Yesterday, someone I know went for a job interview. They've been interviewing over the past two years and never can seem to get past the first meeting.

So this time he was going to make sure he was prepared.

I asked how the meeting went and this is what he said:

"I was asked questions I didn't have answers for and so I am not sure how well I was perceived."

I thought back to some of the interview questions I've been asked over the years and see how frustrating that could be. I was once asked what type of vegetable I thought I was and why. (See my answer at the bottom of this post)

"What were you asked?"

"Two questions really stumped me," he said. "The first was, what would you change if you came here and the second was, how do you define success?"

Now I realized the first question, at first blush, might seem impossible to answer not having worked there as of yet. But what were they really asking?

1. Have you done any research about our company, our industry, our competition to have an educated guess as to some opportunities for improvement?
2. What special skills will you be bringing to this job and how might you put them to work in our company?

The second question: how do you define success - we should all have an answer for.

Now I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but the fact that ready answers were not available for what I would define as pretty basic questions, leads me to guess that there won't be a 2nd interview.

So now I ask you: how do you prepare for an interview? Whether you are selling yourself for a new job or selling your services with a potential prospect - we have to be prepared with thoughtful, intelligent answers to some of the more basic questions. We have to do our research. We have to put ourselves in the shoes of those interviewing us and think "what is important to them and what might they want to know about me and what I bring to the table."

So how do you prepare for a selling opportunity? Do you have basic questions for which you've crafted answers?

What are the odds this person will receive a 2nd interview opportunity?

What vegetable am I? A radish. Red and with a bit of bite. Nuff said.