What Color Is Your Parachute? Part 4

7. Job-hunting is not a science; it is an art. Some job-hunters know instinctively how to do it; in some cases, they were born knowing how to do it. Others of us sometimes have a harder time with it, but fortunately for us in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, there is help, coaching, counseling, and advice-online and off.

8. Job-hunting is always mysterious. Sometimes mind-bogglingly mysterious. You may never understand why things sometimes work, and sometimes do not.

9. There is no "always wrong" way to hunt for a job or to change careers. Anything may work under certain circ.u.mstances, or at certain times, or with certain employers. There are only degrees of likelihood of certain job-hunting techniques working or not working. But it is crucial to know that likelihood (see chapter 6).

10. There is no "always right" way to hunt for a job or to change careers. Anything may fail to work under certain circ.u.mstances, or at certain times, or with certain employers. There are only degrees of likelihood of certain job-hunting techniques working or not working. But it is crucial to know that likelihood, as we just saw. Job-hunting always depends on some amount of luck. Luck, pure luck. Having advanced job-hunting skills doesn't mean absolutely, positively, you will always be able to find a job. It does mean that you can get good at reducing the amount that depends on luck, to as small a proportion as possible.

As I said, some things about the job-hunt have not changed since 2008. In fact, they have not changed since 1970.

1. www.bls.gov/cps.

2. www.bls.gov/jlt.

To download a printable PDF of this image, please visit http://rhlink.com/para14003.

Chapter 4.

Sixteen Tips About Interviewing for a Job I say "for a job," because actually there are three types of interviews that you may come across, during your job-hunt. They are distinguished from each other by what you are looking for, and more importantly, who you are talking to: 1. Interviews for fun or practice, where you are talking with people who are pa.s.sionate about the same thing you are, be it Cancun, sc.r.a.pbooks, travel, physical fitness, running, or whatever; 2. Interviews for information, where you are talking with employees who did or do the job you are exploring; or maybe you're talking here with information specialists, or with experts in the industry that interests you; 3. Interviews for a job, where you are talking with employers, and most particularly not with the HR department but with the person who actually has the power to hire you for the job you want.

This chapter is about this third kind of interview, the one for a job.1 Here are sixteen tips about that kind of interview.

Tip #1.

There is no such thing as "employers." I'm referring to the way job-hunters use that word, in describing their conclusions after just two interviews: "Employers just won't hire me or someone with my background or someone with my handicap," or nonsense like that. My friend, you're reaching way beyond the facts.

Fact: You interviewed with two employers (or six, or twelve) and they wouldn't hire you. Those two. Those six. Or those twelve. They hardly speak for all employers.

Fact: "Employers" are individuals, as different from one another as night and day. "Employers" span a wide range of att.i.tudes, wildly different ideas about how to hire, a wide range of ways to conduct hiring interviews, and as many different att.i.tudes toward handicaps as you can possibly think of. You cannot possibly predict the att.i.tude of one employer from the att.i.tude of another. All generalizations about "employers" (including those in this book) are just mental conveniences.

Fact: There are millions of separate, distinct, unrelated employers out there with very different requirements for hiring. Unless you look dirty, wild, and disreputable, and smell really bad, if you know what your talent is, I guarantee some employer is looking for you. Even if you're crazy, there's some employer crazier than you. You have to keep going. Some employers out there do want you, no matter what the others think. Your job is to find them.

Fact: There is a big difference between large employers (those with hundreds or thousands of employees) and small employers (alternately defined as those with 25 or fewer employees, those with 50 or fewer employees, or-the most common definition-those with 100 or fewer employees). The chief difference is that large employers are harder to reach, especially if the-person-who-has-the-power-to-hire-you (for the job you want) is in some deep inner chamber of that company, and the company's phone has a voice menu with eighteen impenetrable layers. Don't think your interviewing experience with small employers will necessarily be at all like the rejection you encountered with large ones.

Fact: There is a big difference between new companies or enterprises, and those that have been around for some time, so far as hiring is concerned. A study reported in TIME magazine found that newer small companies (100 or fewer employees) that were less than six years old, created 4.7 million jobs in the year studied, while older small firms created only 3.2 million jobs.2 So when hiring is tight, you will want to concentrate on small firms, and newer small firms, at that. Don't think your interviewing experience with new companies will necessarily be at all like the rejection you had with old ones.

Moral: Don't get discouraged by your interview history. Job expert Tom Jackson3 accurately described the job-hunt as a series: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO YES YES.

Every "NO" you get out of the way, you're one step closer to YES.

Tip #2

An interview should be prepared for, before you ever go in. Naturally, you wanted to go into the interview with the employer curious to know more about you, but the employer is first of all curious about what you know about them. Do a lot of research on them before you go in. Why? Because organizations love to be loved. If you've gone to the trouble of finding out as much as you can about them, before you interview with them, they will be flattered and impressed, believe me.

Most job-hunters never go to this amount of trouble. Most just walk in the door, knowing nothing about the organization. I have a friend who ran a large organization in Virginia; he said to me, "I'm so tired of people coming in here, saying, Uh, what do you do here? that the next person who comes in here and has done some prior research on us, I'm going to offer a job." He called me a week later to say, "I did it."

So don't skip this step. It may make the difference between your being hired, or not being hired. Find out everything you can about them. Google them. Go to their website if they have one, and read everything there that is hidden under the heading "About Us." If this organization is local, and your town has a public library, ask your local librarian for help in finding any news clippings or other information about the place. And, finally, ask all your friends if they know anyone who ever worked there, or works there still, so you can take them to lunch or tea or Starbucks and find out any inside stories, before you approach the place. (And, of course, maybe after you hear these stories you'll decide not to explore them any further. Better to know that now, than later.)

Tip #3

Honor agreements. If it was you who asked for the interview, not them, remove their dread of this visit by specifying how much time you are asking of them. You are the one in control of how long the interview lasts. Make it some oddball period, like nineteen minutes (twenty sounds vague, nineteen sounds precise-like you are really serious).

If they grant you the interview, keep to this commitment as though your life depended on it. If you have a smartphone that allows you to select "Vibrate" without any sound, set its timer before you go to your appointment, to seventeen minutes (that leaves you two minutes to wrap up). But don't activate the timer yet. Save that step for the time you enter their office for the actual interview, then activate it by tapping it on or go. Keep the phone in a pocket or location near you, where you can feel it. At the seventeen-minute vibration warning, tap it off, and prepare to end the interview by saying, "I said I would only take nineteen minutes of your time, and I like to honor my agreements." This will always make a huge impression on an employer! You are a woman, or man, of your word!! In this day and age! How rare!

Don't obsess about time, during the interview; just stay quietly aware of it, in the background of your mind, as you focus sharply on what the employer is saying, or you are.

And at the end, don't stay one minute longer than the nineteen minutes, unless the employer begs you to-and I mean, begs, Begs, BEGS. A courteous interviewer will say, "Oh, do you have to?" But don't mistake that for anything other than what it is: courtesy. Go.

Of course, if it was they who invited you in for an interview, they are the ones in control of how long the interview lasts. Still, stay quietly aware of time, with regard to such things as the following:

Tip #4

An interview for a job at its best is just a conversation. I remind you of what I said in the previous chapter: The other human activity job-hunting most resembles is dating, not marketing a used car. This conversation is two people attempting to decide if you both want to "try going steady." (Or maybe it's you plus six or nine others, depending on how many from the employer's team are sitting in, on the interview.) It should be a two-way conversation. What the employer decides is critical, of course; but so is what you decide. This interview is a data-collecting process for the employer. Whether one person or a team is interviewing you, they are using the interview to find out "Do we like you? Do we want you to work here? Do you have the skills, knowledge, or experience that we really need? Do you have the work-ethic that we are looking for? And, how will you fit in with our other employees?"

All well and good. But, this interview is part of your data-collecting process, too-the one you have been engaged in, or should have been engaged in, during your whole job-hunt. You are sitting there, now, with the employer or their team, and the question you are trying to find an answer to, is: "Do I like you all? Do I want to work here, or not?"

The only time you can't afford to be pondering this question is if you're at the end of your rope, flat broke, starving, and you've got to take anything that comes along, at this point. Otherwise, you use this interview to find out "Do I really want to work here?" You want to find that out now, not three years in. And only when you have concluded "Yes," or "I think so," do you then turn your energy toward marketing yourself.

During your half of the conversation, it is a two-step process: gentle questioning about the place, then quiet self-confident marketing of yourself, once you've decided this is the place for you.

Tip #5

Questions to expect from them, questions you can ask. The princ.i.p.al question, the first question, the most important question they are likely to ask you is "Tell me about yourself." How you answer that question will determine your fate during the rest of the interview. So, here are some key points to keep in mind about your answer to Tell me about yourself: a. This question is a kind of test. They want to see how you respond to an open-ended, unstructured situation, the kind of challenge that life (and a job) are continually presenting to us.

b. Employers generally feel you have failed the test if you respond with a question. Every job-hunter's favorite-Well, what do you want to know about me?-is every employer's least favorite. They interpret this to mean you have no idea what to answer, and are stalling for time.

c. What employers are looking for here, is your answer to a question they did not mention aloud: What experience, skills, or knowledges do you have, that are relevant to the job I am trying to fill? It is really that question you should try to answer here. Not your personal history such as where you grew up, your tastes, or hobbies. They are interested in your work history here, and more particularly your work history as it relates to this job that you are discussing with them.

d. Employers expect you to have the answer at your fingertips, well-summarized, well-rehea.r.s.ed. (This is the famous "elevator speech" job coaches are often recommending to job-hunters. In the length of time it takes to ride an elevator up a tall building, you should be able to say your entire answer to this question, rehea.r.s.ed and rehea.r.s.ed, until you could say it in your sleep.) Okay, what other questions may you expect from the employer? Books on interviewing, of which there are dozens and dozens, often publish long lists of questions employers may ask you, along with some timeworn, semi-clever answers. They recommend that you memorize the answers to all those questions. Their lists include such questions as: Tell me about yourself. (Of course.) What do you know about this company?

Why are you applying for this job?

How would you describe yourself?

What are your major strengths?

What is your greatest weakness?

What type of work do you like to do best?

What are your interests outside of work?

What accomplishment gave you the greatest satisfaction?

Why did you leave your last job?

Why were you fired (if you were)?

Where do you see yourself five years from now?

What are your goals in life?

How much did you make at your last job?

But really there are only five basic questions that you need pay attention to. The people-who-have-the-power-to-hire-you need to discover the answers to these five, which they may ask directly or try to find out without ever mentioning the questions per se: 1. "Why are you here?" This means, "Why are you knocking on my door, rather than someone else's door?"

2. "What can you do for us?" This means, "If I were to hire you, will you help me with the challenges I face? What are your skills, and how much do you know about the subject or field that we are in?"

3. "What kind of person are you?" This means, "Will you fit in? Do you have the kind of personality that makes it easy for people to work with you, and do you share the values that we have at this place?"

4. "What exactly distinguishes you from nineteen or nine hundred other people who are applying for this job?" This means, "Do you have better work habits than the others, do you show up earlier, stay later, work more thoroughly, work faster, maintain higher standards, go the extra mile, or ... what?"

5. "Can I afford you?" This means, "If we decide we want you here, how much will it take to get you, and are we willing and able to pay that amount-governed, as we are, by our budget, and by our inability to pay you as much as the person who would be next above you, on our organizational chart?"

These are the five princ.i.p.al questions that employers need to know the answers to. This is the case, as I said, even if the interview begins and ends with these five questions never once being mentioned explicitly by the employer. The questions are still floating beneath the surface of the conversation, beneath all the things being discussed. Anything you can do, during the interview, to help the employer answer these five questions, will make you stand out, in the employer's mind.

Of course, it's not just the employer who has questions. This is a two-way conversation, remember? You have questions too. And-surprise!-they are the same questions (in only slightly different form) as the employer's. Here is what you should be asking yourself (or them) during your half of the conversation: 1. "What does this job involve?" You want to understand exactly what tasks will be asked of you, so that you can determine if these are the kinds of tasks you would really like to do, and can do.

2. "What are the skills a top employee in this job would have to have?" You want to find out if your skills match those that the employer thinks a top employee in this job has to have, in order to do this job well.

3. "Are these the kinds of people I would like to work with, or not?" Do not ignore your intuition if it tells you that you would not be comfortable working with these people! You want to know if they have the kind of personalities that would enable you to accomplish your best work. If these people aren't it, keep looking!

4. "If we like each other, and we both want to work together, can I persuade them there is something unique about me, that makes me different from nineteen or nine hundred other people who are applying for this job?" You need to think out, way ahead of time, what does make you different from other people who can do the same job. For example, if you are good at a.n.a.lyzing problems, how do you do that? (1) Painstakingly? (2) Intuitively, in a flash? Or (3) By consulting with greater authorities in the field? You see the point. You are trying to put your finger on the "style" or "manner" in which you do your work, that is distinctive and hopefully appealing, to this employer, so that they choose you over other people they are interviewing.

5. "Can I persuade them to hire me at the salary I need or want?" This requires some knowledge on your part of how to conduct salary negotiation. (Key things to know: it should always take place at the end of the interviews there, and whoever mentions a salary figure first, generally loses, in the negotiation.) That's covered in the next chapter.

You will probably want to ask questions one and two out loud. You will observe quietly the answer to question three. You will be prepared to make the case for questions four and five, when the appropriate time in the interview arises.

Further questions you may want to ask: What significant changes has this company gone through in the past five years?

What values are sacred to this company?

What characterizes the most successful employees this company has?

What future changes do you see in the work here?

Who do you see as your allies, colleagues, or compet.i.tors in this business?

How do you first raise these questions of yours, if you initiated the interview? Well, you might begin by reporting just exactly how you've been conducting your job-hunt, and what impressed you so much about this organization during your research, that you decided to come in and talk to them about a job. From there, and thereafter, you can fix your attention on the five questions that are inevitably on the employer's mind.

Incidentally, these five questions pop up (yet again), if you're there to talk not about a job that already exists, but rather, a job that you hope they will create for you. In that case, these five questions change form only slightly. They get changed into five statements, that you make to the person-who-has-the-power-to-create-this-job.

1. You tell them what you like about this organization.

2. You tell them what sorts of needs you find intriguing in this field, in general, and in this organization, in particular (by the way, unless you first hear the word coming out of their mouth, don't use the word "problems," as most employers prefer synonyms that sound gentler to their ears, such as "challenges" or "needs").

3. You tell them what skills seem to you to be necessary in order to meet such needs, and stories from your past experience that demonstrate you have those very skills. Employers, in these days of "behavioral interviews," are looking for examples from your past performance and achievement-your behavior-not just vague statements like: "I'm good at.... " They want concrete examples, specifically of any transferable skills, work content skills, or self-management skills, i.e., traits, that you claim to have. It's helpful to pose the question to yourself before you ever go in there: "What are the three most important competencies, for this job?" Then, of course, you need to demonstrate during the interview that you have those three-for the job that you want them to create.

4. You tell them what is unique about the way you perform those skills. Every prospective employer wants to know what makes you different from nineteen or nine hundred other people who can do the same kind of work as you. You have to know what that is. And then not merely talk about it, but actually demonstrate it by the way you conduct your side of the hiring-interview.

5. And you tell them how the hiring of you will not cost them, in the long run. You need to be prepared to demonstrate that you will, in the long run, end up costing them nothing, as you will bring in more money than the salary they pay you. Emphasize this!