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1ST STEPS IN THE HUNT
  - An online column for the online candidate

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Ask The Headhunter


April 2, 1999

From my earliest years as a pre-teen protesting US bombing in Vietnam and Cambodia I have been a non-conformist. Believing that the Majority is usually wrong, I am always on the lookout for like-minded individuals, people that wear their contrarian views like a well fitted suit.

For Jobhunting advice, few people buck the popular trend the way Nick Corcodilos does. His Ask The Headhunter column, online since early 1995 (at Motley Fool's Career Site) should be required reading after you have spent several days poring over the standard help texts for Jobhunters.

Nick was a headhunter, not a career counselor or HR rep, and he thinks that this makes all the difference in the world in terms of their respective perspectives, both short and long term. Because the success and failure of a headhunter is dependent on their ability to closely match an Employer's needs with a Jobhunter's skills, Nick thinks headhunters have a clearer, reality tested vision of what Employers are seeking during an Interview.

Nick thinks that career counselors (and associated field workers) don't fully understand what Employers are really looking for in Job candidates. Employers don't want more workers, they want more work done. They are willing to hire more workers, or different ones, if the new Job candidates can demonstrate how they will reduce costs and increase profits. Employers are looking for solutions (Not Job applicants) - do you have any for them? And not at some later date, but right now, from the first time you make your presence felt to them.

Not all of Nick's advice runs counter to the general theme of Jobhunting strategy. For example, he recommends being blunt by simply asking for the Job at the end of the Interview. He also parallels other colleagues by suggesting that you know your skills, the industries and companies that need those skills, and contact the managers that need your specific skills to solve problems you've identified at their companies. His advice to immerse yourself in the company of your target site's customers, vendors, employees, managers, professional associates, and competitors is sound.

What sets Nick apart are his recommendations for Resumes and the Interview. The Interview should be hands on whenever possible, allowing the Jobhunter to demonstrate problem-solving skills in a work-like environment. Tell the Interviewer in advance that you'd like to actually perform a portion of the Job during the Interview, and then ask them to review your work in the same way they would if you were working there.

Go Nick's website for a more thorough review of these topics - I bet you'll appreciate his fresh approach to seizing a Job as much as I did.

-Mark Poppen

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3Rs of Interviews


March 31, 1999

There's little doubt that you'll walk into the Interview with more confidence and chance for success if you know a good deal about the company and your Interviewer. Even if you can't find out much about your Interviewer, at least find out enough about your target company so that you don't, in a fit of nervousness, blurt out questions that could have been easily answered by some foresight and half an hour's research. If you don't care enough about this Job to dig into the details, then the Interviewer is probably right in concluding that the Job would be better off in someone else's hands.

Don Monaco, of the Strickland Group (on Monster.com's Career Network Site) reduces the Interview process into three stages, or for ease of memory, the three R's: Research, Rehearse, and Relax.

Research is comprised of searching these sources:

  • Library (books, periodicals, magazines, etc.)
  • Literature from company's public relations department
  • Annual reports
  • Electronic sources of information (Nexis, AOL, Internet)

Furthermore, you should be "familiar with the organization's products, structure, services, financial status, competitors, reputation and any recent major changes. In addition, try to discover information about the person who you will meet background, style, education, and their 'hot button' issues. To fully prepare for any interview you should be able to identify these things in yourself:

  • Transferable skills
  • Key accomplishments
  • Management style
  • Unique selling or promotional features
  • Personal and professional strengths "

Should you rehearse your Interview answers and probable dialogue ahead of time? Most Career Counselors recommend having a substantial list of prepared answers to standard Interview questions. You know some of the basic Interview questions:

Why should we hire you?

Describe your best and worst work traits.

Tell me about yourself.

What salary requirements do you have?

Describe a work problem you faced and how you overcame it.

What are your personal and professional goals?

Where do you see yourself professionally in five years?

There is a fine line between using canned responses that you can mouth with confidence, and repeating hackneyed cliches that are insincere and sink the Interview. Where you draw the line depends on both your sense of Ethics and your gut reaction to your Interviewer. Most Job Candidates are faced with rejection frequently enough to need confidence builders, so rehearsing answers is a logical approach to Interviews.

During the Interview, Monster.com's advice is:

  • Act like a consultant not an applicant. Think of yourself in problem-solving mode, in partnership with your interviewer.
  • Engage in a dialogue, don't put yourself in a question/answer mode. Let silence occur.
  • Present your value, and always protect your dignity and self worth. Be engaging and enthusiastic.

Remember, though, that confidence and sincerity flows from your deep-seated interest and enthusiasm. When you pursue a Job that suits your wants and needs, practicing the Interview should be an exercise in holding back your excess enthusiasm rather than feigning it.

-Mark Poppen

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Interviewing By Parachute


March 30, 1999

The standard bearer for Jobhunters over the past thirty years has been Richard Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute? Revised and updated annually, it is the best selling Jobhunting book in the world, with over six million copies in print. I have used it extensively for years, and often determine the value of other Jobhunting advice by seeing how it stacks up to the advice in Parachute.

Bolles summarizes Interviewing strategies into three chronological stages: before the Interview, during the Interview, and after the Interview.

Before the Interview you should make a list of your skills, accumulated knowledge, and personality traits. Analyze what makes you different from other Job candidates, and imagine ways that you might stand out as head and shoulders above your competition for the next Job you're Interviewing. Research your target companies thoroughly so you can intelligently discuss the day to day work issues the Manager faces. Use a variety of Jobhunting methods (personal contacts from friends and family, the Yellow Pages, resumes, asking Employers for a Job even though they aren't advertising for help now) to find the person who has the power to hire you, and make yourself known to them.

During the Interview you need to keep in mind that you represent a solution to the Hiring Manager's problems. Don't think of yourself as someone begging for a Job, but as a missing cog in the company wheel. Avoid making negative comments about the last place(s) you worked, no one likes a whiner. Keep your answers relatively short, and try to deduce what fears lie behind the questions the Interviewer is asking. Produce evidence of past accomplishments, and remember that the goal in the first Interview is to simply survive the winnowing process and make it to the callback Interview.

Bolles' believes that Job Interviews can be summed up by the following five Questions:

"Why are you here? What is it about this place that attracted you?

What can you do for us? What do you have to contribute to what we do?

What distinguishes you from 19 other people who can do the same Job?

Will you fit in? Will you get along with, or irritate, all my other Employees?

Can I afford you? Never do salary negotiation until the Employer says 'I want you'"

After the Interview, Always write a thank you note. Estimates are that over ninety percent of Jobhunters don't send thank you notes after their Interviews. Hiring Managers are the very class of people that you want to think highly of you - whether or not this particular one saw fit to hire you for this particular Job. Leave a favorable impression on this one, and they might be a source for your next Interview. Add your Interviewers to your Network. Remember to send thank you notes to anyone who helped get you in to see the Hiring Manager. Show some initiative by sending Job related information that they discussed with you and they seemed interested in. Everyone loves to feel that others are paying attention to what they've said.

Bolles has been training Jobhunters for three decades, and believes that the person who is trained in Jobhunting is more likely to get the Job than someone trained only in the skills that the Job requires. Contrast this with tomorrow's Jobhunting guru, a headhunter who thinks that Career Counselors in general are far too enamored of formulaic Jobhunting approaches and standardized pat answers.

-Mark Poppen

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Good I, Bad I


March 29, 1999

What went wrong in your last Interview?

Possibly nothing. By the time you get to the Interview stage, you and your fellow Job applicants that have survived the sifting process should have what appear to be, resume-wise, similar qualities. If the Job calls for a particular degree and a few years experience, you can bet that the remaining Job candidates will all have the necessary prerequisites. You may lose out to other Job candidates on successive occasions for reasons that would be extremely difficult for even your Interviewer to elucidate.

Unfortunately, this process eliminates a large number of Jobhunters that could do the Job well immediately, or in a short time with relatively little instruction. Sometimes it may be your attitude during the Interview that gives your chances a deathblow. Take a look at this letter from one of our readers:

"I myself do not have a degree in the field I am looking for work in and can't seem to land the right Job. I can walk into just about any environment and find problems…Making money is the name of the game and doing it efficiently is what counts…They (the Corporate World) should look for experience and practical knowledge not a piece of paper."

While I sympathize (and agree with) these observations, put yourself in the position of a Hiring Manager for a moment and consider how this Job candidate might fit into your organization. They might excel on independent projects that require a great deal of autonomy, but create disharmony on group projects where their opinion differs from someone with less experience and a few newly minted degrees in their office. And the Interviewer may feel that they have already identified what their problems at work are - they're not necessarily looking for someone to point out all the other flaws in the system.

Hiring Managers win promotions, money, and status based on picking the right Job candidates to become Employees, so handle your prejudices with care during the Interview. A good Interview will not always lead to a Job offer, but it may lead to another Job opening. Don't be afraid to ask the Interviewer for the Job at hand. If a Job offer is not forthcoming, and you feel that you've 'hit it off' with them, ask the Manager if they have any colleagues that might know of some similar Job openings.

They're regular people, after all, and want to see you do well and have a chance to realize your potential. It's possible that you came across with a sense of ethics that ran contrary to the company mission statement or corporate culture. Successful Interviews often end up feeling like a casual conversation between old friends, discussing fields of mutual interest. Sincere enthusiasm and interest in the Job you're applying for has never disqualified anyone from attaining the sought after position.

If you've been through lots of Interviews without any callbacks or offers, call the Interviewers (within a reasonable time after the Interview) and ask them for ways you can improve. Did you say anything that really torpedoed your chances? They may be reluctant to say anything, but at this point it doesn't hurt to ask. A polite way to do this is to call after you've sent your thank you note, thanking them again and asking them for advice on Interviewing and Job leads.

-Mark Poppen

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