Monthly Archives: April 2013

Recruiters and job placement people… some professional and some not so professional…talk and write about the “instant look” which refers to the kind of candidate that has an immediately attractive, personal appearance… a handsome guy, good height weight ratio, well-dressed… the female with an attractive face and figure, well-dressed and an expensive business suit… most of us know exactly what I’m talking about…

Studies show that these people and their immediate “instant look” impact have an advantage, at least an initial advantage , in the interviewing situation… I know it’s unfair and I know it may not be right, but that is the way it is…

But what if you’re like the vast majority of us that don’t have that “instant look” …we are boomers, slightly if not mostly overweight that even the most stylish clothes can’t hide, thinning hair… if we have it all… wrinkles that even make us look even older… How do we overcome the fact that we don’t have that “instant look?”

First thing to do is to recognize that you can’t be what you’re not… don’t try to dress or look 35  when you are 55 years old…try to lose weight if you need to…get on an exercise plan…dress the  best you can, realizing that overweight people have a decided disadvantage in the interviewing process… wear cloths that fit you, not that barely fit or accentuate your weight gain… dress professionally and understated… dark , solid color suit, white shirt or blouse…loud suits… even “colorful” business suits… are not good at interviewing situation…short hair for the men and hair pulled back for women…conservative all over the place… very understated jewelry for women… practically no jewelry for men…keep everything very simple…I’ve written in this blog specific instructions about dress, but suffice it to say you can look professional even if you don’t have that “instant look”

The most important thing you can do to overcome the lack of the “instant look” is to be able to interview very, very, very well … that means really knowing what your features, advantages and benefits are, knowing exactly why you are an outstanding employee and be able to communicate extremely well… even a great image… that “instant look”… may give a candidate an initial advantage but it dissipates real quickly if the candidate doesn’t sell themselves in a perfect manner…

I’m continually amazed at how poorly candidates… even accomplished sales candidates… interview… interviewing well takes lots and lots of practice… you can’t wait for a job interview and think you’re going to perform well without practicing interviewing… what you say and how you sell yourself in an interview can overcome any image issue…

Chad and Marc are two excellent sales engineer candidates… both had good engineering backgrounds and ability… our client company is one of the best in the country at what they do and they are expanding… they called us needing two sales engineers and were grateful to us for referring both Chad and Marc…

Chad and Marc both went into the initial interviews realizing that these were excellent opportunities and they both sold themselves really well, at least Chad did… from the beginning of our effort with Marc, he copped an attitude that “these guys need to come to me… I’m really good… I’m gonna play it cool… I’m gonna play hard to get…I’ll get a better offer that way”

We explained to both candidates that they needed to sell themselves at every step of the way… ask for the job and reminded them that they had nothing until they had an offer… Chad did exactly the right things…but Marc didn’t… Mark didn’t close the initial interview by asking “how do I stack up with the others that you were looking at” and “what’ll I need to do to get the job”… he didn’t send follow-up interview e-mails to the initial interview and authority for two days after the interview and, instead of doing what Chad did, which was call up the initial interview and authority two days after the interview and ask about next steps, Marc “played it cool” and waited for us to be told by the initial interviewing authority to arrange follow-up interviews with him…

Marc did the same thing after the follow-up interviews… he never “closed” the people doing the interviewing… and followed up two or three days later… he also kept reminding them that he had “other opportunities he was looking at”…

Interestingly enough, Marc was probably a better candidate than Chad, but he just wasn’t selling himself the right way… last Friday the company made offers to both Chad and Marc… Chad negotiated a great offer and accepted the job immediately…Marc told the hiring authority that he wanted to think about it two or three days and then he would let them know…in spite of  his arrogance, the company still wanted to hire Marc… sometimes talent can take you a long ways

Marc told us that he had no other offers, no other prospects for offers, that he really wanted the opportunity but he still wanted to “play it cool”… we advised against this, but Marc insisted that he was doing it the right way… on Monday afternoon following the Friday the hiring authority made the offers, the hiring authority called us and said that they decided to resend the offer they made to Marc… it just plain bugged them that Marc handled the interview he process the way he did… we tried to explain that some candidates just do that kind of thing, etc. and we tried to salvage the deal… the truth is that the way Marc handled the situation really has nothing to do with his ability to do the job or effectiveness…

the hiring authority just couldn’t be convinced… and we understand…Marc was absolutely furious… he couldn’t believe that the company would rescind the offer the way they did… he then mumbled something about suing them… absurd!

The lesson is, don’t “play it cool”…this is a real painful lesson and it’s really sad…Marc called us two days after this came down and asked if he should call the hiring authority and ask if he can be reconsidered… the hiring authority wouldn’t return the three calls Marc made to him… Marc claims he’s learned his lesson and he will do better the next time…

A wise person learned by experience… a wiser person learns by others experience…

one  great way dealing with the emotional strain of having to look for a job… especially if you are looking for a job full time and don’t have one… is to keep a daily journal recording the activities of the day as well as  your feelings and thoughts about how your day went. You don’t have to be out of work for very long to realize the vast array of emotions you experience even on a daily basis… you can go from feeling great about an interview you’re going to have to feeling lousy when you get a call canceling the interview an hour later… the ups and downs are drastic

By keeping a journal of not just your activities but also  your feelings and thoughts you can begin to objectify as well as release a lot of the emotions that you are experiencing… psychologists have proven that journaling relieves stress..

Journaling is really easy to do especially with today’s technology… I use a ‘speak to text’  software to actually “write” by talking into my computer… your journaling can be done at the end of every day and serve as a summary of the day… your journal entry doesn’t have to be long or short …it just gives you a chance to emote and document your feelings on paper or, in the computer… journaling is a great way to relieve tension and have you feel like you “get it out of your system”… a weekly review of your journal will remind you that lots of positive things happen even during a difficult time… in case you hadn’t noticed,  negative events have a lot more impact than positive events… we have a tendency to focus on the negative ones more than positive ones… it’s simply human nature…be sure to journal about at least one positive thing even if most of what you might write is negative… look back for insights that you might gain from previous entries and track your progress

So get yourself a speak text software and start journaling about your job search… you’d be surprised how the reflections and insights you gain in reviewing your journaling will create a sense of well-being…

Nick is a seasoned professional… 20 years of solid experience and really knows what he’s doing… he also follows instructions and teachings very well too…

Nick had an initial interview with the executive VP on the phone and he detected by the questions that the executive VP was asking and seemed very much of an analytical  guy… and sure enough when Nick did his research he found out that the guy had an undergraduate degree in engineering from MIT and a master’s degree in engineering from Caltech…

So what is next to when he gets into a face-to-face interview with the executive vice president he brings a whole “analytical” presentation of himself complete with charts, graphs and boatloads of numbers proving that he is excellent at what he does… the executive VP told me that he had never, in 25 years of management, had a candidate make as good a presentation of himself as Nick did…

Nick hasn’t gotten hired yet, but he’s well on his way to an offer…

I teach in my courses and in my books the fact that you need to analyze the way the hiring authority “sees” the world and if you can make a presentation to the hiring authority in the manner in which they “see” the world, you’re better off… now it may not always be as clear a situation as Nick ran into, but most candidates never even give any thought to the way the hiring authority “sees” the world… the executive VP came out of engineering but was now in general management… “you can take the boy out of engineering but you can’t take the engineering out of the boy”…Good for Nick!