Interviewing for a Contract or Temp Assignment | JobSearchTV.com
This is Part 2 of my interview with Thea Kelley, a job search and interview coach based in the San Francisco Bay Area and serving job seekers nationwide. Her book, the Amazon best-seller Get That Job! The Quick and Complete Guide to a Winning Interview was hailed as “Excellent” on Forbes.com, and she recently released a 2nd Edition updated for 2022 and beyond.
For smart job search tips and a free gift, subscribe to Thea’s blog. That site also provides information on contacting Thea for one-on-one services–to help you get a great job sooner.
Part 1 of my my interview with Thea can be found here
For those of you who have never interviewed for a contract assignment or temp assignment, in part 2 of my interview with Thea Kelley we discuss some of the differences between interviewing for a full time position and a temp assignment.
hi it’s Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter and this is part two of my interview
with thea kelly the author of get that job the quick and complete guide to a
winning interview. i’ll have a link to that as well as part one in the show notes which is about
video interview myths that people believe are correct but really aren’t
again a link will be there in the show notes. this one is completely different it’s about
interviewing for contract or temp assignments hope you find this helpful
hope you give it a great review on youtube leave a comment share it do
something that lets people know it was worthwhile and with that let’s just get
going okay which is a conversation about interviewing for contract assignments
because in many respects being a contractor has a different dynamic on an interview
than for a full time position so let’s talk about some of the differences between the two.
One of the differences is it’s a it’s a quicker process the interview might be shorter or might not uh the
decision will almost certainly be made more quickly so i don’t think there’s anything in
particular you need to do about that but just realize that that it is going to be quicker
um the other thing is that the salary and benefits are you know I’m
always harping to people that you don’t bring up salary don’t try to negotiate
until you’ve got an offer but that’s not true with contract rules a lot of times salary and benefits are
discussed and negotiated up front with the agency recruiter before they even
want to send you to the the client company for that interview. So you need to be ready for that
your pricing is part of the beginning process as opposed to the end process see
on a full-time job interview salary is discussed throughout the process the
screener is trying to evaluate you for price the hiring manager is trying to
confirm price everyone’s trying to confirm price with you but you want to
be cagey and not commit yourself right the ideas always deflect deflect deflect
so when the screener says so how much are you looking for
because you live in a location where it’s illegal to ask your current salary
you say you could give me a sense of what the range is and they said but i asked you first
[Laughter]
the game becomes you know i can give you a price now but understand
i haven’t met the hiring manager i’ve just seen a job description which may or
may not be completely accurate i don’t know what the team is like what the
expectations are going to be other than what i’ve read or if they called you up
out of the blue and recruited you other than the three lines of what you’ve told
me and what the title would be right and this is a tricky thing and
it’s one of the free gifts that we’ll be talking about at the end of the
interview uh is about that helping you with that
oh goody freaking I love free stuff
right so in contrast in the contract assignment when you’re working through a
contracting agency rather than going direct the price is negotiated before
you walk in the door at their client and i’m going to ask you a nice easy
question here and why do they do that because for one thing they don’t want to
send you to the client if it’s not going to work out cost wise and also it’s
because they’ve probably already talked about price with the client am i getting
this right what do you have to add to that well the fundamental is they know
what the client’s prepared to pay yeah and they have to work a margin in for
their costs they’re making money off of my back
yeah so what
right
because they still have to pay for electricity, phones, uh you know travel at times
you know for all the situations they work on that don’t work out
you know yes you’re paying for theiroverhead you paid for taxes real estate
a whole bunch of other things including
the salesperson’s benefits
so yes it happens so they discuss price
to make sure that there’s an adequate
margin so that they can keep their
lights on right but don’t think you
can’t negotiate with the agency because
you can they probably have some wiggle
room there
so as with any negotiation you want to
first do some research get a feel for um
what
is likely you know what the going rate
is and also base it on what you can
bring to the role
so first check out things like
ziprecruiter and other job listings
maybe other agencies talk to people you
know who have either hired contractors
or been one
um
and a tip with that is if if you talk to
someone else who’s a contractor rather
than asking them how much were you
making the thing to ask is is what do
you think is the typical rate for this
type of role that i’m talking about so
once you you have that research behind
you then ask yourself what have i got to
bring to this that’s special and that’s
going to make me more valuable than
someone else
and then you go ahead and work it out
with the recruiter
you can always folks go on to linkedin
find a consultant who contracted their
previously
get in touch with them
and especially if there’s been a gap in
their association with the client you
can say hey look i’m up for an
assignment that such and such you were
obviously there
i i don’t want to be rude here but what
kind of rate were you getting
or what kind of what kind of rate would
would you expect uh
expect this to go for and they’ll
probably tell you the rate they were
getting
exactly right yeah
and once
you know when i did recruiting i would
never tell people this but i’m a coach
now so i can say this kind of stuff and
once the client has accepted you then
you can go back to the agency and go
i’ve got two other offers right now
and i really like this assignment but i
need you to do a little bit better
ah yeah
and what you’re able to do is negotiate
the price up they cut the margin down a
little bit because they don’t want to go
to their own client and go i can’t
deliver her and deliver him
they want to close this and start making
money
right
but as jeff said you want to show a
reason why you’re coming back to them so
either the reason is you’ve got some new
offers elsewhere or the reason is you
learn something about the job and what
they’re looking for
that makes the rate you originally
discussed not as appropriate as it
seemed at the time
because
one thing that happens is
time is the enemy of all deals
and since end clients invariably
procrastinate
and stall and stole and then suddenly go
okay i’m ready to go
you probably have had an opportunity to
look at other things and maybe in the
loop with other assignments
or full-time jobs for that matter and
thus when you have the offer
and they’ve procrastinated it’s so good
to be able to turn around and say
i got a couple of other things that made
offers a little bit higher than yours
really
but but but but and they’re going to try
and embarrass you humiliate you bully
you and you’re a consultant you know you
don’t have to take that crap
they might they might not do all that
but yeah be ready for it it’s just
business don’t take it personally none
of it’s personally it’s just business
i’m on the east coast or on the west
coast that’s an east coast behavior okay
yeah we’re mellow we’re out here much
smaller okay the east coast it’s a it’s
a cage match
okay
they don’t want to lose
so yeah what haven’t we covered yet
about this
um the questions may be different that
they’re going to ask you from in an
interview for a permanent role
um and the questions you’re going to ask
them are different so let me see start
with uh
questions to ask no questions they’re
going to ask i’ll back up to that
so
they’re likely to ask why do you want a
contract role why take a temporary job
what are you hoping to gain from it
and what they want to know is that this
contract fits into your career plan
that it’s a good move for you that it’s
not just something you’re doing out of
desperation because if you were just
taking out desperation you might
disappear real soon when you find
something better so you might want to
say something like right now i’m really
looking to polish my skills and gain
additional experience
or maybe if they’re placing you in in a
company that’s a real hot shot employer
or that you’re very interested in you
could say i’m also really interested in
getting experience at that company in
particular
so then they think aha yeah this
person’s really got motivations to want
to take this role and and do well in it
uh another answer might be if you’re one
of those people who just like to do
contract roles as a lifestyle then just
say that you know as you can see from my
resume i’ve been doing contract roles
for a number of years i really love the
lifestyle and and this one especially
looks good to me because blah blah blah
you know whatever is intrinsically
basically interesting about it not not
that it’s close to where you live or
anything
um
so that’s what to say when they say why
uh do you want a contract well now
another question they may ask that’s
kind of tricky is they might say are you
looking for a permanent role
and
it would be nice at that point if you’ve
already beforehand asked them does this
role have the potential of going
permanent
uh because then you’ll know if there’s
no potential of going permanent you can
say
well no right what i’m looking for right
now is like i said polish my skills gain
some additional
experience um
i’m going to interrupt you at that point
absolutely
and one of the things folks is if you’re
working through a contracting firm or a
temp agency
they’ll always tell you if there’s a
possibility of conversion
yeah because they want to make sure that
at the back end they can
do a conversion fee
because that’s the way the contracts are
written by them is with a conversion fee
so they’re going to want to find that
out from you up front and thus at the
end client asks
up into
coming on board if we ask you to come on
board now they’re not committing to
anything
right
so the correct answer no matter what
they say or how they phrase it is sure
um and then you can figure it out later
on
often what happens is
consultants get shocked at what a
full-time salary is
versus what their hourly rate is
now for example a person who’s making a
hundred dollars an hour gets shocked at
the full-time salary for a hundred
dollars an hour translates into 200 000
a year but the full-time job is only
going to pay 125
right
and the difference is
that the full-time job of course has
benefits
and uh and that’s why it may be worth
taking it even though the hourly isn’t
as good
and it’s a decision you can make later
on
yeah
okay so
and then another an even trickier part
of that one or is um
what will you do if you get an offer for
a permanent role elsewhere
that’s really tricky
so basically
the answer that they want to hear is no
i wouldn’t take it so you can say
something like i won’t be looking
and
you need to explain why you wouldn’t
take it that’s the hard part so you
might want to say something like
i am really interested in a good
relationship with your company and
learning everything i can from this role
and having a good reputation as somebody
who completes what they start
you know and and hopefully that that
will be a good explanation for why i
know you’re not going to take another
role if it gets offered uh do you have
any further tips on this jeff i’ll just
simply say uh if you’re listening to
this as a podcast as thea was was posing
this question i was laughing because
when companies ask questions like that
they want to make sure you’re smart
enough to lie to them
[Laughter]
if you’re so dumb that you’d say i’m out
of here over the next full-time
you will not get the job but if you can
say something with a straight face that
translates into oh i have made a
commitment to you i will write it
through till the very end even though
you could dispose of me
at your will
and
not let the door hit me in the rear on
my way out i will be committed to you
like i said you gotta lie to them
because they’re setting it up for you to
lie to them
we all know
that if a better deal came along
elsewhere you’re out of there
okay yeah
and uh
and like i said you know
ask yourself if i were to commit to this
job and be unwilling to leave no matter
what why would i be
committing in that way and that’ll help
you give a better explanation
for uh why you’re saying that you
wouldn’t leave
okay um
and then there are some other questions
there like they’d ask like what tell me
about a time when you entered a new role
or situation and got up to speed quickly
so have a good story ready about that
uh in working with clients on this story
i find that a lot of people
they don’t say how quickly they got up
to speed they tell a little story but
there’s no time frame in it and this is
really about a measurable thing getting
up to speed quickly is a matter of weeks
or months or days or whatever in that
particular occupation so always in your
story say something like
i started in this new situation i
studied up on my own i talked to a lot
of people in the workplace and within
two weeks or within a month i was able
to proficiently do x y z
so go ahead and put a time frame in
there that shows them how quickly you
can get moving
some other common questions not to
discuss them in great detail perhaps but
how would you maintain productivity if
your supervisor was unavailable for a
length of time they like to know that
a person in the contract role is not
going to just sort of sit at their desk
going
i can’t do anything right now i haven’t
been able to ask my supervisor a
question they want to know that you’re
going to be resourceful
what’s your experience working with
teams or working independently
maybe something about getting along with
your supervisor like tell me about a
time when you disagreed with your
supervisor or had a difficult
relationship with them which actually
could be a bit of a minefield huh
yeah and
one of my favorite scenarios especially
when put to a consultant
is tell me about a time you were in a
situation where you got conflicting
instructions from two different people
yeah that’s bound to happen to
contractors all the time right because
you know this there’s the immediate
manager there’s the end user
sometimes they would disagree with one
another
how do you navigate that
and at the risk of being too obvious
here it has to be a story with happy
ending it has to be a story that shows
you skillfully dealing with that
situation because they’re not primarily
concerned about whether you’ve been in
that situation they want to know how you
handled it
right and that everyone lived happily
ever after at the end of the story
right
um
okay
um the questions that you need to ask
are a little different from in a
permanent role
and um
in addition to you might want to ask
them what the benefits whether there’s
any possibility of benefits how that
works
why the role is open what’s the end date
of it
is it attempt to hire though they as
jeff says they probably will have told
you that already
will you be employed by the agency or
the client company it’s good to know
and here’s a couple good questions that
actually uh are kind of advanced one is
how many clients do you have in this
industry
so that gives you a sense if they say
they have lots of clients in that
industry then there’s maybe a good
chance that even after this role they’ll
be able to place you in other roles and
so this might be a really good agency
relationship for you
and then another question you could ask
is what percentage of consultants
who you place
do you then go on to place them in
another role afterwards and a third role
after that
because uh ideally you know you
unless you’re planning to have a
permanent job real soon you’d like to be
with an agency that’s going to keep you
busy
agreed
and on the east coast
where the recruiters might be relatively
inexperienced
look for them to signal in their manner
and body language whether they’re being
truthful with you yeah
on the west coast it might be a little
bit different but i came out of the new
york area where not everyone was
particularly honest
yeah
yeah and you could ask follow-up
questions that’s what interviewers will
do to see if you’re lying they’ll ask
for more detail so if they say oh yeah
yeah i’ve placed lots of people in
second and third uh roles and then you
might say oh yeah can you give me an
example of somebody with whom you did
that recently and if they’re having
trouble coming up with an example then
that’s kind of a clue
you know or if they say yeah we work
with lots of people in this lots of
companies in this industry oh yeah what
are some of them
and ask that with a smile you wanna you
want to you know keep a friendly uh
collaborative vibe with them but go
ahead and ask questions
that’s right and always observe
notice the body language the body
language the tone of voice and again i’m
going to give the east coast nervous
version which is
well um
and i’m rubbing my palms like yeah
macbeth doing out out damn spots
and you know they just
the tone it sounds really anxious
and that’s telling you something yeah
so
what followed the beginning of that
anxiety attack
was going to follow it is probably shall
we say bs
and our last little thing here is uh i
said questions we’re talking about
questions you asked
with the agency recruiter then when you
go to the client company some good
questions to ask or again confirm why
the role is open what the end date of it
is even if the recruiters already told
you just to make sure that you’re clear
on those very important details
and when i say by the way asking why the
role is open
that can be useful like if somebody says
it’s open because somebody’s on
maternity leave
then you figure they probably are coming
back if the role is open because
somebody quit and left the job
uh there’s maybe a little more chance of
it going permanent if somebody says it’s
open because the person got
promoted then that’s good to know you
know what they moved on to it tells you
something about how people move up in
that company
another good questions to ask are what’s
the most important part of this job
and in fact i like to suggest that
people ask this at the very beginning of
the interview that you say before we get
started
do you mind if i ask you a quick
question and then they say yes and you
say of course i’ve read the job posting
but i’d like to know just straight from
you what do you think is the most
crucial part of this job what does the
person coming to this job really have to
be able to do well
because whatever answer they give you
you now know what their hot button issue
is you know not now what their priority
is and throughout the rest of the
interview you want to kind of keep that
in mind and find ways to refer to it
like if they say the main thing we need
coming into this role is somebody who
can
um
who can get results with everybody and
get along with everybody now you know
that there’s probably some difficult
people there
so throughout the interview you want to
emphasize your ability to
to get results even with people who
maybe don’t get back to you with
information you need that you’re
persistent and so on
excellent yeah yeah this is fabulous
absolutely fabulous you got more
there’s a couple more just just
just a couple more questions to ask the
client company what’s a typical day like
who will i be working with
uh what’s what should i know in order to
collaborate collaborate effectively with
you and with the team
um will i need to use my own laptop or
phone
and here’s a real good one what’s the
difference between a contractor doing a
good job in this role versus doing a
great job in this role
because then when they tell you what a
great job would look like you can convey
to them that that’s how you plan to do
things
okay that’s our tips for today
excellent i think how can people find
out more about you
the gifts
and much more
yeah
you can go to greatjobsooner.com
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excellent thea thank you and folks we’ll
be back soon with more i’m jeff walton
the big game hunter visit my website
thebig gamehunter.edu
i’ve got a ton in the blog that you can
watch listen to or read they’ll help you
with your job search with hiring more
effectively management leadership
dealing with different workplace issues
and if this isn’t your time that you
want to do that just put the address in
your phone again that’s the big
gamehunter.eus
and in the notes field put something
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there on a later occasion
also connect with me on linkedin at
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slash the big game hunter and by the way
at my site you can schedule time for
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call find out about my books and courses
i got a tongue there that’s gonna help
you
and i hope you have a terrific day
and you know what
be great
take care
[Music]
you
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_izvXs2h0nk[/svp]
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.
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