You’ve earned your new diploma or just completed your post-doc. You’ve polished your resume, gotten your hair cut, and bought a new pair of shoes for your first round of interviews. You’ve read up on interviewing techniques. Maybe you’re even feeling a bit confident.

Then comes the moment of truth—when you look across the table at that recruiter, wondering what is going on in his or her mind. What do recruiters know that you don’t? Here’s your chance to get the inside track from someone who has recruited for a top corporation.

The advice and information I wish to share with you are not secrets. This information is just a mix of common sense and an understanding of the supply and demand considerations recruiters weigh every day.

The recruiter

A good recruiter has only one goal in mind during a face-to-face interview—to obtain the most accurate and positive information possible on each interviewee. Recruiters don’t try to derive “bad” information. They prefer to evaluate students on their positive attributes. Besides, the job of a campus recruiter is usually to recommend which students should be invited for an on-site interview, not to determine which candidate should receive a job offer from the company.

Put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes. You’re looking to hire good people with the type of background and training your company needs. What qualifications would you look for? Would you hire you?

Remember that the recruiter might have as many as 16 interviews that day. So, while the interviewer wants to help you, it’s important for you to help the interviewer. How? By presenting yourself as a well-prepared, well-educated candidate who can convincingly and succinctly present him- or herself.

Set the stage with a good first impression

All the suggestions you’ve heard are important: Dress for a job interview, not a date; make eye contact with the recruiter; and develop a firm handshake. Why? It’s human nature; the recruiter’s first impressions of you can be powerful factors in how you are perceived and rated overall.

These subjective, and usually unconscious, evaluations alone will never get you a job offer. But, they could hinder you from getting beyond the on-campus interview. So, do yourself a favor and get the basics right.

The flow of events

The campus interview is one in a series of steps in the recruiting process. First, you develop a resume to help you obtain a face-to-face interview. Second, you participate in a face-to-face interview on campus, your objective being to obtain an on-site or plant visit. Finally, you visit your potential employer, your objective being to receive a specific job offer. Remember at each stage what your goal is—to reach the next stage.

Throughout the process of finding a job, you must conduct yourself in a professional and courteous fashion. This includes filling out the application form completely, being on time for the interview, being prompt with correspondence and in returning phone calls to companies, meeting deadlines as often as possible, and asking for decision extensions only when they are really needed.

The on-campus interview

While every recruiter and employer handles the interview in his or her own way, there are four basic questions the recruiter wants to answer:

1. What job does the candidate want?
2. Can the person do the job?
3. Will the person do the job?
4. Will the person be compatible with the existing team?