Modern Job Search: Insider Knowledge and Strategies that Work by Schmidt Kurt

Author:Schmidt, Kurt [Schmidt, Kurt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Converging Point, Inc.
Published: 2014-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8: How to Get It Right

One of things that Anthony and I did in the previous chapter was to establish a foundational point of view: “I’m here to help” or “I am a solution provider.” Now we need to use that for more than the strategic things like how to answer and when to ask questions, but also for our attitude and emotional responses. We need to control ourselves in interview situations to avoid making simple mistakes. This means not getting nervous, not saying the wrong things, or revealing too much too soon. It also means sticking with the pace and program, and having discipline. It’s easy if you know what to do and what not to do. It is also universal, everyone needs to think about these things.

This is in the book because it needs to be. It is discussed with every candidate before every interview, to be sure even though many may know these things already. Remember, one mistake can kill an interview and turn several weeks, if not months of work into total waste. There is a good chance someone will make a mistake in this process. It would be better if it were not any of us!

Everyone needs to review the basics, even people like Tom and Karen, both of whom have years of professional experience. Why? Tom for example, has only worked with a couple of companies in his whole career. He has been promoted repeatedly and has probably been through several sets of internal interviews, however he has much less experience with external interviews.

Believe it or not, it is often the most senior level people who not only ask for my help preparing for interviews but also appreciate it the most. While they may have twenty plus years of career history and have interviewed candidates themselves repeatedly, many, like Tom may have only ever been an interviewee a few times. They know that interviews are important and most want to take time to get prepared. However, not all of them know how to prepare. As a headhunter, in a decent year, I’ll setup over thirty interviews with top candidates for very well-known companies. It is the feedback from all of these interviews, year in and year out, good news and bad, both from candidates and companies that is the basis for everything I tell candidates now, including Tom.

It’s been about a week since I sent Tom’s resume to Paul, the Houston based Director of Raw Materials Procurement at the large oil equipment manufacturing company. In the meantime, I’ve continued to market Tom to other companies. I’m not just sitting around waiting to see if Paul replies. I need to make as many people aware of Tom as possible to improve my chances of placing him. I won’t stop marketing Tom until we’re done. Sure enough though, early in the week I received an email from Paul. He passed Tom’s resume on to the Vice President of Manufacturing, Carl. Carl liked what he saw and wants to setup a telephone interview with Tom.

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