For example, one of my friends, who got a fabulous job at a biotech firm last year, told me that the interviewers said she got the job because she had superb questions….and great stories (in other words, she knew how to answer the questions asked her).

Recently there has been coverage of InterviewBest by bloggers and Business Week with I must say mixed reviews. Generally, people like the preparation it provides, don’t like the “taking control of the interview” the length, and think it is too expensive.

I am well aware I am trying to alter the traditional interview by empowering the candidate to provide more guidance in the interview. My belief is the interview is a sales process. I think it is important for a candidate be a good sales person and take responsibility for creating a conversation that communicates why they should be selected. The interview presentation is designed to do exactly that.

In addition, each section of the presentation is limited to only 7 items each of which is limited to 140 characters. The goals is to have the candidate use these items as visual talking points that create a conversation with the interviewer. The presentation portion of the interview can be done in 20 minutes or less which leaves enough time for the interviewer’s agenda. Thus, there is no hijacking of the interview and so far 100% of all interviewers have given permission for the candidates to use the presentation in the interview.

The whole pricing issue is a fascinating one. There are a number of people that say it should be free. There are others, mostly career professionals, that say if it is free it does not communicate it’s real value and I should be charging a lot more than I do. I think these pricing difference is based on delivering a service over the internet (it should be free) and the professionals perceived value of a career service which improves people’s chances of landing a job. Interestingly, a blogger who has written a book about landing a job thinks InterviewBest should be free (”no one should pay to land a job”) but is OK charging for her book. Both are job landing tools. To walk the middle line we are offering a 2 week free trial. After the trial people can decide the value for themselves and then subscribe for the period of time they need it.

Overall, my dedication is to helping people get a job they love and earn the money they deserve. Too many of my clients that were well qualified and good matches did not land a job because the interview process was broken. The 3000 interview books and the countless web sites with interview information has not fixed the 56 million interviews conducted in this country every year. I am hoping with time and refinement InterviewBest contributes to improving the interview process for both the candidate and the hiring company. I welcome any input and ideas people may have to improve the interview and InterviewBest.

Eric

TIP: Just leave the binder in the car.

There’s too much death-by-powerpoint in business these days. I’m not concerned about “lack of control” issues or anything. I actually think the best interviews feel like a conversation, but also include standard questions so that you can truly compare apples to apples.

Lou Adler at ERE had a great series of articles called “In Search of the Perfect Candidate” in which he suggests having each candidate prepare a brief 10 to 15 minute presentation on one of their biggest value add projects, from start to finish, with lots of Q&A in the middle.

- Chris

BTW-I’d hire the third person who showed up with a flash memory stick and politely asked to make a brief presentation covering their qualifications and experience. It shows s/he’s not gullible enough to buy a dumb service like InterviewBest.com.