One of the most basic rules in economics deals with supply and demand. Today’s job market certainly has a significant supply: 13.9 million people looking for jobs. But demand has been meager for the past several years; it probably will continue to be for the near future; and—at least at this point—it does not show any robustness. The immediate impact of this discord manifests itself by only a few people getting jobs.
In theory, the process of getting a job is simple: human resources department employees, outside recruiters, and hiring managers review multitudes of applicant résumés and eliminate all except outstanding ones. There are many of the latter, and less-than-outstanding résumés get filed in the black hole. A further elimination process is in place via phone or video screenings, with the target objective to request applicants appear for in-person interviews—but typically, no more than three to five of the seemingly best prospects. Ultimately, of course, only one is going to get the congratulatory letter.
In practice, since more and more job seekers know the rules of the game, they’re trying to maximize their chances by getting outside help. There’s been a significant uptick in the trend of job seekers’ hiring professional résumé writers, followed by the trend of working with career coaches to specifically improve interview skills. Both professional résumé writers and people who offer career coaching services appear to be costly. Plus the expense comes at a person’s time of trauma, anguish, and high frustration level, but what is the cost of those things combined with lack of a steady paycheck?
Most people realize that job seeking has become very competitive in every occupational field. Even most colleges, as part of their applicant-screening process, interview potential incoming students before making final determinations. As a career coach specializing in the interview process, I see more and more such college student applicants who engage my services. Furthermore, many military veterans returning from years of service find themselves unprepared for the next phase in their lives, and they reach out for assistance with job search counseling and interview skills enhancement.
It’s not enough to be able to say you did great things in past; you now need to sell that to someone who’s willing to pay you. Do you know how to do that?
After introductions and small talk this would be the time to ask a question to start the interview on the right foot. Say it in your own words but this question sets up the interview for you:
“What kind of person are you looking for and what are you looking for this new person to do for the first 6 months to a year?”
This now gives you insight to what the interviewer is looking for. Your response should be catered around what they have told you. You need to make sure that when you answer to be specific and that you use real examples of your past to back it up.
So many people base their interview on a job description rather than the interviewer. Job descriptions are just a guide to what the company has posted and perhaps the hiring authority or manager is looking for something more specific. That is why when meeting with multiple people you should ask that same question.
Some other questions that you should consider to ask towards the end of the interview would be:
What are some of the departmental goals?
What are some of the goals of the organization overall?
Where do you see this company in the next 5 years?
What’s the upside potential of this position?
Remember that an interview is a two way street. You need to find out the questions that are important to you so that you can determine if you want to work there. If you are working with a recruiter you want to stay away from salary and benefit questions and leave that for your recruiter to work out for you.
For more: Interview preparation
Thanks to Fisher-Price, as babies we learn a concept that we seem to forget by the time we’re adults: you can’t put a square peg in a round hole. And people are doing this more than ever in this market, as they continue to go about job searches totally backwards and how they give themselves away on the interview.
We do the “square peg in a round hole” especially with relationships and with jobs. If we don’t know what we’re looking for, we become obscured by what we’re attracted to. And then we don’t realize we’ve reverted to pounding the round orange peg into the hole on that plastic table right in front of us when it’s the square blue peg that fits.
These days, job seekers don’t care. They want a job! Any job! Ironically “these days” this concept is even more important than it is when the hiring market is healthier.
But because people need a job, they’ll continue to force it – and with a lot of hard work, sweat, and stress – it can be made to fit, but never very well and never for very long. Eventually that peg is going to explode out of the hole into which they’re trying to mash it.
And by the time they realize it’s not fitting, they’re so far in that instead of realizing what’s happened and getting out, they try harder to make it work or else they do nothing. In both cases, not only does the fit fail to improve, it becomes more tenuous with time.
Failing to define what they want is where it begins. And unless luck intervenes, it’s not long before the new job – or new relationship – isn’t as satisfying as it initially appeared. Additionally, when they realize that what they have isn’t what they want, they wait too long to leave. And in leaving one job for another, desperation does not breed objectivity.
Avoiding the “unhappy at work” syndrome can be solved in a few simple pro-active steps especially if you don’t get bogged down in the discomfort and fear of the minutae along the way.
- Acknowledge you hate your job and want to be elsewhere – and realize it before you feel you have to leave at any cost
- Get a solid idea of what you like, don’t like, what motivates you, at what you excel, under what circumstances you produce your best work, etc, by examining your previous jobs
- Identify exactly what you want in your next job and under what circumstances you’re willing to bend your needs
- Actively go find it, and exclude anything that doesn’t match it or come close
- As you interview – and learn more information about each opportunity – pursue it if it fits and dump it if it doesn’t
You’re looking for the company that meets your profile, and is looking for an employee like you. Every person is unique, and every company and job is unique. Job hunting isn’t that different from dating. In a bad match, both parties will be unhappy and resistant to being changed by the other. But when the bad match is your new job, you’ve gotten married a whole lot sooner so there’s a bit more involved than just breaking up and going home.
Beyond knowing what you want in your next company, you need to be aware of why you’re valuable, what you have to offer, under what circumstances you can best contribute to a company, and how and why you will be an asset and a value-added employee.
Because otherwise, whether you’re tempted by the salary, blinded by the desperate need to pay bills, operating under a haze of assumptions or – having stuck your resume on a job board and waited for a miracle – finally having found something, you might soon discover it’s not the Utopia you thought it would be.
So pay attention to that long-ago lesson you learned sitting on the living room floor. Know if you’re a square blue peg, a red triangle peg, a green rectangle peg or whatever you are before you go looking so you’re able to spot the place you want to be. Not only will you find you slide into place and rest there contentedly much easier, but you’ll find you get a job much faster, too.
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BIO: Judi Perkins, the How-To Career Coach, worked with decision making, hiring authorities for over 22 years. She’s seen over 600,000 resumes and knows how hiring authorities think and how they hire. As many of her clients who have found jobs in 4 – 12 weeks agree, her perspective and method is much different from that of other career coaches, because her unique background results in a very counter-intuitive but holistic approach encompassing skills, psychology, and sales. Clients come to understand why the typical strategies in finding a job so often fail, and learn what to do instead, why, and how, yet never hiding or sacrificing who they are. She’s been on PBS’s Frontline, Smart Money magazine, articles for CareerBuilder, MSN Careers, Yahoo Hot Jobs, and the New York Times, among others. She’s also been featured as an expert in numerous career books. Sign up for her free newsletter and receive a comprehensive resume report in return! www.findtheperfectjob.com
The day for your interview has been scheduled. That means you were among the handful of people selected out of dozens of applicants to continue the competition toward the job offer. Not only do you need this job very badly, but also you studied for it thoroughly by preparing yourself for difficult interview questions and you’re really psyched up. But wait. What will you wear to this coveted interview?
An administrative assistant will usher you into an office or conference room where the interviewer and possibly others are waiting for you. They’ve studied your résumé and are prepared. The door opens and you walk in–energetically and with a big smile. They’re looking at you and noticing your appearance. You’re making an impression, and you want that impression to be excellent. You also know that that first impression is a lasting one. Some of what they see cannot be changed. This is the way you look–whether it’s good or bad. But there’s a lot you can do to improve this first and vital impression.
For men it is to some extent easier. Make sure your appearance is clean. A recent haircut and a close shave are musts; a graying beard or mustache adds years to your age. Typically, a well-tailored suit in a dark color–but not black–is recommended. In summer a nice light color is appropriate but preferably for the follow-up interview, not the first one. However, if the dress code is business casual, the suit may be waived. The shirt–well fitted and in a contemporary style–should complement your attire. Investing in a today’s-fashion tie is smart. A haberdashery sales associate could guide you, or you could look at a few pictures in one of the clothing-store catalogs that get stuffed periodically into your mailbox. A belt, too, should accentuate your positive appearance. Socks should be in a solid color, without any visible pattern, and should match the color of your shoes. Shoes are extremely important, not only to feel comfortable in but also because they, too, speak about you. A well-shined pair of new shoes creates the image you want to present.
The same principles apply to women as well. A hairstyle that enhances appearance is important. Don’t overdo makeup, and my recommendation is to skip the perfume when going for an interview. Your taste in perfumes may not match others’, and the aroma may linger long after you’ve left the office. If you smoke, I suggest you refrain from smoking for at least six hours prior to the interview and that you make sure your interview clothing has been aired out; nonsmokers can detect smokers from far away. Keep jewelry to a minimum, and remember that cleavage and revealing, short skirts might enhance your candidacy in the modeling profession, but if you’re applying for other jobs, consider a more professional, conservative look.
Remember the cliché that “the clothing makes the man,” and if you believe it, then investing in your interview wardrobe to enhance your image and thus your chances for the job offer makes sense.
Alex Freund is the founder of Landing Expert–Career Coaching. His Web site includes a current and comprehensive list of job search networking groups in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and the city of New York, and the site is visited by thousands of people every month. Landing Expert is a premier career-coaching service with the objective of preparing job seekers for interviews. Alex’s clients are gaining knowledge, receiving marketing material, and acquiring the know-how to beat the competition.
Alex can be reached at:
609-333-8866
Are you ready for your closeup? Do you understand STAR power?
Yes, I’m talking about behavior-based interviews, my all-time personal bane as a job seeker and maybe yours, too. These interviews tend to start off innocently enough:
- Tell me about a situation when circumstances required you to…
- Give me an example of a time when you…
- Describe for me the most important…
And then the level of difficulty increases. The recruiter’s questions start growing legs, even tentacles, and before long you’re choking. For example:
Tell me about the last directive from senior management that failed to achieve its desired goal. Why do you think it failed? What role did you play in the process or failure?
Another turn of the noose:
Give me an example of a time when you had to present material or implement a process you didn’t fully support. Did you voice your concern? How? Who did you voice your concern to?
You’re becoming apoplectic:
Describe a situation in which your leadership skills were rejected. Why were they rejected? How did you manage the situation?
OMG! Your mind is racing, your heart pounding, you’re breaking out in a sweat, you feel floored — “um, um…I, uh (gulp), well….” You try to deflect, to buy yourself some time. You ask the recruiter to clarify. If only you had come better prepared. Too late now.
So you scramble for an answer, feverishly sifting through the slot machine of long-buried images in your head, memories of past conversations, the failures to communicate, rejecting the scenarios that only make you look bad. You’re desperate to depict yourself and your past actions in a positive, make that a glowing, light. Ha! Fat chance! Then, having exhausted all your stratagems and the recruiter’s patience, the rambling ensues.
The verdict is a foregone conclusion: You just talked yourself out of a job. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
The STAR approach
Behavior-based questions require you to provide specific — not general or hypothetical — examples of how YOU handled work-related challenges in the past. Recruiters are sticklers about this. The person posing these questions will be assigning marks to each of your answers based on pre-established technical and performance-related criteria, such as competency, strategic and problem-solving ability, command skills, integrity and trust. Three strikes, maybe less, and you’re out. You can squirm, object, get angry, beg for more time, even walk out, or — best tactic of all — you can come prepared.
Situation —> Task —> Action —> Result, a.k.a. STAR and sometimes just plain old SAR, is a framework you must learn to master, or at least adopt, to succeed in answering behavior-based interview questions. You might even add a “Q,” for quantifiable, to this formula. Trust me, I’m still working on it, given how vivid are the memories of my own failed attempts at winging it.
You will have 90 seconds, up to a maximum of three minutes, to articulate your answers, ensuring your description of your actions and accomplishments adheres rigorously to this deceptively simple STAR(Q) outline. No deviations.
My best advice, based on painful experience: get a hold of some sample behavioral questions, carefully formulate and write out your answers, then commit them to memory. What’s more, consider how you might adapt your three or four strongest accomplishments to variations on these question types.
— Judy Margolis
