Read Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door Online
Authors: Harvey Mackay
Tags: #Business & Economics, #Careers, #Job Hunting
Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door (20 page)
While it’s important to master stage fright, it’s also key to look at challenges like job interviews and public speeches as opportunities, positive events with sometimes unrecognized benefits. Sora Song wrote an article titled “The Price of Pressure” for
Time
magazine in 2004. In it she cites a meta-analysis published by the American Psychological Association of “300 studies involving some 19,000 subjects.” Such ordeals as “enduring layoffs” have significantly negative effects on almost all immune functions. Believe it or not, short-term stress situations like public speaking—and I would put job interviews right up there—can actually have a positive impact on our health. The investigation found that for people “asked to speak in public or do mental math in the lab, the tasks tended to mobilize their fast-acting immune response.”
Time
magazine in 2004. In it she cites a meta-analysis published by the American Psychological Association of “300 studies involving some 19,000 subjects.” Such ordeals as “enduring layoffs” have significantly negative effects on almost all immune functions. Believe it or not, short-term stress situations like public speaking—and I would put job interviews right up there—can actually have a positive impact on our health. The investigation found that for people “asked to speak in public or do mental math in the lab, the tasks tended to mobilize their fast-acting immune response.”
The legendary CBS news commentator Edward R. Murrow summed up stage fright with wonderful brevity as “the sweat of perfection.”
Mackay’s Moral:
Edward R. Murrow said pros have one big edge: they “have trained the butterflies to fly in formation.”
Edward R. Murrow said pros have one big edge: they “have trained the butterflies to fly in formation.”
Quickie—The Mother of All Questions
In August 2009, John Chambers, the CEO of IT giant Cisco, was interviewed by the
New York Times
. He was asked to share the questions he asked a job candidate. His most interesting one:
New York Times
. He was asked to share the questions he asked a job candidate. His most interesting one:
“Who are the best people you recruited and developed and where are they today?”
Everyone gives lip service to people being the biggest resource in business. Who doesn’t sing the praises of smart hiring and management development?
Chambers is saying
prove it
. This challenge works for any level of management in any company.
prove it
. This challenge works for any level of management in any company.
Does Chambers’ question apply to young people who are entering the job market? Why shouldn’t it? If you ran the student newspaper or the debating society, how did you help develop the next editor or the chief debater who succeeded you?
If your next job interviewer doesn’t ask you the Chambers question, and you have had stellar results in finding and growing people, make it a major selling point. And if you don’t have a meaningful answer to the question, then make your own recruitment and development skills a #1 priority when you land your next job.
The people who build companies are the people who build people.
Chapter 41
In a Job Hunt,
Make Sure Your Ducks Are in a Row
In
Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
, I wrote that the biggest single mistake a manager can make is a bad hire. And yet this mistake is made all the time. If a human resources or personnel officer can claim a success ratio of 75 percent, he or she borders on genius because so much of the hirer’s job is instinctive rather than scientific. Like real life.
Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
, I wrote that the biggest single mistake a manager can make is a bad hire. And yet this mistake is made all the time. If a human resources or personnel officer can claim a success ratio of 75 percent, he or she borders on genius because so much of the hirer’s job is instinctive rather than scientific. Like real life.
A man and woman can date each other for years, but let them share quarters or marry each other and they will know more about each other within weeks than they knew during their entire previous history together.
Or let’s say two married couples are the best of friends and have been neighbors for twenty years. One day one couple calls the other couple and says, “Hey, we’ve got a great idea. Why don’t we go to Europe together for three weeks?” Result: When they get back there’s a house on the block for sale. The two couples never speak to each other again.
An employer can interview a prospect for months, put him or her through every kind of boot camp drill, get to know his or her golf game so well the employer can tell within ten yards where the prospect’s slice will land, exchange dinner invitations, check out the spouse’s talents for the tango. Result: Six weeks after the hire, the employer is reaching for the Maalox Plus and looking for a replacement.
There is no single question, no magic formula to guard against failure in any enterprise involving human beings. We do the best we can.
The most common pitfall recruiters face is to be dazzled by personality. The 25 percent failure rate experienced even by ace recruiters is usually the result of confusing interview skills with job skills. We’re all vulnerable to charmers.
The best way recruiters can protect themselves is to extend the process long enough to see candidates under as many varied conditions as possible. As we’ve seen, that doesn’t always work. Here are a few more tricks of the trade candidates should know about:
1.
Are your references what you claim they are?
Are you concealing some bad ones? Recruiters check references more carefully than ever these days. The Internet can expose in milliseconds what once took days of due diligence to uncover. The harder recruiters dig, the more they find. Don’t fake it, whether it’s school, employment, or personal references. Often, when recruiters are not satisfied with the first set of references, they ask for more. Sometimes, they already know the answer and are just testing to see how hard you will try to cover something up. If there are unexplained “gaps” in your job history, you should be able to cover them with some kind of constructive effort, like school, volunteer work, individual entrepreneurship. Thankfully, parenthood is increasingly acceptable. Also, consider a seemingly unorthodox tactic: Be completely candid with the recruiter in describing the smudge in your résumé and ask for
their
help in presenting it in a favorable way. Recruiters have seen more blemishes than China has computer chips.
Are your references what you claim they are?
Are you concealing some bad ones? Recruiters check references more carefully than ever these days. The Internet can expose in milliseconds what once took days of due diligence to uncover. The harder recruiters dig, the more they find. Don’t fake it, whether it’s school, employment, or personal references. Often, when recruiters are not satisfied with the first set of references, they ask for more. Sometimes, they already know the answer and are just testing to see how hard you will try to cover something up. If there are unexplained “gaps” in your job history, you should be able to cover them with some kind of constructive effort, like school, volunteer work, individual entrepreneurship. Thankfully, parenthood is increasingly acceptable. Also, consider a seemingly unorthodox tactic: Be completely candid with the recruiter in describing the smudge in your résumé and ask for
their
help in presenting it in a favorable way. Recruiters have seen more blemishes than China has computer chips.
2.
Do you meet the job specifications?
Many job failures are the result of an imperfect match between the person and the position. A candidate eager for a job will say just about anything to demonstrate his or her qualifications. It’s up to the recruiter to be focused, to have a clear understanding of
exactly
what skills are needed and not to be led off course by a winning smile. Listen carefully to the job requirements. If you don’t have the training or background described in the job prospectus, be up front about it. Discuss whether you can still qualify for the position through on-the-job training or further education. Even better, describe what you are doing online to shrink your know-how deficit.
Do you meet the job specifications?
Many job failures are the result of an imperfect match between the person and the position. A candidate eager for a job will say just about anything to demonstrate his or her qualifications. It’s up to the recruiter to be focused, to have a clear understanding of
exactly
what skills are needed and not to be led off course by a winning smile. Listen carefully to the job requirements. If you don’t have the training or background described in the job prospectus, be up front about it. Discuss whether you can still qualify for the position through on-the-job training or further education. Even better, describe what you are doing online to shrink your know-how deficit.
3.
Do you know how to think?
Note how the interviewer’s questions are geared to open your thought processes for inspection, not just merely to elicit a mechanical response, like “I designed fifteen computer programs.” What did the programs accomplish? To what extent did you involve users in the design process? How much did the programs help solve user problems? How many led to other, systems-wide streamlining in the company? Recruiters are looking for qualitative responses that substantiate quantitative claims.
Do you know how to think?
Note how the interviewer’s questions are geared to open your thought processes for inspection, not just merely to elicit a mechanical response, like “I designed fifteen computer programs.” What did the programs accomplish? To what extent did you involve users in the design process? How much did the programs help solve user problems? How many led to other, systems-wide streamlining in the company? Recruiters are looking for qualitative responses that substantiate quantitative claims.
4.
What are your work habits?
Note how the interviewer wants to know where your ideas come from. Do you take all the credit yourself? How do you work as a team member? (This question has skyrocketing significance in thinly staffed organizations shouldering big workloads.) How will you fit in with the people you will be working with? Will they want to work with you or will they avoid you? When you answer a question, are you direct or evasive? Responsive or vague? Wordy or succinct? Here’s where your interviewing skills are likely to match your job skills.
What are your work habits?
Note how the interviewer wants to know where your ideas come from. Do you take all the credit yourself? How do you work as a team member? (This question has skyrocketing significance in thinly staffed organizations shouldering big workloads.) How will you fit in with the people you will be working with? Will they want to work with you or will they avoid you? When you answer a question, are you direct or evasive? Responsive or vague? Wordy or succinct? Here’s where your interviewing skills are likely to match your job skills.
5.
Are you truthful?
Whether it’s references, accomplishments, skills, whatever button is being pushed, the interviewer is always looking for evidence of dishonesty, or, almost as bad, bragging and exaggeration. Don’t even think about trying any of them. Getting caught here is a hit below the waterline and fatal to your chances.
Are you truthful?
Whether it’s references, accomplishments, skills, whatever button is being pushed, the interviewer is always looking for evidence of dishonesty, or, almost as bad, bragging and exaggeration. Don’t even think about trying any of them. Getting caught here is a hit below the waterline and fatal to your chances.
Summing up: Be sharp, not slippery.
Mackay’s Moral:
Eels can be electric, but I’ve never seen
one mounted as a trophy fish.
Eels can be electric, but I’ve never seen
one mounted as a trophy fish.
Quickie—Rehearsing Job Interview Questions
• Always have four or five key messages in mind. An interviewer’s questions may be at the top of his or her mind. At the top of yours should always be the impression, the energy, and the commitment you want to convey.
• Never be evasive, but try to constructively bridge to an answer that is responsive to both you and the interviewer.
• Don’t confuse the carefully crafted words of your answer with the content behind the words. In short, don’t deliver baloney. A smart interviewer will always demand meaningful and relevant responses.
• With each answer, always consider the next question that it might or does imply.
• Maintain evenhanded composure. A sudden shift of posture or glance can send a powerful signal of discomfort when a question arises. Have your interview rehearsal colleagues be especially attentive to question areas of this sort.
• Distinguish between a question that is lightly exploratory and one that is seriously penetrating. When an attorney questions a witness on the stand, he or she will often use a casual question in the hopes it might unleash an avalanche of unnecessary candor. Be on your guard.
• Encourage your rehearsal partners to sometimes seem disinterested or even negative. Even though an interviewer may be dedicated to finding out the last detail of your career and personal makeup, many people asking questions will feign indifference just to see how you react. Prepare yourself to perform before a “cold” audience.
Chapter 42
9 Motivators to Make Them
Want to Return Your Call
1. Scour the individual’s personal, academic, and professional background to identify someone you might know who could have influence with your target. Have your intermediary make an advance call.
2. Find out whom this individual has mentored in the past and see if you know any protégés. Call your target and ask if he would be willing to offer fifteen minutes of career counseling because of his remarkable reputation for management wisdom.
3. Find out your target’s favorite charity and pledge to contribute $100 to it if she returns your phone call.
4. Learn the individual’s #1 not-for-profit community organization and offer him twenty-five hours of pro bono work in exchange for a job interview.
5. Investigate if the person Twitters or blogs and initiate some clever input on her Internet presence.
6. Discover the person’s foremost hobby and offer up some truly unusual information that he would otherwise not have a chance to learn.
7. Read the individual’s most recently published speech or article and send a letter as to why you found the talk convincing.
8. Diagnose a new product line introduced by a competitor of the person you are trying to reach and send a brief report to your target as to why it creates an opportunity for this person.
9. Talk with your target’s administrative assistant and learn about
that
person’s hobbies or other interests in the hopes that building a sincere phone relationship with the gatekeeper will help open the gate.
that
person’s hobbies or other interests in the hopes that building a sincere phone relationship with the gatekeeper will help open the gate.
“I miss the steady paycbeck.”
Quickie—Lubricate Gatekeepers to Oil the Gate
Gatekeepers, usually so poised under pressure, have human needs just as the rest of us do. Generally they are the Type B enablers of Type A driven bosses. Gatekeepers receive more than their share of annoyance from above.
When you are dealing with a gatekeeper, you would do well to remember the following:
• When you phone a gatekeeper, always ask if this is a good time to talk. You’ll find that 50 percent of the time it isn’t because he or she is either waiting for the boss or a priority call to come in.
• Avoid calling at high-demand times. Monday mornings, for example, are generally poor windows to reach offices dedicated to high performance.
• Listen. A gatekeeper can be your best source of information on a manager’s decision-making habits and preferences. The gatekeeper may also give you important scheduling and availability information on the manager just in passing conversation. Don’t overlook it.
• Be specific in identifying yourself and your purpose in calls and e-mails. These beleaguered folk have tons of information swimming across their desks. Be precise in identifying why you are calling. If it relates to a particular document, call it up on your computer before you make the call.
• Learn who the gatekeeper’s backup is. Generally there is one, and this person often plays an important role in absorbing overflow work. I can’t tell you how key this often overlooked tactic is.
Chapter 43
No Isn’t an Answer . . .
It’s a Question
Two guys are facing the firing squad. The officer in charge has just finished “Ready! Aim!” and is on the verge of “Fire!” when one of the men about to be shot yells, “Hey, wait a minute. First of all, this blindfold’s too tight; second, you didn’t offer us a last cigarette; and third, I should get a chance to say a few words, like ‘long live the revolution’ and things like that.”
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