Career Coach Office Hours: July 15 2022 | JobSearchTV.com
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
I answered questions about #jobsearch #hiringstaff #management #leadership #workplace issues. Join me at 1 PM Eastern on Tuesdays and Fridays. You can also message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer it, too #careercoachofficehours #careercoaching #careercoach #jobsearchtips #jobsearchadvice #interviews #hiring #managingpeople #leadershipskills #linkedinlive #linkedinlivestreams
Employer Complaints About Younger Millennials and Gen-Z
03:12
When asked what job are you applying for, what would your answer be? I usually answer by some polite but businesslike questions such as ‘I’m responding to this advertisement, however, I’d like to hear about other openings your business apparently has available.’ You’re okay. Here’s the simplest way. Talk to them directly. See, I’m a believer that when you’re interviewing or you’re being contacted by the firm, the first thing you want to do is have a human connection with the person there. Thus you’re right to acknowledge the position that you saw and say, ‘I forearded the resume regarding the such and such role. And if you see something that you think would be a better fit, don’t hesitate. But this is the job I saw that prompted me to contact you.’ Yeah, I think it’s surprising that they didn’t acknowledge the position that you responded to because, after all, normally, there’s a linkage between the job ad and your resume when the resume goes into the applicant tracking system, is emailed to them. There’s some indicator where it came from that would tell them what it is. And thus, like I said, it’s a little surprising that they started off with this question. Maybe it’s a little bit of a test for you in an effort to see whether or not you remember because some people are unprepared. But I would just simply say ‘You know, I saw this post for such and such. It spoke about such and such type of background. But if you think there’s something I’d be a better fit for, let’s talk about that. Or let’s talk about that, too. I’d be very happy to discuss it with you. Notice my tone of voice? Casual. Casual is a big part of this because when you sound nervous or tense, it makes them anxious too. When they’re anxious, they can’t feel you in a good way. Part of the connection is for them to get a feel for you as a person. And I don’t think being the anxious candidate, the anxious job hunter, the anxious person is a good look for you. S
05:36
When hiring, what do you suppose to not worry about? What you’re not supposed to worry about is whether there’s someone out there who can fit your job. Because it’s a big world, and someone is qualified to do what you need them to do. The question comes down to is how will you recognize them if they appear? What will you do to evaluate someone to make sure that they can do this job and are competent to do this job? And then, can you can get them to do this job for you?But the question is about what not to worry about. Somewhere in the world, there is a person qualified to do this job who’d be happy to do this job. And it’s really the thing I’d point to right away.
06:47
What is the most awkward situation you encountered in an interview? And how did you handle it? I’m going to do this from the employer perspective, not the job hunter perspective, because it’s been too many years since I looked for a job. I think the most awkward thing I ever dealt with was a person who I asked ‘Tell me about yourself’ to and they started to go off in this long monologue that touched on it briefly at the beginning. But it seemed like they were trying to answer every question possible that they had ever heard on an interview. And five minutes into the conversation. I put up my hand like this, I then went like this for timeout. And asked, ‘Do you remember my original question?’ And they said, ‘no’. That’s probably the most awkward situation I’ve ever been in. I just couldn’t stand listening to this person any longer. And I had to bring it to an interruption. Most people have enough savvy not to do that, but this person . . . So that’s how I would answer that.
08:11
Can you know within the first five minutes of interviewing someone, if they will be a good hire or not? You can determine the not, you can determine if they’re not qualified pretty quickly. But the idea that you can determine whether someone is qualified for most professions takes longer. You have to rule the first part of the interview, ‘So tell me about yourself and what you’ve been doing professionally,’ or walk me through your background’ which, to me, these are lazy interview questions. And let’s say you’re doing a deep dive with someone instantly. And you’re skipping that question. And you go, Okay, ‘What do you what have you done about with such and such? What have you done along these lines? Tell me about that.’ And within five minutes, maybe you can tell if someone is qualified, but you got to go in deeper because you’re not going to make a hiring decision in five minutes. But you’re going to make a rejection decision in five minutes. So can they do it? On the downside, yes. But on the upside? No. So I don’t think it’s possible to decide in five minutes to hire someone. I know I could decide in five minutes to reject someone.
09:56
Is there such a thing as as being too prepared for an interview question and answer. Yes. But it’s not what you think. I think it’s important to be able to answer a question well, and that’s your preparation. I’ve got a book on the subject, called The Right Answers to Tough Interview Questions. It’s about 180 pages long, almost all of it is about the right answers to tough interview questions. And I’ll just say, if you are so well prepared, that you sound stiff qnd wooden, that is too prepared. There’s a point where you should cross over to be able to sell what you’re saying, and deliver your answer in a way that shows self-confidence in your position, or in your answer, without sounding like a board. Not bored. BOADd, B O, A, R, D–wooden, stiff, dull. If you can go over to the side of being able to rehearse the lines like an actor does, and deliver them in ways where you can sound passionate about what you do, you can sell your lines like an actor does, that is able to convince you that they are the character that you’re seeing on screen or on stage, then, no, it’s not going to be an issue at all. But until then, you may be able to say the words, but not sell the lines. And selling the lines is what different differentiates being the person who can say the words from the one who can sell the lines. this off to them.
12:06
When you when you know in advance that you’re going to be one of several people interviewing for a manager position in your company, what can you do to stand out in your interview as the leading candidate? Now, at your own firm, it’s different than if you’re interviewing at another company. Because it’s your own firm, they’ve got some reviews that you’ve been involved with, some annual reviews, or more some comments from your manager that make it different than a real interview at a different company. The big thing that you can do that makes you stand out is the human being that you present yourself as being. I apologize if you’ve heard me say this before, when firms hire internally or externally, they look for competence, self confidence, character, chemistry, maybe a little bit of charisma, because charismatic people always do better than non-charismatics. They want to know that you care. They want to know that they can connect with you because ultimately, they want to trust you. Thus, let’s go past the content or competence answer. The degree to which you demonstrate authority for what you do, that your manner oozes self confidence. Self confidence, character, chemistry with the interviewer, which is a part of connection, competence, self confidence, character chemistry, charisma, charismatic people do better, right? That you connect, that you care and ultimately, connect with them, because they want to trust. So, focusing on the soft skills is different than what most people do. You obviously have to have the hard skills, but if they don’t like you, they’re not hiring. Right? If they think you’re dull and boring, there’s going to be less likely to hire you right? So there’s lots of minutia in the interview that’s designed to help them connect with you. And thus, focus on that in the course of your interview, and not just simply on demonstrating your knowledge and competence.
15:01
If an employee candidate tells you that the reason why they haven’t worked since October 2009, which, if you’re watching this show at some point in the future, that’s a little less than three years from when I’m recording this and it’s because it’s been difficult to find a new job. Would that be a good enough reason? Or would that be a red flag that would make you reject them? Reject them. I probably wouldn’t interview them ias the choice of it. But let’s say they got in the door, because they were recommended by someone that I felt obligated to act on. But with that person I would start off with, ‘I’m seeing almost three years of out of work. I’m going ‘Do you know anything about them being out of work for three years?’ Because, again, if I were a corporate hiring manager, and going, number one, they forgotten the lot. Number two is why they’ve been out of work for three years. Now, I can hear about an illness. Got it. I can hear about a family member. Got it. But we’re talking about and they weren’t able to find the new job has been difficult. Okay. We had COVID. I got it. But still, that’s March 2020. And we’re now talking 2022. And what was the trouble at the beginning? I understand the first year of COVID and eventually the lockdown started to end, people got vaccinated and they were able to find work. What’s been going on? Listen to their answer. Ask them lots of questions. If you don’t trust their answer, you might just simply say ‘I’m struggling with your answer because I can get the first few months. I can get from March 2020 until some point middle to latter part of 2021. Vaccination started at that point; things start to open up. I got that. But what about the period of time at the beginning? What about the time after that? What’s been the problem from your vantage point?’ ‘I haven’t been able to find anything.’ ‘A lot of jobs out there, I’m sure you’ve been seeing the stories about the great resignation. Right?’ So I would struggle, but I was always one of those interviewers where I wanted to hear what they had to say because sometimes there are things that I’m wrong about. So I’m tempted to say I’m not interested in them. But I need to know more. That’s the truth.
9 Ways People Sabotage Themselves on Interviews
18:03
What are good questions to ask your interviewer? Number one, they are not YOUR interviewer. It is THE interviewer, not YOUR interviewer. How much are you paying them to be your interviewer as though you own them, which you don’t. So let’s go to the point of what he asked them. If you know my philosophy, you would have asked about the job at the beginning of the interview so you can connect the dots between what you’ve done and what they care about. When they ask ‘Tell me about yourself. Let’s assume you don’t know my question. And by the way, if you order The Ultimate Job Interview Framework on my website in the courses drop down, again, you can rent or buy, there’s a framework there for interviewing that is fabulous. It’s also available as a Kindle book or paperback on Amazon. But however you order it, it’s a good book and good information to help you. Here are the questions other than ‘Could you tell me about the job’ that I wouldn’t want to have you ask? And the first type of question is a clarifying question that might clarify something that’s incongruent between what you understand the job is and what their questions are. And if there’s nothing incongruent, I would then go to, ‘let’s say you hire me and I come on board, what would your expectations of me for me over the first 30, 60, 90 days. Then I would progress to ‘let’s say you hire me and I come on board. It’s a year from now and you are thrilled with the decision you made to hire me. What will I have accomplished during that year that will make you think that way?’ Then I will progress to ‘Could you give me a sense of the timetable for next steps in this process?’ And finally, I would ask, ‘is there anything that you’ve heard or not heard that makes you reluctant to think I’m qualified?’ Those are the basic five questions, I encourage people to ask during interviews, because it goes a long way toward having you understand what you need to know about the job to make a good decision and for them to give you a sense of the timetable, what their expectations will be for you, and lastly, what steps what the steps are going to be like in the process to move things forward?
22:01
Why is it unethical for employees to formally accept a job offer only to later rejected for a better offer elsewhere when companies also rescind formal job offers before the employee’s ever started? If companies aren’t ethical, why should you be? Well, the real magic word here is unethical, followed by ethical. And I say that because when corporations take action, the real question’s about, not ethics, but legality. Is what they do legal or illegal. Unethical is one of those terms that companies/ businesses use, because it gets under people’s skin when they do something that a company doesn’t like. Why don’t they like it? Simple, because you’ve left them in the lurch and now they have to do something different. So, they use the term, ‘unethical’ because it’s a charged term that bothers them. It gets them upset. They think it’ll get you upset, because it’s a form of manipulation on their part. That’s the truth of it. They’re trying to manipulate you into changing your mind. ‘What you’re doing is unethical! You’re a bad boy, you’re a bad girl.’ And they think it works because it does work with a lot of people. So the long and the short of it is why did they do it? Because it works. That’s the fact of it. And you’re right, they rescind offers, because they do what’s in their interest. And they should, and you should do what’s in your interest because if this isn’t the right job for you, or you’ve gotten something better, based upon your determination, why shouldn’t you do it? They do it. Changing your mind isn’t illegal. And like I said they use unethical as one of those phrases to upset you see, feel badly. It’s manipulation on their part. Don’t fall for it. You’re absolutely right. You know, they’re rescinding offers or some firms are rescinding offers, and they’re doing what’s right for themselves in their business, just as you should.
24:44
How do you deal with subordinates who need everything spelled out for them and those who lack the initiative to learn on their own? So let me deal with the first thing first–the one who needs everything spelled out for them? So the answer is on that one, you ask them, ‘So how do you think it should be done?’ ‘I’m not sure.’ ‘Let’s walk it through together. How do you think it should be done?’ And they give you some two word lame answer. ‘Come on. Two words? Come on? Let’s work on this together. I’m giving this to you as an assignment. What’s the first thing you would want to do? Great? Have you considered this? Have you considered that? Good? No? Oh.’ So if you now start thinking about that, basically, I’m taking them through a process where I making them do the work of thinking it through. And most of the time, they’re gonna give you the right answer. But what’s happened to this person who needs that everything spelled out, is either they’ve been in the situation where they’ve been criticized for poor performance, or because they made a bad decision. And now, they’re gun-shy. They don’t want to be written up, criticized, what have you. So I’ll just simply say, they’re in a position where they’re concerned, they’re upset, yada, yada, yada. Make them do the work by asking them questions. Now, the next part of this is, those who lack the initiative to learn on their own, I’m gonna treat this as two separate people, or types of people and start off with, they’re doing the minimum viable work. I bring them into my office and saying, you’re doing an okay job. I need someone’ who can do an excellent job. If you try, if you learn, if you work at learning, and you come to me, and you’re not sure, I can’t fault you for that. You’re learning. But because you don’t have initiative to learn, that’s on you and that’s causing a problem. I need you to start thinking more, and not always coming to me, for my opinion of something, because you haven’t taken the time to learn what you need. So learn it. Do the work. Put in an effort. It makes a difference. And if you don’t, I’m sure I can find someone who will. Matter of fact (and I point to so and so in the group), I’m sure she’d be very happy to do it.’ And then shut up. They’ll get the point. So that’s what I would do in both cases. I hope that was helpful, too.
28:27
How can I let potential employers now during a job interview that I’m intersex? For those of you who don’t know what that is, looking up? I’m not going to take the time now to explain it. I’ll just start off with most people will talk about the fact that they don’t think you should raise this as a subject and to some degree, I agree with them. But you’re asking this question, because there’s something that you need to communicate in order to make sure that you’re going to be safe working there is what I’m thinking that this is. And much the same way as gay and bi candidates want to work in organizations where they feel that they’re not going to be persecuted or the subject of derisive humor, well, I’m sure this might be the reason that you’re asking the question. It reminds me of a woman I interviewed for the show who was terrific. And she’s married to a woman. They’ve got kids and going to the company picnic the first year was a problem. And then the second year, it wasn’t. And people didn’t understand that she was a gay woman and she was married and had kids and she did good work, and you get the point. So you may want to bring this up in a certain way after they’re ready to hire you and once they make the offer. Let’s say it’s HR that makes the offer and you go, ‘I’m prepared to say, yes. I want to have one brief conversation with my manager.’ They’ll say ‘sure,’ and arrange it. ‘Anything I can help with?’ ‘I’d like to have it with he or she, at which point, you raise the topic of being intersex. And say, ‘where it shows up, is in humor about people who are (whatever it is. I don’t know what it is that would bother you). But you raise that subject with your future manager. And you say, ‘if this is a problem for you, I thought I would raise this as a subject before I join. Because I don’t want to make you awkward, feel awkward. It’s part of who I am. And I just want you to be aware of it. What you do with it? Just make it a safe environment for me. If there’s a sort of sexist or homophobic humor, it bothers me. So I would appreciate it if you would intervene at those times where you know about it, and make it a place where I can feel comfortable.’
31:22
What does it mean when someone says they will call you if they want to hire you, but not if they don’t want to hire you? The short version of this would be ‘don’t call us; we’ll call you if we’re interested.’ That was the short version. The longer version is if we want to hire you, we’re going to call you. But if we don’t call you, we don’t want to hire you. Now, they may be frustrated because people call them all the time and go, ‘Hey, any news. Have you made a decision? Yeah, I’m really interested.’ And it’s tedious for them. It interrupts them. It disturbs. And remember, you’re not the only person doing this. It’s the last 20 people that they’ve interviewed who have been doing this too. So what it means is, don’t call us we’ll call you if we’re interested. It’s that simple.
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOMT34M4jqs[/svp]
Job Search Advice for Students
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
My courses are available on my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses The courses include ones about Informational Interviews, Interviewing, final interview preparation, salary negotiation mistakes to avoid, the top 10 questions to prepare for on any job interview, and starting a new job.
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