In over 1000 presentations in the last decade to CEOs, Company Presidents, and Senior Executives, we have heard the vast majority indicate that the number one behavior they have seen lead to success is initiative and self-motivation.
Brad and I have personally screened either in-person or on-the-phone well over 200,000 candidates over the last 25-30 years. We’ve seen young kids come out of college at 21/22 years old and who are now CEOs, company presidents, and senior executives. We’ve also seen many young graduates from 25-30 years ago who have had mediocre careers and are stuck in low-mid level jobs without much success. What’s the difference?
In our Success Factor Methodology that has been implemented as a structured hiring process in thousands of companies around the world, we identify 3 primary behaviors that help lead to success: Initiative and Self-Motivation, Flawless Execution, and Leadership. Each of these leads to a specific question in our 5-Question Success-based Interview.
Initiative/Self-Motivation is the primary behavior that stands head-and-shoulders above all other behaviors in determining job and career success. No other behavior comes remotely close to influencing career and job success IN ANY JOB!
Do you have a high level of initiative and self-motivation? Do you have the ability to prove in a job interview?
How many of the examples that you’ve assembled and practiced contain elements of demonstrating your initiative and self-motivation?
Let’s take a moment and define initiative and self-motivation:
- Going above and beyond the call of duty
- Anticipating what needs to be done
- Not waiting to be told what to do
- Showing INITIATIVE
- Being PROACTIVE
- Being assigned project “A” and returning “A” plus 10%
- “Out-working” your peers – higher more intensive effort
- Helping others when you were not required to do so
- Offering positive suggestions/recommendations
- Solving problems/obstacles without putting the monkey on the back of your boss
Can you claim to have lots of examples that fit the definition above in your last job? How about the job before that? And the one before that?
Here’s a great exercise: Write down every example of self-motivation and initiative from your last 3 jobs. Weave those into your examples/illustrations you offer in an interview or on your resume.
Here’s another great idea: Comment back on this blog post about your best example of demonstrating self-motivation and initiative in your last job. Brad and I will review your example and offer our insights from 25 years in the recruiting trenches.
If you would like to understand, how to prepare your examples, illustrations, and demonstrations of showing initiative and self-motivation, check out FREE audio downloads in our Job Search Library from our past Radio Shows. Brad and I have frequently discussed this topic of initiative and self-motivation.
We also cover the topic of initiative and self-motivation in-depth in our popular Job Search Workbook, This is NOT the Position I Accepted. If you would like to get a feel for the 5-Question Interview of best practice interview questions asked by Hiring Managers, especially the initiative and self-motivation question, take a look at our award-winning book on Hiring, You’re NOT the Person I Hired.
Barry Deutsch
As always, don’t forget to join Brad and I in our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group for a lively discussion of interview questions and tips.
This is why recruiters and hiring managers get frustrated with candidates. For the most part this demonstrates why most candidates fail the interview. Candidates leave an interview thinking all went well, when in fact, the candidate is not going to be asked to come back.
It also demonstrates why candidates need to consider investing in their job search. There are many great resources available to ensure candidates conduct a really effective and professional job search. In today’s economy a job seeker can’t afford (literally) to be anything less than 100% effective. Unfortunately, none of these 10 will get the job. If they had invested less than $100, I believe they could have properly answered these simple questions.
Instead they will spend more time looking, ultimately costing them thousands of dollars. Who knows when another opportunity will come up.
So here are the two simple questions I asked the senior executives.
1) Do you consider yourself to be a person who demonstrates high initiative on a regular basis? All 10 basically answered, “Absolutely.” Not just “yes” but “absolutely.”
The obvious follow-up question to me is:
2) Can you give me a specific example where you demonstrated high initiative in your current or most recent role? This is where the interview collapsed. Not one could give me an example of high initiative. All 10 either rambled on and on hoping I would forget the question or the example was what I would normally expect them to be doing as part of their job. Not HIGH initiative. Not one could provide an example of something they claim to do on a regular basis.
Basically they were not prepared. They all answered positively expecting that to be the end of it.
If they claim to “absolutely” demonstrate high initiative on a regular basis, I would expect them to have at least one example. That doesn’t seem like a trick question to me.
Why these candidates were not able to answer this simple question is beyond me. I can only think, like many candidates, they thought, “I will just wing it.” Proper preparation isn’t all that important. The key word is, “proper.” They may have prepared, but obviously not the right or effective way.
I wonder how many times a day a candidate blows the interview or a candidate’s resume gets screened out for something simple. How many candidates are still searching only because they refused to invest in their job search. In the same way, many people invest in anything they want to become proficient at, including piano lessons, golf lessons, tennis lessons, lessons to learn a software program, etc. investing in a job search is just as critical. I believe a lot more critical.
Every extra day in a job search is costing these people thousands.
So what can you do so it doesn’t happen to you:
1) The internet offers an endless amount of free resources for all to tap into.
2) Not all resources are right for every person. Some may be more appropriate for technical people, some for non-professionals or for professionals, and some are primarily focused at managers and above. Search until you find a resource that fits your needs. Like most things job search resources are not one-size-fits-all.
3) Once you find a resource take full advantage of the free offerings. Read the blog articles, listen to any audio files, if the offer free webinars attend them. Use these free resources to the fullest extent you can.
4) Only after you trust them and recognize they are right for you, don’t be afraid to invest a few bucks. Nobody can possibly give away everything for free. They have to make a living too. Since you have already engaged them and trust them purchasing a book, CD,or attending a paid webinar will be worth every penny. Many won’t even charge you until you are completely satisfied or offer a money back guarantee. That takes away any risk of wasting money.
5) Seek their help with your resume or interviewing skills. Many will give you a first pass for free. Again, if you trust them investing a few bucks may make the difference between getting a job and not getting a job. I know it would have helped these ten people.
The best thing you can do for your job search is to make sure you don’t lose an opportunity because of a simple mistake. In this economy it may be a while before another opportunity comes along.
To practice what we preach, we offer an enormous amount of free resources for you to take full advantage of. I encourage you to use these resources as often as you like and to their fullest extent. For example:
1) Our extensive audio library recordings from our weekly radio program on www. latalkradio.com CLICK HERE to review the program listing.
2) Our FREE sample cover letter. Over 2000 people have downloaded this. CLICK HERE to download yours.
3) Our FREE Linkedin profile assessment. Build a great profile on Linkedin. CLICK HERE to download yours.
4) Over 4000 people have joined our Linkedin Job Search Networking Group. CLICK HERE to join.
5) Download a free chapter from our job search book on phone interviewing tips. CLICK HERE to download.
6) These are just a few of the free offerings on our website. There are many more for you to take advantage of without buying anything.
FULL DISCLOSURE. Yes, there are products to buy on these pages. If this is your first time you should check out the free stuff first. If those are helpful and you still need help then you can check out the products. We offer most of them on a free trial basis. You don’t have to buy anything until you are sure it will help you.
We want to be a resource for you in your job search. Our goal is the same as yours. We want to help you spend as little time in a job search as possible.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Brad Remillard
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Here comes another basketball metaphor about your job search.
A few nights ago, my Varsity HS Girls Basketball Team played in the first round of the State Playoffs. In our section we were ranked 6th out of 32 teams. We played a team ranked 24 and almost lost.
Why? It should have been an easy win – a no-brainer.
At playoff time, teams change – they go from being conservative, playing careful, doing the same old thing, and usually playing within their capability. At playoff time, lower ranked teams hike it up to whole other level. They play with complete abandon – and give it a 110%.
What do the lower ranked teams have to lose? If they don’t win, their season ends right now. And if they can pull off one more win – they get to come back and play another game. Many upsets occur, because lower ranked teams fight as hard as they ever fought, they do everything they can to influence the outcome, and they leave nothing on the table.
If you asked the team last night that lost to us in the last 5 minutes of the game if they had any regrets – if any of the players felt they had not played as hard as they could – and the answer would be an overwhelming “I gave it everything I could”.
When asked that question, our higher ranked girls would have said there was a lot they could have done and they were disappointed in their performance since they didn’t “work hard enough”. They were coasting on their high ranking, thinking their past track record could speak for itself.
Are you guilty of this dysfunctional thinking in your job search?
If you ask most candidates that question about their job search, I would predict that most candidates would have significant regrets about their commitment, energy, and intensity regarding their job search.
Most candidates are not willing to “go beyond the call of duty” in their job search.
Most candidates could not claim that they have “outworked their peers” in their job search.
Most candidates are just doing the same thing over and over (Benjamin Franklin’s Definition of Insanity).
No wonder the typical executive/senior management job search is now significantly over 6 months. Here are some questions to ponder about your job search:
- What are you doing in your job search that your peers are unwilling to do?
- What are doing this week that represents a high level of energy, commitment, and intensity in your job search than last week?
- How would you quantify the effort and intensity of your job search?
- Shouldn’t you be treating your job search like it’s play-off time and it’s the last 5 minutes of what could be the last game of the season or your entire career?
- Are you going beyond the call of duty in your job search?
What could you be doing differently that would represent a higher level of commitment, energy, and intensity?
This is just a small list of the hundreds of things you could be doing in your job search to reduce the time it takes to find a great opportunity. Most of your peers are unwilling to invest the time to do these job search best practices. Are you willing be to do what it takes to win – to go beyond what most of your peers do in their job search – or would you rather coast in the middle of the pack?
Have you downloaded our FREE Job Search Preparation Scorecard to see if you’re doing everything you can to conduct an effective job search?
What’s holding you back from pouring everything you’ve got into your job search?
Barry Deutsch
Jump into the Questions and Answers in our popular LinkedIn Discussion Group to discover what some candidates are doing that truly represents an effort to go “beyond the call of duty”.
In my last blog post, I described how the best recruiters screen out the vast majority of candidates for their search assignments through one simple question.
Don’t be the one who gets screened out in 30 seconds.
Many times these are great opportunities the recruiters are working on – you’re the perfect candidate for that appropriate position – you definitely do not want to miss out.
What can you do?
I’m going to suggest that there is a simple approach you can use to prepare for interviews, and it mirrors the cover letter strategy.
If the advertisement does not point out precisely what is required in the position, you can make the fair assumption that there are 3-4 primary elements to every senior professional, managerial, and executive position. Putting your comparable accomplishments to each of these core elements of a position in the cover letter, and being ready to address them in the interview is an insurance policy against being screened out prematurely by recruiters.
Let’s run through a few examples:
If you are applying for a CFO/Controller/Director of Finance position in an entrepreneurial to mid-sized non-public company, the primary expectations over the first year will probably include:
1. Process Improvement – reducing the closing process, improving financial reporting, inventory control process changes, order entry processing speed/efficiency.
2. Financial Planning/Analysis/Forecasting – improvements to budgeting, annual planning, cash flow management, strategic planning, monthly analysis, monthly and quarterly projections.
3. Operational Projects – conducting special one-time analysis on leasing equipment, facility optimization, capital investments in equipment, customer profitability analysis, viability of new products, services, markets, analysis of warranty reserves, and cost reduction opportunities.
4. Policies/Procedures/Asset Protection – improving/changing the handling of cash, tracking of fixed assets, credit policies, collection management, purchasing and material management.
If you are applying for a Marketing Manager position at a sub-component manufacturing company, the primary expectations over the first year might include:
1. Marketing/Sales Materials – review and improvement of all collateral material used by the sales team.
2. Business Growth – assessment and recommendation of new markets, products, and services. Launching and managing existing and new services and products.
3. External marketing – branding, positioning, messaging, advertising, and trade shows to increase awareness and recognition in marketing to OEM manufacturers.
4. Lead generation for the sales function – database marketing, trade offers, channel management, website, lead management tools.
Tell us what the 3-4 primary success factors are in your functional role for the type of industry/type of company that you are focusing your job search on.
We’d like to see how many job seekers understand the critical components of being successful for the type of position they are seeking.
Now let’s jump back to the first interview question a recruiter poses to you in the initial phone call:
My client’s closing process takes too long. They need this individual to reduce by 50% the time it takes to close their books on a monthly basis.
Amazing. Astounding. The recruiter is blown away. You’ve got 2-3 great examples of where you solved similar/comparable process problems/obstacles.
Let’s try another one:
My client is looking at expanding their regional electro-optical sub-component business nationally. Do you have 2-3 comparable examples you could share about moving a company into different markets against entrenched competition?
Amazing. Astounding. Once again the recruiter is blown away by the 2-3 examples you’ve shared about successful marketing efforts to move your prior companies into new markets.
The recruiter is doing their job asking the tough questions based on client expectations of success. A little preparation and understanding of what the most common obstacles/problems/opportunities someone in a specific role is going to face will allow you to ace the vast majority of “appropriate” interviews.
Keep in mind that if your background is primarily in marketing management and you’ve done very little in sales management, I’m probably going to quickly screen you as inappropriate for this executive search for a sales management job. If you’re essentially a channel marketing director, I’m probably going to quickly exclude you from consideration for the marketing role in my client’s direct sales model.
The key word is “appropriate”.
One of the greatest frustrations we hear from employers/recruiters is that the vast majority of candidates from whom the receive resumes/calls ARE NOT APPROPRIATE” for their openings on a very basic level – this brings us back to a previous blog posting where I made the outrageous suggestion to stop shot-gunning your resume to jobs that are totally inappropriate and focus your search efforts on “appropriate jobs”.
The shot-gun approach to responding to job advertisements/recruiter job announcements is a complete waste of time. Okay – a miniscule number of candidates will occasionally get lucky – after all – even a blind squirrel will get a nut sometimes. However, do you want to base your job search on “luck” or on a systematic – methodical – structured approach validated as generating consistent results?
You make the choice! If you’re not obtaining decent results from your current shot-gun approach of scattering resumes every time you come across a key word – perhaps it’s time to try a test and see if a more focused effort would generate better results.
Now that I’ve repeated myself for the 100th time on the worthless approach of conducting a shot-gun job search, let’s return to the primary focus of this blog post.
Let’s assume you get screened out for an “appropriate” role.
Shame on you for letting that happen.
If you’ve taken all our recommendations in our FREE Archive of job search best practices including such items as preparing a great job search plan, developing an outstanding LinkedIn Profile, consistently and effectively leveraging cover letters, and investing extensive time in the preparation for an interview – then there is NOT a recruiter, HR staff person, or Hiring Manager who CAN deny you the opportunity to be considered.
NOW we come to the real issue behind why you get screened out for “appropriate” openings on the first recruiter interview question (forget all the “inappropriate job responses” – you should be immediately screened out for these) – you didn’t do your homework – you didn’t apply the best practices in conducting you job search – you basically “winged-it”.
STOP being screened out prematurely for openings for which you are perfect. STOP letting this happen. Make a resolution right now that you will never allow yourself again to be screened out prematurely for an “appropriate” position.
START today in changing the way you conduct your job search. Take our entire FREE Archive of Audio Programs, Templates, Examples, and other tools – and start transforming your job search. After you swallow that overwhelming amount of FREE content from us – start extracting the FREE content from all other great career coaches and recruiters on the internet.
STOP complaining about your ineffective job search and the obstacles you are facing. There is an extraordinary amount of great content available to you that is either FREE or can be acquired for a minimal investment. Every candidate I have met in this horrific job market that invested time in discovering and using job search best practices has dramatically reduced the time it took to land a great job.
WHAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK?
DO YOU FEEL YOU KNOW EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT CONDUCTING AN EFFECTIVE JOB SEARCH?
ON A SCALE OF 1-10 (10 BEING THE HIGHEST) ARE YOU DOING EVERYTHING YOU COULD BE DOING TO CONDUCT A MORE EFFECTIVE JOB SEARCH.
In this blog post, we just took one tiny element of conducting a more effective job search: How to NOT get screened out by recruiters for appropriate positions in their first interview question.
There are hundreds of activities, tactics, strategies you could use to conduct an effective job search.
Barry Deutsch
Jump into the vibrant dialogue in our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group on the most common basic best practices of conducting an effective job search.
How is this possible you might ask?
How could anyone determine whether I am a fit for a job with only one interview question?
Even more shocking is the idea you could be eliminated through the very first interview question?
Shouldn’t there be many factors which determine whether you will give me a change to prove myself in a phone or physical interview?
NO and NO again.
The BEST recruiters approve or eliminate YOU in the first interview question. Your response to my first interview question determines whether I’ll invest more time probing, digging, and validating your claims – OR we’re DONE. The BEST recruiters live and die by this methodology.
Our clients are expecting us to validate, verify, and vet YOU as a candidate who is capable of achieving their expectations of results. We’re not resume factories and we don’t throw paper in the door wishing it sticks. We don’t cross our fingers and hope you’ll be successful. We take a very structured, careful, disciplined approach to interview YOU.
We don’t measure ourselves by the brokerage model the recruiting industry is so well known for – I toss in a resume and if the Hiring Manager falls in love with the candidate – I get a brokerage fee.
The best recruiters do the hard disciplined work for their clients by validating, verifying, and vetting YOU before they’ll considering presenting YOU to their client.
Now that we’ve drawn the distinction between what most recruiters do vs. the BEST recruiters, let’s refocus on how the BEST recruiters eliminate you in their first interview question.
There are a number of factors in measuring a candidate’s ability to succeed in a job. There are also a wide variety of interview techniques to collect this information.
However, one factor stands “head-and-shoulders” above all others – particularly for high level professional positions, management roles, and senior executives. At lower levels in an organization, the primary focus is on executing tasks and activities that can be taught or learned. With a little bit of skill, knowledge, and training, many employees can master the requirements of entry level to lower level roles in an organization.
A common misperception is that high level professional, managerial roles, and executive positions can be defined through the same techniques of entry level/lower level jobs – writing traditional job descriptions listing minimums of education, skills, knowledge, attributes, tasks and activities.
At higher levels, employees are not measured for doing tasks and activities and applying their skills. They are measured on their accomplishments, achievements, outcomes, deliverables, and results.
Okay – so now we’ve defined the major difference between entry/lower level positions and management/executive positions. At a lower level, you’re measured for your ability to apply your skills and knowledge in performing tasks and activities. At a high level, you’re measured for delivering results and outcomes.
Now that we’ve got that long-winded explanation of what differentiates lower level roles from higher level roles, we can move onto the core point of this blog post:
How The Best Recruiters Can Eliminate You with the First Interview Question
Once I know the most important outcome for the position (this is an entirely different issue for which many employers fail miserably – read more about the first step of our Success Factor Methodology), all I have to do is ask you if you have a comparable – similar – like – accomplishment to this most important – critical – game-breaker outcome that is the NUMBER ONE determining factor of whether you can be a successful hire.
Every high level professional, managerial, and executive role has one or two critical game-breaker outcomes that are required for success.
If your accomplishment IS NOT COMPARABLE – SIMILAR – or LIKE what needs to be done in the job – defined as similar in scope, size, project duration, budget, number of people, outcomes, resources, timeframe, metrics, deliverables – then it’s unfortunate, but
YOU ARE NOT SOMEONE THAT WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS SPECIFIC POSITION.
Our interview is over.
Time for me to move on and pose this question to another candidate.
The process repeats itself hundreds of times on a typical retained executive search.
Does this sound cold and impersonal?
You might be a wonderful human being with tremendous potential to do lots of different things for a company
However, my client has paid an enormous sum of money for me to efficiently and effectively find them the best candidate. There is no better interviewing method than using behavioral interviewing techniques layered against future results needed.
NONE!
In 25 years of executive search, Brad and I have conducted 1000s of searches, interviewed hundreds of thousands of candidates, and implemented more effective hiring best practices in thousands of companies – NO interview question or technique comes remotely close to the methodology of:
What is the number one game-breaker result needed in the job – and then asking the candidate what is their most comparable-similar accomplishment.
Forget about your skills, knowledge, prior experiences, style, behaviors, values, and all the other little things that make you a wonderful candidate. If there is NOT a high probability based on behavioral interviewing techniques focused on the defined results – you’re too high risk. You might be able to achieve the outcomes required, but the risk of failure is too high to justify investing more time in the interview.
DON’T HOLD THIS METHODOLOGY AGAINST ME! I’m not a bad person. You’re not a bad person. You’ll be a great asset to some company – unfortunately NOT my client at this moment in time. I’m performing my role as a recruiter using best practices of interviewing and effective time management to produce results for my clients. It’s a function of the recruiting business model.
Here are some examples to illustrate HOW YOU GET ELIMINATED IN THE VERY FIRST INTERVIEW QUESTION (We define this structured approach in our best practice methodology which we call the Success Factor Methodology):
Result Needed: Reduce the accounting closing process from 21 days to 8 days within 3 months.
Question: Can you give me an example of a significant comparable accounting process that you improved or changed?
Result Needed: Grow profit as a percentage of revenue over a 3-5 year period regardless of revenue and economic cycles.
Question: Please describe a comparable accomplishment where you were the President of a business over a 3-5 year period and achieved an improved profit percentage each year.
Result Needed: Increase sales by 15% year over year for the next 3-5 years.
Question: Can you describe a comparable accomplishment of growing sales by at least 15% year over year when you’ve led the sales function/team over a 3-5 year period.
If you can’t answer the first question about the game-breaker outcome, nothing else matters. Neither I OR my clients are willing to take the risk that you “might” be able to do it.
You can learn more about best practices that recruiters and employers use to screen and evaluate YOU as a candidate by reading about our Success Factor Methodology. We’ve named our process – but any effective implementation of recruiting/interviewing best practices encompasses these 5 steps. Discover the primary interview questions that quickly eliminate most candidates.
Barry Deutsch
Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group where you can talk about the issues, problems, frustrations regarding your job search and get direct answers from two of the top retained recruiters and thousands of other job seekers.
P.S. Download our FREE Cover Letter Sample. The Resume and the Cover Letter are the first two things the BEST recruiters look at before picking up the phone to call you. If you don’t give them a tease/hint that you’ve accomplished something similar to there game-breaker objectives, you will NOT even receive a phone call. Click here to get our FREE Cover Letter Sample Format to address the game-breakers.
Candidates constantly complain about how when they email resumes they all seem to end up in the proverbial “black hole.”
As a recruiter, who receives on average 6 to 7 hundred resumes a week, I can understand your frustration. I’m also sure I may not be able to eliminate it, however, I hope I can help you reduce it with these few tips.
1) When you move from candidate to hiring manager remember your frustrations and treat the people sending you resumes as you want to be treated now. You know, the thing our parents always taught us about treating others the way we want to be treated. Sounds so obvious but I just wrote another article about how rarely this happens.
2) The best way to avoid the black hole in the first place is not enter it. If you include a cover letter; a) don’t send it as a separate attachment to your resume. It should be the first page when the resume attachment is opened. b) use either Word or PDF to send your resume. I receive many resumes I can’t open. c) your cover letter should be designed to grab the reader’s attention. That means the cover letter must clearly and with a simple glance align your background with the needs of the job. CLICK HERE and download a free copy of a sample cover letter that does just that.
3) You don’t have to be the first resume received. Most ads run for at least 30 days. Many candidates have experienced most companies take their time. So wait a few days or even up to a week or more before replying. Avoid being one of the first 400 resumes. After the first blast of resumes come, as more trickle in one or two at a time, I will often just open the resume take a look at it and make a decision how to handle it. These people avoided the rush and got their resume reviewed.
4) First try the personal approach. With number 3 above in mind, use this time to try and find a personal connection within the company or recruiting firm. There are many ways to do this. 1) Linkedin should be first on your list. This is exactly why you need to build your connections to the maximum number possible. 2) Google the person’s name, position, or company name, anything that will help you target the right person within the company. Then look for a personal introduction. Most recruiters value a referral.
5) Don’t use services that blast your resume to 10,000 recruiters and/or companies. This is a major waste of money. What do you expect will happen when someone receives a bunch of unsolicited resumes? What would you do with them? How do you handle unsolicited emails? Most call it SPAM. It doesn’t work.
Hope these tips are helpful and now your resume will at least pop to the top.
Designing a resume is the starting point of every job search. If your resume gets screened out it is worthless.
If you didn’t know these little tips our Complete Resume System is designed to make sure your resume gets noticed. We guarantee it. The hundreds of people who have used this system to build an effective resume are getting their resumes read. You can too. There are many more tips you should include in your resume. For more information about getting your resume noticed check out our Complete Resume System. CLICK HERE to view it.
You should join our LinkedIn IMPACT Hiring Solutions Job Search Networking Group. It is free on LinkedIn and there is an enormous amount of articles and discussions to help in your job search. That is why over 4000 people have joined so far. CLICK HERE to join if you are a LinkedIn member.
You can also download for FREE a sample cover letter to use that will align your background with those of the company. CLICK HERE to download your sample.
I welcome your thoughts and feedback.
Brad Remillard
For 30 years this September, as both a contingent and retained recruiter, I have listened to the complaints by candidates (job seekers) about hiring managers and the complaints by hiring managers about candidates.
Even after 30 years, as I read blog comments, or sit in a chair and listen to these complaints, I’m still amazed (yes, amazed) at the hypocrisy spewing out from both candidates and hiring managers.
I read the comments to our blogs where candidates complain about the black hole when they send resumes, they complain about how long it takes to fill a position, they complain about recruiters, they complain about not getting their calls returned, they complain that their resume doesn’t get read in great detail, they hate the 10 second resume screen, they complain about cover letters, they complain about how these hiring managers are missing qualified people, they complain that the interview wasn’t fair or too short or too long, and that the person conducting the phone interview wasn’t qualified and didn’t know the job. This list could fill a book about the size of War and Peace, or for those not into War and Peace, book seven of Harry Potter.
Sound at all familiar if you are seeking a new position?
I then listen to hiring managers, HR, CEOs and key executives who are doing the hiring complain that, I get too many resumes, I get tired of interviewing average candidates, I will get to those resumes this weekend or next weekend, the resumes don’t match my job, candidates don’t know how to interview, candidates can’t put together two complex sentences, they complain that recruiters aren’t screening tight enough, they complain recruiters are screening too tight, they get angry at the recruiter for wasting their time interviewing unqualified candidates, they rule a qualified candidate out because they didn’t like the way they sat in the chair (I’m not kidding), they rule a candidate out because his tie was not straight (No, I’m not kidding), give me a job spec so tight and narrow that they themselves (this person’s boss and direct report) wouldn’t be qualified, tell me that from a 15-minute interview this person won’t fit, isn’t assertive enough, or my favorite, the candidate isn’t a team player (so I ask, “What teams will they serve on?” Answer, “Well not right away, but probably in the next two years.”) They also don’t like the candidate’s handshake, or for this sales position the person needs to be a real go-getter, outgoing and aggressive (so then I ask if they like being approached by outgoing, aggressive sales people and they reply, “No, of course not.”) I could fill another book the size of War and Peace with these complaints.
Then I realized in both cases, I’m talking with or listening to the exact same person.
Job seekers become hiring managers and hiring managers become job seekers.
The problem is that when they move from one side of the desk to the other, their perspective changes, their needs change, their priorities change, and it is a whole new ball game. Hiring, whether it’s a candidate or hiring authority is “all about me” and “what’s in it for me?” That is just the way it is. Right or wrong, good or bad, like it or not, that is the fact of hiring.
So the next time, before you complain, from either side of the desk, please take a step back, look at yourself and treat the person on the other side of the desk with the same respect you complain about.
I know, I for one, would surely appreciate it.
You can download many free tools from our Web site. Our most popular free resource is the sample cover letter. CLICK HERE to get one.
If your LinkedIn profile is just fair to average download our free LinkedIn profile assessment to help you build a great profile that gets you noticed. CLICK HERE to download.
You should also join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking group. This group had 3,900 members. The articles and discussions can only help you with your job search. CLICK HERE to join, all are welcome, and of course it is free.
I welcome your thoughts and comments. Good or bad, agree or disagree, all voices are welcome. Just be respectful.
Brad Remillard
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Comments (17)
Let’s start with Benjamin Franklin’s timeless definition of insanity: “You keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results”.
Do you really believe that wishing and keeping your fingers crossed will make a difference?
Why?
Everyone knows you’ll just get the same mediocre, inadequate, inconsequential results again – so why do most candidates keep doing the same thing?
Let’s pretend for a moment you buy into the Definition of Insanity and you decide you’re going to try something different this month in your job search.
What will YOU do different this month compared to last month?
What did you do different last month compared to the previous month?
Brad and I would love to hear what you plan on doing different this month vs. last month
Here are some examples of things you could be doing differently this month:
These are only a few of the hundreds of tactics/strategies/initiatives you could do differently this month to improve the effectiveness of your job search.
As you know, Brad and I great proponents of dramatically reducing the time it takes to cut your job search in half – however, if you keep doing the same things over and over —
Your Job Search is going to be a never ending quest – lasting 6-9-12 months or more.
STOP the nonsense now and begin to do things your peers are not doing. Take a step in doing something different this month.
Barry Deutsch
Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group to explore the best practices in how to conduct an effective job search
Interviewing is an art more than a science. Like most art, there are the Van Gogh’s and then there are those that work hard but never reach a professional level. They may still be good, just not good enough.
I think that is the way most candidates approach the interviewing process. They think they are good, when in fact, most are not good enough. This is especially evident when a candidates tells me, “I’m getting interviews but just not getting the job.” To me, that rings out loud and clear, you need to take a look at your interviewing skills.
Here are three things I find missing with candidates in an interview.
1) Confidence I find this lacking, especially with candidates that have been in a job search for a long time. As they become more and more desperate they tend to exude less and less confidence. This comes across in a number of ways that I believe most candidates don’t even realize. For example, body language, how you sit in the chair, eye contact, tone of voice, confidence in answering questions, staying so general in the answer for fear that getting too specific or detailed may rule you out, or giving long rambling answers so as to encompass everything in the hope that you have covered what they are looking for.
Nobody wants to hire a person that isn’t confident. This is especially true at the manager level and up. Few want someone that comes across so weak they will not voice an opinion.
With candidates I coach, I always recommend interviewing the same way you would if you had a great job and didn’t need the one you are interviewing for. I believe this helps in bringing out the real you. Most candidates act differently on the job than in an interview, so it is very important that the interviewer sees you as you would be on the job.
2) Questions In many ways this is a symptom of confidence. Why is it when an interviewer asks, “Do you have any questions for me?” candidates often say, “No not right now.” I don’t understand that. This clearly demonstrates weakness, lack of interest, or lack of understanding of the position, any of which gets one knocked out of the running.
This is your opportunity to shine, to demonstrate your depth of understanding, to probe, to engage, get clarification, and basically stand out. I think one of two things stops candidates from asking questions; 1) fear that they may appear to be too confrontational or challenging or 2) lack of preparation. Either one is generally not going to help the candidate win the interview.
All candidates should be well prepared with questions. There are so many areas that you can ask good questions about that will help separate you from all of those that don’t. This is so important that in our candidate job search workbook “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” we have over 135 questions to ask in over seven different categories. That demonstrates the importance of asking questions in the interview.
3) Preparation This is probably the solution to the first two. Taking the time to properly prepare is the biggest problem I have discovered over and over again that candidates fail to do or do properly. Poor preparation is just as bad as no preparation. Here are some stats I have been keeping as I have asked candidates about their preparation.
A) Less than 5% of candidates have actually written out answers to the most basic questions that they know will be asked in an interview.
B) Less than 1% have actually video recorded themselves interviewing.
C) Less than 1% have conducted mock interviews.
D) Less than 10% prepared questions they wanted to ask during an interview.
E) Less than 20% have asked others for feedback after an interview that they didn’t get.
F) Less than 10% have identified any weaknesses in their interviewing style.
G) Less than 2% know all of the three things that can be measured during a phone interview.
H) Less than 10% can give very detailed answers about the bullet points on their resume.
I) Less than 1% have even considered body language in preparing for an interview.
J) Less than 5% prepare for an interview the right way.
K) Less than 50% know they have a weak handshake or poor eye contact.
Not everyone makes all of these, but to my surprise most make many of them. This is why candidates are often not good enough at interviewing.
You can get our Candidate Job Search Workbook for FREE (just pay $5 shipping). You can review the questions, read the multiple chapters on interviewing, and even learn the ten must ask questions in an interview. CLICK HERE to learn how to get your workbook sent to you for just the cost of shipping.
Download our sample cover letter. This will help make sure your resume aligns with the position, and recruiters appreciate this style. It is free. CLICK HERE to get yours.
Finally our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group is free to join and all are welcome. This group has over 3,800 members and a wealth of articles, job postings and discussions to help you. CLICK HERE to join the group.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Brad Remillard
Does it feel like you keep falling back in your job search to square 1?
In a front page article in New York Times today, the point was made that the average timeframe for conducting a job search is now 6 months. Executive and Senior Management Job Search is typically 2X-3X the average professional job search time period.
Although this is NOT earth-shattering news, it does reflect a confirmation in a well-known publication of the obscene length of time it is taking most job seekers to find a new job.
Here’s the bad news: not only is it taking longer to conduct a job search in one of the worst job markets in the last 25 years, but the worst job market is far from over. Given what we see going on in managerial and executive hiring, if the market returns to “normal levels” within the next 18-24 months, it will be a quick recovery.
The length of time it takes to complete a job search will only increase.
Can you imagine being out of work for a year – 2 years – longer?
Forget about the difficulty on finding a job, as the front page article declares – a larger problem is the long-term financial impact. Let’s not dwell on that issue in this blog post. You can read the depressing article for more information.
I’d like to dwell on why it takes most managerial and executive job seekers 12-18 months to find a new job.
Our experience is that if you use the most common and simple best practices in job search, you should be able to cut the time it takes to find a job in half. Imagine that instead of taking 18 months, it only takes 9 months.
Simple Job Search Best Practices — we talked about this a few blog posts ago – you don’t really have to master each one – you just have to do each one! Skipping one of these best practices is what causes your job search to be a never ending quest.
We call our framework of Job Search Best Practices the Career Success Methodology. This is an integrated and structured approach to executing flawlessly against the most common best practices in conducting an effective job search.
Are you using job search best practices to systematically reduce the time it takes to find a great opportunity?
Benchmark yourself by taking our Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard.
Rate yourself on 8 different dimensions to determine if your job search plan encompasses the necessary best practices required to conduct an effective job search.
Barry Deutsch
Join us in our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group to discover the most common job search best practices and benchmark the effectiveness of your job search.
