Things You Need to Know

Business Etiquette

Get Ready for the Interview Meal

July 29, 2009

The cover of this week’s Newsweek magazine proclaims, “The Recession Is Over!” Let’s all hope that the recovery will be strong and fast, with employers deciding to immediately reverse the lay-off trend of the past year.

Recently, I came across an interview with Carol Smith, senior vice president and chief brand officer at the Elle Group. When asked to disclose the tricks she uses to ensure she hires the right person, she referenced a technique that successful managers have employed for years: With serious candidates, she conducts multiple interviews and one of them takes place over a meal.

Why would the interview lunch or dinner be so important? According to Smith, “It’s like a little microcosm of life. How you order, what you order. How are they going to give instructions to a waiter? Are they sending the meal back eight times? Can they keep the conversation going, especially if you are hiring someone in sales? Are they asking smart questions?

Smith continued, “Throughout the meal, the personality comes out . . . . Are you going to connect with us? Are you going to be part of the team? Are you good with assistants? Those are the things you can find out in subtle ways when you eat with someone.”

Before attending an interview lunch or dinner, job candidates would be wise to brush up on some basic table manners. At a minimum, prospective employees should keep the following in mind:

As soon as the interviewer and job candidate are seated, connect socially. Job candidates should wait for the interviewer to raise job-related questions.
To ensure the interviewer is neither eating alone nor sitting with nothing to do, job candidates should order the same number of courses as their interviewer. If wait-staff approach the job candidate first, the prospective employee should feel free to order both an appetizer and an entrée.
When choosing from the menu options, job candidates should avoid ordering the most and the least expensive offerings.
Prospective employees should avoid foods that are difficult or potentially messy to eat. Any job candidate who has chosen to wear a white shirt or a white blouse, for example, invites disaster by ordering pasta with red sauce.
At an interview lunch, job candidates should skip alcohol altogether. At an interview dinner, if and only if the interviewer orders a glass of wine or a cocktail, job candidates may order an alcoholic beverage. Potential employees should stick with one glass of wine over a cocktail (the actual alcohol content will be several times less), and job candidates should nurse that one beverage throughout the entirety of the meal.

As Smith suggests, job candidates should also arrive at the interview meal armed with a number of questions that demonstrate their interest in the position and their ability to connect with others.