Page 143 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

7. PoWeR

Once you are in the interview, you may find your interviewer

is enjoying the sense of power that they automatically gain
by being in charge of selecting who is going to get the job on
o≠er. They will try and push you o≠ balance to make sure that

their power is unchallenged. Your mission, should you decide to
accept it, is to know and understand the logic behind the usual
tricks of the trade – and believe me, most of them are as old as
the hills – and turn them to your own benefit.
Some of these tricks are quite predictable. The interviewer

might choose to sit in an executive chair behind his or her desk.
You, the interviewee, end up having to squat awkwardly on a
low, soft chair. It’s not very subtle.

The first, and most important, response is not to let
something so blatant get to you. Then try and come up with a
displacement activity. If there is a meeting table in the o≤ce,

131 power