Eager to Please

Dear Annette,

I have an interview tomorrow with a prominent company and am very eager to please them. Can you give me some important pointers on interviewing?

Nervous Wreck

Dear Nervous,

Jitters are a marvelous sensation, providing that refreshing sense of being alive in a big wide world. Your nerves are telling you that you would like to show this company You at Your Best. Isn’t it wonderful to feel that way about an opportunity?

I’m sure you have prepared for the interview in the basic sense – printed fresh copies of your resume and slipped them into your classic portfolio, studied the company’s recent financial performance, spent some time at the website, laid out your clothes for tomorrow, vowed to remember everyone’s name, double-checked that your alarm clock is turned on and set for AM, not PM – that sort of thing.

The basics are basic because they provide a stage from which to deliver your best, Oscar-caliber work. Like an actor learning lines and blocking, basic research about a company, and basic understanding of interview stage directions, helps you provide marvelous answers to some of the test questions you may be asked, without wiggling or scratching yourself tellingly.

To be truly fabulous, of course, you must get beyond the basics, and ask yourself, “What’s my character? What’s my motivation?” Your character is Perfect Fit for the Job, and your motivation is to enter the interview with the confidence of a winner. Your goal is to make it look natural.

Whenever I have a particularly exhilarating meeting to look forward to, I go through a special enfabulizing ritual designed by my dog Dickie, who is the number two sales representative for the number two cosmetics concern in the Pacific Rim.

Dickie has developed a regimen involving facial, manicure, pedicure, makeover, and lots of strenuous exercise. Of course, I don’t actually do the exercise; I have People to do it for me. But the effect is just the same: I arrive at my important appointment feeling refreshed, renewed, and ready for anything.

You may or may not have a personal assistant like Dickie. But as you prepare for the big day, remind yourself why you are indeed the Perfect Fit for the Job. Become the character. Treat yourself to something special, and treat yourself as someone special. Everyone you meet is sure to see how fabulous you are.

Stay fabulous,
Annette