Monthly Archives: September 2012

One of our candidates wrote about her grueling experience in getting hired in today’s market…we have removed the name of the company..but it is a very good example of how difficult it might be to get hired…

I’ve been interviewing with —– since JUNE for this position. This has been the most grueling process ever.

Listen to what I went through to get this offer, Tony…. I beat out 70 other executives, and it took almost 5 months of discussions to land this role. The hiring manager had me create a Competitive Analysis Document and a “Solutions Summary” of the Application product line to show I know the products. I went through 6 interviews over 5 months, including 3 group interviews lasting almost 2 hours. People just didn’t seem to want to make a decision. They kept saying they were afraid of making a mistake.  Last week, I went through my 4th background check in 18 months. This was the most intense background check I’ve ever experienced. I actually had to climb in the attic and dig out my W2 forms because they wanted all my tax returns from 2007-2011. In addition to this, they pulled my credit report (which is perfect), requested that I give them copies of every offer letter since 2007, they wanted contact info of each hiring manager at every place I’ve worked and they called them in lieu of references to try and dig up some dirt. I actually felt a little “violated” on Friday as they kept asking for more and more information. I guess they were OK with everything I sent because the offer letter I received today is to join the most coveted team at —–

well…nobody said it was gonna be easy!

Chad was a really smart guy… undergraduate degree from an Ivy League school and an MBA from UT Austin… with honors,  I might add…

But he was really smart in the interviewing process… he knew when to show he was smart and when to let the hiring authority look like “the smartest guy in the room.”

When asked questions about his history or business questions, Chad had the right answers… his experience, background and smarts were clearly well beyond most candidates…

The hiring authority was a very opinionated executive vice president…. very opinionated… and there were some questions  he asked Chad, inconsequential ones, where the answer could be more of an opinion than “correct”… Chad was smart enough to answer the question by saying, “you know,  I have seen a number of different positions on that subject… what do you think?”… Wonderful!

Chad was smart enough to know when to answer and when to make the hiring authority feel “smart.”

In fact, Chad said, coming out of the interview, that he got the executive VP to do most of the talking… and the “talking” was mostly about the executive VP and his opinions… and, by the way, the VP told us he thought Chad was one of the smartest guys he had ever interviewed…

And he was!

Ed…a candidate interviewed with one of our clients…the hiring authority told me he was the best prepared candidate he had ever interviewed…i asked Ed what he did…here are the steps he took:

Tony,

I appreciate your assistance in my obtaining a position with ——–. In response to how I prepared, please see below.

Review of company website, review their collateral, press releases

Search internet for any information on the company, their market, their competition

Search specific websites for any information on the company: Industry sites as HIMSS, HISTalk, EHR intelligence, KLAS, You Tube, other
Research financial info from Investing Business Week, Bloomberg Businessweek other

LinkedIn Contacts, Bios, company info. Work any connections

All of the above leads to links to more links, etc.

Contact my industry contacts CEOs, CFOs, CIOs other sales reps etc to learn if they knew of the company and its products

I type up all appropriate info and prepare a ‘bulleted’ list of items to discuss or refer to. I always try to site something I learned about them from my own research, especially if beyond their website

I take a folder to the inteview with all my research info, their brochure, white papers, my resume, my references. This is usually numerous pages.

Read the info you send me on JSS (www.thejobsearchsolution.com)

Now, Ed did a great job of delivery in the interview…it does no good to have all of this information without practicing delivery and doing it well…

Good job, Ed!

The best candidates… “A players” take notes during their interviews… not copious ones… but a few key words as they go along in the interview. After the interview they write a summary of everything that went on in the interview.

It will not come as a shock that in an hour to an hour and a half interview, even the people involved in the interview won’t remember the same things. (Read my blog post about “inattentional blindness.”) A hiring or interviewing authority may repeat the things that are important to them one or two times and unless the candidate writes it down, the odds are good the candidate will not remember what was important when the second interview rolls around a week or so later. Even if one’s memory is good, remembering more than one, two or three issues a week or so later isn’t likely.

Often times a candidate will review their notes about the interview a day or so later and have an epiphany about some of their experience and background that relates to the particular issue that was discussed. Writing the interviewing or hiring manager an e-mail something like, “I was reviewing my notes about our interview the other day and it came to me that…..” a few days  after an interview always looks impressive, especially if the message is of business value.

Reviewing these notes before other interviews after the initial interview gives a candidate decided advantage. So, take good notes. Write good summaries.

I had a candidate a few months ago who got called back to a company he interviewed with five or six months earlier. For all kinds of different reasons, they never hired anybody and they wanted to speak to him again. One of the comments the hiring authority made as they went to make him an offer, was that they were very impressed with the fact he remembered almost every important issue they had discussed six months earlier. It was easy. He had taken good notes and written good summaries.

What makes these notes and summaries even more important is what a candidate goes through on second, third or fourth interviews with the same guitar. Different people in an organization will emphasize different things. It isn’t uncommon for different levels of management to see things differently.

Tim was a perfect candidate… his 20 year history of success was exactly the kind of leadership our client needed… he was the VP candidate for a position our client has been trying to fill for some time… our client, the EVP   interviewed 10 candidates over a three month period of time, and once he interviewed Tim, he claimed that Tim was “perfect” for the job … after three personal interviews with the EVP,  and establishing a very strong personal rapport, Tim flew to the corporate office where he interviewed with three VPs and the CEO… the interviews could not have gone any better and the EVP told Tim he wanted to hire him…they even discussed what an offer would look like… a $200,000 base salary with total earnings at $400,000 provided Tim and the people in his region if they made quota… Everyone was excited and the EVP said he would be in touch with Tim in the next few days…

When Tim hadn’t heard from the EVP in two days, he called the EVP to ask where the situation stood…the EVP explained that their CEO wanted to speak to one other candidate because the CEO had only interviewed Tim and the CEO wanted to be able to say he had a choice…the EVP explained to Tim that he had nothing to worry about, he was the EVP’s choice and, after all, Tim was going to be working for the EVP…

After two more days of not hearing from the EVP, Tim called him again… both Tim and I were sensing that something was wrong…the EVP ‘t didn’t return his call and didn’t respond to emails…when Tim finally got him on the phone, the EVP explained to him that there was nothing wrong, the CEO had an emergency with family and wasn’t able to talk to the second candidate… being a good recruiter, I discovered who the second candidate was… I knew the guy… in fact he was a candidate of mine a  few years ago… it was comforting to know that although he was a very good candidate, he had nowhere near the capabilities of Tim…in fact the other candidate had actually worked for Tim a number of years ago …he is a really good guy but nowhere near the caliber experience  as Tim… both Tim and I were certain Tim was a much better candidate…

A week later, our client hired the other candidate… even though the candidate was not as good, strong or as accomplished as Tim,  he still got hired… it turned out that the CEO had not been at the company a very long time…the EVP, in the past, had hired just about anyone you wanted to…Maybe the CEO wanted to make it clear that he was now running the show… maybe they really didn’t want to hire as much of an A+ player as they claimed…

When the EVP called Tim to explain that they hired the other candidate, Tim had the courage to ask, “I know who you hired, he used to work for me… he’s a good guy but he’s nowhere near as accomplished and experienced  for the job as I am… can you tell me what made the difference? You had told me I was the guy you wanted to hire, what happened?”

The EVP tried to explain the decision, but none of it made any sense… there is no way anyone could explain it in rational terms…I am sure the guy they hired will do an okay job… but his experience and skill level is not of the same caliber as Tim’s..

Most of the time when a candidate doesn’t get hired it is because he or she doesn’t interview well,  isn’t qualified, etc. …this was one of those rare instances where Tim could not have done any better..

The lesson is that just because a candidate is “perfect”… just because he interviews impeccably… just because his references are next to perfect… doesn’t mean that he’ll get hired…