Job Search Solution Blog by Tony Beshara

…So Chris is told he’s going to get an offer… he discusses the salary with the hiring authority and he verbally accepts the job… he is told that the paperwork will come in a day or so and he can start work on Monday…

Chris gets the offer in writing on the Friday before he is suppose to start work and decides that he wants to now “negotiate”…

He calls me up and tells him he would like to negotiate now that he has the offer in writing… I explained to him that now is not the time to negotiate… he has verbally  accepted the job, he needs to stand by his word, and besides, I tell him, it’s very rare for an organization to negotiate a salary once you have accepted it and they put it in writing…

Chris decides, since he is a very experienced “professional,” he is going to negotiate anyhow…(so much for my expertise)… so he tries to get a hold of the hiring manager.  He can’t find him so he writes an e-mail back to the HR director at corporate who sent him the offer, and tells her he wants $10,000 a year more in salary… she doesn’t know what to do, so instead of calling the hiring authority, she sends the e-mail requests to the vice president… he vaguely knows what’s going on, as he had spoken to Chris on the phone before Chris got hired and his natural reaction is not only “no” but “hell no”…

The VP calls the hiring authority, his subordinate, and leaves a voicemail of something along the line of, “who the hell is this guy who thinks he can or should negotiate another $10,000 in salary by e-mail with the HR department?” The VP went on to say that the hiring authority should rescend the offer immediately.

I can’t say I blame the vice president or the company… that was a very unprofessional way to try to negotiate a better offer… the lesson is: don’t try to negotiate an offer after it’s in writing and don’t negotiate by e-mail and don’t negotiate with someone in the human resources department and don’t let what you write get in the  hands of a vice president who has no patience with this kind of thing…

Chris was shocked when the offer was rescinded and tried to “recoup” by telling them he’d accept the offer just as it is… sorry, the damage had already been done.

If you’re gonna negotiate, do it before a formal offer is made and do it with the hiring authority, the one who you have rapport with and the one you’re actually going to be working for… and, oh yeah, read the parts of my blog that talk about how to negotiate before you do it…

I really don’t have a lot of empathy for Chris, he screwed it up.

V.P. debate last night…if you snicker, smirk and laugh at people in a debate or an interview…you look like a dumb ass…

you may not get elected…

you certainly won’t get hired…

The debate between Gov. Romney and Pres. Obama Wednesday was a great lesson in body language… no matter who wins the presidential race, it’s obvious that Gov. Romney won this debate…

If you are looking for a job and interviewing you want to pay attention to the things  Romney did… he had a pleasant smile on his face when he wasn’t speaking… not a smirk, but a pleasant smile… he actually looked at and had eye contact with Pres. Obama… he spoke with passion and feeling… he communicated a great mastery of facts (… whether they were accurate or not doesn’t matter) by quoting lots of numbers and in many questions he answered by saying “first… second…and third” communicating certainty… he spoke with his hands open and his palms up, which communicates sureness..he had enthusiasm and animation…

On the other side of the stage, Pres. Obama often looked down and didn’t face his opponent… he smirked… he had no animation or enthusiasm… spoke in monotones and droned on as though he was uninterested…

If winning the job was based on today, Gov. Romney would’ve gotten hired.

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!