Tag: job interview

Ordinary vs Exceptional

For almost every career, there are numerous candidates available for each position. Only one will get hired for each job, though. When five, ten or more people, with similar backgrounds apply for a job, there are a number of factors that affect who gets the offer. The factors most job seekers consider as important for a company to make a hiring decision include education, work experience and technical skills. These are all important. In fact, these are the criteria used to select candidates for interviews. In the interviews, though, it takes more than just these.

For almost every career, there are numerous candidates available for each position. Only one will get hired for each job, though. When five, ten or more people, with similar backgrounds apply for a job, there are a number of factors that affect who gets the offer.

The factors most job seekers consider as important for a company to make a hiring decision include education, work experience and technical skills. These are all important. In fact, these are the criteria used to select candidates for interviews. In the interviews, though, it takes more than just these.

In every career, there are elements that differentiate ordinary from exceptional. We have all seen this in school, sports, work and almost every aspect of life. There are people we know that, for a given activity, are exceptional and others that aren’t. A hiring manager looks for the person that is likely to be an exceptional performer in a specific role.

It’s easy to find people that can do a poor job, and not difficult to find people that will be ordinary or mediocre performers. Identifying and attracting exceptional performers is challenge. There are two reasons for this. First, only a small percentage of candidates are truly exceptional in a specific role. That’s what it means to be exceptional. Second, many job seekers don’t understand how to demonstrate that they are exceptional. They focus on showing they are qualified, but nothing more.

You need to develop a way of communicating how you are exceptional. This starts by recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, and how you utilize these to succeed. Then, develop a variety to examples from your experience demonstrating how you have been successful. If you do this, you will improve your chances of getting an offer dramatically.

Some individuals do not feel they are exceptional, or worse, feel that they are failures. This is more common with people shortly after losing a job. They internalize the job loss as a personal failure more significant than anything else they have done. This will significantly hinder your job search.

If you do not consider yourself exceptional in a role, there are two possible reasons. First, you could be right and need additional training or experience to move into a new more demanding role or to change careers. Second, you may not be able see the aspects of your career that make you exceptional.

In both cases, there are things you can do to improve your marketability. If you require additional training and experience, get it. This can take time to complete, but is worth the effort to move you forward in your chosen career. If you are exceptional but have trouble communicating this, get some help.

Interview Tip #3

Interview Tip: Focus on how you will benefit the company, showing your key skills and the value they provide an employer.

Interview Tip: Focus on how you will benefit the company, showing your key skills and the value they provide an employer.

Your potential to grow into a new job is important, but you also need to demonstrate your key skills. Usually, a company will expect you to add value almost immediately after starting. Showing how you can do this will improve the impression you make in an interview.

 

 

Interview Tip #2

Interview Tip: Prepare to discuss how you stay organized and meet deadline.

Interview Tip:  Prepare to discuss how you stay organized and meet deadlines.

Virtually all jobs require organization and a sense of urgency.  It is important in an interview to be able to address your organization and time management skills.  Being organized will not get you hired, but projecting disorganization and unreliability will cause you to be rejected.

 

Why You Need to Prepare for Behavioral Interviews

Behavioral interviews are a type of interview that asks the candidate to describe specific situations from their experience. This interview type is becoming more common with many companies. If you want to be prepared for every interview, working on behavioral interview techniques is one element your should include in your interview preparation.

Behavioral interviews are a type of interview that asks the candidate to describe specific situations from their experience. This interview type is becoming more common with many companies. If you want to be prepared for every interview, working on behavioral interview techniques is one element you should include in your interview preparation.

It is very difficult to excel in a behavioral interview if you haven’t prepared for this specific type. The interview style requires you to tell very specific stories from your background. Trying to select and tell the best story, emphasizing your strongest skills and showing how you will succeed, is extremely difficult on the fly. You may nail one or two questions, but it’s likely you will bomb a few too. If you are competing against a candidate that has prepared thoroughly, you will be at a distinct disadvantage.

Although being prepared for a common interview type should be enough motivation to work on behavioral interview preparation, there is another important reason you should improve your behavioral interviewing skills:

Behavioral interview techniques can be applied to non-behavioral interviews.

At its core, behavioral interviewing emphasizes storytelling. You will be asked to describe times when you encountered situations similar to the situations in the job you are seeking. The stories you prepare should show your skills, experience, attitude and character. All of these elements are important in every interview. Learning to provide examples that demonstrate your performance will help set you apart in any interview.

The better you get at showing an interviewer how you have performed, the more effective your interviews will be. Hiring managers want to know what they are going to get when they hire someone. Despite this, many job seekers are vague in their presentations. Every job seeker is going to claim to be hard working, a good communicator, good with people, knowledgeable in their field and successful in their career. If you make the same assertions as everyone else, you will look like everyone else.

Using behavioral interview techniques allows you to show the interviewer how you have performed in the past. You can make a strong, memorable impression by describing, very clearly, what you did and what the results were.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

No Sales Metrics to Discuss

What do you do if your employer does not have established sales metrics you can discuss in a job interview or put on your resume?

Goals, metrics, performance measures and results are extremely common in sales. Companies track sales performance closely and the data is easily quantifiable. When you interview for a sales position, you can expect to be asked about your performance, and the interviewer will expect specific answers.

In some cases, this can pose a challenge. Although rare, some companies do not provide specific goals and metrics for every sales position. Without specific metrics provided, job seekers struggle with discussing their past performance. They just don’t have the data.

If you are this situation, it is likely you will be passed over for most sales positions. It isn’t the lack of information that is the biggest problem. Companies that measure sales performance closely develop a culture that reflects this. One of the management axioms I’ve heard throughout my career is, “if you measure it, it will improve.” This philosophy focuses on the motivation that develops from publicizing performance measures… No one wants to be last and no one wants see their performance below expectations.

If you have not worked in a culture with detailed metrics, adjusting can be difficult. A hiring manager may select another candidate that has demonstrated success in this type of environment.

Your chances in this situation are not dead, though. There are ways you can demonstrate you ability to adapt to this type of culture.

Start by looking at your performance reviews. Your annual reviews will tell you your expectations and performance relative to these expectations. Hopefully, these are specific. If they are not, look at the activities that were required to be successful. For example, one of your expectations may have been “provide excellent customer service,” and had the rating “meets expectations.” This really doesn’t tell us much. We don’t know what “excellent customer service” looks like in the mind of the reviewer, how “meets expectations” falls into the continuum of performance, or how significant this was to the position.

If you develop specific examples of your performance in each review area, you will interview much better. These examples should show clearly what the goal of the activity was, what you did and what your results were. Quantifiable examples are good, but if you don’t have metrics, qualitative examples will have to do.

Without an annual review to use as a starting point, you have a greater challenge. If you did not have clear expectations set for you, what expectations did you set for yourself? If the answer was none, you have a problem. A hiring manager looking for a candidate that is self-motivated and very goal oriented is not going to favor someone that does not set goals. If you never set goals, a metric driven position might be a bad fit. If you do set goals and assess your performance, prepare to discuss examples. A job seeker that individually sets and measures goals for themselves in a culture that does not promote goal setting could make a very strong impression.

Another approach to consider is to discuss the organization’s performance. Your company or department may have goals collectively, but not measure these for individuals. If this is the case, discuss the collective goal. To make this effective be very specific about your activity contributing to the collective goal. For example, you could be part of a sales team that prepares large proposals for government contracts. Your efforts contribute to the winning of the contract, but winning is a collective effort. Discussing the success of your team lays the foundation. The question that goes unanswered when you focus on team performance is whether you were a strong contributor, the weak link on the team or somewhere in between. Giving specific examples of your activity and work you did can create a picture of your individual contributions.

As with all sales, you need to show the value you will provide if the hiring manager “buys.” The more specific you are about the activity and contribution you have provided, the easier it will be for the interviewer to picture how you will perform for them.

Interviewing for Sales Positions

A sales interview will typically focus on your sales experience and performance. Sales is a field where performance is measured closely at most companies. If you want to land the job, you will need to create a picture of how you will perform within the mind of the hiring manager

A sales interview will typically focus on your sales experience and performance. Sales is a field where performance is measured closely at most companies. If you want to land the job, you will need to create a picture of how you will perform within the mind of the hiring manager.

The first step is to review your bottom line performance. Be prepared to answer questions like:

  • What were your sales goals?

  • How was your performance relative to these goals?

  • What did you do to reach this performance level?

This is basic stuff, and answering these questions is just the starting point. You will need to prepare for more specific questions.

Activity

Prepare to discuss your goals for activity and the resulting activity level. Sales activity will vary wildly between fields. For example, a telemarketer might set a goal of 100 dials per day, while a sales person at a large construction company might focus on a specific number or dollar value of proposes submit per quarter. Prepare an outline of your typical activity in the key tasks for your past positions. With your activity, review how you organize your tasks and stay on schedule. Organization and follow up are essential in many sales roles. Presenting to an interviewer a clear picture of how you structure your activity, maintain your activity level and stay focused on revenue producing tasks will help you stand out.

Approach

Prepare to discuss your approach to sales. This approach usually develops from a combination of your personality, the expectations of your customers, the system at your employer and the training you have received. Discussing your approach, how it has evolved over you career and how it is successful will make a strong impression. One caution to consider is presenting your approach as set in stone. Your sales approach needs to be flexible and adaptable. What works effectively in one industry many not be as effective in another.

Performance

The three questions at the start of the article are important, but you need to be prepared to go into more detail. For your performance results to make the best impression, you need to provide some context. Did you grow sales by 15% at a time when your industry grew by 25%, losing market share in the process? Did your sales stay flat at a time when your industry declined substantially?

With the context you provide, you should include details of how you achieved this performance. What sales activities worked? What did you change in your approach? What would you have done differently?

Questions

Hopefully, the interviewer will ask questions that address your sales activity, approach and performance.  This isn’t guaranteed, though.  Every interviewer has a different style.  If an interviewer does not ask specifically about a sales quality that you have identified as essential for the position, work this quality into one of your answers.

This is no different from any sales presentation.  For example, you are selling a product that is competitive in the marketplace.  Your company has an excellent quality control system and the resulting quality of the product is exceptional.  Your prospect asks about the cost, delivery and specifications of the product, but avoids asking about quality.  Are you going to mention this topic in case this is an important issue for the prospect? Definitely. The same goes for your strengths and accomplishments.

Conclusion

Your presentation of your sales background focus on three key areas:

  • Demonstrate how you will do the job.

  • Demonstrate your skill level in performing your job.

  • Demonstrate your ability to persevere over significant challenges and deliver results.

All three of these serve to show the hiring manager your potential – what you will achieve working for them. If you create a strong, positive image of these three elements, you will have much more success than your competition.

Interview Questions: Company Mission Statements

Many interviewers ask what a job seeker has learned about the company. This question is designed to uncover two primary pieces of information. First, determine if the job seeker took the time to do some research. Many job seekers skip this step and hurt their chances. Second, learn what is important to the job seeker based on the topics they research.

When you do your research, you should learn about the company’s history, their financial performance, their operations and products/services. Another element to research is the company’s mission statement.  A mission statement provides the fundamental basis of the company’s strategy, goals and values. It can give you an idea of the culture of the company and the qualities that will be important in a hiring decision.

Let’s look the mission statements from three vastly different restaurant firms:

  • Morton’s The Steakhouse – Attract, Value, Retain and Develop the best talent in the industry, serve the best food (anytime, anywhere at any cost) and execute unparalleled hospitality – the best dining experience – 365 days a year.
  • Starbucks – To inspire and nurture the human spirit— one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.
  • YUM Brands – At Yum! we’re building a vibrant global business by focusing on four key business strategies:
    • Build leading brands across China in every significant category
    • Drive aggressive international expansion and build strong brands everywhere
    • Dramatically improve U.S. brand positions, consistency and returns
    • Drive industry-leading, long-term shareholder and franchisee value

What do these three mission statements say? Morton’s prioritizes exception quality in its employees, food and service.. Starbucks values the impression made on their customers… Yum Brands focuses on growth, brand position and shareholder value. In reality, all of these qualities are important to all three organizations, and to all restaurants. No one wants to have a restaurant with low quality, poor environment, bad service, terrible value, non-growing business or declining shareholder value. The difference is how each organization prioritizes these values.

The three mission statements are excellent goals, but vastly different. A job seeker interviewing at each company will need to emphasize different skills and abilities. Understanding the expectations and goals of the company will help you tailor your presentation. Be prepared to discuss situations from your experience that demonstrate success in meeting the objective of the company.

The mission statement of a company is a starting point. It is not an all inclusive statement of company’s priorities. Different jobs within a company may also have different priorities. The important thing to understand is the individual priorities of each position within the company need to support and promote the overall priorities of the company.

One final aspect of a mission statement to consider is the purpose of the statement and its intended audience. A mission statement should represent the entire company, but each firm will use and market their mission differently. Morton’s placed their mission statement on the Careers page on their website. If they wrote the mission statement with the intention of using it in the hiring process, this may have influenced the content emphasizing employees. The Starbucks mission statement appears in their About Us section of the website. It is much more general, giving a theme for the company and is used in an overall description of the company. Yum! Brands placed their mission statement in their investor section. It appears to be intended as a guide for the direction management is driving the company. Each mission statement has a different goal and the content reflects this.

Bottom line: Learn what you can about the values, goals and expectations of a company and be prepared to discuss these in an interview.

Interview Questions About Deadlines

One of the interview questions that is very common relates to working under tight deadlines. It is important to be able to meet deadlines in many careers. There are very few companies where the speed and urgency are not important.
Over the years, I’ve asked about deadlines in interviews very frequently. This is one of the questions where job seekers usually react exactly the same way.

One of the interview questions that is very common relates to working under tight deadlines. It is important to be able to meet deadlines in many careers. There are very few companies where the speed and urgency are not important.

Over the years, I’ve asked about deadlines in interviews very frequently. This is one of the questions where job seekers usually react exactly the same way. It doesn’t matter what type of personality the job seeker has, their job type or the industry. The answer that almost everyone gives is a variation of this:

Question: Tell me about a time when you worked under a tight deadline.

Answer: All the time. Everything we do has a tight deadline. Meeting customer needs requires responding quickly. We never have much warning when we get a special project and have to get the project done quickly.

This answer is very general. Job seekers usually include specific industry terms in their answer, but the overall message is the same. Everything the job seeker does has a deadline.

I’m sure you can see that this answer tells the interviewer nothing. The goal of a question about deadlines is to understand the sense of urgency of the job seeker and to get an idea of how the individual will perform. Generalizing the answer provides nothing noteworthy.

To effectively answer a question about deadlines, you need to give an example. Starting out with a statement that deadlines are common in your field is ok. The interviewer probably hears this every time they ask the question, so you’re not going to make a bad impression with it.

The key to making a good impression is what you do next. Give an example of a specific deadline and how you were able to meet it. This will demonstrate the value you provided in the past and help create an impression of success.

This is an example of a better answer to this question:

We work under tight deadlines all the time. For example, we recently had a customer place an order for one of our products with several custom modifications. The customer needed the product in a week, and our typical lead time with the modifications was 10 days. I was able to cut a couple of days off the production schedule by coordinating with the manufacturing department to run the product on a different line than normal and then cut another day by working with quality so that they would inspect the product as it was produced. We shipped the product on time. These type of deadlines are commonplace and I work very well with other department to ensure that we meet every schedule no matter how tight.

This is very basic example of expediting production of a product. Despite this, it shows the type of deadlines the job seeker encounters, how they approach the deadline and gives an example of a success. Even though this is a basic example, it is a much better answer than the original general answer.

One reason this example is effective is the emphasis on working with other departments.  The anser address the sense of urgency of the job seeker but also uses the example to demonstrate how effective they are at influencing others in their company.

Look for ways to give examples of what you have done. Examples create a picture in the mind of the interviewer and make a much stronger impression.

What Job Seekers Can Learn From Barack Obama

The election is over and Barack Obama will be our next President. His campaign demonstrated a few techniques that any job seeker can employ to improve their job search.

Positioning Statement

What was the cornerstone of the Obama campaign – the one word that summarizes the reason to vote for Barack Obama? I doubt anyone has confusion here. We've heard "Change" so many times that this one word has come to represent everything about the Obama campaign.

When you are considered for a position by an employer, what word or phrase will represent everything you offer? You should develop a theme that a hiring manager can clearly understand and articulate.

Contrast this with John McCain. The one word that saturated his campaign was "Maverick." Although the use of this word had many similarities to Obama's use of "Change," it didn't resonate with voters. The reason for this is the complexity of the image. Obama means change, people are unhappy and change will make them happy. McCain is a maverick, a maverick will make changes, the people are unhappy and the changes will make them happy.

It's essentially the same argument, but for Obama, it's clearer. This clarity translated into greater trust, and more votes.

Benefits

Which candidate offered the hiring managers (all of us) more value and greater benefits?

Both candidates made a lot of campaign promises. Obama's were more specific in many cases. For example, his tax policy consistently focused on: "Cut taxes for 95 percent of workers and their families with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples."

Hiring managers make decisions based on which job seeker will provide more value to them and to their company. A $500 tax cut is not significant for most people, but it is a tangible, specific benefit.

In your interviews, you need to demonstrate what value you can provide. The best way to do this is to show how you have provided value to past employers. For example, "at ABC company, I implemented a new material handling system that improved our processes and saved the company $250,000 per year." For a hiring manager that wants to improve their material handling processes, this candidate would make a very strong impression.

Storytelling

Political conventions, speeches and debates have developed a consistent strategy used by both parties – Storytelling. How many times have we watched a candidate parade a series of people, telling the story of each person and how they will help that person if elected.

The point of this strategy is to create a very clear image of what the candidate will deliver and make a strong personal connection. Political candidates have learned that people don't vote for logical, factual arguments by themselves. The logic and facts are important, but the emotion and personal connection are at least as important.

Storytelling can be very effective in an interview. You can show a hiring manager, very clearly, what you have done in the past. This gives the hiring manager a feeling of what it would be like to work with you. It's this feeling that can tip the scales in your favor and get you hired.

Exercise

Pick the candidate you supported in the election, or do this exercise with both candidates.

On a piece of paper, draw a vertical line down the center of the page. Write the candidate's name at the top of the left column.

Under the candidate's name, list the top three reasons why the candidate should be our next President.

Write a short paragraph, 3-5 sentences, for what you would say to someone that is undecided to persuade them to support the candidate.

At the top of the right column, write your name.

List the top three reasons why you should be hired.

Write a short paragraph, 3-5 sentences, for what you would say to someone that is undecided about hiring you.

Compare the two columns.

  • Which is more specific?
  • Which demonstrates more value to the hiring manager?
  • Which is more personal, giving storytelling examples?
  • What will you change in your resume and next interview?

Assessing Sarah Palin’s Job Interview

Sarah Palin answers a question in the first Vice Presidential debate and demonstrates some important interview principles.

I’ve assessed the job interview performance of three of the candidates, and am now on to Sarah Palin. As I have done in the previous articles, I am critiquing each candidate based solely on the content of the first answer they gave in their debate.  I chose the first answer because it was very predictable – a question about our current financial crisis – and it is likely the candidates scripted some or all of their answers.

The transcript of Palin’s answer is in the gray area to the right.

Palin’s Answer

In this answer, Palin begins and focuses the majority of her answer on empathizing with the hiring managers. She describes very clearly how she feels and her understanding of how others feel about the financial uncertainty and hardship.

Palin then provides an example of what McCain did in the past. She then states what McCain will do to address the problems, and what he is doing now to make this happen.

Interview Criteria

I am using the same criteria as I used with the other three candidates:

  1. Organized clearly and concisely
  2. Focused on the values and needs of the hiring manager and company
  3. Reinforces the skill and experience of the job seeker
  4. Separates the job seeker from their competition with a strong positioning statement
  5. Backs up the positioning statement with accomplishments that demonstrate an ability to succeed
  6. Demonstrates enthusiasm for the job and company

Palin’s Assessment

Palin’s answer measures up very well against the criteria above:

  1. The answer is concise and easy to follow.
  2. The answer discusses the concerns of the hiring managers in great detail, with more than half the answer devoted to this.
  3. The answer discusses McCains experience very specifically by describing how he pushed for reform two years ago.
  4. The positioning statement is very direct – “John McCain thankfully has been one representing reform.”
  5. The positioning statement is supported by an example of how McCain pushed for reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the past.
  6. The answer doesn’t directly state that the candidate wants the job, but it does imply this by describing the current efforts of McCain to work on the financial crisis.

The answer has a very good structure that makes it easy to follow.

Palin focuses on the concerns of the hiring managers – fear about investments, paying for college, or managing a small business. Although implied, she doesn’t directly say that she will aliviate these concerns. The answer would be stronger with an example of what her ticket will do if hired and what specific results they will deliver.

Palin is the only candidate to provide a tangible example of past experience. She discusses McCain’s roll in attempting to reform the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac two years ago. Giving an example of a situation that deals directly with the job being pursued is a great way to stand out from your competition. Palin reinforces this idea by showing what McCain is currently doing to help fix the situation.

Looking at the example provided, it could be interpreted as either a success or failure. McCain saw the potential for financial problems and took action to avoid them, but he was not able to get passed the reforms he promoted.

This is a great lesson for any job seeker. The same example from your work history could be a great selling point or a major distractor. In this case, Palin emphasizes the foresight to identify and work to fix a problem as the accomplishment. She deemphasizes the inability to drive the changes and pursuade others to support the reform.

If I was coaching this candidate, I would recommend reducing the time spent discussing the concerns of the hiring managers. This could be more concise and accomplish the same thing. I would then add a little more detail to the reforms McCain pushed for in the past, ideally describing what the reforms were and how they would help today. The clearer and more specific the example is, the more effective it will be. Finally, I would relate the candidate’s plan to the concerns of the hiring managers, stating clearly how they will benefit.

Overall: This is a strong interview answer. It focuses on the needs of hiring managers and gives a clear example from the candidate’s (McCain’s) experience that demonstrates an ability to satisfy these concerns.

Transcript:

IFILL: The House of Representatives this week passed a bill, a big bailout bill — or didn’t pass it, I should say. The Senate decided to pass it, and the House is wrestling with it still tonight.

As America watches these things happen on Capitol Hill…was this the worst of Washington or the best of Washington that we saw play out?

PALIN: Thank you, Gwen. And I thank the commission, also. I appreciate this privilege of being able to be here and speak with Americans.

You know, I think a good barometer here, as we try to figure out has this been a good time or a bad time in America’s economy, is go to a kid’s soccer game on Saturday, and turn to any parent there on the sideline and ask them, “How are you feeling about the economy?”

And I’ll bet you, you’re going to hear some fear in that parent’s voice, fear regarding the few investments that some of us have in the stock market. Did we just take a major hit with those investments?

Fear about, how are we going to afford to send our kids to college? A fear, as small-business owners, perhaps, how we’re going to borrow any money to increase inventory or hire more people.

The barometer there, I think, is going to be resounding that our economy is hurting and the federal government has not provided the sound oversight that we need and that we deserve, and we need reform to that end.

Now, John McCain thankfully has been one representing reform. Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures. He sounded that warning bell.

People in the Senate with him, his colleagues, didn’t want to listen to him and wouldn’t go towards that reform that was needed then. I think that the alarm has been heard, though, and there will be that greater oversight, again thanks to John McCain’s bipartisan efforts that he was so instrumental in bringing folks together over this past week, even suspending his own campaign to make sure he was putting excessive politics aside and putting the country first.

Full Transcript of the Debate