CASE 1: BAD DAY AT THE INTERVIEW Upon graduating with a Business Administration degree five years ago, Jessie

Ma had worked as business development officer in a public relations company. She then applied for the position of senior public relations executive with Orient Associates, a multinational advertising company. Jessie was informed that she had been shortlisted for the second round of interview on the following week with the general manager, Mr. Lee. On the day of the interview, Jessie waited for an hour before Mr. Lee was available to see her. Mr. Lee arrived with another person whom he only introduced as Mr. Tan. Mr. Lee told Jessie he was going to dispense with pleasantries and that he would be frank and straightforward. He asked Jessie why she thought she was qualified for the position of senior public relations executive. Before she could answer his question, Mr. Lee listed a string of reasons why he thought Jessie was not suitable for the position. Among the reasons he cited were Jessies relatively young age and lack of advertising experience. Also, she would have problems dealing with the pool of senior sales and marketing executives due to a lack of direct industrial experience pertaining to the company. Initially Jessie wondered if Mr. Lee had specifically chosen an offensive tactic to test her responses. But when Mr. Lee declared that he was willing to pay her only RM2,000, she was certain Mr. Lee was completely clueless: about this interview. Jessie had already stated in her application letter her salary expectation which was between RM3,000 to RM3,500 per month. The marketing manager had told Jessie in the first interview that her salary expectation was reasonable for the position applied. Jessie felt that she was not treated fairly as an interviewee. She told Mr. Lee he should have checked the particulars before any interview and should not waste the candidates time if he had no intention of meeting the salary expectation. Mr. Lee was embarrassed and quickly asked who had interviewed Jessie previously. Immediately, he flipped through Jessies resume and told her he actually had another position in mind for Jessie. Jessie was even more puzzled by this remark than the earlier hiccups. Jessie had made up her mind not to work for this company even if she was selected.

QUESTIONS: a) What preparations are needed for an employment interview such as the one described above? In your opinion, what could Mr. Lee do differently in the interview?

b)