Page 170 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

He said, ‘Well, I got you a latte, to be on the safe side.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘But did you get it with sugar or without?’
Very cleverly he came back with, ‘Which would you like?’ He’d
brought some sugar and a stirrer along with him.
All the way through the meeting, that incident stuck in my

head. Clearly he had thought about doing something a little out
of the ordinary. You usually walk into a meeting and are asked if
you’d like to have tea, co≠ee or water. But by bringing the drinks

in himself, he had turned the idea on its head.
It will add to your score if you can do something di≠erent
like that. The minute you can find the one thing that brings the
meeting – and you – to life, that is when you can show a glimpse
of your passion. Sometimes it can be very hard to be passionate

about yourself, so you need to discover the items, the triggers
that will raise your tempo.
Depending on the nature of the job, you could bring along to

the interview something visual that you have created, or articles
about your achievements. If you’ve made something, produced
something tangible, that always goes down well in a meeting.
I usually find that an interview held across acres of empty desk
can be rather stark.

You could bring in a prop to do with the company you are
visiting. If it’s a fashion company, maybe there’s a particular
garment that they have made. Or if the company produces

books or games, you could have an example of the product
range with you. The very fact that you have brought something
in with you will set the interview apart in the interviewer’s
mind.

158 get the job you really want