The Claire Underwood Interview – How to get the job!
In season two of House of Cards, Mrs. Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) and Vice President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) are consolidating their power and in turn taking over Washington. In need of a new press secretary, Mrs. Underwood conducts a very brief but successful interview with her soon to be press secretary Connor Ellis (Sam Page). Can you imagine interviewing with anyone more intimidating than a sociopath like Mrs. Claire Underwood?
What happens in the interview illustrates what every woman professional should accomplish in an interview.
Right from the start, Mrs. Underwood wastes no time. She starts by asking, “why should you be my top choice for press secretary?” The candidate (Ellis) immediately challenges her with a question as to how she and her husband will be conducting themselves and what message they want to convey to the pubic. The candidate is in turn interviewing Mrs. Underwood and making the interview more about her needs, goals and objectives. Ellis then takes that information from her answer and describes ways and examples of how he would help Mrs. Underwood reach those goals.
Mrs. Underwood then asks, “where did you grow up?” Ellis quickly fires back, “Texas, just like you.” Ellis again makes the interview more about Mrs. Underwood. Ellis points out that although he is from Texas, his accent was not as thick as hers used to be. Mrs. Underwood responds, “how did you know I had an accent?” At this point Mrs. Underwood begins to smile and starts to take a liking to Ellis. Ellis explains that he watched a video of a speech she gave when her husband was running for state assembly back in 1986. Again Mrs. Underwood is flattered that Ellis watched the speech. She asks, “where did you find that speech? Is it on the Internet?”
Ellis responds that the video of the speech was not on the Internet. He had to drive down to South Carolina, go to the local TV station and sift through their archives in order to watch the video. Mrs. Underwood was clearly impressed that Ellis would go so far out of his way just to watch a video. Ellis responded to Mrs. Underwood by saying; “when I want the job, I do my homework.”
Ellis was able to accomplish four things in the interview. One, Ellis was able to learn what Mrs. Underwood’s goals and objectives were. Two, Ellis showed how he provided a solution to her needs. Three, he flattered Mrs. Underwood by knowing something about her that she did not expect him to know. Four, he closed the interview by asking for the job. “When I want the job, I do my homework.”
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