Impressive Interviews: Your Pocket-Sized Personal Interview Trainer

Australian Journal of Career Development, Autumn, 2008 by Julie Farthing

IMPRESSIVE INTERVIEWS: YOUR POCKET-SIZED PERSONAL INTERVIEW TRAINER

Deborah Barit, Leichchardt: A&A Book Publishing, 2007, 108pp., ISBN 978-0-9803523-0-6

This compact and practical 'how-to' book covers some key essentials which will assist the job candidate whose interview is imminent and who needs to come to grips quickly with the process. People who would make best use of the information and practical exercises would include those who have been out of work for a while, career changers wanting to move to a new industry at an entry level, and secondary school students looking for their first job.

In relation to the work of career development practitioners, I would recommend Impressive Interviews as a complement to one-on-one or group work with clients who are seeking work in blue-collar industries or low-to-medium level white collar jobs. The language is clear, the delivery is no-nonsense and it drives a few important points home rather than complicating the message with 'what if's' and attempting to deal with the myriad exceptions to rules that characterise the majority of actual interviews. The anthropomorphic bird illustrations add a fun element and help to reinforce the message that this book is aimed at younger people and applicants for lower level positions.

As Barit illustrates in the subtitle as well as stressing in the introduction, her little book is not intended to provide detailed explanations; nor does it address specific industry or other conventions, which makes it less useful for professionals, executives, graduates, or those wanting to advance in their industry. This is not to say there is no relevance to these groups at all; the paragraphs that discuss ways to overcome 'insider disadvantage', for example, are insightful.

If used as intended, with the reader following up the information provided in each chapter and then practicing the exercises, it should make the uninitiated or hitherto unsuccessful interviewee feel more attuned to the purpose of job interviews, and the ways in which recruiters and employers view and compare candidates. Of course, as with any minimalist work there is no way of dealing with the unusual or the unexpected, which is why I would recommend it as an adjunct to coaching rather than as a replacement for it.

Warnings are peppered throughout the book that the reader must 'not skip this chapter', just in case he or she is tempted to race to the finish line. As this is such a small book, I found it a bit dictatorial to be constantly reminded that I needed to remain attentive.

Barit's background is interesting to say the least and she is obviously passionate about her work, which includes training job seekers to do well in interviews. She knows what she is talking about, and her conversational style throughout the book assists the reader to have confidence in her words--you really do feel Barit is talking directly to you, an affect that is not easily achieved, and one that added to my reading pleasure.

It is impressive that Barit avoids the trap of immediately jumping into 'answering questions' and when she does address this in Chapter 7, she stresses that there are no 'right' answers to be learned and rehearsed. As we in the career development industry already know, there is much more to the interview process than just answering questions; in preceding chapters there are some useful tips to help the job candidate to think like an employer, create a good first impression, maintain a good demeanour throughout the interview, use language appropriately, 'own' the interview, undertake research and sell his or her skills. The extravagantly titled chapter on 'everything you need to know about interviews ... and then some' is an overstatement, and I couldn't help wondering why Barit openly contradicted her earlier assertion that this was not a 'tell all' book. This chapter (with a less ambitious heading) would have provided an excellent introductory chapter, setting the scene and describing a range of possible scenarios, but it falls far short of providing all the information one can benefit from having.

This book is self-published by Barit, and whether this is important to the reader or not will be an individual matter. Certainly, for a whole range of reasons, more and more authors are deciding to avoid the traditional publishing route, and undoubtedly there will be an increase in such texts coming up for review. One of the dangers of self-publishing is that an author can decide that he or she is the ultimate expert. There is less accountability in self-publishing and there is certainly no compulsion to have a manuscript read and assessed by one's peers. This can potentially lead to one-dimensional viewpoints. What is worse, these opinions can be too easily viewed by the uninitiated as definitive.

While I am mindful of not letting my personal biases make this review too subjective, it would be irresponsible not to highlight obvious inadequacies. With this in mind, and without being overly judgemental, I feel that it would be remiss of me not to highlight a couple of areas where I found myself in disagreement with Barit's assertions.