Acing the Interview: How to Ask and Answer the Questions That Will Get You the Job [Paperback]

Tony Beshara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 23, 2008

At some point, most people have been caught off guard by tough interview questions. This book helps readers take charge of the situation! In "Acing the Interview", the employment expert Dr. Phil called "the best of the best" gives job seekers candid advice for answering even the most unexpected questions, including: You really don't have as much experience as we would like - why should we hire you? How many hours in your previous jobs did you have to work each week to get everything done? What do you consider most valuable - a high salary, job recognition, or advancement?The book also arms readers with questions to ask prospective employers that could prevent their making a big job mistake: What would you say are the worst parts of this job? What are the major problems facing the company and this department? Why aren't you promoting from within? Taking readers through the entire process, from the initial interview to evaluating a job offer, and even into salary negotiation, "Acing the Interview" is a nononsense, take-no-prisoners guide to interview success.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The excellent book... includes a wealth of suggestions on how to walk out of an interview with a best offer." -Joyce Lain Kennedy, syndicated career columnist

Book Description

At some point, most people have been caught off guard by tough interview questions. This book helps readers take charge of the situation! In Acing the Interview, the employment expert Dr. Phil called “the best of the best” gives job seekers candid advice for answering even the most unexpected questions, including:

You really don’t have as much experience as we would like—why should we hire you? • How many hours in your previous jobs did you have to work each week to get everything done? • What do you consider most valuable—a high salary, job recognition, or advancement?

The book also arms readers with questions to ask prospective employers that could prevent their making a big job mistake:

What would you say are the worst parts of this job? • What are the major problems facing the company and this department? • Why aren't you promoting from within?

Taking readers through the entire process, from the initial interview to evaluating a job offer, and even into salary negotiation, Acing the Interview is a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners guide to interview success.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1 edition (January 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814401619
• ISBN-13: 978-0814401613
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tony Beshara (Dallas, TX) has been in the placement and recruitment profession since 1973 and is the president and owner of Babich and Associates, a job placement firm. He has appeared numerous times on the nationally syndicated Dr. Phil Show.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 69 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars He's a salesman May 22, 2011

By Mark Twain

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

He claims he's been a salesman of people for the past 30 years or so. He claims his ideas work 95% of the time. I interview hundreds of students per year for graduate positions. If anyone gave me the attitude or responses that this guys suggests, I'd hang up on them, or end the interview right then. His suggestions are over-cocky and overtly manipulative and pushy. I can summarize the book in a few sentences.

1. Call high-up people during work hours and demand an interview. If they don't take your call, keep calling as long as it takes without regard for annoying them.
2. When they pick up, say "I'm smart, hard working, confident, team player...." I hear that all the time. Everyone says it. It doesn't work. Tell me something about yourself, rather than throwing adjectives at me.
3. Immediately say "Should we meet tomorrow morning at 10am or is tomorrow afternoon at 3pm better?" If someone said this to me, I'd hang up. I don't need a new hire being so pushy and manipulative. I want someone that's going to do the job, not someone that's going to try to manipulate others to do the job for them.

There are some practice questions, but the suggested answers are very general, and suggest you to say positive things about yourself.

As I'm trying to switch careers, I spent some of my limited savings and time on this book. Fail. He's a pushy salesman, plain and simple.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Off-putting May 26, 2011

By J. Healy

Format:Paperback

The author spends a great deal of time coaching job seekers to push VERY hard for a piece of a potential employer's time, even if the person in question is not currently seeking an employee. He claims that this has met with great success in all his many years as a head-hunter.

That may be true for certain fields, where being pushy to the point of obnoxiousness is viewed as a virtue (sales, for instance), but in the research/medical field this behavior is a fast ticket to a slammed door in your face. No surgeon, doctor, or lab director that I know would take kindly to these sorts of tactics, and to be sure, they would be counter-productive for the unfortunate job-seeker who used them.

I pitched the book in the trash, wrote brief and informational letters to potential employers, followed up with ONE polite phone call, and landed 2 jobs with in 6 weeks. Neither of my new employers was actively seeking a candidate, by the way.

Respect and politeness pays.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Want to be a used car salesman? June 5, 2011

By AmazonShopper

Format:Paperback

First, I'm highly suspicious of the 5 star reviews as being shills; especially since they all sound similarly canned and the reviewers have reviewed nothing else. So, do you want to be a used car salesman? By all means, read this book. That's about the only job following the author's "tips" will get you. I gave up reading the book past page 100/300, because it's just constant repetition of "hard sell, hard sell, hard sell!!!!". The other 1 and 2 star reviews on this book are quite accurate. Encouragement to harass every single person you know for a job and use cold calling (sorry...the author prefers to call it "warm" calling) aren't going to lead to much success. Common sense says that annoying someone isn't the path to employment. The scripts provided are something you might expect to be given to door to door salesman who just can't take no for an answer. "You don't want to hire me, well let me tell you some more features about myself that will blow you away!"

Some of the advice given is useful in a general way, but trying to follow this book to the letter in applying for anything but a sales position is going to turn off a ton of employers. My guess is that the author has no experience getting people technical jobs.

Here's a representative example from the book. Would you hire someone who gives the author's suggested response?:

Interviewer Question:"Have you ever "failed" in a job?"

Author's Suggested Response: "Well, I'm like a ballplayer that never really lost--he just ran out of time."