The purpose of a job interview is a job offer.

If interviews were not important, we would not have them. But most physicians have little real experience with employment interviews. I've seen data suggesting that, while the average person has 8.8 jobs in the course of a career, the average physician may have only two or three. (Physician executives will naturally have a higher number than clinicians.) Of course, you may have competed for a spot in a select undergraduate college or in medical school or for a residency assignment, but essentially you were being judged on your credentials--transcripts, recommendations, just words on paper, statistics, a record without a personality. And personality is, quite frankly, what it's all about. When, as a search consultant, I bring a slate of physician executive candidates to a client for the final interview process, I have already determined that (on paper) any one of them could do the job, and do it well! Each is qualified to take on the responsibilities and succeed. So why do we have to interview anybody at all? Because of an intangible: Chemistry, that interaction of personalities that makes one person "click" while another "thuds" or "clangs" in a situation. The client chooses the person, not the piece of paper. Another way to look at this is to consider the other end of a work experience--when someone leaves. Think about why people are actually fired from a position. It's almost never for incompetence or mistakes. If they love you, they'll cut you a good deal of slack. I find that most people are fired because there was a breakdown in the relationship. It's that intangible, the personal fit and chemistry.

Mastering the Interview Process

It is necessary, at whatever stage of your physician executive career you now find yourself, to master the fine art of the employment interview. To help you do that, here's a rule, almost a law of nature, that you must take to heart: The sole purpose of an employment interview is to get a job offer. Everything you do in the course of an employment interview--beginning with your first contact with the search consultant or the organization itself--must move you forward to your single, essential goal of getting the job offer. Anything else is an irrelevant distraction.

Once an offer is extended, then it's time for you to decide whether or not to accept it. Sounds simple, but I have seen many physician executive's plans stumble because they reversed the order, trying to decide about accepting before they got offers. It can't be done. The individual with the job to offer just won't cooperate.

Getting to Your Goal

And how is that goal accomplished?

* Do Your Homework. Spend time and effort getting to know the organization. Have a sense of their strategic direction and be able to tie your philosophy of management into it. Be able to share how you have successfully met similar challenges. Have valid questions, and be sure to ask them. Tap into friends, colleagues, organizational contacts--as far afield as you like. You can't know too much about the organization, and you can't err by trying to understand it. You flatter them, in fact. It's the aloof, stand-offish, "don't tell me much" type of individual who will not do well in an employment interview.

* Have a Sales Presentation Approach. An interview is actually a mutual sales presentation--you are selling yourself, and the organization's representatives should be selling their place to you. You'll try to match your background to their needs, pointing out how what you know can be of real value to them. More, you need to gather information that lets you recap periodically in the course of the interview. "So, you're saying you need xyz; that is my area of greatest experience and strength." These little "sound bites," scattered over the course of a lengthy employment interview, let the interviewer know you are listening and putting yourself into the role.

But don't be fooled or overestimate how well you are doing just because an interviewer says, "You'd be working with xxx people" or "We want you to do xxx." You must not conclude from such statements that you have a job offer. This is language people use when they are "trying you on" mentally; it is not to be taken more seriously. Until you have an offer, you don't have an offer!

* Ask for the job. While doing this might make some physician executives very uncomfortable, it can be a sincere and memorable statement. It's not pleading or begging. It simply lets them know you are very interested in getting the job offer.

* Stay in the sales mode. Don't abandon the sales presentation mode until you have achieved the offer (or been told "thanks, but no thanks"). They can find out about your minor flaws in time; for now, let them see only your perfection.

Perhaps the best way to learn how to present your polished self is to spend some time and money on the services of a career counselor. For an investment of a few dollars, this objective, observant, experienced individual will tell you his or her perceptions of your strengths and weaknesses and offer suggestions for improvements. It's a wise expenditure at any time, but particularly when you are entering the employment marketplace.

Mary Frances Lyons, MD, is an Executive Search Consultant with Witt/Kieffer, Ford. Hadelman & Lloyd, St. Louis Mo. If there is a career management issue that you would like to have addressed in this column, please fax a description of it to Dr. Lyons at 314/727-5662 or to the Managing Editor of the journal at 813/287-8993.