Sex and Your Job Search 2013: A Guide to Scoring Your Dream Job (17 page)

My mind went blank as Stifler’s mom lightly moaned in my ear while we were having our picture taken at a charity event. What stunned me even more is that after the photo she turned to me, looked me up and down, raised an eyebrow, and gave me a suggestive, “Ok boy, what game you got” look.

I was speechless. I hadn’t prepared for this. I didn’t expect her to go straight into character. And she looked good! It had been several years since
American Pie
, and in person Jennifer Coolidge seemed hotter than ever.

If I thought there was even a remote possibility that she would flirt with a “reasonably attractive human resources professional,” I would have come up with a funny self-deprecating story beforehand. Or I could have told her about the work I’ve done for the children’s hospital that was putting on the event. But I didn’t. At that point I hadn’t come up with “go-to” stories that would have impressed and charmed her.

So, I stammered about how this was a great event and then sincerely thanked her for her time, like we were at a business mixer. Then I called myself a “pansy” under my breath as I walked away. True story.

AMERICAN PIE
AND
BEHAVIORAL BASED INTERVIEWING

I mention my story about Stifler’s mom because it ties in to three similarities between you and the characters in the film
American Pie
. No, really. Follow me here.

The first similarity is that at the beginning of the movie, several of the high school students make a pact to hook up with someone before graduating high school. Similarly, your goal is to score with the employer of your dreams.

Secondly, you don’t want to accidently “exit” the interview process “prematurely,” like one of the lead characters in a famous scene.

Lastly, just like the characters in
American Pie
, you should tell memorable stories that your audience (the interviewer) will remember for a very long time. Do the words “band camp” and “warm apple pie” bring back memories of some hilarious moments in the film? Your stories should be as memorable, but in a professional way.

This chapter focuses on creating your interview go-to stories, which will prepare you for answering the interviewers questions during Third Base. We will talk more about the bases (steps) of the interview process in Chapter 9. However, your interview go-to stories are so important to scoring a job offer, your future financial success, and your happiness that I’ve dedicated a whole chapter to them. And the great thing is that these stories will fit perfectly into any type of interview. Whether that interview is in-person, on the phone, or via Skype. At the end of this chapter, we will also talk about the Interview Wingman and Friends With Benefits.

OTHER BENEFITS OF THIS CHAPTER

Aside from helping you ace an interview and become a top candidate for the job of your dreams, this chapter can change your life in three ways:

• You will become more confident in your skills and abilities

• You will be able to tell better stories in general

• You will be able to read people better and know who is lying to you

BEHAVIORAL BASED INTERVIEW SUCCESS:
SEVEN INTERVIEW GO-TO STORIES
& THE BIG "O"

Third Base is an incredible event and can take your breath away if performed in the right manner. In this step of the interview, your answers can do just that.

You will most likely be asked a number of questions about your past work and educational successes. The technical term for these types of questions are “behavioral based questions.” At this time, most Fortune 500 companies ask behavioral based questions, as do the majority of other employers.

Simply stated, the reason interviewers ask behavioral based questions is because they know that
past performance predicts future performance
. It’s that easy. If an interviewer can see how you pleased a previous employer over and over, the interviewer can picture you doing the same for their company. If you were “amazing” with another company, your dream employer will anticipate you doing the same for them and will want to hook up with you for the long term.

The same line of thinking affects decisions in your day-to-day life. If someone treated you well on a date, you probably would consider going out with them again. If you had a good experience with a certain automotive brand, you’re more likely to buy another vehicle from them. On the other hand, if someone was rude to you or you loaned a person money and they didn’t pay you back, you probably wouldn’t deal with them again. Period.

The responses to behavioral based interview questions are what organizations use to determine if someone can perform the job functions successfully, and impacts who they want to hire.

Having said that and after doing copious amounts of research, I am confident in saying that any job applicant with Seven Interview Go-to Stories based on their past professional and educational successes will be a strong candidate when decision time comes.

The Seven Go-to Stories are based on the Seven Universal Skills and Three Universal Values that every employer wants to see in someone they hire. We’ll discuss these Skills and Values in a little bit. In this chapter, we go over
how
to outline your past successes and
which
stories to tell. Understanding this process is the most important step in reaching the big “O,” the Offer.

Later on in this chapter, we’ll also cover situational interview questions that are asked at top employers like Amazon, Google, and Facebook. However, coming up with your Seven Go-to Stories is the foundation of acing an interview, regardless of what you’re asked, and is essential to scoring your dream job.

B ME STORY OUTLINE -
HOW TO OUTLINE 
YOUR
 
INTERVIEW GO-TO STORIES

There is an easy way to outline your behavioral based stories. It’s called the B ME outline. The B ME outline is designed to ensure that you tell a complete story in response to a behavioral interview question, or any other question for that matter. It is also structured in the way an interviewer takes notes during an interview. Kinda convenient to give them
exactly
what they want, huh?

The B ME outline is also named to remind you that
your
stories and
your
background are going to make you attractive to an employer. Not some canned response that you can read in a book from the nineties. B ME stands for Beginning, Middle, and End:

Beginning
: Set the stage for the story. What was the situation? What was the task and objective? Was this a normal job responsibility or something unusual? Allow the interviewer to appreciate the circumstances of the story before diving into the details.

Middle
: What did you do? What actions did you take? What skills did you use and what behaviors and values did you demonstrate? Use “I” at first to show what you did and then emphasize your role in the team. This is the most important part of the story because it shows what action you took and your overall contribution.

End
: How did the story turn out? What were the positive results? Focus on your initiative, what you accomplished, and how this benefited the company. Did you come up with a more efficient process? Did you make money, save money, or save time? Lastly, identify what you learned and what you would do different next time.

SEVEN UNIVERSAL SKILLS & THREE UNIVERSAL VALUES: THESE MAKE UP YOUR SEVEN INTERVIEW GO-TO STORIES

In a perfect dating world, first date conversations would flow effortlessly and the time would fly by. Since that does not always occur, like in my example with Stifler’s mom, it is a good idea to come up with exciting go-to stories and topics before a date.

You can come up with these dating go-to stories by taking a personal inventory of who you are, what you like, and what you have done personally and professionally. The go-to stories and topics can range from travel, food, favorite restaurants, movies, celebrity sightings, music, work successes (don’t flaunt your wealth, but show you take work seriously), friends, family, and more.

By communicating these examples, you increase the level of trust, show that you enjoy life, have a sense of humor, deal with challenges well, have personal and professional goals, and would make a good life partner.

Similarly, before an interview it is a good idea to take a personal inventory of your professional achievements and who you are as an employee, and apply them to the job duties of the position you are interested in. But instead of telling stories about travel and family like you would on a date, you should address the Seven Universal Skills and Three Universal Values that every employer wants to see in someone they hire.

By speaking to these Skills and Values, you build trust quickly (this is essential) and demonstrate that you deal with challenges well, think critically, like what you do, have professional goals, exhibit a sense of humor, and would make a good “work partner.” Doing these things significantly improves your chances of receiving a job offer.

The Seven Universal Skills:

• Accuracy and Attention to Detail

• Adaptability and Flexibility

• Communication

• Creativity

• Customer Focus

• Organization and Time Management

• Technical Ability

The Three Universal Values: “TIE”

• Teamwork

• Integrity

• Excellence

CREATING YOUR SEVEN GO-TO STORIES

If by any chance at this point you are freaking out about coming up with seven go-to stories, please simmer down. It is going to be OK. If you have very little work history and can only come up with five go-to stories, you should be just fine. And for high school and college students, it is perfectly acceptable to talk about tutoring your friends in math or English or other school projects. No problem. That’s good stuff and we’ll talk about it more below.

So, how do you come up with your Seven Interview Go-to Stories? Glad you asked. They are largely based on the contents of your resume and the achievements you wrote down with the help of the DO IT exercise in Chapter 5. And they can be applied to most interview questions that are thrown your way. Your Seven Interview Go-to Stories are also based on the Seven Universal Skills that every employer wants to see in someone they hire.

To begin the process of creating your Seven Go-to Stories, take a look at the job posting you are interested in, your resume, and your notes from the DO IT exercise. Then look at the Seven Universal Skill descriptions below and ask yourself the questions listed after each one. Start writing out your stories following the B ME outline.

Also, in Chapter 10, I list eight popular behavioral based questions and answers in the B ME outline that address each of these Seven Universal Skills and Three Universal Values. I give details of how these job applicants became Success Stories. The examples range from those used by college students, new grads, mid-level professionals, and managers. Hopefully you can springboard off of these or use them to jog your memory. And as a result, you will come up with stories that rock your interviewer’s world.

During this exercise, you’ll most likely notice that some of your stories will apply to more than one of the Seven Skills. That is the beauty of this system and offers you flexibility during an interview.

SEVEN UNIVERSAL SKILLS

• 
Accuracy and Attention to Detail:
Think about the most detailed or difficult task you were ever responsible for. Or think about a time when you had to ask questions to solve a particular problem or challenge. What did you do? What did you learn?

What happened when you missed an important deadline? How did you make sure it didn’t happen again? Try to think about the Beginning, Middle, and End of the story.

You will most likely be asked about something that’s gone wrong at some point in your previous position. Explain how you analyzed and solved the problem, were better prepared when it came up again, and how you stopped it from escalating due to what you learned. But try to only give one or two example of things going wrong in the interview. The interviewer is looking for patterns. Don’t validate a weakness by giving several examples of things not working out well.

• 
Adaptability and Flexibility:
Try to come up with a time when things became very busy at work and you had to take on additional tasks. What steps did you take to make sure nothing fell through the cracks? How did everything turn out? What critical-thinking, analytical, decision-making, and/or problem-solving skills or processes did you use? Did you come up with a business strategy by yourself, and how did that include teamwork?