…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..
…”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…
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…
…”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
…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…
…On vacation…are you kidding me!
…Candidate has been out of work three months…we get him an interview…he explains that he can’t go because his family has planned a vacation next week…
Some would say that it’s cause he is a millennial…i.e. a kid… well, whatever the reason that is just plain crazy… (Vacation from what, anyhow?)
…don’t assume anything until you interview
candidate last monday says, “oh, i know them..i wouldn’t work there…they are blah, blah, blah”
i convinced him to go on the interview..he got the offer today and starts at the company on monday..
when i was much younger and much less experienced in this profession, i believed candidates when they said something like this…i figured they ought to know..especially when it is a competitor…
well, they don’t …my candidate had no idea what he was talking about…he “checked” the company out with friends of friends of friends of friends..who didn’t know what they were talking about…
companies change more rapidly than ever…going by what someone else says or thinks isn’t smart…
make your own judgement about a job and a company…interview anywhere you can, with anyone reasonable…you have nothing until you have an offer..
if you don’t like the opprtunity or the company after you interview…for whatever reason, you can drop out of contention..
and as long as we are at it…interview as well as you can, even if you don’t think you will want the job or the company…sell yourself as hard as possible…you need a job or need to change jobs…don’t let your preconceptions get in your way…you really don’t know as much as you think you do ..get in the habit of getting offers…
