Up Your Interview Skills for 2017

Up Your Interview Skill for 2017

One evening during your job search you decide to go to a movie.  This is what you see.

Act I:  Guy and gal meet and makes a bad first impression. 

Act II:  The story unfolds.  

Denouement:  They end up together – or not.  

The next morning you resume your job search.

None of us know what the job market will look like in 2017.  If Donald Trump is able to keep his campaign promises, there’s a good chance that more people applying for jobs will find themselves actually being interviewed.  Although the jobless rate has had the most dramatic drop under President Obama since President Reagan, when you ask Americans how the economy is doing, their answers will likely largely depend on how their personal economy is doing.  If Trump can improve on Obama’s job legacy, we will see a lot more activity within a increasingly limited talent pool, including many who feel they’ve had to stay where they are since the recession to reestablish a record of stability, to assuage making a move from the frying pan into the fire, or for any other of a multitude of reasons.

If you are part of that talent pool, assuming you have the necessary skills and experience and, of course, a résumé that says you can probably bring a valued contribution to a new table, the chances are you will find yourself in an interview for a new job.  Guy meets gal; makes first impression.

Much has been written, including by me, on how to conduct yourself in an interview.  I have not seen much, however, on how important it is when you make that first impression to know yourself.   I am not referring to your job knowledge here.  I'm speaking about how well or how poorly you will relate to your interviewer.  In order to assess that we have to make some critical assumptions. 

1.  Both you and your interviewer have distinct and unique personalities.
2. Certain character traits (such as humility, assertiveness, boastfulness, daring, etc.) can and likely will be perceived differently by you and your interviewer.
3. While personalities are close to set in stone, you still have control over how you act and react in varying situations.
4. Your interviewer has an immediate need to fill a job and you could be the solution to his or her problem; therefore, your interviewer is looking for a reason to hire you, not reject you out of hand.
5. And finally, first impressions do count.  Again, notwithstanding your ability to do the job, will you be viewed as confident or cowering?  A contributor or a slacker?  A model for others or someone willing to step over others on the climb up? 

     Let’s examine some of the ways that your distinct and unique personality and the control you exercise over the way you act during an interview can impact your interviewer’s perception of you and how you might be seen as a fit for the job.  Keep in mind, this is not last night’s movie.  This is the next step in your career.   Here are some of the first impressions you might want to leave – or not.  As…

•  An Innocent:  You go into the interview acting like you don’t have a clue about the company or the job.  You don’t know who you will be meeting with or how to read what your interviewer is looking for, aside from your great talent.  Unless you are the only person on the planet who can do the job, GONG!  You blew it.  Innocence just tells your interviewer that you didn’t care enough about the job to do your homework.  If this happens to you, learn from it.  Get your head out of the clouds and understand that no job will be handed to you just because you showed up for the interview.

• A Victim:  You step through the door, sit down and start blaming others for the mistakes you’ve made throughout your career.  All of your job changes were the result of an unfair situation, a management change, a downturn in your market or a need to get away from the boss from Hell.  The hell of it is, it may all be, to a certain extent, true that you’ve been victimized.  But no one wants an “Oh, poor me” sad sack around to poison the moral of their staff.  You’ve just become the victim of your own self pity.  Also, keep in mind that people who view themselves as victims are also looked at as vengeful or litigious, neither being a desirable trait for a staff member.  What to do?  If you honestly believe that you’ve been repeatedly victimized or discriminated against, sit down and make an honest assessment of each of those incidents.  And honest, means adding in your own accountability here.  Create a subjective scenario for your previous job changes and identify steps you can take to prevent another repetition of your becoming a victim. And then let your interviewer know that you have been proactive in taking those steps.

• A Martyr:  If you are a martyr, you will let your interviewer know how you were the go-to guy at all your previous jobs.  You were the one solving everyone else’s problems, often to the point of neglecting your own role.  Like the victim,  martyrs’ careers are often filled with multiple job changes, which of course would never be their fault.  Their job histories are filled with drama.  What does an interviewer see when she recognizes a martyr?  Someone who, despite having helped others for apparently selfless reasons, is generally controlling and manipulative and has used these character traits to further their own careers by trying to make themselves look good to others.  Perhaps, someone who believes that others owe him for his contributions to their goals.  Don’t be a martyr.  It’s okay to let your interviewer know that you’ve helped others, been a mentor, assisted where you can, but martyrs tend to throw themselves on their own swords.  Let your interviewer know that your focus as an employee has always been on the company’s goals, not on your coworkers’ short term objectives.  Believe me, they won’t be giving you the credit you think you deserve.  If you have so much time on your hands that you can do that much for others, then you should have either been fired or promoted at that point. 

• A Cowboy:  The cowboy will saunter into an interview and proceed to explain how he did so much for his former employers by taking risks and in many cases, going against company policies and procedures.  The cowboy is always the hero.  He may have spent unauthorized funds on software that reduced the budget seeming in the end to save the day, but the fact is, he spent unauthorized money.  TV shows are abundant with police who stretch their authority to catch the bad guy, but cowboys, like TV police, are risk takers where risk taking is not always a well thought out and managed process.  Okay, so you took some chances and they worked out.  Now how do you present those.  First, don’t saunter.  You’re an employee, not an owner, and it’s not your investment at stake.  If your heroism has resulted in an accomplishment that you feel you need to share, focus on the result and explain how you came to believe it was necessary to take the steps you took.  Second, assure your interviewer that you understand companies have policies and procedures in place for a reason and that it would never be your intent to ignore them; that when trying to save the day, you would present your ideas to those who have the authority to and can help you carry them out. 

• A Gambler:  This person has far less regard for policies and procedures than the cowboy.  His eye is only on the payout and seldom on the odds.  If you know you’re a gambler, you shouldn’t be working for anyone except yourself.

• A Tyrant:  Now here is a person who’s “been there, done that,” no matter what it is.  He lives by the rules he established in another life at another company and will do it the way he believes it worked before.  He is stubborn, usually arrogant, micromanaging if in a position of leadership and if he doesn’t get his way using those traits, will likely display evidence of controlling, narcissistic behavior, create arguments within the group, including with his boss, will judge others as incompetent, and will round things out with temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way.  Employers don’t generally like to hire tyrants unless they are desperate to turn a bad situation around, even at the risk of making it worse.  The real problem with being a tyrant is that most of them don’t know or won’t believe that they are.  Oddly, many are inherently capable of presenting themselves at interviews without betraying their true natures.  And they can make amazingly strong first impressions.  So when it comes to tyrants, all I can say is employer beware.

• A Creator:  You sit down at your desk, review your project and then identify and implement a program.  You have difficulty just looking at a problem without your mind automatically seeking solutions.  If you were an artist, you’d be a master.  If you were a doctor, your practice would thrive.  That is as long as you have someone to manage the business side of things, because you’re just not a big-picture kind of person.  You are not materialistic and your understanding of the nuances of ROI are passive at best.  In most cases, creators do not even have an interest in moving up.  You simply want to do your job.  Interviewers love creators.  They are the source of most companies’ continued growth and ability to remain at the forefront of their industries.  The important thing for a creator during an interview is to present herself as just that.  She is not a saleswoman, she will not create a marketing program for her program or step into the limelight for its creation.  Most concerns by interviewers about creators are mitigated, fortunately, by the creator herself.  She generally knows where she wants to be and how she can make the best contribution to the company.  Creators, a word of advice:  Do not try to cross over into sales just because you know your product better than anyone else.  You’re liable to starve.

• A Warrior:  And here we have almost the exact opposite of the creator.  The warrior is the one with fire in the belly; with the eat what you kill mentality.  He is confident, but not cocky, focused, typically relationship oriented with excellent interpersonal and communications skills and are highly driven and self disciplined.  The warrior will walk into an interview, make immediate eye contact with his interviewer, shake hands firmly, and will retain complete control of his thoughts and his words throughout the process.  Warriors make top gun sales people and are quick to size up their adversaries to their own advantage.  Typically, a warrior is not a good-old-boy, back-slapping, loud type who is focused on the immediate transaction at hand, but someone who understands that warriors work best in a group and is looking to establish long term relationships, both with his employer and with his customers and clients.  Warriors are highly coveted in an active job market because interviewers know, nothing happens until a sale is made.

• A Magician:  Finally there is the magician.  Not in the sense that a magician can make things seem to happen, but that he actually does make things happen.  Magicians understand the bigger picture; they attract loyal staff like pulling rabbits out of a hat.  They know how to make liabilities disappear and profits reappear.  They are analytical; they make very strong leaders; they don’t like to sugarcoat things, including their own achievements, which, by the way, they make seem transparent, but which few except those they mentor will learn how to replicate.  Magicians can interview very well, but they do have a tendency to be candid with their interviewers.  If they know that the company’s sales were down last year, if they heard that its technology is behind, or its been bleeding employees, they will confront their interviewers seeking explanations.  And the last thing they want from those who are interviewing them?  Sugarcoating.  Magicians want to come in and fix problems, which they can only do if they know what the problems are.  Interviewers, a word of advice when speaking to magicians:  Be direct.  The only wrong answer to their questions is an evasive answer.  Many of these guys and gals are more motivated to go to work for you by how deep the doodoo is.  You want these people on your team.

     It is difficult for us to change who we are.  Many, especially under the stress of an interview, and depending on their own needs may try, but I would never recommend that anyone ever try to be anyone but who he or she already is.  What I do suggest, is that we take the time to try to really understand who we are before we interact with others, especially when the stakes are as high as your next job.  We may not be able to change our personalities, but we can exercise control over many of our traits, at least enough to get our points through to our interviewers that we are the individuals who belong in that position.   The end of your first impression is more important than its beginning.

     What traits do you recognize in yourself that could deter a favorable impression by a job interviewer? 

     If you were sitting on the other side of the desk, how would you want to see you present yourself?   

     How can you make yourself into that person, the one who will be called back for a second interview and will ultimately receive an offer – without altering who you really are?

Seven Solid Reasons Why You Should Return Recruiters’ Calls

If I had to take a gut stab, I’d say probably less than a third of professionals answer their calls anymore instead of letting them go to voicemail.  They’re on the phone, online, on break, maybe even on the toilet.  However their time may have been occupied at the time of the ring, there will come that moment when they will look at the blinking light and check their messages – and prioritize them:  Important and/or critical; possibly relevant but not urgent; and utter garbage.   And they will respond accordingly:  Call back now; maybe call back, time permitting; and message deleted.  Of those falling into that possibly relevant-but-not-urgent, call-back-when-time-permits, and a few of those even deemed utter garbage, it’s important to not dismiss calls coming from recruiters. 

Here are seven good reasons for listening carefully for those calls and returning them.

1.  Your job should not define your happiness.  You may be happy where you are, but your job, unless it is a true calling, should not define your happiness.  The contribution you make, the compensation you get for that contribution, the people you work with, the corporate culture that is a perfect fit, the loyalty of your team, and of course your loyalty to your company and probably more importantly, your boss and mentor can all be, if not fully replicated elsewhere, certainly offset by other factors.  Don’t rule out the possibility of a great opportunity.  It’s a return call, not an obligation.

2.  The call may not be for you.  There is a strong possibility that a recruiter is calling you for a referral.  A colleague who has been overlooked for a deserved promotion, a former coworker who was not fortunate enough to leave the job from hell that you left eight months ago, an up-and-comer you’ve been mentoring but who is not likely to move up without moving on, or a friend who is good at what she does, but is just doing it for the wrong company.  When a recruiter leaves you a message you choose not to return, you may be denying a deserving associate of the advancement he truly deserves.

3.  The value of a new network relationship.  Many of our jobs, especially those in areas where we rely on the growth rather than just the stagnation of our companies, depend on expanding our centers of influence.  Most executive recruiters are relationship oriented and understand the need to reciprocate with referral business.  Typically they are not looking to take a slice of your business, but would hope that the development of their new relationship with you would be as equally beneficial to them as you may well be centers of influence for them as well.

4.  Having a resource that specializes in your market and who can provide assistance to your firm in filling crucial openings.  The likelihood of a recruiter who specializes in the packaging industry or filling positions for insurance companies calling you if you’re a banker is remote.  Fewer and fewer recruiters are generalists.  When your company has an opening, a focused recruiter who is on top of his game in your field can offer suggestions on how to enhance a job description, prioritize a candidate’s qualifications or scale the compensation.  And find highly qualified candidates.

5.  It’s a good way to keep your thumb on what’s going on in your industry.  'Nuff said.

6.  The day may come… You don’t have a crystal ball and you can never know when, for any of a myriad of reasons you find yourself pounding the sidewalks yourself.  Downsizing, management changes, merger resulting redundancies, market swings, all factors beyond your control and none of which take into account your company loyalty, your top production skills and least of all, your needs.  Contacting just any recruiter isn’t the best idea.  If they don’t have an in-depth understanding of your market you can be sure they won’t have their collective ears on where the jobs are that you’re looking for.  Knowing the top recruiters in your field because you took the time to return an occasional call, having developed a pleasant phone relationship with one or two of them and having given them the time to know your own strengths will put you at the top of their radar when they have relevant openings.  In some cases, even though you need to keep in mind that a recruiter does not work for you, she works for her client, she may have come to believe in you as being highly placeable and take it on herself to promote you to her current and potential clients as a must-hire employee.  And finally,

7.  Don’t you find it rude when your targeted (as opposed to telemarketed) business calls go unanswered?

Ya' know, you never know when an opportunity will present itself.  

Dispelling The Myths About Your Job Search

Are you an out-of-work professional?  Been a while?  Or perhaps you are stuck in a job from hell and need to get out of there before you go postal.  Are you starting to feel sorry for yourself?  Maybe dejected, frustrated, overlooked, undervalued, discriminated against, even invisible?  Yeah, well you’re not alone.  The good news is, don’t panic, you can still get a job.  We have to dispel a few myths first, but before that, there are a few key questions you need to answer.  This is not a test and there is no right or wrong answer. 

• You NEED to go to work, but do you really WANT to?  Be nice to stay home and finish that novel, maybe finish that demo CD you wanted to get out, or get your work over to that uptown art  gallery.  Well if that’s what you really want to do, go for it.  I'm not the family you have to feed or answer to.  On the other hand, if you really want to join another accounting firm, help design the next energy efficient rocket booster or design the next tallest habitat for the wealthy, well that won’t be as easy, but you can do it.  Like most things in life, though, there may have to be some trade-offs, depending on the circumstances.

• Next, do you want to keep doing what you’ve been doing all along?  Or is it time to make a change.  The first is easier, that is if you’re good at it.  The second is more difficult, but if you aren’t good at what you’re already doing, and let’s say you’ve had eight jobs in the last ten years as a result of it, you won’t be any worse off looking for something you’re really good at.  It may be harder to get in, but there are ways.  We’ll discuss some of those later on – when I feel like it.  

• So depending on the answer to the last question, the next one would be, what are you really good at?  What do you bring to your next employer that your competition doesn’t?  Besides your hair style of course.  Oh, and your impeccable taste in clothes.  You will need to know yourself pretty well, perhaps make a conscious assessment of who and what you are, what you’ve accomplished in your career and how those accomplishments will add value to your next employer.  (Be careful here.  The answers do not include words or phrases like “dynamic,” “team player,” “ambitious,” “goal oriented,” or, heaven forbid, “out-of-the-box thinker.”)

• And finally, what are you willing to give up to go back to work?  You may find that you’ll need to make a lateral move, or even take a haircut on compensation.  Possibly you may be asked to relocate your family, or leave them for long periods of time.  Maybe you have to take a big step backward in title, or worse, start back in the mailroom.  You may even have to compromise your values, play politics, work in an industry that’s generally frowned down upon.  Long commutes, heavy traffic, too much travel, less benefits, these are all things you may need to consider having to some degree or another (360 to 0) sacrificing.

Before you accept, reject or negotiate an offer there is one thing and one thing only that you need and that’s an offer to accept, reject or negotiate.  Duh!  And before you can reach the point of holding that coveted document between your sweaty thumb and forefinger, you need to get rid of or confirm some preconceived notions, or as I prefer to think of those that you need to get rid of, myths.

First:  There is a tooth fairy. 

Not true.  And if you are out of work AND you want a job, don’t wait for a job fairy to leave one under your pillow, either, because there is none.  If you want a job you will need to get up, preferably in the morning,  get out of bed, shower, shave, curl your hair, whatever it is that you normally do when you go to work, and then go to work.  In this case, your work is looking for a job.  Your tools are a phone, a computer and a printer.  The only attribute required for this job is focus.

Second:  I don’t need a résumé. 

Also false unless you are so well known in your industry that the mere mention of your name requires dusting off the red carpet and rolling it out.  But if that were the case, why are you still looking for a job? And while I'm dispelling that myth, let’s include the next one here.  It is not true that you do not need to update your résumé until it’s necessary.  Your résumé should be a dynamic document during your career, if for no other reason than to keep track of your accomplishments so you can present them when your review comes around.  That way, when you really need it?  Like now because you’re reading this, it should never need more than a tweak to bring it up to date.  So if you don’t already have a résumé, do that now and then come back and finish reading this.  My feelings won’t be hurt.

Third:  I don’t need an action plan; I just need to Google my job title each morning.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.  You need to be game-ready.  In addition to your résumé, you should have a list of your accomplishments for each job you’ve ever held. This is NOT a list of your responsibilities. It should include an explanation of the exact role you played in each of them, the initiatives you took, the leadership you displayed and the decisions you made, perhaps under extreme pressure.  And each of these accomplishments should be footnoted with its contribution to your employers’ goals, preferably quantified in dollars to revenue, cost decreases, loss savings, time reductions, or however else you benchmark your contributions.  This is the value you bring to the table.  Next, you should also have a list of your skill sets. These would include things like software, advanced spreadsheet, database management, leadership, accounting, math, technical, personal and any other skills that are attributable to you.  And you should have a list of your own personal attributes.  Here you can use words like dynamic or out-of-the-box thinker, because no one is going to see any of these lists but you and your proofreader.  The purpose of these lists are to remind you of how good you are.  You need to know that, but in truth, you need to know your limitations as well. 

Fourth:  I’ll never get where I want to be without a degree.  I should have stayed in school and finished the curriculum.

The first statement is false and the second statement would require me to be judgmental.  I don’t know what might have necessitated your reason for not having earned a degree.  Not only that, I don’t care and at this point, neither should you.  It’s history now, and your work history is more meaningful right now, that part of your history which is contained in your résumé and your list of accomplishments.  There is a caveat here, though:  If dropping out of school can demonstrate that you are a quitter you may have to have a solid reason for having done so.  Previous job stability, however, can possibly mitigate that.  Of course, if your job history is such that you had left a series of perfectly good jobs for insane reasons on an almost annual basis, then you are right.  You will not likely get the job you want without the degree and you might want to go back to the start of reread the questions about what you want to do and what you’re willing to sacrifice for a job.  Or you could stay home and watch I Love Lucy reruns.  If you’re going to do that don’t bother reading the rest of this, it won’t help you at all.

Fifth:  I’m out of work; that puts me at a disadvantage.   

Again, false.  Being out of work for the right reasons is not a felony, hell, it’s not even a misdemeanor.  It’s just the way it is.  If the economy is in the toilet at the time, then it’s likely that you’re not the only candidate for a position who is currently unemployed and if the economy is strong, companies still fail or are acquired, jobs become outdated or unnecessary due to technology, functionality becomes redundant, corporate politics can force good people out, and ethical people do not like to work for companies that they know are involved in shady business practices.  Tons more of good reasons for being out of work.  The one thing you must do, however, as your unemployment extends, is to remain topical in your industry.  Know which companies have been acquired, which are making gains and any regulatory changes that may have recently occurred as well as current best practices.

Sixth: Nobody will hire a job hopper; I’ve had too many short term jobs. 

False, but partly true.  Granted, you will have some difficulty finding someone to get past your résumé on that one, so you may have to create a résumé that focuses extensively on your achievements and skills instead of your job history.  If the reasons for your moves were valid and your references strong, there are ways to overcome that particular obstacle.  Oddly, one of them is to not rely exclusively on your recruiters.  Basically, that’s because we get paid for bringing certain qualities to the table, one of which is stability so we’re often hesitant to submit candidates that can jeopardize our credibility with our clients. More to your concern, though, is that if I were to submit your résumé and have it rejected, my client may still be obligated to pay me a fee if you submit it directly later on.  So now, I’ve just muddied your waters, haven't I?  If you have a spotty job history, your best bet is to get in front of it, explain it without making excuses in your presentation and let your skills and accomplishments speak to your ability to do the job.  Of course, you’ll have to speak for yourself as to why you aren’t a flight risk.  But that’s doable

Seventh:  I need to give 110 percent to my job search. 

False.  First, there is no such thing as 110 percent.  Second, and more importantly, you don’t need to give more than 90 percent.  Otherwise you will burn out, become irritable, interview poorly and not have time for other things in life that matter, family, personal activities or your salt water aquarium tank. 

Eight:  If I can’t find the job I’m looking for, it must not exist.

False, unless you’re looking for a job in comptometer sales, as a switchboard operator, or a pinsetter at a bowling alley.  The fact is, you probably can’t find the job you’re looking for because it isn’t advertised most of the places you’re looking.  You will need to hear about it from a recruiter, or more preferably, through your own networking efforts and referral sources, or find it by searching potential employers’ job boards. 

Ninth:  It’s hard to find a job I’ll truly enjoy doing.

That’s a distinct possibility.  Be prepared to deal with it and look for something else.

Tenth:  But I need to take the first job that’s offered.  I’m out of work and cannot afford to turn it down. 

Yes, you may.  So?  You’re looking for a job aren’t you.  Of course, there are very definite reasons to not accept a job, depending on your state of mind, the state of your budget, and perhaps the state of your marriage.  But unless there is a compelling reason to take a step backward in your career, a reduction in pay, or work for a company where you will feel completely unmotivated to make a contribution, nobody is forcing you to accept an unacceptable offer.  Some tactical alternatives to having been out of work for too long might include consulting, temping or contract work to buy yourself more time to find the right, or at least a better, opportunity.  

Eleventh:  I don’t have the right connections in my industry to find a job. 

True, if you say so.  But if that’s the case, go it without the contacts and while you’re out there looking, make a new contacts.  Expand your industry and community networks by attending local business network meetings and job fairs, and expand your professional social network; put your brand out there on the World Wide Web.  Create a name for yourself. 

Twelfth: Finding a job is hard work. 

True.  And that bothers you, why?

Thirteenth:  I’ve only had one job for the last 15 years.  I don’t know how to interview. 

True.  In fact without preparation, few people do know how to interview.  We’ll talk more about that later.  But if you have an interview tomorrow morning, just remember a few simple rules. Do your homework on the company.  Shake hands firmly and make good eye contact.  Treat the interview seriously. Keep the interview conversational and ask questions.  Don’t make the interview about compensation or benefits. Don’t get so comfortable with your interviewer as to become personal or let your guard down. (He’ll be interviewing you the entire time you’re there.)  And last, don’t check your personality or your sense of humor at the door.  Just be yourself.

Fourteenth:  There is a job out there for me.  It’s just a matter of time.

True.  But how much time do you have?  You have the ability to shorten that time, difficult and frustrating though it may seem. 

Fifteenth:  I know I need to get out there, but there’s something I have 

to do first.  (My résumé needs to be re-tweaked.  I need to speak to my references again.  I have to read today’s newspaper to see which are the latest industries to have announced layoffs.)

That’s bullshit, but depending on who you are, it can become a self-fulfilling prophesy

Sixteenth (and finally):  I’ll never find a job!                 

True.  Not with that attitude.

So there you have the myths, and in some cases, the truths. 

Now go to work!