A To-Do List For Interviewing Candidates

DO check the company website- I almost have to laugh when people don’t do their research.  You are a professional person interviewing for a professional job of one sort or another.  Know your stuff!

Make sure you dress the part- You should not show up to an interview in jeans and a t-shirt.  Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.  People evaluate you based on a first impression.  If you don’t bring your “A” look to the interview you are fighting against that first impression for your whole entire interview.

Entry level college graduates- I am not sending you into this job hoping that you will be able to convince them to like you based on your personality alone.  You have some good experience.  You should be able to entice a potential interviewer based on projects that you worked on, class work that you did, a thesis. You still have things to talk about.

Be early to the interview- Some of my friends (you know who you are) are walking GPS transmitters.  You should still plan to be there at least 20 minutes+ ahead of any interview.  You are going to pay the price for not assuming that there will be extra traffic. 

Story telling = success- You can call it the “star” method.  You can call it in Lou Adler’s words the “SAFW” format.  Either way you need to be able to describe and succinctly give a tale about specific things you did at past jobs.  Gone are the days when people would give you a shot.  The same goes for internal interviews to get promoted at a job.  If you master the ability to communicate regarding successes that you have had at an interview, you will be 2 steps ahead of a majority of candidates.

Have a “big idea” that you hope to impart to an interviewer.  This could be similar to your objective statement, and how you foot the bill.  “I save companies time and money”.  “I find and solve problems”.  “I have excellent experience fixing cars”.  Once you find your big idea, you just need to share that creatively in an interview.  What do I get as an interviewer from your experience that would help me to hire you?

Last but not least, leave your cell phone in the car.  It is distracting, it could go off.  When I meet candidates, and the phone goes off in their pockets, its extremely distracting even on vibrate, and it counts against your overall impression with an employer.

EARN the job you want by imparting your “Big idea” and working with your partners to position yourself for success.  This could be the person who found you for the job, this could be the asking good questions to the interviewer, this could be a networking call you make to help you find where you want to be.

Resources-

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121020150801-15454-use-solution-selling-to-ace-the-interview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation,_Task,_Action,_Result

http://career-advice.monster.com/job-interview/interview-preparation/sell-yourself-job-interview-hot-jobs/article.aspx

A Recruiting Calculus

The Recruiting Calculus is a tricky picture. People fundamentally do not understand what they are getting when they pick up the phone to call a recruiter, and do not know how to make use of a recruiter in a "smart" fashion. I want to thank people like Lou Adler for some great words of wisdom. From Lou Adler- "For job-hunters, here's the first thing you must know about recruiters: recruiters find people for jobs, not jobs for people."

What does this mean?
1.) There are probably hoops to jump through. (A personal interview with a recruiter/References/etc)
2.) You are at the mercy of the recruiter for feedback.
3.) Recruiters for the most part don't create jobs.

Again from Lou Adler, "First find the job, then find the connection. This is what LinkedIn is all about. If you have a big enough network they show you how to get connected to the person who posted the job."

What does this mean?
1.) Social networking is great, but is only valuable when you have a sizeable network. 2.) You need to ask yourself if you are contributing, or withdrawing from your network. 3.) If you have a big enough network, you gain visibility into some HUGE network contacts.

My own personal tips for recruiting-
You work with quite a few connections, try to network to find a recruiter. Find a recruiter with tenure if you can, they typically have a better overall focus as opposed to a tunnel focus.
Most recruiters work on one job, then move on. Let the recruiter breathe before you call them four times in a week unless they submit you to a job.
If you get a feeling that they arent being honest with you, find someone else. Its SO easy to find recruiters who lie to people to get rid of them. If you aren't getting enough answers or feedback, find another recruiter.

MOST IMPORTANTLY
Stick with a recruiter who does a good job for you, look for contact with them over time, and build up that relationship. If they successfully found you a job, that's a great sign that that person is a career friend that you should keep around!