My tips.....

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1. Research the company, inside and out. Know what the company does - their products/services. Know what population the company serves. Know how much revenue it made last year. Know who the company's competitors are and what their specialty areas are. Know when the company was founded and by whom. Know who the current leaders of the company are. Know the company's mission and vision statements, and be able to demonstrate how they apply to what the company does. Having all this information and more put me at ease going into my interviews with my future company

2. Develop an answer to potential interview questions and practice them - but don't make them sound rehearsed.

2. Pause 45 seconds to a minute after each question before answering. This will give you time to collect your thoughts and provide you with an opportunity to give a strong response. The director of the department at my future company and her managers were extremely impressed that I took that much time to pause before giving an answer. As an Aspie, I have challenges with giving an answer immediately after some questions are thrown at me.

3. Consider that the individual or people who are interviewing you are human and real, just like us. Interviewers are concerned about likability and how well you can fit in with the company. The director and managers of the accounting department at my future company all felt like I made everyone feel human and real at both interviews. Thus, a strong likability existed between all the interviewers and me. The director felt that I could fit in well at my future company. When you go into an interview, don't see interviewers as being "bigger than life." Instead, see them as people, human and real, who have a problem that you can solve and help take away their pain. The "hiring manager"'s biggest pain was the need of an improved internal control system. Because I knew how much the company made last year and was able to tie that in with where the company stood currently, I understood the challenges that the company is facing and where it would like to be within the next five years.

4. Get a business card from everyone who interviewed you. But, what happens if people interviewing you don't have a business card? Do what I did at the interviews. See where people are sitting at a table. When people introduce themselves, write down their name (Mr. or Ms. whatever). This way, you can address that person when answering one of their questions. Also go to the next point.

5. Sending a thank you note can't be emphasized enough. I know this has been said many times, but always send a thank you note after an interview and to everyone who interviewed you. In the director's closing comments to me, she mentioned that a decision would be made on me in days. This told me that I need to send a thank you note via email - not snail mail. I didn't know if the director (the hiring manager) would make a decision that evening or sometime in the next few days. However, time was of great importance here, and I needed to make sure that she got my thank you note.

Also, going to the preceding point, if you write down the names of people on a pad and they don't give you a business card, then you can write in the thank you email/snail mail,

"Dear Ms. So-and-So:

I am writing to thank you and your managers (Mr. A, Ms. B, Ms. C, Ms. D, and Ms. E - I apologize if I misspelled any of their names) for taking time out of the day today to interview me for such-and-such position at company's name. I enjoyed discussing the position very much and learning more about the department and company - and how everyone's role has evolved from the time each person started at company's name until now.

This position seems to be an excellent fit for my skills and interests, given where company's name is at now and your plans of wanting the company's internal audit division to become realized within the next five years. I reflected greatly on both interviews from this morning, as well as my communications with Ms. This Person and Ms. That Person. The constant responses I heard and read - an "open door policy," "family," "great people/team," and the kind comments about Mr. This Person and Mr. That Person - all confirmed my desire to work with you.

I appreciate the time that you and your managers took out of the day today to interview me. I am very interested in working for you and look forward to hearing from you regarding your decision.

Sincerely yours,
Your name

What this shows to the hiring manager is the following:
You are thoughtful of sending the thank you email, etc. You recognized everyone who interviewed you, even if no one but the "hiring manager" gave you her business card. So what if you accidentally misspelled someone name because no one gave you their business card - you apologized anyway. This is because you were aware of writing everyone's name down on your pad in the first place. You reiterate why you want to work at the company and that you are excited about it. You point out a thing or two about the pain that the "hiring manager" has and needs to have taken away. Then, you thank the "hiring manager" in closing.

This is the thank you email I sent back to the director, the "hiring manager." She hired me a week later.

Hope this helps....

Thanks.

Thank you, it's a great list. I hadn't considered the thank you note thing. But it kinda makes sense. I will try to do it for my next interview.

Got any more tips for how to deal with unexpected question? My mind tends to go blank and I can't focus / concentrate. And I feel I have to give an answer there and then and that a pause will seem unnatural.

I was told about the thank you note thing a couple of times, so I've always sent a followup to each person I met with. Reminding them of things they said and highlights I thought they'd responded well to.

I know the feeling here. (if you've never seen Daria, there's a few times where the character plays that out, you hear her inner monologue which is somethings just 'uuuuuuuuh' and then 'I've paused too long, say anything!' and something stupid pops out.) As mentioned above, I try to remind myself that a thoughtful pause is better than blurting out something or freezing like a deer in the headlights. It's a constant struggle, not just in job interviews, of course, just the stakes tend to be higher there.

I had to go to a big group lunch with my new coworkers and a bunch of their vendors. Very overwhelming and by the end I was having to pause and focus just to come up with an appropriate reply to comments about the weather or whatever. Woof, I'll bet that was a great first impression. Of course, being the only "IT" person in my group, oddities are kind of expected from the people in this role, so that helps at least.

One of the many benefits of being a software developers is that they're usually used to semi-weird people. =D

Indeed!
I spent the first 13+ years of my career working in Engineering (MEP specifically). You know you're an oddball when you're in a room full of engineers and STILL considered 'the weird one'.

My favorite departments to work with at the old place were IT and A/V, and I guess these fields just attract a type, so, IT was a natural move for me, but, it's challenging to now be supporting non-nerds. I'm learning a lot about it.

Haha, sounds like you're talking about me!


Yeah, it sounds like something you'd learn from. Both about IT in general and talking to non-nerds. Support sounds like a exhausting thing to work with, though.

Support can really take it's toll, especially when you've got a frustrated user lashing out at you. BUT, I work with some really great people, who are nice to me even though I'm weird, so I consider it a positive balance. I know a lot of ways to keep their frustration level down, to make it easier on me. And, most of my users are not local to me, so I do support via IM and email a lot. Most of the time, I'm doing behind the scenes work, testing and pushing upgrades, doing system customizations, I love all that.

You're so odd, that you're appealing

Great, now I'm suppressing banana puns...

LOL....didn't think of that!

Of course you've been into the "You know you might be an Aspie......" thread, right?

I'm assuming that's in the general forum? I try to stick to only one here, otherwise I'd become too obsessive, but, I'll search for that thread, those are always fun lists.

I did one called "you might be a CAD Diva..." for the girls I worked with.

Okay, I only got through page 15, now I have to stop.


you might be an aspie if... you read every entry in a 200 page long thread and copy out, and standardize the formatting of, your favorite lines.

It does make them easier to read

I hope you weren't affected by the tornadoes.

Nope, no hits near me recently. I live in a pretty hilly area anyway, so they tend to go around it to the flatter portions of the region. We just got some heavy rain and lightning. Heard there was hail off to the west aways.