How to Find a Job: When There Are No Jobs (Book 1) a Necessary Job Search and Career Planning Guide for Today's Job Market (Find a Job Series) (11 page)

Interview Review, a Personal Assessment

A complete personal review and analysis of your interview should be done immediately after your meeting. It is very beneficial to stop at a restaurant after a meeting to review your interview notes and add additional content to them if necessary. If you take the time to review your notes, any additions you make will be more accurate.

Write down everything that occurred during the interview, organizing your notes according to each person with whom you interviewed. It is important that you take notes based upon your discussions with each individual you meet during your interview. Even if some of the discussions you had are similar, it is important to take note of the similarities as you may discover a common pattern and be able to decipher what issues are important to the interviewers. Having this type of knowledge will better enable you to follow-up with subsequent letters and telephone calls and prepare you for any additional interviews with the company. In addition, make note of your impressions and feelings about each person you interviewed with as well as your perceptions regarding each individual’s thoughts about you. Your assessment of the entire interview will help you to formulate a list of follow-up questions and help you decide if this is the company and individuals you want to work for.

Consider the likelihood that the job you are seeking may also be sought after by other applicants. Having obtained the best knowledge possible about the company’s products, management staff, and corporate culture is critical to your success. You want to be the person who is most recognized in the minds of your prospective employer. You can accomplish this by showing the employer how prepared you are for your interview.

You will also want to exhibit your willingness to go one or more steps beyond where the average person may go in the pursuit of knowledge. Your efforts will show the employer that you have a great deal of tenacity and a strong character. From my experience in the field of executive search, these are two key traits and qualities managers look for when hiring employees. 

When I graduated from grade school my parents gave me a gold ring with my initials P.R. raised on the top of the ring. Placed in the ring was one small diamond with places for two others. Each diamond when received would be larger than the previous one. The idea behind this unique gift was that after each successful graduation, i.e., from grade school, high school, and finally college, the diamonds I received got larger and signified a greater level of accomplishment after each graduation. Inscribed inside the ring’s band were the words, “Knowledge is Power.” I still have the ring and often think how true that statement is.

Once you have analyzed your interview, you are ready to prepare a list of questions for the hiring manager and anyone else involved in the interview process. Prepare the most appropriate two to five questions to ask during your follow-up telephone call. Questions most pertinent are those directly related to the position itself and your specific duties. As the employer addresses your questions it may lead to other questions you may have.

It is appropriate to ask any follow-up questions at this time. Specific questions regarding the company or the hiring manager may also be asked at this time. Questions you should avoid at this stage in the interview process are those pertaining to salary and benefits. Always wait for the employer to discuss salary and benefit issues. However, if salary and benefit-type questions have not been addressed after your second or third interview, you may consider inquiring about these issues at that time.

Never Criticize a Company

Never make any direct demands or criticize the company or manager during an interview. This may be obvious advice to most people but a story related to this subject will emphasize my point. Occasionally during a search for recruiters to work for my own company, I would invariably speak with an individual who would demand certain concessions and working conditions from me. The incident occurred during a follow-up call from a candidate for whom I had interviewed for a position within my company. He was a young man who interviewed relatively well and followed up with me via telephone. During his entire follow-up call he proceeded to tell me how he thought I should run my company and commented that he would not have any part of a company that was over-demanding in its method and would run itself into the ground financially.

Well, as you might imagine this individual made a very critical mistake during his follow-up call. By not knowing anything about my company, he was in essence ridiculing me. He made several erroneous statements and continued to say that he would not work for such a company. Needless to say, I was completely appalled by his demanding and rude mannerisms.

I cut the conversation short and told him I was not going to pursue his candidacy for my company any further. This individual’s critical error was not properly preparing himself for the follow-up call. He essentially knew very little about my company. He made several assumptions without having any real factual evidence or information. It has always been my belief that to assume is to guess, and to guess is almost always dangerous especially during an interview. A word to the wise when interviewing, always gather proper and true facts about the company and the person you are interviewing with. Never be demanding or critical during an interview. Such a demeanor immediately puts the potential employer on the defensive, and you will most likely not be hired.

However, if you discover during your company research a potential problem with the employer, it may be appropriate at the proper time to discuss the issue in a respectful manner. For example, if you discover through your research that sales for the company were down by 12% over last year, it would be wise to ask a question relating to the sales of the company.  For instance, ask the manager what specifically were the company’s sales over the past three to five years and what are the projections for this year as well as next year. This is a tactful method for gaining potentially negative as well as positive information regarding the company.

Always be courteous and tactful when you ask questions pertaining to the company, the position or hiring manager. You may find the reason for such a drop in sales is due to the company’s discontinuance of a particular line of products or services. Further, the company indicates to you that it expects sales to rise significantly next year because of the introduction of a new and improved product line. In fact, the position you are interviewing for may be a significant part of the expansion process.

Another tactful but more direct method for addressing a company’s drop in sales is to indicate to the manager that you have done quite a bit of research regarding the company and noticed a 12% decline in overall sales. Indicate that you are interested in understanding the reason for the decline. However, it may be more effective and tactful to ask the manager what the sales have been over the past five years and address the decline at that time. 

During any interview and all subsequent follow-up telephone calls it is very important to project a positive attitude while asking any questions that may have negative connotations. I call this method of communication the “Assumptive Positive.” Learn to rely on your intuition and perception of the chemistry between you and the interviewer while asking or responding to all interview questions.

Job Search Organization

O
rganization is a key element to the success of any job search. It is important to monitor and track all interviews, letters, telephone calls, etc. The reason for monitoring and tracking these particular elements of your job search is to allow you to see your search’s progress. Positive job search progress helps you to develop your self-confidence in the pursuit of a new position. Tracking all aspects of your search enables you to stay in regular contact and respond to those individuals who have and have not returned your telephone calls. It also allows you to keep track of what specific telephone calls and letters have resulted in interviews and the results of those interviews. 

I have developed a simple and effective telephone log for all telephone contacts you may make. I view this log as a minimal tool for your job search success. In addition, I have developed a resume log that indicates where, when and to whom you have sent resumes. The results section of this log is used to indicate the results of each letter and resume you send. All of the logs can be generated on your computer using a spreadsheet program such as Excel. In addition, computer programs designed specifically for contact management such as ACT can be invaluable tools used to develop your own personalized monitoring system.

Create a separate file for each company that you interview with. Keep notes and a log of all conversations and interview results that you have with each prospective employer. You should also create a separate file for any job leads you discover in the course of your search. Call it your “Hot Job File” and aggressively plan to follow-up on all leads.

Telephone Log

Date: ____________

Contact: ____________

Title: ____________

Company: ____________

Web: ____________

Phone: ____________

Fax: ____________

Email: ____________

Purpose: ____________

Results: ____________

Resume Log

Date: ____________

Contact: ____________

Title: ____________

Company: ____________

Web: ____________

Phone: ____________

Fax: ____________

Email: ____________

Purpose: ____________

Results: ____________

Interview Log

Date: ____________

Contact: ____________

Title: ____________

Company: ____________

Web: ____________

Phone: ____________

Fax: ____________

Email: ____________

Purpose: ____________

Results: ____________

Your Job Search Must be Organized, and You Must Have a System

My late Grandfather, Alvin Senf, was an entrepreneur having been a part owner of a very successful shoe business that catered to those looking for good service and a well-made product. He once told me during a conversation regarding my new sales career, “Sales is a good field and you can be very successful, but you must be organized, and you must have a system.” He was right, as I have applied his principles in all of my successful business ventures. I will always remember his wisdom of seventy-nine years and apply it whenever possible.

A job search is a sales campaign where you are selling your most important asset, namely yourself. Taking the time to get organized and establishing a system is an important element to the success of your job search. An organized job search coupled with a well-developed system will significantly increase your chances for landing the type of position you want and reduce the amount of time searching for a job. Your system will enable you to quickly determine which employers you have or have not spoken with as well as the results of those conversations.

A job search can quickly become an organizational nightmare cluttered with piles of paper and notes if a system with a few simple logs is not kept. Frustration will set in with this scenario and dramatically hinder your job search progress. A personal computer with a simple database or spreadsheet program including a word processing program can be a major asset and organizational tool.

Executive Recruiters, Friends or Foe?

T
he most effective use of an executive recruiter or employment agency requires that you first educate yourself regarding the purpose of each of these organizations and how they function. Many individuals unfamiliar with the operation of an executive search firm or employment agency believe that the recruiters who work for these firms work for them. This assumption is really the furthest from the truth. Most executive recruiters work with companies for whom they represent known as their clients and the job seeker is often called a candidate or applicant. The client companies pay the recruiter’s fees, which range between 25-33% of the candidate’s first year’s total compensation package. The candidate in most cases does not pay any portion of a recruiter’s fee. Understanding that recruiters work for and are paid by their client companies and not the candidate is an important issue regarding the success of your job search. 

The method most recruiters follow is to first obtain an assignment or job order from a client company. The client company typically has a need for a specific type of individual and they supply the recruiter with information regarding the background they are looking for.

The recruiter will begin their search using an in-house candidate file to determine if a match can be found. If a candidate is located that matches what the client is looking for, the recruiter will then make contact with the candidate to determine if they are interested in a potential career opportunity. If the candidate is qualified for the position and is interested in a potential career move, the recruiter will then present this candidate to his client company for consideration. If the company is interested in the candidate, an interview is set up between the company and the candidate.

If the interview goes well, one of two things usually occurs; an offer is extended to the candidate followed by a negotiation pertaining to matters such as salary, benefits, relocation, etc. If an offer is not extended after a first interview then a second interview and possibly a third interview may be scheduled if the process continues to go well. Many companies usually make a hiring decision after one or two meetings. In most instances a second or third interview will involve meeting additional individuals within the company, possibly a more senior level manager. Finally, if the interview does not go well the candidate may be rejected as a viable individual for the position. Rejection of a candidate may be the result of several things that may include the lack of proper job qualifications, poor chemistry between the hiring managers or possibly salary and benefits issues. In addition, after interviewing with the company you may personally decide that the position is not a proper fit for you.