I thought this was going to be about actual 'gifts'.
I haven't interviewed for a traditional job in a long time, but I sometimes used to bring something with me - milk and cookies, brownies, flavored popcorn, etc - as a bit of an icebreaker. I didn't always do it, but it helped to keep things a bit more casual, sometimes gave the others in the group something to snack on while a couple others of us would have a discussion, and what not.
In one case, I brought some milk and cookies to a smaller company, and it happened to be the owner's birthday. He was pleased as punch. :)
That's what I thought too when I saw the title. I didn't think anyone brought actual gifts to interviews, but it's cool to know that someone has! I wonder if anyone would have a negative reaction to bringing actual gifts.
I've never had a 'negative' reaction - the receptionist who saw me at the milk/cookies interview didnt know what to do with me, so she took the milk to the break area, but that was it.
A small tray of cookies (milk's too hard to do) or popcorn (we have palsiespopcorn.com right near the house - easy to pick up), I've found, is generally a nice icebreaker, especially if you have an afternoon interview.
I've also found these to be a really nice thing to bring to new consulting projects for kickoff meetings - few people ever turn down a piece of fudge :) I don't do it all the time, but enough to keep people happy.
It's a lot of work to spend 12 hours researching a potential company, especially if you're applying to multiple positions. But I guess whoever is hiring you will know that you're committed and passionate about the position and company.
For all but new job hunters, you should have a decent grasp of the market you work in already.
For some type of work, it's a bit different - for web work, you may know the web scene pretty well, but nothing about the insurance industry. If you're going for a web job at an insurance company, getting familiar with the industry some will help a bit, but probably not too much during an initial interview.
I had one case where I knew more about the industry the interviewing company was in than the person interviewing me, and I had to bite my tongue and not correct him when misstatements were made. In other cases, there was little I could glean from the company about what they actually did, so it was hard to research too much, and my assumptions ended up being wrong. I'd tried, and they appreciated it, but I didn't actually know much about that industry (got the job anyway). Maybe just because I'd tried that swayed the decision? Dunno...
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[ 5.1 ms ] story [ 25.0 ms ] threadI haven't interviewed for a traditional job in a long time, but I sometimes used to bring something with me - milk and cookies, brownies, flavored popcorn, etc - as a bit of an icebreaker. I didn't always do it, but it helped to keep things a bit more casual, sometimes gave the others in the group something to snack on while a couple others of us would have a discussion, and what not.
In one case, I brought some milk and cookies to a smaller company, and it happened to be the owner's birthday. He was pleased as punch. :)
A small tray of cookies (milk's too hard to do) or popcorn (we have palsiespopcorn.com right near the house - easy to pick up), I've found, is generally a nice icebreaker, especially if you have an afternoon interview.
I've also found these to be a really nice thing to bring to new consulting projects for kickoff meetings - few people ever turn down a piece of fudge :) I don't do it all the time, but enough to keep people happy.
For all but new job hunters, you should have a decent grasp of the market you work in already.
For some type of work, it's a bit different - for web work, you may know the web scene pretty well, but nothing about the insurance industry. If you're going for a web job at an insurance company, getting familiar with the industry some will help a bit, but probably not too much during an initial interview.
I had one case where I knew more about the industry the interviewing company was in than the person interviewing me, and I had to bite my tongue and not correct him when misstatements were made. In other cases, there was little I could glean from the company about what they actually did, so it was hard to research too much, and my assumptions ended up being wrong. I'd tried, and they appreciated it, but I didn't actually know much about that industry (got the job anyway). Maybe just because I'd tried that swayed the decision? Dunno...