So, you’re gonna say, “Tony, you wrote about this stuff not too long ago… What the hell is with this?”
Well, let me tell you what the hell is with this. A VP in his late 40’s making a $250,000 base salary and another $250,000 on quota with an absolutely stellar track record, wonderful presentation skills and nothing in his background that would not make him an excellent VP anywhere he wanted to be screws up an interview.
How, you ask?
He goes to the corporate office. He goes to lunch with the CEO, the president of the company the executive vice president of sales, who is a woman as well as another woman in the executive management of the company and somewhere in the conversation says something like, “Well, they just had a ‘hard**’ to buy”. END of consideration!
My candidate had done a splendid job in the interviewing process. When I told him why they were not going to hire him, because of his crude and rude language, especially in mixed company, he couldn’t believe it. He said, “I am so sorry, I guess it’s that Jersey boy coming out of me.” He was as disappointed as they were. Remorseful is a mild word to say how he felt. But the damage had been done. Over! Fini! Kaput!
Lesson: you got to watch your language all the time. I’m an ex-rugby player and I’ve heard it all. Ironically enough (wait till you hear this) the executive vice president of sales, a woman herself, was also an ex-rugby player. She admitted that she had heard just about everything all of us who played rugby heard too. But not in an interview. She was sad about it also. But the whole management team couldn’t believe the guy said that and couldn’t imagine hiring him either.
Watch your language!
