them behind privacy walls. Anything that remains public can and will be used against you during your job search.

Arm Yourself With Information
When you apply to a company, it’s incumbent upon you to learn something about that company. Knowledge is power. Read their entire website. Learn their company stories, how they were formed, what their mission statement reveals and familiarize yourself with the entire breadth of their products and services. Read their News Release page to see how they present themselves to the public and to determine how active they are in their industry. Then do a Goggle news search to see if they’ve been in the news for any reason, good or bad. When you’ve done your research, you can be assured that you will stand out among the crowd of applicants with your ability to speak informatively about the company and its activities.

Tell Stories
The single biggest drawback of resumes is their focus on titles, dates and responsibilities. But your real job consists of daily stories that demonstrate how you work with others, clarify the skills you bring to each project and explain how you achieved specific results. Facts are forgettable while stories are memorable. For each position that you’ve held, write down the three most compelling and illustrative stories that demonstrate your expertise, your commitment and your management style.

Engage in Conversation
An interview is a dialogue, not a monologue. Although the interviewer will typically control the conversation and ask most of the questions, you need to engage the interviewer during your responses. If you’re asked about specific technical qualifications, respond precisely then ask how your skills would fit in or fill a need with the employer. Your responses should be limited to two minutes before you ask your own question concerning how your talent and experience would fit in with the employer’s organization. This is an excellent time to determine if you fit into their organization and culture. If their management style revolves around a command and control dynamic but you excel in an open organization with a less formal management structure, then both you and they should discover this early in the search process. Ask questions and engage in a real conversation about life and work within their company.

Final Thought
When you answer your phone, and there’s an employer on the other end, you’re on. You have to be prepared to convey your professional strengths, relate the value you bring to an organization and express your enthusiasm for their company.  Think ahead about what you will say, how you will respond to difficult questions, and have your personal stories memorized that will demonstrate the skills and experience you offer. Use your resume as a guide but let the conversation extend to the employer’s current pain and problems that hiring you will alleviate. If you’ve prepared, you won’t be anxious and you’ll deliver the great first impression that will get you the face to face interview that you really want.

In Episode 9 of our real-life, real-time job search experiment with Cleveland sales executive Tim Krenn, we prepare for an interview with the CEO of a potential employer.

Tim’s success in developing his personal branding characteristics and his distinctive personal branding statement (I’m the guy who can build the relationships with the people you most want to do business with) accelerated his job search success and resulted in positive interviews with the sales and HR directors of a local technology company.

While Tim prepared for his initial interviews by reviewing our video series on The Toughest Interview Questions Tim’s next step – interviewing with the company’s CEO – offers some distinctive challenges that differ from the standard job interview.

1. The CEO is not making the hiring decision. Although the CEO runs the company, in most cases hiring decisions are ultimately left to the executive who will manage the new hire. The desired result after interviewing with the CEO is permission to hire you, not a mandate to hire you.
2. The CEO can veto your hire. While the CEO typically won’t make the hiring decision, a disappointing interview can result in the CEO’s refusal to hire you. The CEO always has veto authority if they don’t believe you have the right skill set, experience or personal characteristics to succeed within their organization.
3. The CEO’s priorities are different from the hiring manager. Your interview with the hiring manager will likely explore in great detail your previous experience and how you would transfer your talents to their company and help him succeed on a day to day basis. The CEO has entirely different priorities and is focused on organizational issues, not departmental issues. As a job seeker you need to understand the CEO’s priorities include growing the company, developing talent, reducing costs and maintaining organizational cohesion. Your responses should focus on the CEO’s needs and how your hire can help him reach his organizational goals.
4. Culture trumps talent. The most frequently underestimated aspect of the CEO interview is the importance of company culture to the CEO. Successful companies align their employees behind shared values that define how the company does business and how employees deal with each other. No matter how talented you are, if your personal and professional values don’t align with the company’s, neither of you will be successful. CEO’s understand the critical importance of company culture and need to be reassured that you embrace their priorities and values.
5. The CEO’s questions will differ from the hiring manager’s. The CEO will typically be less interested in all the specific details of your past and will explore broader themes dealing with your understanding of their industry and their company, your personal goals and aspirations and your personal characteristics that can provide value to their company. Although you should be ready to answer the typical job interview questions, you should be prepared to answer a lot more questions dealing with how you envision your future and your career progression with the organization.
6. There’s no more important first impression. The CEO is accustomed to making quick judgments and decisions, and he’ll be looking intently for indications of potential problems or lack of fit with his organization. Your first impression must match his expectations of professionalism, attention to detail and consideration. The little things can have enormous impact, so make sure that you’re dressed impeccably, your shoes are shined, you have a pen available in your pocket, you have a portfolio containing fresh copies of your resume and a notepad to take notes and you show enthusiasm for the company, its industry and your specific position.

You should be excited about the opportunity to interview with the CEO. Reaching this milestone means that everything you’ve done so far has been successful and the company is hoping that you clear this final hurdle. So do your research, prepare for the questions that the CEO is likely to ask, show your confidence and enthusiasm and get ready for the job offer.

The mistakes she details are pretty common, and can generally be categorized in two broad categories: lack of preparation and failure to focus on the company’s needs, not yours.

With all the information available on the web (including our own series of videos How to Handle the Toughest Interview Questions) there is no excuse for a job interviewer to be unprepared to handle some tough, probing questions. Even if the interviewer doesn’t ask the precise questions that we pose, your preparation and practice answering these tough questions should provide you with a concise understanding of your strengths, accomplishments and personal characteristics that make you attractive to a new company.

There’s also no excuse for any job candidate to arrive at an interview without knowing about the company. There are simply too many tools and sources available online that can provide a wealth of information not just about the company, but about the company’s executives as well. What message are you sending to the interviewer if you haven’t made the effort to learn anything about their company, their products, their culture or their staff?

Landing a job provides you with potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars of income, health care coverage, retirement savings and other benefits. If you can’t be bothered to invest at least several hours researching the company, then they’re likely correct in their assessment that you must not have wanted the job very badly. Do your homework.

Job seekers need constant reminders that the job interview isn’t about them. It’s all about the company.

When interviewing for a job, your first priority is understanding precisely what the company needs and then convincing them that you can fulfill these needs. By demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of their needs, you can differentiate yourself from the other candidates they’re talking to. And differentiation is crucial. Not just by the set of skills you have, but by the enthusiasm and energy you display. They want to hire someone who is genuinely excited by the prospect of working with them, so make sure you present yourself as someone they’ll want to work closely with.

One final thought that the writer left out of her piece: send a thank-you note immediately after the interview. Not an e-mail. Not a tweet. A real note on genuine paper. It sets you apart from the 90% of candidates who don’t ever send a follow up note of any kind and provides you with an opportunity to reinforce your skills and demonstrate your enthusiasm. And isn’t a new job worth the 44 cent stamp?

SUBJECT LINE: Question..

Is that a period and its twin, or is it ellipses that can’t find its third dot anywhere? Ah, an easy mistake for a journalism and communications major to make.

Hello, my name is ___________ and I am a senior undergraduate student at Well Recognized University in the Midwest, graduating with high honors in May with bachelor’s degrees in both Journalism/Mass Communication and Communication Studies. Although currently I reside and go to school in __________, I am originally from the Chicagoland area and am looking to start my career there in May.

In this letter, you use the word “I” 35 times, “me” six times and “my” 11 times in 573 words. Granted, it’s a cover letter and the subject is yourself, but since you’re applying to work here, the subject is also us, and the communication business we cover. But we get your logic: We already know all about ourselves, right? What we need to know more about is you!

P.S. In Chicago, nobody but weather-men and traffic reporters use the term “Chicagoland.” Actually, weathermen, traffic reporters and distant suburbanite kids trying to sound hard-bitten.

I cannot express to you how excited I became as I came across the website for Regan. It is the kind of company that I have been looking for, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to obtain a full-time position at Regan.

You were too excited, apparently, to check the spelling of the company’s five-letter name.

Last year, an essay that I wrote was nationally recognized and I was, in turn, rewarded for my “excellence in undergraduate research.” My work was submitted by one of my professors, who complimented my persuasive writing/speaking style and suggested that I look into graduate school. However, I am far too eager, at this point, to get started in a career—and even moreso now that Regan is an option.

Hey, we love our work, and we have a good time doing it. But are you actually saying the prospect of a job at a niche trade publisher has you geeked out of your young and hopeful mind? We cannot express how skeptical this makes us feel.

I am a prominent undergraduate student in the communication studies department here, and from time to time even assist graduate students with brainstorming and analysis.

A “prominent undergraduate,” eh? Your university has 30,000 undergraduate students, the only “prominent” ones of which play on the football team. Look, we cover PR here; don’t try to kid a bunch of kidders, okay kiddo?

More than this, I am primarily a journalism student and my work has been published mostly in the university news-paper …. However, I also worked as a news reporter/intern at a local radio station for almost the entire 2006-07 school year. There, I reported on, and wrote stories—daily—for air. I also did on-air news and weather. Aside from filing affidavits (for none other than Clear Channel) and filling out program logs—I had the opportunity to meet lots of new people and work in a high-pressure position with deadlines and time-consuming interviews. I loved it.

Wait: Did you say you filed affidavits for a radio company? Which radio company? Was it a company other than Clear Channel? No? It was none other than Clear Channel? Gadzooks, how soon can you start?

I want to bring my passion, skill, and knowledge to Regan. I realize that you may not be the person that I should be speaking with, but I needed to contact someone.

In the last 5 years of my life, I have been told by many different people that I have a much different way of thinking. I think outside of the box (without even realizing it) and have a perfectionist complex that does not permit me room for error in my work.

Ooh, this might be a problem. Here at “Regan,” we have a requirement that when our employees want to think outside the box, they have to ask permission to do it, which obviously means they have to realize when they’re about to think outside the box. Do you think you might be able to train yourself to be more aware of your mental position, relative to the box?

When I do something, I give it everything that I have. When I am given a task, I get it done better than expected. The men at the radio station referred to me as “Chicago” and “sassy”—and never failed to give me stories that required contacting the hard-to-get sources. I always got them to talk, and I always got them to “spill it.” Sassy, they said, is for the ability that I have when it comes to asking the “tough questions.” They always said to me jokingly…“you have the look to get the interview with men and women alike, the charm to keep the interview, the intelligence to ask the right questions, the passion to ask the hard ones, and the innocent smile that gets an honest answer out of anyone.”

These “men” at the radio station were about two ticks away from sexual harassment, girlfriend. A worthy subject for discussion no doubt, but not in a cover letter, please.

My resume is attached. Thanks for hearing me out. I am honestly thrilled to have found this company and look forward to hearing from you soon. All of the careers listed on your website are of interest to me. However, I think that my writing style would be most applicable to speechwriting or public relations.

Excellent. Except we don’t do speechwriting or public relations.

Sincerely,

But we’ll be sure to keep your letter on file—and refer to it every time we want to remember: How full of themselves most young people are … that all the college courses in the world can’t teach a person how to communicate effectively … and how desperate and ill-equipped even “prominent undergrads” such as yourself feel as they prepare to leave their cozy college environs and test their sass in the big bad world.

Lessons learned from her disastrous letter:

1. Proofread the letter. Then proofread it again. Confirm that you spelled the company name correctly and that you spelled the name of the intended recipient correctly. Really, it doesn’t get any more basic than this. We receive correspondence all the time from people eager to work with NESCO Resources, which is terrific, except that our company name is NESCO Resource. It makes a difference.
2. Know what the company does. This applicant can’t wait to get involved with professional speechwriting and public relations. The only problem is that Ragan doesn’t do either. Big fail.
3. Shift the focus from your desires to the company’s needs. Your goals and dreams, while massively important to you, really aren’t that important or interesting to your potential employer. They want to know precisely what you can do for them. What value do you bring? How can you contribute?
4. Demonstrate your expertise with detail, not broad claims. The writer’s claims that she “thinks outside the box” and “I give it everything I have” are self-aggrandizing statements that are much less effective than detailed descriptions of projects or tasks that actually demonstrate your expertise. Don’t just say you’re creative and hard-working, provide a real-life example.

During most of the job interview, the interviewer is trying to determine a few key issues. First of all, are you capable of doing the job? They probe your background, explore your accomplishments and try to gain some understanding of your potential value to their company.

Eventually, they’re going to extend their questioning beyond your skills and capabilities and try to determine your motivations. They know you want to work somewhere, they’re just not sure why you want to work for them.

So, how do you prepare for the inevitable question: Why do you want to work here?

First of all you need to understand what they want to hear. They want to know that you’ve investigated their company. That you know their products and services. You’re familiar with their position in their industry. That you know something about the company’s background. In short, they want you to show that you care enough about the company and the job to have done your homework.

So, do your homework.

Start with the company website. Read about their company background. Know who started the company and whether or not those individuals are still with the company. If there is a management page, read the bios for each major executive. Check out their profiles on LinkedIn to see where they went to school , where they worked before and what titles they’ve held. You never know when you might have shared contacts that you can ask to put in a good word for you.

If there’s an annual report, read it. See how they’re positioning themselves publicly. Are they in a fast growth mode or are they apologizing for lackluster performance? Check out their revenue and profit trends. And read the letter from the president to gauge the character and personality of the company.

Read about their products. Not just on their website but on other sites that review their products or on user forums where consumers talk about their products and services. The user forums provide enormously valuable information since their participants provide unvarnished feedback about the company, their products and their responsiveness.

Check the newswires for press releases or any press mentions at all. How actively do they promote new products? Have they had any recent acquisitions? Have they been involved in any scandalous behavior?

Search the blogosphere for mentions of the company, its products and its executives. There are blogs that deal with every single industry and they frequently provide the best source of inside information on industry trends, company perceptions and feedback from industry insiders.

Once you done the research, you’re ready to answer the question.

I read in last month’s Fast Company that your company is leading your industry in design innovation and its focus on the overall user experience. The product reviews I’ve read on CNET and the Wall Street Journal have been terrific, and the company seems poised to dominate their sector. I’ve always enjoyed working in entrepreneurial and innovative environments, and believe that my experience in consumer packaging and point of sale design can help your company stand out in the retail space that you’re poised to enter.  Can you tell me a little about your efforts to get into the big box chains?

There. You demonstrated that you did some research, you read about their company, its products and its plans. You positioned yourself as a potential contributor to their future success and you kept the conversation going by asking about a specific initiative that they’re pursuing. All of which leads the interviewer to conclude that you really do want to work there.

In our continuing series of how to answer the toughest interview questions, today we take on another one of the tough, open ended questions that strikes fear into the heart of job seekers everywhere: why should we hire you?

Just like the general questions Tell me about yourself and What are your greatest weaknesses?, your answer to this question can raise some red flags for the interviewer if you don’t handle it correctly.

The question is nothing more than the interviewer asking you to sell yourself to them.

So, how do you sell yourself? First you need to have done the research necessary to understand your core professional strengths and to identify several examples from your career that demonstrate these strengths in action.

Second, you need to understand why the interviewer wants to hire someone. What capabilities are they looking for? What is the pain that they’re trying to eliminate?

The wrong way to respond is with something like “because I need a job.” Remember, the job interview isn’t about you. At least not yet. The interview at this point is all about what the interviewer wants, and what you can do for them.

A good place to start preparing your answer is the job listing itself. What specific skills and experience are they looking for? What are they trying to accomplish? What will it take to get their job done?

Now, examine your inventory of professional skills and match those with the employer’s needs. Clarify those two or three key qualities that you have to offer that fulfill their precise requirements and set you apart from their other candidates.

Remember, these traits don’t have to be unique to the position, like a specific programming language or professional certification, but may be your energy, initiative, working style or communications strengths. These are the types of attributes that are relevant to virtually any job and are essential to any long term success you’ll have.

So, from the list of their requirements, you simply match what you have to offer and merge the two into a summary sales statement. This is your pitch. It should be no more than two minutes long and should stress the traits that make you unique and a good match for the job.

For example:

From our conversation, it sounds as if you’re looking for someone to come in and take charge immediately. It also sounds like you are experiencing problems integrating all of your branches’ systems to provide you with an overview of their activity and success on a daily basis. With my six years of experience integrating CRM systems on systems ranging from a desktop PC to a corporate mainframe, I’ve learned the best ways to integrate these systems at the lowest cost. My high energy and quick learning style enable me to hit the ground running, quickly identify and analyze problem areas and move quickly to plan a course of action. My colleagues would tell you I’m a team player who maintains a positive attitude and motivates his staff to deliver exceptional results. I have the ability to stay focused in stressful situations and can be counted on when the going gets tough. I’m confident I would be a great addition to your team.

Completing an exercise around this question allows you to concentrate on your unique qualities. Take the time to inventory your specific capabilities and think about what sets you apart from others.

Then, let the interviewer know that you have been listening to the problem they’ve described and have what it takes to do the job — that you bring specifically identified value to their organization and are the solution to their problems.

One of the most dreaded interview questions that virtually every interviewer asks is: What are your greatest weaknesses?

So, what makes this one of the most uncomfortable questions to handle? As a job seeker, you understandably want to highlight your positive attributes instead of introducing personal characteristics that could eliminate you from consideration for a job.

You have to be thoughtful and careful with your response. If you admit that you have trouble getting to work on time and resent being told what to do by your superiors, you’re interview is going to be pretty short.

So, what’s the best way to handle this question?

First, understand that as humans we all have weaknesses. In fact, your career choices have likely been guided as much to avoid your weaknesses as to play to your strengths. Your interviewer knows this and wants to gauge how honest you are with your own shortcomings.

The keys to answering this question lie in doing your homework so you understand clearly what your real strengths and weaknesses are so you can prepare an answer that reveals an appropriate, relevant weakness, tells the interviewer how you deal with it and how you leverage your strengths to compensate for any professional shortcomings.

Stay away from the trite response that your greatest weakness is that you work too hard or you’re such a perfectionist that you have to make sure that everything you produce is spectacular. Your interviewer is looking for something, honest, truthful and insightful. They want an answer that indicates that you have some capacity for introspection and honest personal assessment.

If your weakness is a lack of organization, or difficulty attending to detail, your response could be:

I recognized back in school that I have trouble staying on top of a lot of details. After some missed class assignments I realized that I need an easy system to stay organized. My system has evolved over the years and I now use a combination of tools on my PC and my phone to write down the tasks I need to perform, track projects and assignments and set alarms to remind me throughout the day when I need to meet a project deadline, attend a meeting or make a call. I’ve also learned to delegate specific tasks to my assistant to ensure that contracts and other important documents are signed and filed properly, meeting confirmations are made and my calendar is kept up to date. The system is part of my daily routine so it’s effective and lets me focus on business development.

With the right preparation you can reveal a weakness without appearing weak and get on to more important things, like salary negotiations.

The granddaddy of all job interview questions is still, surprisingly, the one that proves the most difficult for the majority of job seekers to answer.

Tell me about yourself.

It’s really more of a request than a question, but it can put you on the spot and knock you out of contention for the job if you don’t respond appropriately.

The most important thing to recognize is what the interviewer wants to hear. They don’t want to hear about your childhood, your college years or your hobbies and interests. They want to get a feel for your skills, experience, talents and accomplishments.

Do not ask the interview for clarification on the question, or whether they’re interested in you personally or professionally. You’re not responding to Match.com you’re in a job interview. You ought to know what they’re interested in. And you can be pretty sure that they want to hear about your technical writing skills and not your tennis game.

You should walk into every interview ready with a 90 second to 2 minute response that contains the key elements that they want to hear:

1. A brief introduction
2. Your key accomplishments
3. Your primary strengths demonstrated by these accomplishments
4. The importance of these strengths to the employer
5. How you see yourself developing these talents further for the employer

I’ll assume you’ve already done the groundwork and have taken a complete inventory of your personal strengths and professional accomplishments. And you’ve determined which of those attributes are MOST important to the employer.

Let’s assume you’re interviewing for a position as project manager for a software development company. You’ve got the skills and experience necessary to do the job, now you’ve got to convey, concisely, how you can help the employer achieve their business objectives by hiring you.

I’ve spent my entire career in software development, loving the challenges of staying on top of the latest technologies and creating thoughtful software solutions that help businesses perform better.
Although I’ve always loved the process of coding applications, I discovered early on that I enjoy the strategic elements of software development even more. I’ve always been extremely organized, and I’ve discovered that my ability to envision and organize complex tasks is crucial to successful software development. At my last job, I was responsible for the mobile applications group that was preparing to launch mobile applications for the Blackberry and iPhone that would synchronize with the company’s desktop software. When I arrived, the software was already 3 months late and costing the company both in lost revenue and damaged reputation. With help from the marketing group I established new priorities, set benchmarks for our developers on both platforms, created a reporting system that enabled everyone to see daily progress and delivered the new mobile apps in 45 days. These mobile apps have now been adopted by over 60% of the company’s clients and generated over $150K in revenue.
As the leading software company in the social media space, I can bring the same commitment, organization and structure to your development projects to ensure that you maintain first mover status. How are your new mobile applications coming along?

There. I’ve introduced my primary professional strengths, illustrated how I’ve applied those strengths in a previous position, demonstrated the value of my experience and opened the interview to discuss their specific projects to explore specifically how I can contribute to their business objectives.

And if they want to know about my tennis game, we can chat about it over lunch. After I’m hired.

I’ve spoken with and met recruiters and staffing professionals all around the country to gauge from their perspective in the recruiting trenches, precisely what job seekers need the most help with.

Everywhere I went, everyone I spoke with, I heard the same thing: the single biggest challenge for job seekers is the job interview. Not in getting an interview, but in understanding how to perform during the interview.

The single biggest mistake job seekers make is their approach to the interview. Most job seekers view the interview from the wrong perspective. It’s not about what the job seeker wants. The interview is all about what the employer wants.

In every job interview, the employer is trying to determine three things:

1) are you able to do the job?

2) do you want to do the job?

3) do we want you around while you do the job?

a) how much will you cost to do the job?

Let’s start with the first question: are you able to do the job? It’s your job to arrive at the interview knowing exactly what the company is looking for in a new hire and how you will describe your skills and experience in terms that the employer wants to hear.

Are you organized? Inventive? Analytical? Precise? Creative?

Know precisely how you intend to describe yourself and have at least three examples that clearly relate these professional capabilities along with the business results.

It’s not enough to say that you have leadership skills. Every candidate is going to tell them that. But, relating an example of a recent job that required you to organize a software development project, coordinate activities between the marketing and development staffs, implement a detailed project plan, supervise the programming staff on a daily basis and deliver the final product on time for a company that had never previously met a software release date is impressive.

So, once you’ve convinced them that you have the skills and experience necessary, you encounter the second hurdle… do you want to do the job? Your attitude during the interview is crucial. You’ve got to respond to their questions with enthusiasm and convey your desire to work for their wonderful company.

Of course preparation for this questions also requires some advance work on your part. research the company. Not just from their website’s About page, but from mentions in the media, on blogs and in the user forums that deal with their products.

When they ask you why do you want to work here? You’ve got to have a ready answer. You want to work for the fastest growing handheld gaming company in the industry. You’re impressed with their latest version of Zombie Wars XII on the iPhone and you’d love to work their visionary CEO who you saw give the keynote address at last month’s  Gaming Expo.

So, you’re capable and enthusiastic, now it’s time to clear the final hurdle and deal with perhaps the most important question, that is do we want you around while you do your job?

Fitting in with their corporate culture is essential. Talent alone won’t make you a success with their company. You’ve got to fit with their culture and with their employees who embrace that culture.  Would you be a better fit at Apple or IBM? At Zappos or WalMart? If you’re a free spirit programmer who likes to wander into work at 11 in the morning then stay until midnight, you probably won’t fit into a regimented environment that demands that their staff arrive by 8am and stay until 6. You need to know how they work, and they need to know if you’ll fit.

And if the big 3 questions all work out, the last one, how much will you cost to perform this work for them simply becomes a matter of negotiation.