Tip To Overcome Interviewing Problems.

A preemptive strike works:

I came home from work one day, and had just walked in the house, when my son came up to me to tell me we needed to talk. He is too young for the birds and bees and probably knows that anyway, so I knew something was up. He explained while practicing his pitching for baseball, he threw a wide pitch and broke the window above the garage. I said “no big deal, all boys break a window once in a while.” He said, “Well that is not all. After that I moved to the other side of the garage and threw another wide pitch and broke the other window too.” He was scared I would be really mad. I thought, “How can I be mad. You stole all my thunder by coming to me. I didn’t have time to get mad.” He performed a preemptive strike.

How does this relate to a search? I was doing a search for a CFO, and one candidate’s resume indicated a lot of turnover. As I went through his background, it became clear that there were great reasons for the turnover and in most cases the company turned him over, not the other way around. The problem was, he wasn’t addressing these in the interview right up front. Basically, he wasn’t defusing a negative situation.

We changed that and put together a script that dealt with the turnover right up front. In the interview, he preempted the interviewer by saying “I realize from my resume, that it appears that I have a lot of turnover, and I can understand why one would think that. Let me explain the circumstances surrounding the turnover and I’m sure it will help clarify this issue.” This defused the situation and completely eliminated any confusion and there wasn’t a problem. The candidate demonstrated they had nothing to hide or be ashamed of.

The candidate did get a job and wrote to us saying he felt this technique played a major role in getting past the first interview.

Also, in case you are wondering, my son has broken the same windows again. I now buy replacement windows in bulk.

The worst thing candidates can do is assume that because the interviewer didn’t bring up the issue it means it isn’t an issue. The fact is, the interviewer is thinking it isn’t an issue worth discussing, because they have already come to a conclusion without even discussing it.

By bringing the issue up first it allows you to discuss it openly and clearly demonstrates you have nothing to hide.

Our “Complete Job Search Home Study Course” addresses exactly how to handle this and many other issues candidates encounter and often mishandle during their job search. One misstep like the one above can cost you a job, resulting in thousands of dollars in lost wages. To review the content of the home study course and have it sent to you for only$14.95 (We will even pay the shipping.) CLICK HERE.

For many more tips and help, join our Linkedin Job Search Networking group. It is free, and provides a wealth of great discussion and news. CLICK HERE

Join us on the radio every Monday at 11AM PDT on www.latalkradio.com as Barry and I discuss a variety of topics to shorten your time in search. Our audio library has past shows for you to download for free. CLICK HERE

A Critical Interviewing Mistake!

Candidates more often that not miss one of the best opportunities during the interview to shine, to differentiate themselves, and demonstrate their ability to do the job. What a great opportunity missed!!

In most interviews, the interviewer even sets the candidate up with the opportunity to shine and candidates blow right past it. The interviewer asks the soft ball question, “Do you have any questions for me?” A golden opportunity to shine. The questions you ask can outshine every answer you have given so far in the interview.

However, time and time again, I hear candidates do one of two things:

1. Answer,”No, not really. Most of my questions were answered during the interview.” What a terrible answer. How did the interviewer answer “MOST” of your questions, when they were asking you questions.
2. Reply with one or two (occasionally someone stands out and asks three) standard, unimportant, basic no-brainer, no forethought questions such as, “What is the budget?” or “What is your management style?” Again, these reveal the candidate has not prepared and is very shallow.
3. Actually, there is a third, the candidate sits there like a deer in the headlights trying to think of something to say.

This is your opportunity to ask questions that demonstrate your ability to understand the job and what performance standards will be. Challenge the interviewer, ask “Why” are you doing X, probe deeply into the issues you will face once on board, how they manage, etc. Every candidate knows this question is coming in one form or the other. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Asking questions is a sign of strength, confidence and demonstrates a depth of knowledge. As a recruiter for almost 30 years, when a hiring manager calls back and says, “This person really asked me some great questions. They made me think in the interview.” I know that person is getting the job.

One component of your interviewing preparation should be questions to ask. Not just questions about the company, but specific questions about the job, ask “why”, ask about communications, ask about past issues, ask about future challenges, ask about people, ask about KPI’s, ask about systems, there are so many issues to discuss to make sure you will be successful.

The best advice I have is ask the same questions you will be asking once in the job to be successful. You might as well know them before you accept the position. Otherwise, it might be a position where you can’t succeed.

This is such a critical issue in our job search workbook, “This is NOT The Position I Accepted” (This wouldn’t happen if candidates probed in the interview.) We list over 150 question to ask in an interview in this workbook. We even break these questions into categories to help identify when to ask the question. In addition, we give you the 10 most important questions to ask in an interview. You can receive this book to review for FREE right now. Just pay the $5 shipping. CLICK HERE

Also, join our Linkedin Job Search Networking group. This is a very active group that deals with every aspect of a job search. All Linkedin groups are free to join and provide a wealth of information. CLICK HERE

Don’t miss our talk radio show every Monday at 11 AM PDT on www.latalkradio.com. Barry and I discuss the most important challenges you will face in your search. You can listen to past shows in our audio library. CLICK HERE to enter the library. All files are free to download

Top Ten Job Search Mistakes – Radio Show

Are you making one or more of the Top Ten Job Search Mistakes? Are you frustrated that you are not getting many job leads, referrals, interviews, and offers? In this episode of the weekly IMPACT Hiring Solutions Job Search Radio Show, Brad and Barry discuss how to overcome the Top Ten Job Search Mistakes. This list of the Top Ten Job Search Mistakes is based on 25 years of Executive Search Experience, over 1000 search assignments, and interviews with over 200,000 candidates. Don’t be the one making typical mistakes in your job search.

Brad and Barry also discuss the release of their new FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard. Within the span of a few minutes, the time it takes to complete this Job Search Scorecard, you can understand the steps required to launch an effective job search, re-start a stalled job search, and find your next dream job. You can download the FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard just CLICK HERE.

To listen to or download this radio show CLICK HERE

Get Your Profile On Google. SEO Your Search.

Leveraging the social networks is a great search strategy tactic. Facebook and LinkedIn are both vital to one’s ability to be found by recruiters, HR, hiring managers, PE firms, or for that matter anyone looking to find you, or someone with your experiences. However, a big one that is often overlooked by many candidates is Google.

Making yourself findable on Google is an important on-line networking component you should consider. One great way to show up on Google with a high ranking is the use of Adwords. By setting yourself up with Adwords anyone looking for you, your functional area, industry, or even geographical area can find you near the top of the list.

It is easy to do by just following these simple steps. In our complete job search workbook, Rebecca Gonzalez contributed an article that gives a more detailed step-by-step process with graphics to assist you. (You can get the book for only the cost of shipping $5 CLICK HERE).

Step one in getting Google to find you is to have a website (or URL) for Google to find and link to. This is easily done through Linkedin. If you have a LinkedIn profile then you have the URL. Just try and make sure the URL includes your name. To check this go to your profile and look at the public profile link. If it doesn’t include your name just edit it so it does. For example, my LinkedIn public profile URL is http://www.linkedin.com/in/bradremillard. Since my name is rather unique it was easy to use. John Smith or Mary Jones might have a problem.

Step two is setting up a Google Adwords campaign. This will require a small investment, but the nice thing with Google Adwords is that you can control the amount you want to spend each month. It can be as little as $25 a month. Go to adwords.google.com. Login and a follow the wizard. You want your name on the first line. The next couple of lines are limited but this is where you can add something about your functional expertise, industry experience and location. The URL will be your LinkedIn profile. If your profile is complete (and it should be – see below to find out) you are now very findable by anyone and everyone searching for you or your expertise.

Step three set up keywords. You should add your name and include misspellings, maiden name,aliases, nick names, etc. Don’t be shy here. This is how you will be found.

Step four is to set up your account and turn it live. If you don’t have an account it is easy to do. Once you make it live, test it. Type in your name and see if you show up on the right side of the page.

Now when recruiters, HR, or other hiring managers search your name, you will often come up in the search results. You can also see who has searched on your name.

To check whether your profile is the best it can be, download our LinkedIn Profile Assessment Tool. It is free CLICK HERE.

Join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. We post new articles and free downloads daily. CLICK HERE.

If your search is stalled our “Career Success Methodology” job search home study course has everything you need to get your search going. For what most charge just to develop a resume, you can have all the tools you need. To take a look and see what is in the course CLICK HERE. (and you get the book thrown in at no additional charge).

Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard – NOW Available – FREE

Are you ready to start conducting an EFFECTIVE JOB SEARCH?

Are you ready to take time off in the race to finish your job search?

As promised, Brad I committed to release our long-awaited, deeply researched, field-tested, and validated FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard.

You can download the Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard and tool by joining our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group. We apologize about this two step process. However, Brad I have made the commitment to our job search community to release all new scorecards, self-assessment tools, templates, and other FREE Job Search Resources into our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group first.

We’ve worked very hard over the last few months to put together a FREE simple scorecard and tool that can make a dramatic difference in your job search.

If you take this self-assessment and work very hard to improve your scores from “0” or “1” into the “2” and “3” levels, you’ll be able to significantly reduce the time it takes to complete an effective job search.

Not only will this scorecard help you in overcoming the Top Ten Job Search Mistakes, but it will also help you in your job search by reducing the time it takes to find a great opportunity.

Here’s a great example: If you’re an executive and the average time in this poor job market is 9-12 months to find a new executive level position, this Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard will help you cut in half the time it should take to find a new job. Imagine saving $30,000-$60,000 in reducing your job hunting time by conducting a more effective job search.

Join Brad and I on our Weekly Internet Radio Talk Show this coming Monday – August 31st – 11-noon PST on LATalkRadio. We’ll be talking about how to overcome the Top Ten Job Search Mistakes and Errors by using our new FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard.

Barry

P.S.: We look forward to your comments, ideas, and thoughts in our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group. How might we improve this scorecard in a future revision? What insights about your job search effectiveness did you gain after spending a few minutes taking the assessment? After you take the assessment, what’s your specific plan to improve your job search?

Avoiding Age Discrimination

My last article, “Busted, Age Discrimination Reveal” I gave two examples of reverse age discrimination. As a short refresher, I was working two searches for two different companies. In both case they selected the older more experienced people, over the younger candidates with less experience. These were both very senior level positions and even the younger candidates had 20+ years experience. The older candidates had 30+ years experience.

So if age discrimination is so wide spread, one has to ask themselves, “How could this happen in two completely different companies and for two completely different positions?”

Regardless of your viewpoint as to the extent of age discrimination what is clear there are a few things you can do to help minimize it.

I firmly believe there were two major contributing factors that came together:

1. Position level: These were very senior positions and the two older candidates were not only highly qualified, but were not taking a step backwards. I am approached on almost a weekly basis by candidates claiming to be “qualified” for a search I’m doing. Yet, when I read their resume it is true they are qualified, however they are over-qualified. For example, a CFO willing to accept a Controller position, a VP Sales interested in a Sales Manager, a CEO interested in a VP level job. I’m not saying they couldn’t do the job I’m working to fill. In fact, most have done the job 5 or 10 years ago. Recruiters are looking for someone who has done the job 5 or 10 years ago. They were qualified 5 or 10 years ago. They aren’t qualified today.
2. Presentation: In what I believe is one of the most important blog articles for candidates to not only understand, but to actively implement into their job search was, “The Three Most Important Words In A Job Search.” A job search is all about the presentation. At the end of the day, the one that makes the best presentation usually wins. Couple a great presentation with extraordinary experiences or qualifications and you have a winner every time. So then what is a great presentation. The most common complaint, feedback, comment or whatever else one wants to call it for those older candidates is, “They seem like they just want a place to ride out until they retire.” or “They come across as just needing a job.” Generally, due to a poor presentation. Some thoughts
   1. If you look old you will be discriminated against. I am not known for my tact and political correctness. Don’t kill the messenger. This is a fact like it or not. In our job search workbook we talk about the 4 A’s required to get a job. Appearance is one of them. These were given to me by a VP Human Resources at Rockwell. If you don’t know the 4 A’s or know them but aren’t doing them you can get them for free, just pay the $5 shipping charge. The candidates that were hired, no one knew their correct age. They all presented themselves extremely well.
   2. Energy/Enthusiasm. Too often candidates come across burned out, desperate or tired. Their body language even communicates this. The problem is most candidates think they can mask this. FEW CAN. So few that it would be inappropriate to assume you are one of the few. I know you all know this. However, demonstrating these during an interview is a completely different thing. So if you know this, “How are you demonstrating these?” “Have you tested your demonstration to a non-biased (i.e. not your spouse or neighbor) person?” If you haven’t tested this too ensure you are sending the right energy then you may have a problem. Again, everyone of the candidates hired, the hiring manager never questioned their energy or if, “they were just looking for a place to retire.”

Granted there are a lot of other things one can do to help reduce of discrimination. I’m not suggesting these are the only two. I’m just suggesting these are the two most common I encounter.

If you think you have been discriminated against then the best way to avoid this in the future is to ensure you don’t fall into one of these categories.

If you haven’t joined our LinkedIn job search networking group please consider it. We have over 2000 members. This is a very active group dealing with job search issues. You can post your background and let 2000 people see your experiences. Click here to join.

Also we have a free download to assess the quality of your LinkedIn profile. This is one of the critical aspects to be found on LinkedIn. Click Here to get your free assessment to make sure your profile is the best it can be.

Listen every Monday 11 AM Pacific time as Barry and I discuss critical issues in your job search. You can hear us live on Latalkradio.com

Interviewing Faux Pas To Avoid.

An Innocent Comment Kills The Deal

A few years ago, a client in Arizona was searching to fill a VP US Sales position. The search was narrowed to two finalists. One lived in New York and the other in Southern California. The final round of interviews included the CEO and two board members. The candidate from NY made a comment she felt was in jest or just off the cuff, however, it was fatal. She rather flippantly said, “It is really hot here. People must be crazy to live here.” The CEO was offended by this comment and felt that someone at this level should be careful with such comments. He was very concerned this kind of comment could turn off a customer.

Moral of this story, be on guard at all times. Even an off the cuff comment can kill a deal.

Words say a lot but the body speaks louder

While doing a search for a VP of Sales, one of the requirements was up to 50% travel. Although the candidate knew this going in, when the subject came up in the interviews he apparently squirmed in his chair and lost eye contact. The client wasn’t convinced that he was really comfortable with this amount of travel. We discussed this with him in detail and in fact he was comfortable with it and had been doing that much travel for some time. He couldn’t explain the reason for their concern. We were able to overcome this with the client, but only after many conversations with the candidate and client; he did in fact get the offer. However, if he had represented himself and not had us to clarify the situation he would never have gotten the offer. Worse yet, he would never have had the chance to address this point.

Just remember, your body may speak louder than your words do, which is another good reason to hire a coach as they can help you with your interviewing style. Before you do this CLICK HERE to listen to our radio show interview on Career Coaches.

Little things that candidates rarely find out about can dramatically impact the interview. We recommend in our job search workbook some things you can do to make sure these examples don’t happen to you. For example, have you video recorded yourself in a mock interview? This is one of the most revealing things you can do to improve the interview. We make this job search workbook available to you for only the cost of $5 shipping. CLICK HERE to at least review the book to see if it will help you.

Busted – Age Discrimination Revealed

Anyone that has read the discussions in our Linkedin Job Search Networking Group knows that I am not a big believer in age discrimination. That doesn’t mean I think it doesn’t happen. What it does mean is that I don’t think it happens as frequently as many candidates do. In fact, I believe it is far more rare than most.

Well I am wrong. Age discrimination is alive, living, and doing very well. My last two executive searches prove that I’m wrong and it definitely exists.

I have been retained to fill a CFO and VP Manufacturing search. Both positions are very senior level spots and in two different companies. In a normal search, we will present 4 or 5 candidates to the client before they hire one of them. These two were a little different. I had presented my normal 5 candidates and the client was interested in, but not sold on, a couple of the candidates. They still wanted to see a few more. (By the way as a side journey, in today’s market that is very common. Clients seem to always want to see a few more. After all, there are so many candidates on the market.)

The candidates they liked were all 7 or 8’s on a scale of 1 – 10. They all had 15-20 years of experience and judging from when they graduated from college, ranged in age from late 30’s to mid-40’s. Both of these jobs were very senior, and due to the nature of the challenges facing the companies required a real depth of experience and not just the normal depth one gets in 15-20 years. These candidates just weren’t “mature or experienced” enough were the words the clients used.

As the client requested, I presented 2 more candidates to each company. These last 4 candidates all had no less than 30 years of experience, and all had graduated from college in the late 70’s and early 80’s. You can do the math on their ages. My guess is mid to late 50’s and possibly even 60. To no real surprise my clients each hired one of these 4. The comment the client made to me at some point during the hiring process was, “If I can get a good 3-5 years from them, that is all one can expect in today’s world, and I’m more than fine with that. Hell, I may not even be here in 5 years.”

WOW, a clear case of age discrimination if I ever saw one. The first group was clearly discriminated against due to their age.

Again, before you write me a nasty comment, I agree age discrimination exists. But it works both ways. I also don’t believe every time a person doesn’t get a position, especially more senior candidates, it is age discrimination. Often they are just plain over-qualified for the job, just as these candidates were under-qualified for these jobs.

Part 2 on this topic will be more in-depth as to some other contributing factors that helped the second group win the job. There is hope, and by following the suggestions in part 2, you can avoid age discrimination on either side of the equation.

We provide a large repository of free tools and resources (CLICK HERE FOR LISTING) for candidates of all ages to help you significantly reduce your time in search. Every day of lost wages costs you hundreds of dollars and stress. I personally want to encourage you to spend some time reviewing these. There are audio files (CLICK HERE to enter the audio library), templates, assessments, and articles. The topics cover just about every aspect of the search process, networking, branding, resumes, interviewing, common mistakes, leveraging social networks, etc.

Our bi-weekly Candidate Open Forums are available to all who want to participate. You can speak directly with myself or Barry on the conference calls. Our homepage list the upcoming forums. CLICK HERE FOR LIST.

We are committed to assisting you in your search as best we can. These free resources are the best we can do for now. We have even more ideas coming and all will be free.

IMPACT Hiring Solutions Weekly Job Search Blog Round-up: August 22, 2009

In case you missed some of the individual blog postings this week, here’s a round-up of some of the more popular posts Brad and I wrote for the Job Search Blog:

It’s Okay to Swear in the Interview: Learn the secrets of a structured response to every interview question. Follow this format in responding to interview questions and hiring managers will move away from box checking to engaging with you in a conversation and dialogue about the job.

Your LinkedIn Profile as a Multi-media Expansion of Your Resume: LinkedIn provides a wealth of tools for job seekers for personal branding, networking, self-promotion. Are you using all these tools to become visible to recruiters, human resources, and hiring managers?

Keyword Searches in Resumes: You might think you’re perfect for a job – but hiring managers would disagree after reviewing your resume. By not focusing on the proper key words – are missing out on job opportunities?

Honesty + Guts Works in the Interview: Can you look a hiring manager in the eye and challenge them in the interview if you disagree with their expectations or perspective. Are you praying things might be different when you join the company. The interview is the time for honest and direct dialogue without being confrontational.

Brad and I wish you much success in your job search in the coming week.

Barry

It Is OK to SWEAR In An Interview!

There seems to be two types of candidates in this world. Those that ramble on and on hoping if they talk long enough the person will forget the question they asked or the candidate that gives one or two word answers to every question. It is like pulling teeth to get a complete answer.

There is a happy medium between these two.

We suggest never talking more than two minutes without re-engaging the hiring manager. To re-engage, simply ask a follow-up question. For pain questions we use the acronym S.W.E.A.R. to format an answer, tell a story and stay within the two-minute rule.

• Statement – Repeat the question in your own words to clarify you heard the question. This should take five to ten seconds.
• What relates in your background – Select an experience or accomplishment in your background that relates. Give enough background information so the interviewer can put the example in the proper context. This should take twenty to thirty seconds.
• Examples – Next describe a specific example ensuring that it directly relates to the question. Use a recent accomplishment. The example must address their pain and show a benefit to them. This should be one of the five accomplishments you developed during your preparation. Keep this from forty-five seconds to a minute.
• Action – What specific action did you take? Use action words such as: led, developed, implemented, changed, or improved.
• Results/Re-engage – This is the most important component in the answer and one that is generally left out. Quantify the results you achieved. How did the company benefit from this, what changed for the better as a result, what savings occurred? How did you calculate the savings? How did management make better decisions as a result? Sales people refer to this as the WOW factor. The hiring manager should think to themselves, “WOW, that is what I’m looking for.” This should take about fifteen to twenty seconds.

Finally ask a follow-up question that gives you feedback and re-engages the hiring manager.

Pay close attention to the hiring manager’s body language. If you notice any change in body language, you need to determine if it is positive or negative. If you determine it is negative stop and re-engage. Don’t keep on talking. They are not listening anyway.

In our job search workbook, “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” we go into great detail on the interviewing process. There is so much to the interview that most candidates can’t possibly absorb it all in just one posting. Right now you can get the complete job search workbook for just the cost of shipping $5. You should at least CLICK HERE to take a further look to see if it can help you.

Also, we offer a comprehensive home study course for those that want to learn at their pace. We will send this complete course to you for $14.95 plus shipping. Again, at least take literally one minute to review the content of the kit to see if it will help you get out of search. CLICK HERE to review the contents.

Every day you spend looking is costing you a few hundred dollars in lost wages. If either of these tools or resources can reduce that by even one day you win. Please take a moment and see if this will help you.