Career Coach Office Hours: July 22 2022 | JobSearchTV.com
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
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I answered questions about #jobsearch #hiringstaff #management #leadership #workplace issues. You can also message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer it, too Join me at 1 PM Eastern on Tuesdays and Fridays #careercoachofficehours #careercoaching #careercoach #jobsearchtips #jobsearchadvice #interviews #hiring #managingpeople #leadershipskills #linkedinlive #linkedinlivestreams
Employer Complaints About Younger Millennials and Gen-Z
04:17
So the first question was about cracking an interview like a pro. I was saying, I don’t know that anyone can answer that question because there’s just so much information that’s missing, and makes it impossible to answer the question. And if you really want to interview well, go to my website, TheBigGameHunter.us There’s a drop down, that’ll take you to my courses. And there’s a course called The Ultimate Job Interview Framework, which I offer for about I think $25 if you purchase it; probably $15 If you rent it for 30 days. It will teach you how to interview extremely well. So if you really want to interview well that will do it for you.
05:01
This is a fun one generationally different than what I’ve had to deal with. I have hand tattoos, but now really want to go to law school. Would I be able to get a job practicing law if I’m willing to wear dress gloves all the time? I can’t, at this time, afford tattoo removal. I don’t think gloves will work. And I could be wrong. But I went to talk to someone about this. When I saw this question. Normally, I don’t look at questions. But this was brought to me in advance because they knew I don’t have tattoos. And I haven’t really had to deal with this. So what was suggested to me by someone I know who has tattoos, is concealer, kind of like you wear makeup to conceal blemishes. There’s tattoo concealers that you can purchase, that will help you cover the tattoos that you have so that they do not appear obvious. Now, I’m sure you can wipe them off. So you do have to have a degree of caution about that. You may need to apply them more than once. But the long and the short of it is I don’t think gloves is a solution. They are going to be times of day where it’s hot, and times of day where it’s cold. And there are times that we’re going to walk into situations and gloves just aren’t going to work. So trying a concealer instead, I think that’ll work much better for you.
07:09
What should you do when an interviewer says they have other interviews? Now the fun response is to start off by saying ‘That’s good because so do I. And then say, ‘and perhaps you could give me an idea of when you’re going to be done with this round of interviews.’ And they’ll tell you, at which point, let’s say it’s in a week’s time. ‘So is it okay if I follow up with you the early part of a following week?’ ‘Yeah, great. If I haven’t heard from you, I’ll follow up Monday, Tuesday of the following week.’ And you let it go with that. Whether you say that first part about that’s good, because I have interviews as well, I think that just comes across as snarky. But that was the first thing that came to my mind. And I thought it was a fun way of responding. In certain types of positions, I think that would work. But you know what you’re comfortable with? And I’ll just simply say, do what you can. Okay?
08:38
Is it worth negotiating a higher salary from my existing employer? The answer is, of course! Now, it doesn’t commit you to anything. And if you can get more money from them, by all means do so. If anything, it allows you to then go to your next firm and their interviews and be able to say to them, ‘you know, I’m earning this amount of money higher than I was two weeks ago.’ And they’ll build their salary based upon that higher number, or post-employment, when you’re filling out forms, they’ll feel better that they only gave you a 19% increase versus a 24 if you’re one of those states where you don’t have to reveal compensation. But the long and the short of it is get as much money as you can from your current firm, for as long as you can before you go to the next one. It serves your financial interests. After all, to the best of my knowledge, most of the people who are going to be watching this livestream are not independently wealthy. So get as much as you can from your current firm for as long as you can before you go to the next one.
10:00
is it necessary to explain why you left your last job during a job interview? What’s the alternative? You’re going to sit there? ‘So why are you looking for a job? Or why did you leave your last position?’ And sit there silently? Are you going to sit there and go, ‘It’s none of your effing business?’ I don’t think so. Instead, come up with something that makes it understandable. So that in this way, you’re in a situation where you’re not acting like the weird job hunter, not the weird person sitting opposite them. That doesn’t work. All that happens is you get rejected because they think you’re strange vs on the basis of whether you’re competent or not. So, yes, it is necessary to explain why you left your last job because I don’t see an alternative.
11:02
Is it legal or ethical to work two jobs simultaneously, like IT support for multiple companies and get paid eight to five from both companies? So you’re working the same shift for two companies and you think you’re gonna do equally well at both? Wrong! I remember, a trainer, I listened to talk about something. It was about martial arts. And he’d gone to his sensei to ask if it will be all right if he learned this second second martial art, and his sensei said no. And he was kind of surprised. And he asked the sensei, why is that? And the sensei responded by saying, if a dog chases two rabbits, how many rabbits do you think he catches? If a dog chases one rabbit, yes, he can catch the rabbit. But two rabbits, they don’t catch any. So what will happen is you won’t perform well for both because your loyalties and attention are going to be split between two situations. Don’t do it, you’re just going to put yourself in a real awkward situation. Like if you’re in a field situation, and you’re out in the field, you’re handling a technical issue, I’ll use the example your work for two different… a cable firm, and a computer support firm. And they both have you in the field from eight until five. And you get a call from one saying ‘we need you over here.’ You’re gonna say ‘sorry, I can’t do it. I’m on another call. Where are you on a call? We don’t have you on any calls.’ It just doesn’t work. You’re going to fail. Just pick one, do the job that you think is best with the organization you think is best, it will serve you far better.
13:16
If I don’t hear back from my job interview after a week, should I assume I didn’t get the job? No. Don’t assume that. Contact them. You see, for all you know, they’re still interviewing and in still interviewing, they haven’t made a decision. So just follow up with them, which you should have asked when you should follow up with them in your interview. But what I want you to do is very simply contact them, text them, email, phone call, whichever way you’ve been communicating with them. Follow up with them again, and simply say ‘it’s been a week since my interview. When will I be invited back for the next round?’ So that’s an assertive statement to make because you’re saying when are they going to be invited back. They’ll respond. And if you say it’s been a week, they start off with ‘Oh, wow, I’m so sorry.’ And they’ll either tell you when you’re coming back, tell you that they’re still interviewing, haven’t made a decision. In which case I don’t hold out hope here. It’s possible you get invited back but you should always be continuing to look for something while you’re pending for a situation that you’re interested in. Or you may get ghosted of course. But the long and the short of it is don’t assume anything. Get the actual answer. And their behavior and what they say will tell you a lot.
9 Ways People Sabotage Themselves on Interviews
14:51
Why are traditional employee performance reviews disappearing in the workplace? There’s a very funny story I heard from a coach that I follow. And the way he compares a performance review is, imagine you’re saying to your husband, wife or partner, ‘you know, it’s been a year now. And I think it’s time for me to give you a performance review on how you’ve been toward me for the last year. So let’s sit down and talk about your performance over this year. Things you’ve done well, and areas for improvement.’ How do you think it would go over? But we expect that in the workplace, this is okay. So I’ll just simply say, performance reviews are starting to disappear in the workplace, because no one wants to be in that situation where they’re giving a review of someone that’s coming in out of the blue, like so many of them wind up doing. Instead, be in a situation where, over the course of the year, you’re catching people doing something, right. And you’re giving them advice about situations where you think they could have done better. And talking with them about what their thought process when they did things were that didn’t turn out well. You function more like a professional coach, instead of doing this performance review thing. So the reason firms are moving away from it, is they’ve wind up hurting the employee. They feel turned off as a result. No one wants to do that. No one wants to hurt someone who’s been giving their blood, sweat and tears to an organization. So that’s why firms are moving away from it and going to what was nicknamed in the One Minute Manager, catching someone doing something right, instead of always catching them doing something wrong.
17:04
What does it mean when they call you back for another round of interviews in the hiring process? The answer is they want to talk some more. Maybe they want you to meet someone that you’d be working with. Maybe they want you to meet somebody you’d be working for. Maybe they want you to meet their boss’s boss. They’re still interviewing and assessing you is what it comes down to and the result is they haven’t made a decision yet. You’re under consideration still. They’re taking inputs from multiple people, but they are not yet committed to hiring you. So you still have to perform. You still have to sell yourself and your capabilities to them. It’s really that simple.
18:31
Is it appropriate for manager to send group texts to employees on their days off about non-urgent work-related updates or issues. Appropriate is the interesting word here. You don’t have to respond. That is a way of training them to do things differently. And you can say to them on the following Monday when they… if you are confronted by this person. ‘I sent you a text on Saturday. I didn’t hear back from you.’ ‘Yes, I was with my family. You know, Saturday and Sunday is family time and that’s where my priority has to be on the weekends because I spend so much time at work. I perceived this as non-urgent, and I can deal with this today.’ ‘But but but!’ ‘Saturday and Sunday is time that I devote to family. That is my urgent time and this didn’t appear urgent to me. So if something is urgent, I’ll address it. If it isn’t urgent, it can sit to Monday. I don’t have to always respond 24x7x365.’ So, if there’s a problem, have a meeting with HR, and your manager, and simply point out the fact that, you know, I did not take an on call position 24/7. And some managers are not going to be happy. And you may wind up choosing to leave this job, if this is a requirement that they have of you. But I don’t see a reason why you have to be on call 24/7/365 and respond to what popped into their mind at that time that they needed to discharge onto you so that in this way, it’s off their plate; it’s on to yours, and you’re supposed to respond to it on your time. No. You have to train them to do things differently so that in this way, there is not a problem going forward. And if there is, if your manager starts scapegoating you, leave. Take another job. And when they asked you why you decide to leave, you can very simply say, ‘you know, I don’t work 24/7/365, particularly for non-urgent requirements. I’ve been getting multiple texts on weekends, during time where I have a commitment to my family. I’ve got young kids, I’m supposed to be their dad. I’m supposed to be their mom. I’d like to spend some time with them. I didn’t have kids to create therapy issues for them because my job was calling me about nonsense, or contacting me about nonsense, on Saturday at 1am, on Saturday at 1pm. Whatever it is, point it out. Do you have that expectation? If you do, then maybe we should just bring this to an end now and that’s okay with me. And they’ll say ‘no, no, we’re not like that at all. Oh, no. What you’re experiencing is a little abnormal.’
22:13
If a recruiter told me I’m at the top of the list, does that mean I have the job? They also want to know if I had any other pending job offers. Is that a good sign? Let me go to the second part of that, which is yes, that is a good sign because it indicates that they don’t want to lose you. So you can say ‘I’ve got a final interview,’ or ‘I have another offer right now.’ ‘Really, what’s the offer for?” ‘I prefer not say, but I’ll just simply say I do have another offer; I am considering something else. I would encourage you that if you decide I’m the right person for you, and this seems like a great opportunity for me, I just want to encourage you to make your strongest offer.’ And that will encourage them to move quickly. Now the first part is about I’m at the top of the list. Does that mean I have the job now? Maybe. It could also mean that they have two more people to talk to who could knock you off that spot. But the second part of the question does indicate that they’re afraid of losing you. So maybe they are ready to make an offer. Or have to follow up by saying, … again, I don’t know if this is a corporate recruiter or a third party recruiter, but it is a recruiter. And if let’s assume it’s the corporate recruiter, you just simply say, ‘Yeah, I’m close, I’m close on two other things. I expect I’ll have offers in the next two, three days at the latest from at least one of them. And in addition, or, ‘I do have something else and I’m going to need to respond to it in the next few days.’ ‘How much? Why would you take ours versus theirs?’ Give them some reasons why you would take theirs over that one. So very simply, tell them the truth about what’s going on and give them a timetable for responding for which they have to respond. That will serve you and also serve them because it will help them close out the job sooner rather than keeping on interviewing. And just talking to people and talking to people and talking to people forever! It’s awful when that happens.
24:50
Will the recruiter reached out to me in a few days with more details on my interviews? Assuming they have feedback, probably but if they don’t have feedback, no. And there’s no guarantee that they will respond. In the interview, one of your final questions should have been, ‘when might I hear about next steps in the process?’ And then whatever they say, you can follow up by saying, ‘so if I haven’t heard from you,’ and and then you mentioned two or three days later, ‘is it okay that I follow up?’ Now what this does, and I’ll give you more specifics. Let’s say they say, ‘I expect you’ll hear from me by Monday, Tuesday.’ ‘So if I haven’t heard of you by Thursday, or Friday, is it okay to follow up?’ And what that does is it gives you a timetable for next steps. Again, that serves you in your interests. So once you know when they expect to get back to you doesn’t mean that they actually will. Because sometimes the candidates that are interviewing, delay, they re-schedule, stuff happens, or the perfect resume arrives and they want to interview that person too. But it gives you a sense of what their current timetable is. So, will they reach out to you with more details in a few days? Maybe, maybe not. They may also ghost you. That does happen, of course. And I’ll just simply say, follow up with them. Don’t just simply wait for the phone to ring.
26:31
What do recruiters get? Why do you care? Why do you care? They are people who are out earning a living. And they may charge a firm 20, 25, 30, 35% or more of your salary, depending upon your seniority, and you’re probably pretty junior. So it could be 20 or 25%, or some combination thereof, no lower than 15 for which the recruiter receives a fraction of that, because a certain amount is withheld to pay for the rent, expenses, advertising, and all the other things including taxes that go into operating a business in the world today. So now I go back to why do you care? Why do you care that this person is trying to earn a living? Okay, stop looking in other people’s pockets. It doesn’t serve you and it makes you look pretty petty.
28:15
You show up for an on site interview on time, but some of the interviewers show up late or are not expecting you. What does that say about the company and the group that you’re interviewing for? A lot of different things, most of them are not good. And I have to start off by saying, for the ones that showed up late, did they provide an explanation for the lateness because sometimes crises happen, or emergencies happen. A meeting runs late. And they asked someone to tell you and they didn’t do it. And you have to have a degree of mercy around that. So I’ll just say what does it mean that they’re showing up late? Well, that they’re busy. What does it say about the company that that some of the interviewers were not expecting you. That’s the interesting one, because in not expecting you? They kind of demonstrate that they don’t have their stuff together about interviewing and hiring. So I’ll just simply say, what does it say? They don’t have this stuff together. And it could also be that no one told them, it also mean that they’re not telling you the truth, which is even worse, but I don’t like it. And investigate when you have the interview. Just simply say to them, ‘I’m curious. Everyone I met with was either late or didn’t know I was interviewing or I had an interview today. So what was going on? But if I showed up late for an interview with you, you’d have a response. So I’m just asking, what happened that everyone was late. I can’t believe didn’t know about the interview.’ So just as a follow up at the time of the next conversation.
30:23
What’s a reasonable way to accept the job offer that I declined, which I accepted earlier. So some people write weird. So I’ll just simply say, you may have lost this. You have to call them and say, ‘I made a mistake. I really want to accept your offer.’ You can’t just accept, because they may have interviewed four more people and decided to hire one of them. So you have to get in touch with them because this is not reasonable to expect that they were sitting around by the phone waiting for you to call after you rejected an offer. So call them immediately, and try to explain to them, ‘I made a terrible mistake. I’ve been thinking about it ever since I said no. Is the job still available? I’d like to get that offer back. I’m ready to say yes.’ And then start begging.
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfJv9-wXsxQ[/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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