Career Coach Office Hours: May 31 2022 | JobSearchTV.com
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
I answered questions about #jobsearch #hiringstaff #management #leadership #workplace issues. Message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer your questions, too. I do this livestream on Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 PM Eastern on YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook #careercoachofficehours #careercoaching #careercoach #jobsearchtips #jobsearchadvice #interviews #hiring #managingpeople #leadershipskills #linkedinlive #linkedinlivestreams
I interviewed for a job three days ago and haven’t heard back. Is there a way to inquire about it without being seen as impatient? Or, of course, I’m adding this word onto it=–desperate. Well, what you can always do in the interview is ask when you might be expecting to hear back from someone. ‘I expect you’ll hear early part of next week.’ ‘So if I haven’t heard by Thursday or Friday, is it okay if I follow up.’ What that does is gives you permission to follow up. That allows you to get their buy in on doing it. Doesn’t mean that they’ll necessarily have a decision. But that’s one way of doing it. Here, you interviewed for a job three days ago and haven’t heard back yet. And thus, you can do much the same thing. And so, ‘ I was in to meet with you on last Thursday. It’s Tuesday, at this point. Haven’t heard back. Do you have plans to bring me back for further interviews?’ You can do that. Or you can simply ask what the status is based upon the interview. But that doesn’t make you impatient. That makes you curious. And the fact that you chose the word impatient– that’s about you. It’s not on them. They may not see . . . if you did it that afternoon, that’s impatient. Hi!@ I had a one o’clock, it’s 430. What do you plan on doing? That’s impatient! But making an inquiry like this? That’s not impatient?
Instead of Quitting or Giving Notice
How can we use our digital presence to attract job seekers? Well, there’s lots of different ways. And one way is through LinkedIn. If you have a LinkedIn Recruiter account, you can post the job and have employees share that job to their connections and that enhances your visibility. That’s one way of doing it. Another way of doing it is on different platforms, you may want to do a short interview show where you interview a hiring manager. So let’s say you work in HR and you use a service like I use, which is called streamyard. And you set up a multi person interview, where you meet with a hiring manager, someone on the team, maybe their boss, and you’re the HR individual. Let’s say you just, as an HR person, meet the hiring manager and someone on the team and interview them about what it’s like to work there. That’s different than what most firms do. And that hiring manager can talk about what they’re looking for, how they’re going to evaluate and assess people, and can simply say, ‘I think it’s great working here but let me have you talk to someone who works on the team.’ And as long as they don’t sound like they’re stiff. ‘Oh, it is wonderful to work here. I really think this group is wonderful. Everyone is . . . “As long as you don’t sound like a jerk. What this does is really enhance your presence. Remember, do not just go for one homogeneous presentation. So you want to demonstrate that you’re a diverse organization. You want to demonstrate that you’re thoughtful, that you care, that people will matter to them. And this all cuts the line and moves you to the front. This is going to appear on YouTube, on LinkedIn as an event. You can appear on Facebook, there’s lots of different ways that you as an organization, can use a digital presence to attract job hunters. It’s not instantaneous. It has to be part of a regular campaign, so that people get to know you, like you, trust you. And if you’re the HR person, you can talk about the organization. Whereas the the manager and the staffer talk about the group. So you can talk about benefits, promotional opportunities, what it’s like to work there and within the organization, tuition reimbursement, lots of different things that you can address. That starts to create a footprint that starts attracting people to your firm. You can point them to the website to apply. Again, lots of different things that you can do. So, a short interview show will go a long way toward making you stand out positively. As long as you guys don’t come across as jerks.
How do I ask about interview information preparation? Hey, well, you just did. Preparing for an interview, I’ve got a great course called The Ultimate Job Interview Framework. It’s available through my website, TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a drop down for courses, you can order it. If you buy it, I think it’s $25. It’s probably 15 if you rent it for 30 days. Take the course and it will help you a lot and will get you ready. So even if you watch the course, it’s important that you practice. Practice is the differentiator for most people that allows them to stand out from average Jane or Joe, who just goes in and kind of wings it. And so, do the do the work, do the homework that allows you to look good in front of others. Rehearse, practice, prepare, there’s lots that you can do to get yourself ready.
What is the hardest part of working in the staffing industry? I did that for a long time I worked in recruiting for … it felt like 100 years. But in point of fact, it was more than 40. Filled a lot of positions, a lot consulting assignments, and did it successfully before transitioning to coaching. And in doing so, what was the hardest part? I’m gonna do this in an obnoxious way . . .but everyone’s lying to you. Job hunters are exaggerating their capabilities. Your institutional customers are, shall we say, presenting the opportunity in a favorable light. And they accuse you of lying. And you’re just the messenger of their lives to you, that you’ve received. So what’s the hardest part? It’s a sales job where everyone is trying to, to lie to you, to con you, to persuade you. If you don’t sell, you don’t earn a living. That’s the life of a contingency recruiter. And in the life of a executive search professional, well, it’s always about doing it, right? What you want to do in contingency as well but there’s a different dynamic, different clientele. We’re not really dealing with liars, like you are in the contingency world. At least not that often. But what you’re trying to do is evaluate, assess, refer, work with an internal team to prepare people for interviews. There’s a lot of minutia in the executive search world. So it’s different. Again, contingency– everyone’s posturing for your attention. And I would say that’s really the hardest part.
6 Tips for Successful Job Search Networking
Is it okay for my manager to hire someone outside the company, while employees apply for the same position? Of course. Qualified employees are applying for the same decision? It depends on your firm’s practices. So you know, they have to fill the job. And if the internal people are not qualified, then the long and the short of it is, they’ve got to get it done so that they’re interviewing while people are applying. It makes perfect sense to me. And what you need to do on your side, is get your foot in the door and impress the heck out of them. No positive impression? It’s all BS. You’re talking about rules. They’re trying to get something done, and they don’t have someone on staff that can do it. Prove that you are that person. If you can’t do it. What are you, like a kid who says ‘I want it. Sorry, you can’t have it. But I want it,’ throwing a tantrum? Yes, they can hire someone outside the firm while quality qualified employees are applying for the same position. They need to get something done. They arrived too late. What are they supposed to do? Defer, defer, defer until they’re now late on the project because they haven’t hired anyone? I know you don’t believe that.
What are recruiters thinking and looking for when a job candida(I hate the word ‘candidate”) when a person reaches out to them on LinkedIn? So I know that I was member 7653 on LinkedIn. Without a lot of effort. I’ve had 26, 27,000 people connect with me. Plus now I have followers from my LinkedIn creator mode account. So when someone’s reaching out on LinkedIn, the first question is, ‘Is this about a job I was recruiting for?’ Because again, I don’t do recruiting anymore. ‘Are they reaching out to me about a job or they’re reaching out to connect? Why are they trying to connect with me? So if I accept the connection request, I’ll message back. There’s a service I use called drift where I can send a video to them. And I’ll ask, ‘Hey, thanks for reaching out to connect. I’m curious, what prompted you to do so? Were you recommended by LinkedIn and just seeing some of my content? I’m just curious. Message me back. And what can I be doing to help you?’ Very simple video. Takes less than 30 seconds. I put it into messaging on LinkedIn, it is stunning to me how few people respond back to explain why they reached out to connect. So what do I think? I think I was recommended by LinkedIn, people are trying to take advantage of my network, they want to expand theirs. And I get it. Because in the LinkedIn scheme of things, people want to have as larger network as possible. So they go to people with large networks, who they can piggyback on to reach out even more people.
How can I politely fire someone? My employee is no longer reliable and always has excuses to not come in or just doesn’t reply? I’ve never had to fire someone. So how can I do it without being mean? So this is obviously not an experienced manager, not because they haven’t fired anyone before, but they’re concerned about being mean. And not thinking about the impact that this individual has on how they appear, how they’re getting results, how this person is affecting the other people in the group. Because if you did, you wouldn’t be concerned about looking mean. What you do is call a meeting with HR, sit down and say, ‘I had so many instances of this person not showing up for work and not calling. I’ve warned them that failure to call in, ghosting me on a given day and not showing up is grounds for termination. Did I not warn you of that? And now watch the person lie and go, ” Oh, no, no, no, I didn’t really do that.” I think you nod and go, ‘Okay, I’d like to do that now. So we’re going to put you on a performance improvement plan, where we have an expectation that this is what you’re going to do if you take a day off. This is what you’re going to do in the context of your work. You lay out very specific, measurable outcomes that you want. And then, from there, have HR draft this. Have the person sign it so they understand, or they commit to understanding. And then after 30 days, you do a review as to how the person’s performance is. Failure to live up to the performance improvement plan will result in your termination. And, again, you may not be able to do it that day. But you will be able to do it because bad behavior doesn’t change that quickly.
Is it illegal to lie to potential employers about salary offers from other companies. No, it’s not illegal. There’s no law that prohibits you from doing that. But understand firms call the bluff. So you say you have another offer, the first question you have to be prepared for is ‘So why don’t you just take it?’ ‘Uhhhhhhhhh.’ The correct answer is ‘I’m really interested in your opportunity.’ ‘Why is that?’ Now you have to tell them why you’re interested in their job. And then they may respond by saying, ‘you know, we’re engaged in a process here. We’re evaluating and assessing people to see who’s the best person for us. So we’re not ready to make a decision yet. We have another three people to talk to and then when may bring you back again. You have to make a choice as to whether you still want to be in consideration.’ A lot of people can’t pull that off. So be aware of that. That’s a pretty natural sequence of conversation. And you don’t want to necessarily, you don’t want to lose an opportunity because of your impatience. So remember, when all is said and done, you want to be getting the right job for you. And in doing so, all the way along the line, you have to make them fall in love. No love. No offer. Really.
One of your best company customers, verbally abuses your employees every time she visits your store. Your employees have complained to you several times about this customer. What should you do? There’s an old story about the former president of Southwest Airlines. Southwest takes a no frills approach to flights. They’re no reserved seats, no meals are served, you’re pointed to where to sit, that’s where you sit. And the story goes that there was a woman who wrote a letter of complaint. And it got escalated up the line to Herb. Herb was a founder, the president of the airline. And this woman complained about no meals, the wrong seating, I forgot what the other two things were. But those two stick out in my mind. And he wrote back to her and said, ‘We’ll miss you.’ Do you want to lose your people because a customer, no matter how good they are, drives them out the door. Do your people matter more to you than the customer? If so, you have to show them that by having a conversation with the customer. And if necessary, banning them from the store because of abusive behavior. So I think there’s a wonderful lesson that people sometimes need to learn that what excrement they have does stink, and that people have self-respect. And they have a desire for dignity and deserve it just by being people. So send them away. Basically say, ‘you know, if you’re gonna keep behaving like this, I don’t want you in the store. My people have been complaining. I’ve been talking to you privately, and you treated me like I’m not here. So I’m telling you to behave properly with my staff. Don’t come back. And that becomes something that you do. But do it in a way where you also tell the team afterwards, that this is what you’ve done so they know that you had their back. It’s awful that a person conducts themselves in such a manner. But they do. And your people don’t have to sit still for it. They can go to work somewhere else, right? Don’t put up with this crap. Have a frank and open conversation with this person that lets them know they’re not going to put up with it.
Tough Interview Questions: Why Should We Hire You? (Second Interviews)
Someone wrote to me about a recruiter who tells candidates to ask the interviewer, ‘how do I know the company is going to be here in six months, amid the tech downturn and get ahead of future layoffs. And this person wants to know, is it a good idea? Well, if you’re interviewing in a large, major corporation, I think you stand a pretty good shot of that firm being there. And there’s no guarantee. And the person that you’re interviewing with has no knowledge about what the financial circumstances of the firm are. So you’re asking them to lie to you. Never a good thing to do. If it’s a startup, you’re also asking them to lie to you. And let’s say this person you’re talking to you is a founder. Are you insulting them by asking this question? Probably not. But amid a tech downturn for those of you not aware, two weeks ago, tech laid off 7000 people and that’s a lot of for Silicon Valley. So when that kind of stuff happens, people start getting nervous. And the result winds up being that people start heading for the hills. So I’ll just say to you never put people in the position where they feel compelled to lie. So I would never ask this question. I would ask how the firm is doing professionally. How important this project is to the firm. They’ll always say it’s very important and a bunch of other stuff. But remember, you may not be hearing the truth, because the person that you’re talking with doesn’t know.
Why do managers want you to look busy? Oh, I hate questions like this. Managers want you to look busy, because they want to believe that you are still working, that you are not goofing off, that you’re taking time to put in effort, every minute of every day you are in there employed. So they want you to look busy, in order to feel like you are working. Stupid, isn’t it?
Are you more likely to get hired if the recruiter approaches you first? I’ll just say that from the standpoint of what affects a recruiter, they want to believe that you’re not actively looking for work. It’s called the passive job applicant. They want to hire people who are doing a great job where they are. They want to feel like they recruited you, and thus, you’re happy where you are, and not actively looking for work. Why does that matter to them? Well, they think that the passive applicants, I hate the words applicants or candidate, but I’m just going to use them here. The person who’s not actively looking, for them is more desirable, because they believe that they’re generally loyal, capable, and well regarded at their current firm. So it’s not that you’re more likely to get hired, because you still have to be qualified and you’re going to be evaluated for your qualifications. But what they are going to be able to do is to figure out whether you’re capable, and you’ll be advantaged because they don’t have to worry about competition from other firms, counteroffers things like that. So no, not more likely to get hired. You’re certainly more likely to get interview. And that’s really as far as it goes.
Words to Lose and Words to Use
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 2300 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
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