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Interviewing Tips from the Experts
Interviewer: Are you questioning your questions?
When on a career search it is commonplace for a career seeker to look at the process with the overarching theme of “I’ll get this job if they really want me”, but there is an interesting reality in this relationship that few interviewers diligently embrace: you may get this job if you show that you really want them.
Obviously, good employers hire proactively based on skill set and the experience necessary for a role but when it comes down to multiple candidates who possess those elements the intangibles will be the deciding factor. Amongst those intangibles are a desire and passion to work at the chosen organization. The communication of this element could lead you or your competition to landing that dream job so let’s look at best practices to gain you an upper hand.
The portrayal of passion to work for an organization you are interviewing starts early on in the interview process. You must have done diligent research on the organization and gone beyond just looking at their website. Utilize the many resources available including social media, publicized employer reviews and your personal network to gain greater knowledge base to draw conclusions on employer culture, strategic decisions, leadership and market positioning.
Once you have these assumptions bring them up wisely in the first set of interviews by the questions you ask. The questions a candidate asks in the interview says as much about them then how they answer questions. The beauty of this is that you will have the ability to develop the questions prior to the interviews.
Most candidates anticipate interview questions and prepare answers, which is great, but the candidate that preps the right question will have a hand up on their competition for that dream job. Don’t hesitate to write these down and take them with you into the interview. Doing so portrays professionalism and preparedness – two desired traits for any job you will be interviewing for.
The questions you ask and the answers you receive about the organization will be the foundation to selling them on the fact you really want to work there. You can cater your selling points as the ideal candidate in further correspondence based on the info gathered from the high end questions you have prepared.
Employee turnover has been of interest for good organizations over the past few decades. Today, good organizations have more data and therefore are more in-tune with employee retention then any point in history. This fact coupled with the increased cost of employee turnover associated with a tighter labor market, increased health care costs and technological advances leading to more competitive markets make hiring with retention in mind a strategic objective of all hiring professionals. Good hiring authorities want candidates that really want to work for them because it increases the probability of retention.
Understanding this reality can help you better cater your approach to excelling in the communication that you really want to work at the organization you are interviewing with. Just remember that the questions you ask may be as important as how you answer the questions you are asked. Catapult yourself into the organization and career fit of your dreams by interviewing better than your competition. For more tips or to ask any clarifying questions to empower you on your career search contact us today for free one on one help. We would love to be a tool in your toolbox to make your career dreams come true!
I was recently amidst a small group of executive leaders who were exploring best practices about giving feedback for those we are leading in our organization. The heart of the matter was very fruitful and the leaders in the room were equally yoked towards a genuine desire to mentor and change lives for the better. When it comes to giving honest feedback with those you are closest to, it can be a messy ordeal; even if your heart is in the right place. As we vulnerably explored successes, failures, and drew conclusions, it dawned on me what intimate ground we were on. We were exploring amazing opportunities to value and love life’s most precious treasures… the people in our lives.
Thousands of songs, poems, tag lines, and societal mottos revolve around loving each other. Obviously love is a loaded word and its connotations reside within the different archetypes of our many relationships, but in general, being in a posture to give honest feedback with only the motive to help another grow closer to their fullest potential might be the most selfless form of love there is. This type of love does not come naturally and for that reason, it often takes us out of our comfort zone. It takes practice and we must engage wisdom from other great leaders in order to do it effectively and fully in a posture of selflessness.
I am not good at giving honest feedback. I like to be liked. I like to create environments that are comfortable and people enjoy. Amidst my juvenile leadership schemas of the past, I have not embraced the opportunity for the tough feedback. Hindsight reveals I missed those opportunities to love because I did not feel equipped and I was not ready to sacrifice my short term perceptions for the long term betterment of another. I’m done with that pattern and am convicted to embrace putting myself out there to give truth when it is 100% clear.
As I feverishly took notes from the mentors and peers in that group, I thought of the many circumstances I had cowered to not give great feedback. I was able to remember the few times I had given it and could identify the life change that resulted. The times I was effective, I had intuitively identified a common denominator: I had not feared another, yet feared for another.
Sympathy and empathy are very different. If you break your leg and I have never broken my leg, I can sympathize. If I had also broken my leg in the past, I can empathize because I can really understand the circumstances of your tribulation. We all have fear; therefore we are able to empathize with another who has fear. We may not be able to identify with their exact fear, but we have the ability to identify with the feeling of fear.
In almost every scenario when you give feedback in a relationship, it will either be repelled or considered with an element of fear. If my wife tells me I’m not meeting her needs in an area of our marriage, I have fear of marital failure. If I hear from my mentor that I’m not being the best version of myself, I fear I could lose a key relationship. If I hear from my child that I’m not modeling what I’m saying, I fear they may grow up with my bad habits.
By digging deep into the fear I experience when receiving feedback, it has helped me see that I need to empathize with others fear when I’m giving feedback.
Organizationally, you as a leader have the responsibility and privilege to help build into others. If you are in a supervisor relationship and you are giving feedback, the person receiving that feedback has some sort of fear. It might be of getting fired, it might be of failure, it might be of losing your respect or it could be something completely different. I now am conscious to empathize with the fear of the person whom I am giving feedback. This awareness has helped me mimic giving feedback in a way that increases the propensity of diffusing fear and instilling more love. Giving feedback in a posture of love and selflessness is a catalyst for true life change.
As I am embracing this and other core fundamentals of loving those I lead, I am getting better at embracing the challenge of giving effective feedback. By doing so, I’m better aligned to my life’s hope to genuinely treasure the people around me. I’m grateful to be bold and no longer fear others, yet fear for another.
Please let me know how you are embracing the folks you get to lead so we can all learn together.
Facts Tell, Stories Sell! Most have heard this common phrase when it comes to marketing.
Well guess what, career seeker? When you embark on a career seeking process, you embark on a marketing process. Understanding the principles of marketing and the sales process can differentiate a good career seeker to one that will get a lot of, “no thank you’s” from perspective employers. So, as you build your resume and start to prepare for the interviews with the company of your dreams, remember to have a number of good stories that will convey your brightest skills, experience, and professional victories.
One of the most common attributes that we hear career seekers use to describe themselves is that they are a team player. Okay… that sounds great, humble and certainly a sign of a great leader, but I always follow that up with, “Awesome, tell me about where your leadership decision led a team to brighter pastures.” That’s when the truth comes out.
Almost 50% of the time, a career seeker has a hard time verbalizing an example that shows me they are truly a team player. I love it when I do get a story about a decision, a time, or a modeling behavior that led a team to greater heights. Those candidates that provide me with a good story are the ones that walk the walk and in this case, are really team players. Those that gave me awkward silence and sputtering of more promised traits are the ones that need to get back in the field and take note of team work.
I know this is not earth shattering advice for the career seeker, but take it seriously and be very intentional to quantify results of the attributes you are selling about yourself on your resume – this is the fact! But don’t make it general; get specific with numbers, ratios percentages, and improvements. In the interview, take that fact and ring it out with a great story. By doing so, you will build better rapport with the interviewer, show them you can walk the walk, and land that dream job!
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Once you have self awareness as the foundation of your career seeking and have built a resume that highlights your true skill set, abilities and financial accomplishments, then you can move to best identifying your target audience. This step, in the sales world is often called prospecting. This step is critical to succeed in a healthy resume submittal / contact ratio. I believe the majority of the frustration for a career seeker is based on the lack of knowledge around understanding target audience. Once you have identified your ideal career employer based on the foundation and exploration of self awareness it is much more realistic to identify your target audience. I would encourage a short list of 10 employers / jobs within an employer that would be the ideal for your career. To come up with this short list, you must really dig into factors of your past experience that have brought joy or frustration. Such factors to consider are: amount of supervision received, level of autonomy, advancement ability, level of decision making capability (Product Knowledge – see our previous blog post) , dynamics of team work in the particular job ect…
Once you have analyzed these factors, you can rank job opportunity based on your preferences and identifying this short list should be more realistic. Once you have this short list complete, you can strategically contact your ideal employers. Here is an interesting caveat: these 10 employers do not necessarily have to have ads that they are hiring. Most GREAT companies want employees who are passionate to work at their companies. Most GREAT employers will be excited to hear directly from a great prospect that have diligently researched their company and communicate that their skill set and ideal job would be a perfect match at that company. I know this sounds idealistic, but give it a shot. If you want to find a GREAT CAREER you have to have a GREAT CAREER finding process. We are working on our next blog that will contain best practices to contact your ideal employers. In the meantime, please contact us if you need help strategically prospecting!
The specific vernacular a candidate seeking a new opportunity uses tells a lot about them. Often candidates interchange the words “career” and “job” when speaking to employers. There is a big difference between the aspects of a career versus the aspects of a job so it is imperative that candidates are aware of how to use each word in the interview process.
The word career connotes long term dedication to a certain field or industry; whereas a job has much more of a temporal or even seasonal duration usually for short term provision. A career is often comprised of different jobs that have a common denominator for a specific purpose. A career typically is pursued by one that wants a higher degree of achievement and advancement of skills, abilities or knowledge.
I was recently trying to help a manager obtain a new career path within the restaurant industry. I interviewed him and I liked him. I thought he brought a good work ethic, seemed very honest and had a good mindset as to how to accomplish measurable results with both people and profit within a restaurant. A few years ago there was a year gap in his employment as a manager where he had claimed that he delivered pizza during that time. I asked him why he took the break from management because that can sometimes be a concern as to a manager’s commitment to a management career. He told me he just wanted to take on less responsibility and take a break. This answer initially threw up a red flag for me, but it puzzled me because the rest of our interview revealed a deeper passion and commitment for a career in management. Something did not line up, so I sought clarity. When digging a bit deeper he let me know his mother came down with a very awful disease that required her to move in with his family and for them to be her major care giver. He adamantly expressed his faith in family and desire to help her through this tough time. This was why he had stepped out of his management career temporarily. He needed a bit more flexibility to care for his mother. This is very noble and very few employers will penalize a candidate based on the life circumstance he faced. Truth is, he had a passion for a management career, but the season of life he was in required he step away from his career to focus on his family and get a job. The job, pizza delivery, still kept him active in the industry and helped him provide for short term needs. After I explained to him how he could market himself to let employers know about the temporary season of his life where he needed to take a break from his career and get a job there was a major difference in the way he would explain that period of time. He was relieved and much better equipped to sell himself to potential employers. The difference could open many doors for him. The awareness of your career path in relation to the different seasons of life is a consciousness I see few candidates express well. If you are a career seeker but there was a period of your career where you had to focus on something else and get a job, make sure you explain this in a way that will not turn employers off or concern them that you are not dedicated to a career.
Understanding the difference between a job and a career is pivotal to find the right path for you. As a recruiter I get to speak to many individuals who are seeking transition. Whether the individual refers to their transition as a job or a career tells me a lot about their mindset, goals and how they are applying themselves. I am continually trying to train leaders that they are not job seeking, they are career seeking. This is a small change in language that can have a large impact on the way one thinks of the work that they do on a daily basis.
Be aware of your target audience when you are interviewing. If you are trying to obtain a career, don’t talk about your desire for the job. Show the interviewer your commitment through the vernacular you use. Choose your words wisely and ace the interview!
