August 2009 - Tony Beshara Blog

…”but i never hear back from them…it’s sooooooo mean and rude”

we hear this almost daily…sometimes even about oursleves…people send a resume…have an interview..or even two…then don’t hear from the employer or interviewing authority…..ever…not even a “buzz off”…”you suck”…”wouldn’t hire you if you were the last candidate on earth”…nothing…nada…even after they say, “we’ll be in touch”…(i have had employers tell my candidates that they were going to call them with a job offer, then never do it)

we shouldn’t excuse rude behavior, but your getting mad or upset about this kind of treatment simply won’t help you get a job…

it is almost impossible for hiring or interviewing authorities to get back to every candidate whose resume they review or they interview…simply impossible

lesson: pray for them…they are covered up with work..maybe they are rude…maybe even mean…maybe insensative…we could go on and on…but it won’t do any good… they have tons of candidates to choose from and to speak with…and besides, they are running a business too

they are, as Teilhard de Chardin stated, “spiritual beings acting human”…forgive and dismiss …spend your energy finding another interview

By Tony Beshara|2009-08-31T21:52:22-05:00August 31, 2009|communication|

…another career coach advice..”don’t act like you are looking for a job”

…i read ’bout every book on finding a job i can find…new one on the market “Get the Job You Want Even When No One’s Hiring”

now, being an author and wanting people to like my books, i am real flexible and forgving about most errant stuff about finding a job..

but this guy actually tells you to act like you aren’t looking for a job when you interview

go ahead, do that…other candidates, especially mine, will eat your lunch…that is the biggest piece of terrible advice you will ever get…it is clear that this guy never found anyone a job, or if he did it was an accident..

By Tony Beshara|2009-08-17T22:03:29-05:00August 17, 2009|interviewing|

…”I never expected it would be this hard”

We hear this daily…candidates that are finding out that it is sooooo much harder to find a job than it was in the past…

A recent survey I read stated that the average professional thinks it takes 60 days to find a job when they are out of one…try an average of 180 to 220…They found jobs in the mid 2000’s or mid ’90’s…it was easier then…

We placed a sales candidate today who accepted a base salary of $85,000…she told us four months ago that she wouldn’t take less than $100,000 base…since her last base was $135,000 in spite of the fact that she was on maternity leave for one year and had taken the last year off to be with her baby…

Times have changed…it was no where as easy as she thought it was going to be…and she was lucky that we could find her a job…It is a very rough job market…take nothing for granted…

By Tony Beshara|2009-08-11T21:58:16-05:00August 11, 2009|psychology|

…”Do you have any questions?”

One of our candidates was eliminated because he was asked this question…in a phone interview, no less…He said, “I guess I don’t …you have told me everything I need to know.”

Oh, my…not good…first of all, always have decent, intelligent questions about an opportunity…if you can’t really think of any…and you can if you try…ask the interviewing authority about themselves…”tell me, why do you like it here at ABC Corp.?”…” I have heard a lot about you and your success here, how have you done it?” If you can’t think of any business questions…ask them about their favorite subject….themselves!

Secondly, an interviewing authority doesn’t care about what you need to know…they care about what they need to know…so keep that phrase out of the conversation…So you say, “Damn that is really picky!”…you are right…it is…even unfair…what is even more sad about this particular situation, is that our candidate was exceptionally qualified…a top performer…

In this market, where companies and the hiring authorities in them think that there are hoards of quality candidates available… (There are hoards…but not necessarily qualified)… you have to interview almost perfectly…Every interview guide and coach teaches you to have one or two questions to ask…our candidate had been one of our client’s top competitors…he could have had a dozen questions…He thought he had done so well on the interview that he didn’t have to ask any questions…very sad

By Tony Beshara|2009-08-07T22:17:51-05:00August 7, 2009|interviewing|

…Mangled metaphors & misapplied analogies

Can’t tell you the number of very educated candidates over the years that in their speaking become fond of metaphors…which is OK . Except they mangle the metaphor…
They say things like “pass mustard” instead of “pass muster”…”took off like haywire”…instead of “wildfire”…”preaching to the congregation “…instead of “preaching to the choir”…In the last week I have had four different candidates tell me they wanted to “hit the ball running,” “give their best foot forward,” or said, “I’m living fat on the hog” and “the cream will rise to the crop”. I could go on, but you get the message…we have all heard folks do this at times…we are amused and kind of laugh But in the interviewing situation, they can be disastrous…especially if they are repeated…repeatedly…they are distracting and, in most cases, don’t reflect well on the person being interviewed. Soooo, practice interviewing…if you have a tendency to mangle your metaphors or misapply your analogies, have someone help you or get yourself some broadband and google a few…if you are going to lose a deal, don’t let it be over something so simple to correct.. So, keep your “nose to the ground” and your “ear to the grindstone”…practice interviewing…watch the pictures you describe…

By Tony Beshara|2017-01-25T10:32:41-05:00August 3, 2009|interviewing|