The only thing that might be more difficult to deal with than an interviewer who asks tough, probing questions is an interviewer who hasn’t a clue how to interview. You leave the interview feeling as if you ignited no interest, bombed the interview, and surely won’t be asked back. Where was the scintillating conversation? The professional give and take about the industry and your skills?
But if you’ve just met the person, how are you to know if they’re a lousy interviewer – or you’re a lousy interview? If you prepared for the interview, then you’ve an indication where the problem lies, because your preparation enables you to jump in and take control of those awkward moments.
I speak often about the importance of an interview being a two-way street. This not only means that you need to be interviewing the company as they are you, but that the company needs to sell themselves to you, as you are selling yourself to them. If the interviewer doesn’t have those sales skills, you need elicit the information.
More than that, if the interviewer doesn’t know how to ask questions to dig deeper into your capabilities and interest, you’ll need to tell him, lest the entire interview go by and you haven’t uttered a word. If that happens, the only thing still able to speak for you is your resume, leaving you no closer to being hired than you were when you walked through the door.Interviewers who ramble on and on ad nauseum about the company need to be re-directed before you begin snoring. Interviewers who don’t have the ability to speak about the company or the position should be prompted with your questions. Interviewers who are unprepared, or perhaps even forgot about their appointment with you, must be briefed –by you -- on your background, because they probably don’t remember your resume.
Lots of holes and awkward pauses in the conversation? If the interviewer doesn’t have the sense (or ability) to ask you what your skills are or why you’d be a great choice for the company, speak up and tell him. Toot your own horn. “I’d like to tell you about the time I put a winning proposal together under a stiff deadline, since the job we’re speaking of is also very deadline oriented.” That doesn’t mean talk non-stop, but it does mean don’t sit there and be uncomfortably silent for long periods of time.
Jump right in with the questions you came prepared to ask. What are the priorities that need to be addressed immediately? What’s a typical day like? How long has the interviewer been with the company? Why does he stay?
Don’t spend time thinking about how you wish he’d ask you a question. Don’t daydream or think about your grocery list. Listen closely to what the interviewer is saying. When he pauses for a breath or there’s a gap in the conversation, insert one of your finest sales points that relates to what he’s been saying. If he’s a non-stop talker, you’ll need to be alert for the spots in which you can take control. There may be only a few of them.
Other interviewers may ask questions, but stupid and unimaginative ones. “I see you worked at The Snappy Scissors Company. How did you like working there?” (“Um, I hated it. That’s why I left. Duh.”) Answer with what you learned while you were there, and remember not to disparage any previous employers. Resist rolling your eyes if they go through your entire resume this way or if you’re asked a Barbara Walters question: “If you were a tree, what type of tree would you be?”
Sometimes getting a bit of movement in helps. Ask for a tour of the building or offices. A tour provides focal points for questions and an opportunity for words related to why you’re there. Ask about the decision making time frame and if there are any other steps involved.
If you’re left without a clue as to how it went, or you rarely had an opportunity to open your mouth, ask if you can set up an interview with any others in the department or your interviewer’s boss or other decision makers in the company. Perhaps they’ll be a better interviewer!
Be patient with these inept people. Smile, and maintain enthusiasm. Whatever their interviewing skills – or lack thereof -- it’s possible they’ve had very limited interviewing experience. Speaking up and taking control of the interview may be the only thing that not only gives you the information you need, but saves the interview from being a total bomb.
They may be a bad interviewer, but they’re the ones that make the hiring decision. You can’t make a choice to accept an offer if you haven’t been given that choice.
Guest Expert:Prior to starting her firm, VisionQuest, Judi Perkins was a search consultant for 20 years in both the contingency and retained market, including a short stint in the temporary and local permanent placement markets. She has owned her own recruiting firm and successfully assisted numerous repeat clients in hiring all levels of management. She now shows job seekers the science and psychology of how to find the perfect job.
How to Deal with a Bad Interviewer
The Hidden Job Market - Find Yours
So many of my posts have been about where to find a job (as you would expect). But then I started thinking, what about the not so obvious places to find a job? You've heard the usual statistics "80% of all positions are filled without employer advertising" or "80% of all jobs are filled by referral" and finally "most job seekers find jobs through networking". Now there is some truth to this (although I'm not convinced about the statistics), and you should ensure you focus on this as one part of you job search strategy (hence this post).
- Unlocking the Hidden Job Market - This article, posted on Yahoo's Hot Jobs, not only covers the "80%" type quotes, but actually gives some pointers on how to tap into the hidden job market. The article talks about leads and contacts as well as some passive methods of tapping the hidden market.
- Step-by-Step Plan for Using the Internet to Go "Beyond the Want Ads" - Technically speaking, the hidden market are the unadvertised jobs. But it is much broader than that as it includes leveraging who you know (even if the job is advertised). This article is by jobstar.org and provides a 6 step process to find the hidden jobs. Great tips like focusing on a target industry or focusing on a particular position. The article provides lots of great advice as well as additional links to research tools.
- Psssst! I Have a Secret! The Hidden Job Market Isn't Really Hidden! - Finding the hidden job market just takes creativity according to this article by best-interview-strategies.com. The article provides information about where you should look and why. The strategy includes Networking, industry publications, specialty search boards and more.
- HIDDEN JOB MARKET SECRETS - Cold Calling Your Way into the Executiv... - Jobwhiz.com's take on tapping the hidden job market. The approach is slightly different than the other articles - the dreaded "cold call". The article provides 9 great steps to leveraging cold calling.
- Tapping In To The Hidden Job Market - So let's get to the point, the hidden job market by any other name is networking. This article, from one of my favorite career sites Secrets of the Job Hunt, focuses on that. The article combines cold calling with traditional networking (using who you know to meet who you need to know). A very good article and certainly worth the read.
Good luck in your search.
LinkedIn, Recruiters, and LinkedIn
LinkedIn, Recruiters, and LinkedIn
March 29th, 2010 | by Jason Alba |I read a great post with insightful comments about recruiters using LinkedIn. It is titled LinkedIn – Just How Good is it?, written by Keith Robinson. Some of the interest lines:
“when we use LinkedIn we find that at least 20% of LinkedIn profiles are essentially defunct…”
“at least 40% of their premium ‘inmail’ messages are not read by the intended recipients within a week of being sent.”
“[people] build their profile and wait to be found rather than use it as a networking tool.”
“whilst 45% of candidates say they regularly use LinkedIn, only 5% have actively responded to a job advert placed on social media sites like LinkedIn.”
“when we asked candidates to indicate how they would go about searching for their next jobs, hardly any said they would apply for jobs via social media sites.” I agree, since that is not the purpose or design of a social tool…
“so the lines seem to be clearly drawn, with social media being a means of researching firms and allowing oneself to be seen by headhunters… whilst job boards remain the places where candidates will actively head to seek out a new job.” I DISAGREE.
Read the comments for insights from recruiters.
In the other corner we have an article by Jessi Hempel on CNN Money/Fortune titled How LinkedIn will fire up your career. That is a long but insightful article about LinkedIn and using it as a career development tool. It is interesting to read that Accenture plans to hire 50k jobs, apparently 40% of them coming from social media. That is 20,000 people hired from social media… that’s amazing. The head of global recruiting, John Campagnino, says “This is the future of recruiting for our company.”
I disagree how the article says “Facebook is for fun. Tweets have a short shelf life. If you’re serious about managing your career, the only social site that really matters is LinkedIn.” Using just one site is a mistake, I think…. don’t discount other sites where you might encounter hiring managers, HR, recruiters, etc.
Go read the Fortune article… it provides a seemingly biased but optimistic picture of why and how LinkedIn SHOULD be a part of your career management strategy. It’s interesting to contrast the two perspectives – what camp do you fall in?
Five easy ways to improve your job search
First let me wish all my readers celebrating Passover this week a wonderful holiday, and don’t overdo it with the wine and matzo.
Now on to this week’s advice; searching for a job is a daunting experience and at the end of the day many job seekers feel frustrated and physically and mentally drained.
This is exacerbated by the limited number of new executive and professional jobs being created, the increasing number of job seekers now willing to relocate for a new position, and the lack of understanding by many jobseekers and new graduates on how to find a new job in this day and age.
So here are some hints:
1: Get an attitude adjustment; the glass is always half full and each day you are one day closer to success. To do this set up a formal job search strategy with realistic daily and weekly goals and stick to it.
2: Find a coach or someone to discuss your problems and fears with, answer your questions, and give you equal doses or encouragement and constructive criticism on how you are conducting your job search.3. Unless you feel your resume is perfect as is, have it reviewed and if need be edited or rewritten by a knowledgeable professional in a style and format that is easy to customize for the different jobs you apply for.
4: While unemployed become an avid reader of print and online business news and take copious notes of what and who is happening in your field and industry and who is making money and who are the people and companies on the move.
5: Then try contacting HR managers and decision makers at these companies directly or find ways to get referred from a trusted source. If this is not possible find their name and contact information by reaching out to current employees of the company with the available position using linked in, Hoovers or other networking tools that are available to you. Customize both a cover letter and your resume for this company and try and find a mutual connection to get it into their hand and if this is not possible find a creative way to do this.
Author:Perry Newman, CPC is a nationally recognized executive resume writer, career coach and social media strategist renowned for his ability to produce marketing documents and job search strategies that get results. You can view sample resumes at http://www.perrynewman.com/ and email him your resume at perry@perrynewman.com for FREE resume critique.
Telephone or Twitter-getting a hiring managers attention
Luckily Telephone or Twitter is not an absolute choice. You can use both in your job search campaign.
Over the past few months I’ve read several how to use Twitter for Job Search e books and articles. If you are not familiar with the concept, consider trying this link.
Twitter:
- is easy to use.
- has great utility in connecting with constituents fast.
- provides a great forum to demonstrate expertise as well as build your personal brand.
- is emerging as a job listing resource through tweetmyjobs, tweetajob and others.
That said, I believe Twitter is an example of marketing with soft engagement. (Email represents another soft engagement). What is soft engagement? Let me explain.
It is has simply become too easy to sit at ones desktop and Tweet (or email) all day. As a matter of fact, many power Tweeters, simply set up a series of timed scripts using Hoot Suite and other Twitter management tools. I view this type of activity as soft engagement. It has it’s benefits for brand building, but it really does not get at the crux of finding a new position. Getting hired requires real contact and engagement with hiring managers.
In my opinion, despite the growth of social media in recruiting efforts, the overwhelming majority of hiring managers, rarely read blind emails or mine Twitter for critical new hires. This is not to suggest hiring managers do not use Twitter. My point is that we are clearly in a time of electronic information overload. It is too easy to tweet or send emails. Since it is so easy to push information out, Twitter and email are getting more and more cluttered. They are loaded with useless information (including Spam), and folks with limited time, are not as engaged with these electronic communications as one might think.
Now contrast this with the telephone. Everyone has seen their communicating mediums shift over the last decade. Although I can not defend these statistics, I believe it is fair to state, the business community has flipped how they communicate from 80% phone, 20% online communication 10-15 years ago, to; 20% phone, 80% online communication in 2010. (These percentages are meant to be more illustrative than factual.) I believe, herein lies an opportunity for job seekers. Hiring managers are receiving less phone calls and less voice mails than you might think. Also, in general, my personal experience is that folks are picking up their phone more frequently than they did a decade ago.
Perhaps simplistic in approach, but I would strongly suggest you have a better chance of getting a hiring managers attention, to your candidacy, using the telephone than through electronic communication. If you call very early or very late in the day, you will even have a greater chance of getting them on the phone as opposed to voicemail. Yes, it takes a little more effort, confidence and drive to use the telephone, but I believe your personal return on investment will be greater.
If you are serious about finding work faster, do not hide behind the ease of soft engagement. Leverage all communication mediums, but please pick up the phone.
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I recently received the following email from a former Monster executive and thought it worth sharing with you.
I recently read an article in the NY Times which resonated with me because of the parallels I saw in packaging myself to prospective employers…and the value prop Career Brander delivers. The article, “The Muddled Selling of the President” (January 29, 2010) was about defining oneself (US presidents) to shape how others (voters, constituents, opponents) perceive you. The most effective leaders “have cultivated thematic definitions of themselves to shape the way their choices are perceived. A strong, clear narrative helps a president connect with voters and explain the journey he is leading. The lack of one invites opponents to craft a less flattering portrayal.” An image-maker also commented, “You’ve got to have a clear, easy to understand story.” Very relevant to the job search, especially in a fiercely competitive landscape. Here’s the link, if your interested in reading more or gleaning additional positioning ideas/statements:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/weekinreview/31stevenson.html
How to Find Your Job with Twitter Lists | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog
How to Find Your Job with Twitter Lists | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog
Twitter’s recently-launched Lists feature is an outstanding new tool that not only improves the overall Twitter experience by allowing you to organize and group the people you follow on Twitter, but that can also help you optimize your job search and personal branding efforts.Here are some top tips on how to find your job with Twitter Lists:Follow ListsCareer Search - The easiest way to jumpstart your job search with Twitter Lists is to begin following lists created by job search and personal branding experts. There are already a number of great lists out there that will help you filter out career search and personal branding advice and tips from the rest of the everyday Twitter “clutter.”Here are just a few lists that will help you get started:The Rocket List by yours truly, Chris Perry @CareerRocketeerGreat HR Recruiting Peeps by Mark Stelzner @StelznerJob Search Experts by Susan Joyce @JobHuntOrgCareer Experts by Rosa Vargas @ResumeServiceCareer Workplace by Lindsey Pollak @LindseyPollakPersonal Branding by Mohammed Al-Taee @MAltaeeCareer Coaches and Job Search by Jenny McClure @CincyRecruiterJob Postings by Cris Janzen @CrisJobCoachTop Job Bloggers by Jacob Share @JacobShareCareer News by WSJCareers @WSJCareersCareer Resources by Brent Peterson @InterviewAngel
How do you get hiring managers to remember you?
How do you present yourself to create powerful recall?
How do you improve your chances of the hiring manager thinking of you for an open position?
Recall diminishes over time, so a personal marketing campaign to ‘stay front of mind’ is critical. However, be sure your personal campaign includes in person contact, telephonic connections, and written communication.
Consider some generally accepted facts about human recall.
- If it is read, most people will recall 10-15%.
- If it is heard, most people will recall 20-25%.
- If it is seen, most people will recall 30-35%.
- If it seen and heard, recall jumps to 60%.
- If it is seen, read and heard, recall jumps to over 80%.
Now ask yourself, are you being seen, read and heard in your job search
Are you utilizing all the personal marketing tools available to be seen, read and heard?
Job Search Radar provides you with the daily business intelligence to execute a meaningful personal marketing campaign that can incorporate all three communication recall mediums.
Be read, be heard, be seen and you will find work faster.
