An Assault against Anxiety I had to answer technical questions. They were easy, and I
knew I had answered them right. The interviewer said I
answered them wrong. What do I do in a situation like that?
Sound familiar? If you’re an engineer or scientist,
you’ve very likely faced this type of scenario. It can be
unnerving! We’ll teach you how to answer the question
and keep your cool in Chapter 5, in the section on
“stress questions.”
Do I have to reveal how much money I made at my last job?
How and when should I bring up the issue of salary? We’ll
discuss every nuance of salary negotiations in Chapter 7.
Not only will you be able to handle salary discussions,
you’ll be able to master them.
How do I explain that I was laid off? There’s a simple way
to phrase information about a layoff that leaves you
blameless and dignified. It’s contained in Chapter 5.In addition to helping you float with ease in the shark-
infested waters of these common fears, the fearless interviewing
approach will do for you what most other books on the subject
fail to do, and that is to focus on mastering four categories of
questions and answers. Being prepared this way will enable you
to answer questions with ease and authority.
Strategy versus Memorization
Most books on interviewing treat each question as a separate
entity. For example, they may suggest 100 answers to the most
common interview questions, with the expectation that you
will remember whichever ones seem relevant when the time
comes. That’s fine if you have an encyclopedic memory, but a
strategy is even better. Fearless interviewing is an entirely new
approach to the process of interviewing that uses strategy instead
of memory.
You won’t be memorizing endless pages of interview ques-
tions, and I won’t be telling you the exact words to say. You won’t
have to memorize anything that doesn’t come naturally to you.
Instead, we’ll be learning strategies—basic principles that leave
you free to express yourself in the most comfortable way possible.