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How to interview for an executive position

Your resume' is solid, and you've got the work history, it all comes down to the interview.

If you perform well, you won't get the job. All of the other candidates for the executive position are going to perform, you have to answer the one question that the president, or board of directors wants to hear. "If I hire you, will I be able to sleep at night knowing my company is in good hands.".

You don't have to know everything.
Every business is different, and the person hiring you is well aware that you don't know everything. Studying for an interview in an executive roll should be minimal. Yes, you should know a little about the company, and you should probably have some experience with their products or services, but it isn't a deal killer. Don't be afraid to say you just don't know.

What do they want?
The president, vice presidents, and board of director members want to know that you can handle yourself in an emergency situation, first and foremost. Up to a certain point, your paid on how much you know, and how hard you work. When you become an executive your paid on how broad your shoulders are, and how well you think. And it's not thinking on your feet and snap decisions they're looking for. That can be left to the managers and directors. An executive needs to make decisions based on logic, and research.

So how should you prepare?
By doing the same thing you would do if you already had the job. Thinking and analyzing. What type of questions are they going to aks, to make their decision. This is important because you're going to go through two levels of questions. The first are just to asses your knowledge of the business segment. This isn't make or break stuff, it's just level setting. They want to see how you compare with the other candidates. The big questions will more than likely revolve around your business philosophy, and how you handle adversity.

Here are a few sample interview questions that a CEO or COO might be asked:

What would you do if you lost a key employee?
If this hasn't already happened, you're really lucky. The correct answer is, I try to put myself in the position of not losing key skills. What I mean by that, is I don't pay them whatever they demand, I just try to round out my staff so that if one person leaves, we have breathing room to find the right replacement.

What would you do if we lost our biggest customer.
In this situation you immediately follow up with a question of your own. I would ask, "Is it a done deal? First we need to know if the customer can be salvaged, so I'll approach it from that standpoint, and then I'd like to follow up with what I would do if we couldnt' get the customer back on board."

If I couldn't get the customer back, I would immediately meet with the top sales people and marketing people and put the word out that we need to replace the business. I'd make sure that they didn't just jump in and try to grab any customer with lower prices or otherwise bad deals. I think the key in a situation like that is to react calmly, and to take a few days to come up with a plan of action that isn't just running around in panic mode.

What are your goals?
This is really a trick question on some level. If you're going to be paid a high six figure salary to run a business, and you've been entrusted to make very high level decisions, no one really cares what your personal goals are. Your goal is to make the company more profitable. As profitably increases, your compensation will increase. This is the language that people who hire executives understand.

Before I summarize I should make clear that an executive position cannot be determined by the title of the job alone. A director at a very small company could probably be considered an executive position. Within a larger company the director is the essentially the liason between executives and management, as well as the project manager of the projects. The way you answer these questions truly depends on whether or not you are actually interviewing for an executive position. Banks and other financial companies have lately taken up the practice of handing out Vice president titles like candy.

The summary:
If you've made it through the phone and resume' process, the interview is always the hiring lynchpin for executives. For technical people, or other employees where skills and experience are key, the interview is generally just a validation process. For an executive, the interview is the decision making process..

The John Galt approach to business.

Managing difficult People