Know When The Interview Starts

Many years ago we completed a search(to view current open searches CLICK HERE) for a CFO of a major healthcare company in Orange County, CA. The CFO later retained us to conduct a VP Finance search for him. In the middle of the search he called and said, “So, I was in my office and just happened to look out my window. To my amazement I see this guy with a surfboard hanging out the back of his car and a big dog in the back seat. If that wasn’t weird enough, he got out of the car and started changing from a bathing suit to a business suit right in the parking lot. I started laughing and thought nothing more of it, until a few minutes later my assistant tells me she is going down to bring up my next interview. Guess who walks in my door.”
The CFO felt this person showed such poor judgment that he wouldn’t hire him regardless of his qualifications.

The interview begins as soon as you enter the parking lot.

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Don’t Download This Article

If you can answer all of these questions then you don’t need to download our chapter on “Winning the Phone Interview.”

1. The only three things that can be measured on a phone interview? (You have to know all three)
2. The difference between how you answer a question on phone interview versus a face-to-face interview?
3. A phone interviewing answer should never be longer than __ _____.

We have asked these questions to over 1000 candidates at networking meetings, interviews, and association talks. To date not even one person has been able to list all three in the first question. The groups will shout out answers and generally get two of them, but rarely does one person get even two.

Why is this important? Who cares? Every candidate looking should care!!

If you don’t know what is being measured on a phone interview how the heck will you prepare. Wouldn’t that be similar to one of our professors telling you there is a test on Friday and I’m not going to tell what the test will cover, how to prepare or for that matter what subject the test will be on. And most students would reply, “Why is this important. Who cares?”

If you don’t get past the phone interview then you will never get a job. Many, if not most, companies today are conducting phone interviews first to screen out candidates.

Too many candidates undervalue the importance of the phone interview. Ask any recruiter that has done hundreds of these or an HR person that also has done hundreds of these and they will tell you the importance.

So, if you didn’t know the answers and want them, you can download this for free. CLICK HERE to go to our FREE resources page.

You can see what other resources IMPACT Hiring Solutions offers to help candidates spend less time in search by CLICKING HERE.

Answers:

Question 1:  1) energy/enthusiasm, 2) communications, 3) skills/experience

Question 2:  Yes, since body language is 50 – 60% of communications and that is missing in a phone interview, the interviewee is under an additional burden to communicate succinctly and with extreme clarity.

Question 3:  1 minute.

Are You The Tiger Woods of Job Hunting?

After more than 25 years as a recruiter, I calculated that I have had more than 10,000 interviews in my career. That is a combination of phone and in-person. Of those, at best 5% were exceptional and I knew as we say in the recruiting industry, “This person is a walking placement.” But WHY?

We offer all candidates a free copy of the “Winning The Phone Interview” chapter in our book. More than 2,000 people have downloaded this. The vast majority have commented that it was very helpful. Often, however, we get this comment, “Good stuff for the person just starting their search, but I’ve been searching for a while and already know it. Thanks.”

So why are you on the market for so long if you know all this stuff?

I took a step back and I think I know why. It is because – it is a big leap from knowing something and doing it, and it is a quantum leap from doing it at a highly skilled level. We were aware that most people knew this when we wrote the book. We also know that after 10,000 interviews 5% actually do it and maybe 2% do it with a high degree of skill.

In this highly competitive market the bar has been raised so high that only candidates that perform with a very high degree of skill will win the interview and ultimately the job.

Change your paradigm for a minute. Most of us have some hobbies or sports activity we really enjoy. For example mine is golf. I have taken lessons, read the books, subscribe to the magazines with all the tips, attended weekend golf camps, and I even enjoy practicing or hitting balls. So as many candidates would say, “This is good for the new golfer, but not me, I’ve been playing golf for years, I already know this stuff. Thanks.”

Anyone who plays golf (or any activity) knows it is a big leap from knowing it and doing it. And in my example, it is a quantum leap to Tiger Woods or for that matter to the PGA Tour.

You can’t just “know it” in today’s job market. You have to do it with a high degree of skill.

Final thought. Even Tiger Woods to this day has a swing coach. I’m willing to bet most candidates have never even had job hunting lessons.

We offer a lot of free resources to help you perform at a high level. CLICK HERE to go to our FREE RESOURCES page.

Your Personal Brand

Having a personal brand that differentiates you from the 100’s of resumes is critical to your search. Especially during this economy.

So how do you make yourself different? By establishing your unique competencies, why you are relevant to the person reading your resume and how you have consistently demonstrated these competencies. These must be aligned with and relevant to the company or person.

For example, if you brand yourself as a “Sales person with exceptional negotiating skills dealing with multi-million dollar and multi-year contracts.” then you become relevant to those types of companies and industries. However, you become irrelevant to high volume low dollar companies.

Too many candidates see this as a negative because this eliminates these companies. In fact, you would be eliminated anyway because your expertise isn’t aligned. On the other hand, you become more valuable to those companies that do align with your brand. The more valuable you become the more the company is willing to pay.

A strong brand is always beneficial to a candidate. Every candidate has a brand. Most don’t take the time, reflection, and in-depth research to identify what their brand is. We aren’t suggesting that your brand will eliminate every other person conducting a similar search, but it can move you to the “A” stack of resumes. We have a free complete audio presentation on personal branding. Click here to download it is free.

Try these practical steps as you develop your unique brand:

1. Conduct a brainstorming exercise with yourself. List out all the things that make your experiences, values, passions, etc unique to you. Unique doesn’t mean exclusive. It is just what you bring to the party that some others won’t.
2. How other perceive you is the most critical. So start asking co-workers, past employees, ex-bosses, friends, networking connections to describe how they see your unique experiences, values, passions, etc.
3. Consolidate these and develop a branding statement.
4. You may have more than one statement depending on circumstances.

For more on personal branding CLICK HERE

Leave a comment with your personal brand. We may even be conducting an active search for your brand.

Brad

Getting in touch with recruiters

2) Have a referral from someone who has built a relationship with the recruiter. Not just an acquaintance with the recruiter. This could be a former client or candidate. I always return the calls when someone I trust and know refers a person to me. Use tools such as Linkedin or networking groups to find someone who has a relationship with the recruiter.

3) Instead of calling, send an email. Most recruiters are overwhelmed with calls and no matter how hard we try we can’t return them all. I currently have a list of over 40 calls to return. I try and get to a few each day, but regardless of how hard I try the list gets longer. Sending an email makes it easy for recruiters to respond. I can do it late at night, early morning or between calls. I can’t do that with a phone call, especially with folks back east that are three hours ahead of my time zone. It will be 9 or 10 PM for them. I also can’t return a call when I have a couple minutes before my next interview, but I can quickly shoot off an email.

Good recruiters will respond to these techniques. I have recommended these to many of my candidates and networking connections. Most are amazed at the increase in the response rate.

Try these or any one of them and I think you will see your response rate increase with recruiters.