I bet you’ve heard it’s a numbers game, right? You probably flood the
job boards with your resumes, shake hands while delivering your
“elevator pitch” at countless networking sessions, write cover letters
to people you want to work for, sit in lobbies in your power suit
waiting to be called for our turn to interviewed and follow any other
suggestions because you want (no, deserve) a brighter future. Argh!
The sad truth is, the job search world is completely insane. Here’s a
little known fact, the job description was created by IBM in 1942.
These job descriptions have guided our job search and interviewing
techniques for over 80 years! But how has our world changed since 1942?
Let’s see, we’ve seen Equal Rights evolve, wars come and go, the demise
of the Iron Curtain, we’ve seen our world’s commercial borders diminish
with the internet, just to name a few. Each one of these events has
changed the course of human resource management strategies yet we’re
still playing by the same fundamental ‘square hole’ game where the job
description is the square hole and we’re trying to be the square peg
that fits. Now that’s insanity! So many people feel powerless in this
insane world which is the reason I’m passionate about helping people
escape this craziness.
The good news is, it’s not you; it’s the system! Now that you know
where the loonies are hidden, here’s how you can take this awareness to
use it to your advantage.
Know Yourself For The Interview
Ian MacIntosh wrote a blog post here earlier last week, “Knowing Yourself Is Everything and How To Do It”.
In it he said, “If your understanding of yourself is not strong, you
are doomed to interact far less effectively with family, friends and
colleagues.” Ahh…so true. We think we know ourselves but most of us are
still identifying who we are professionally by our resumes and any
accolades we’ve received along the way. When we’re in an interview or if
we’re networking we tend to rave about what we’ve done and, if we’re lucky, how well
we’ve done. This is accomplishment driven style must give way to our
new economy’s requirement that we speak more about the contributions
we’ve made.
We use the simple CAB exercise to help people reframe their
accomplishments into contributions. First find 3 – 4 accomplishments
you’ve had in your career that 1.) you’re proud of accomplishing and 2.)
you thoroughly enjoyed the process. Then take each accomplishment and
identify the following:
- Challenge: What was the company’s (or team’s) challenge or goal?
- Activities: What activities did you go through to meet the challenge or goal?
- Benefit: What was the benefit of the accomplishment to the organization?
A word of caution. Sometimes it’s difficult to know what activities
you did that led to those contributions because you were in mastery; or
as Mike Martel said in his recent post “Warning: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”,
you were in unconscious competence. But think it through carefully
because it’s important to be able to convey how you contribute to the
organizations you’ve worked for.
Ignore the Job Description
Job descriptions tend to be loosely correlated to the exact needs of
the hiring manager so take them with a grain of salt. Instead, go into
the interview with an openness to learn more about the position. They
will greatly appreciate your depth of interest to learn more about their
needs and priorities. And you will surely shine above the other
candidates who think they’re the hammer and every job interview is a
nail.
In order to do this effectively you need to start asking questions
earlier in an interview so you can direct your points of strength at the
right target. Here’s what I mean. Let’s say the interview starts with
the typical “Tell me about yourself” opener. I encourage people to give a
very brief summary and then ask for more clarification about the role.
Here’s how it looks:
“Well, I have a business degree in Marketing from University of Missouri and I’ve been very successful as an executive recruiter for several years But you have my resume of course so I don’t want to waste our time with things you already know so help me understand a little bit more about what you’re trying to accomplish with this role so I know which direction to take it.”
The more you know about the position the more you can control the
conversation. One great add-on response to any answer they provide is
“How so? Tell me more.” This helps you get beyond those wasted one word
answers which is where the important information lies. The key is to
learn as much as you can about the true needs and priorities.
This will get you out of interview kindergarten and move you to
Interview 401 which is where you can regain your confidence.
Remember, This Isn’t All About You
Part of lack of self-confidence in an interview happens because
people get completely wrapped around the axel worrying if they’re
winning or losing the interview. I’ve seen people focus so much on selling themself that they lose their perspective. They forget that the job is open because the company has a problem.
Think about this. How would you react if a car salesman approached
you on the lot acting like he knew exactly what you needed? You see,
that’s the byproduct of the old school interview dynamics. It doesn’t
work these days. Now it’s more important than ever to learn what’s
important from the hiring manager’s personal viewpoint. Asking good
questions can get to the heart of a manager’s priorities. An excellent
question might be:
“If I could ask you to take a moment and think of 2 or 3 of the best people you’ve known in your career who’ve had this job <pause to allow them to bring those images to mind>, what do you feel are the traits they possess that made them successful?
This question allows you to veer off the sterile skills,
qualifications and background topics. Building your self-confidence will
come when you see the positive reaction in the eyes of the hiring
manager when you tap into the question this way. This is about listening
for the unsaid and intangible aspects of the ideal candidate which is
the richest information.
Like I said, the insanity isn’t your fault. Hopefully now you some
clarity on this situation to give you more of an edge than you had
before. I believe transparency is vital when living in a seemingly
insane world. To me knowing what’s really going on gives me more control
and believe me, more control makes me much more confident. I hope it
will help you, too.
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