The Interview Answer: 10 Essential Tips for Acing Your Job Interview

You’ve filled out the application and provided a professional resume. Now you’ve finally received the phone call you’ve been waiting for. You’re scheduled for an interview at that company where you’ve been hoping to get your next job. So now what?

For many of us, this is the most anxiety-provoking part of the job-hunting process. It can seem like interviewers are determined to trip you up, asking trick questions designed to catch you unprepared. But in actuality, good interviewers are just looking for a specific set of traits—ones that can be broken down into three Cs: Character, Competence, and your Chemistry or compatibility with the company’s people and culture.

Throughout her forty-year career, author Patricia A. Flaherty has worked in senior HR leadership roles for some of the biggest companies in the world. Now, in The Interview Answer, she provides a straightforward, user-friendly guide to coming up with the right answers—and questions—to make your best qualities shine.

Featuring ten valuable tips for interviewing well, with plenty of example questions and answers, this essential guide for jobseekers everywhere will let you know exactly what potential employers are looking and listening for, so you can ace that next interview.

Having held a number of senior leadership positions in her forty-year professional and corporate career, Patricia A. Flaherty knows what it takes to land the job of your dreams. Most recently, she retired from the Ford Motor Company, where she held dual roles as the global Director of Ford Learning and Development and Ford HR Strategy.

In her time at Ford, she was responsible for leading professional development efforts for all Ford employees, from new hires to senior executives, and she helped formulate the behaviors that Ford candidates are assessed against during the interview process. Post-retirement, Flaherty served as a consultant for the development of Ford's best-in-class talent acquisition strategy.

Flaherty is the president of PF Enterprises, LLC. A married mother of three grown children, she currently provides consulting, speaking, coaching, training, and volunteer services for a number of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.