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1ST STEPS IN THE HUNT
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Letters
March 25, 1999
One reader writes: "While I was filling out the application, the receptionist called the HR rep to tell them I was filling out the app. She came right away and although I was writing as quickly as I could I felt I was under a lot of pressure to hurry as she was waiting. Then, she takes me to a room and says you are going to have a test. There must have been 100 questions and they flipped from math fractions to vocabulary. "She said I had 12 minutes in which to take the test. Of course, I flipped out and since I was under such a tight timeline. So, what is the object of these tests? Are you supposed to just take the time and maybe only get 20 answers or do you jump around? I met with the manager who I would be working for and she is this over-worked, fried person. She tells me they can't pay me what I have been making. I could not get her to tell me what the job entailed, and then she said they wanted someone classy and moved her chair back and looked me over." "Do you have any tips on how to overcome nervousness?"
Managers who need workers are often overworked and fried. They are also very afraid of hiring someone who will not only be of little help to them, but might make matters worse in some way (morale buster, personality conflicts, etc.).
Despite a lack of solid evidence for behavioral testing efficacy, some managers will test applicants for stress at the same time they test you with questionnaires for Job skills. Some Jobs have a high stress load, and the Hiring Manager needs to know how you might react to stressful Job situations. So they give you too much to do in too short a time and see how you cope. Your challenge is to keep your cool, and tell them you'll do the best you can.
Don't address or respond to questions about pay until you convince them that:
1. You can do the Job to their satisfaction, and
2. They say 'We want you to work here.'
Not all companies are run by professional and competent managers, and even good managers have bad days. It's very likely that one of these two possibilities affected your application process. How did you find out about the opening? How extensive was your research about the company before you went in to apply? Was there no other information about the Job function, or what the company does in general?
The best way to overcome nervousness before and during Interviews is to practice with friends over and over again, till you have most of the routine down pat. When you have done tons of Interviews (including your practice ones), it will all become second nature to you. Another important consideration about the Jobs you are Interviewing for is this: some of them may not be Jobs you'd be happy doing, for a variety of reasons. This last place you Interviewed at may have internal management problems that you're better off not having to deal with as an Employee.
I know it's tough when you NEED a Job asap, but you should be Interviewing the company as well to find out whether it makes sense for you to even consider working there. Did you have a chance to talk to some of the other Employees at this company to get their impressions of quality of work life, and whether they had similar difficulties during Their Interviews with the company?
A Clue
March 23, 1999
The object of Successful Jobhunters is to get to the Interview stage, where the person with the power to hire you can assess whether there is a good match between you and the company. Often you are just trying to earn a call-back Interview, where the field has been narrowed down to a small handful of Job candidates with abilities that may appear to the Interviewer to be only marginally different.
What you are hoping to present are a few crucial (positive!) differences that will set you apart from the other finalists for the position. These differences, generally, relate to the rapport and comfort level you can establish with the Hiring Manager. That's why referencing to someone they know and trust is such a big plus at this stage. Your Interviewer will be looking for some edge you have over other Jobhunters vying for the position at hand.
Because of the critical importance of the Interview stage of Jobhunting, for the next week I'm going to focus on some of the problems our Jobhunting readers have been facing in the market today. Then I'll present a series of possible solutions and perspectives on Interviewing from notable Jobhunting authorities. A comprehensive site worth seeing today is Gary Will's Archeus. It rates current online and print articles for Jobhunters.
Their opinions may differ, which can be frustrating but also telling. No one Interview strategy will work every time, because managers are individuals with particular (and probably unbeknownst to you) likes, dislikes, expectations, and prejudices. Any information you can glean from Employees at your target company may make all the difference between getting hired or not. What kinds of experiences do Jobhunters have that passed the Interview test with This hiring manager?
There are probably clues available to uncover which kind of Interviewing technique might be most appropriate to the target company and Interviewer. Talk to enough workers at the company in question, and you'll get a feel for what tactics might succeed, and which ones might fail. If you walk into the Interview blind, don't be surprised if you walk out feeling like you were blindsided.
Incremental Change
March 22, 1999
At times it seems that everyone is flocking to the web. Some people are looking for Jobs, while others are looking for newer and better ways to run a quick scam. Generally, I want to help the former rather than the latter. For Jobhunters the difficulty is that most of the Jobs posted Online have some IT (information technology) component to them. If you come to the Online Jobs table without high tech skills, you're likely to be disappointed in your search.
A recent survey by Olsten Staffing indicates that company executives expect Online resumes to lead to only 5%of this year's hires. The bulk of hires will come from Newspaper Classified Ads (43%), followed by Employee referrals (13%), employment/recruiting firms (12%), and temp-to-hire opportunities (10%). While Olsten foresees Online methods of finding Jobs and Employees to dominate the market in the next five to ten years, change takes time. And you need a Job Now.
Newspapers derive a tremendous amount of revenue from classified ads, and Job ads are a sizable portion of that revenue stream. Though not first to the Net, some of the Newspaper's Online Classifieds are great sources for Jobhunters.
The Charlotte News and Observer's Triangle Jobs is one of these, and covers a broad area throughout the Southeastern US. The Boston Globe's Career Section usually has some possibilities - be sure to check out their Jobapalooza. If you are located in the Midwest, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune should be on your list. Several West Coast papers have solid listings. The LA Times, San Jose Mercury News, Portland Oregonian, and Seattle Times all have a lot to offer to the interested Jobhunter.
The key to successful Jobhunting is to use a variety of methods to identify and locate your next Job, and then show the Hiring Manager that you are the right person for that Job. Look at the survey stats above. Though they are changing, using the Net is still only one piece of the puzzle. By the time you are looking for your next Job (after the one you are about to land!), your Net experience may make all the difference in eliminating the Jobhunting pain.
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Materials written by John Sumser © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.