3 Phone Interview Mistakes You Should Never Make... Again

 

I am on an interview with (we’ll call her) Gina. She applied for a position with my company, and so far she looks like a great candidate. Her resume is great, her assessments thus far have been a perfect match, so when we get to the phone interview, I am wildly optimistic about her as a potential hire for my company. As the interview begins, she starts off with strong responses and seems to be exactly what we are looking for, but after about 10 more minutes of conversation, I am convinced she is no longer my unicorn candidate. What went wrong? How did she go from being the lead candidate in the role to a downgraded bottom-tier applicant?

She made a few mistakes along the way that could have been avoided, and since she is not the first person I’ve interviewed to make similar mistakes, I figured this would be information worth sharing. I have been writing in my blog High Gear Career about how important it is to know a company, have passion for what you want to do, and really make sure that you are not wasting your time on opportunities you are not interested in. However, how you handle yourself through the interview process is just as important as the interviews themselves. While the items listed below may seem obvious to some, I can assure you that yes, these things still happen, so I find it absolutely necessary to commit a brief few words to explaining some phone interview faux pas for you to avoid in the future.

1.       Time.

Gina started this interview off on the wrong foot by not selecting the right time to get the interview done. I find I am pretty flexible with candidates because I work in multiple time-zones, so I expect them to maintain the same commitment to finding a time that works well for their schedule. What you want to do is find a time when you are going to be alert, aware, and present to deliver the best possible responses. Don’t schedule a 6 am interview if you are typically not up until 7:30 am, and don’t schedule an interview for after lunch if you know you will be dragging, unless you have absolutely no other options. Also, make sure that you have an appropriate amount of time set aside for the interview. You don’t want to have to cut your interview short when it’s only half done, nor do you want to be late to starting the interview. In the ideal scenario, selecting the right time for the interview will enable you to have the most energy and time to focus on the questions without being rushed to finish.

2.       Location.

In my interview with Gina, she later confessed that she was at work. This is not a problem if you are in a situation where you company is going out of business, and your manager knows you will be interviewing for other positions. However, attempting to interview under the radar will require a little more creativity for locations (i.e. interviewing at home), but interviewing while you are “on the clock” is a completely unwise decision. During my interview with Gina she began whispering to someone else while we were on the call (which turned out to be a customer) and asked to put me on hold. This actually tells a little bit of a story about Gina as a candidate.

What does this simple act tell us about Gina? Well, I’m glad you asked. It says that she is comfortable using company resources for her own benefits. In an interview, everything you do and say is a reflection of not only your ability to do the role for which you are applying, but it is a test to determine if you are a good fit for a company. If you are spending time at your current company to interview for jobs now, then what are you going to do when you start working at my company? Probably the same thing. Of the hundreds of candidates I’ve interviewed, whenever a candidate needs to put me on hold it is typically the first of many other challenges that would prevent me from selecting them. It’s not because they are no longer qualified for the job, it’s because this simple act ends up being an indicator of the overall type of candidate they are.

Sometimes locations can be a little tricky because many people who are interviewing for jobs are already employed. I have interviewed many candidates over the years who have conducted interviews and taken phone calls in their cars to avoid the experience I had with Gina. The main difference in those situations is that the candidates openly shared, “I am at work and am in my car.” Having the wherewithal to inform your interviewer of your situation is actually a smart move because they can be understanding and accommodating to your situation. This can go wrong, however, if you schedule your interview for the drive home. Do not interview while driving.

Another situation you may be faced with is if you are not working and are at home. You need to ensure that you have a quiet place to have the conversation. If you have small children at home or particularly noisy animals, consider going to a friend’s home or alternate location. People will understand that you have kids, but having a conversation with a candidate when their small child suddenly wakes up screaming in the middle of the interview leaves the impression that you are the candidate with the screaming baby. Once again, understandable, but is that really the impression you want to make?

3.       Language

There comes a time in an interview when things start to go downhill, and a candidate who started off strong is now suddenly giving responses like, “um, sure,” or “ya, I guess,” or “or something like that.” When I am hiring someone, unless this is for an entry-level role, I want them to be confident in their abilities, and by using these weak, indecisive responses, they do not present assurance in what they are doing. Most frequently, candidates start strong, but after several poor responses, I can see them throw in the towel, thinking they’ve already eliminated themselves. I can even imagine them, sitting at their desks, slumped over, and thinking, “well, I blew this one.”

Amy Cuddy, body language researcher and social psychologist, explains in her TED Talk the impact of body language communication. Typically when people think of phone interviews, they don’t think of body language since the interviewer can’t see them. But, the interviewer can certainly hear them, so preparing yourself physically is going to pay off by helping you maintain a heightened state of energy for the duration of the interview. My method for this is to start strong and stay strong.

A few minutes before your interview starts stand up straight, smile big, and keep your confidence high. Standing will help you remain energized, but if you can’t stand then pull your shoulders back, sit up straight and smile just the same. This is going to sound a little odd, but keep a mirror in front of you, and become aware of your posture and language as the interview proceeds. Stay aware of your language, and respond affirmatively to questions with words like absolutely, definitely, etc. (instead of “I guess” or “sure”). If you notice during the course of the interview that you encounter a few difficult questions, make sure you still smile, look at yourself in the mirror and sit up straight (or stand tall) to avoid weak responses. Rest assured, you don’t have to get every question perfect, but you do need to remain professional and confident. This simple act, though seemingly unimportant will actually be a great tool in helping you mentally get back into the right frame of mind for finishing the interview strong.

              Next time you are offered a phone interview, really think about it before you accept the first available time the recruiter offers. When will you be energized? Where can you conduct the interview in a distraction-free location? And how will you keep the interview energy upbeat with positive communication. By getting these 3 items right, you will set yourself up for a successful phone interview.

 

Ditching the Management Trap: Your Best Career Move Yet!

You’ve been there, working hard for your company, waiting for the day your ship will come in, and suddenly the day arrives. The manager of your department decides to move to North Dakota and suddenly there is an opening on your team that will land you a big, fat paycheck. Without haste, you immediately pull up the resume you’ve stored on your personal drive and before you know it, you’ve hit the final “Submit” button on the application. With enthusiasm you begin to wait, thinking that this is your shot to move into management, your shot to finally get into the “big leagues.”

Your interview is a smash, and within days you get the offer, the office, and the title. The first day isn’t too bad, everyone is congratulatory, but then weeks and months in you realize you are spending what used to be your free time on annual reviews. The time you used to spend catching up with colleagues in the break room is now dedicated to coaching your team, managing budgets, tracking reports, and dealing with personnel issues. Time goes on and before you know it, you have less time, the money you thought you were making somehow vanishes, and you have a heap of responsibility weighing you down. What happened? You got managered!

                Since I started my career in Talent Acquisition, I have seen a number of people interview for management jobs who were incredibly talented individual contributors. However, after doing their jobs for a period of time they get complacent and get bored. They want to make more money and see what their manager is doing and think, I can do that job. However, once these individuals assume the coveted management title, they suddenly realize that life at the company isn’t how it was at all when they were a graphic designer, accountant, assistant, coordinator, or specialist. The wonderful freedoms available in those positions are now a distant memory because they let the lure of the almighty dollar pull them in.

                I find it interesting that when I interview people for management positions (in a promotion situation) and ask where they would like to be 10 years from now, many responders admitted they would like to continue doing what they are presently doing. In my imaginary mind, I stop and wondered, why are we even having this conversation? Why had these individuals taken the time to apply for a job they really didn’t want? After digging a little deeper in my follow up questions, I typically discover that the motivation for the move is to retire at a higher income bracket to ensure security for their families. While I find this to be a noble response, I have to speculate that perhaps the reason people think they need to move into management is because they don’t understand the ways they can grow exactly where they are right now.

                Believe me, I understand wanting to drive your career into high gear. I know what it’s like to want to work so hard that you will do whatever it takes to get what you want, what you need, or what satisfies your goals. But, I also understand the significant sacrifices that are made the higher up the chain you reach. Before anyone assumes that I am simply unsympathetic and am a dream-killer, I want to stop for a moment and talk about two things.

1.       Do you absolutely love what you are doing now?

2.       Will becoming a manager/supervisor/higher level officer bring more joy to your overall life?

If you answered positively to the first question, and you love what you do, then do not deprive the world of your gift. Make a voice for that passion, and share it! If it is anything from mopping floors, to singing, to analyzing data, to reviewing credit reports, if what you are doing everyday brings you joy, then you should absolutely pursue doing more of what you love. If being a manager will enable you to do more of that, then follow that path. If you love what you do, and you are passionate about teaching others how to do it, and you coincidentally also enjoy things like adhering to and creating budgets and would like to help others create a career path around that talent, then being on the management path works for you.

                However, if you move into a management position with the assumption that you are simply going to make more money, then there will come a time when the money will not be worth the significant personal sacrifices. So, what should you do instead? You should take your passion for the thing you do and become an expert. Here me out here. If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, then you know this already, but if you haven’t then here’s some news for you: it takes 10,000 hours to really gain mastery of a skill. If you are spending a minimum of 40 hours per week doing your job, and the typical work year is 2,080 hours, then by the time you’ve been doing your job for 4.81 years, you already have the experience necessary to achieve expert status. If you’ve been doing your job less than 4.81 years, then start investing in yourself in your free time: read books about people who are successful in your career, attend networking events to grow your circle, get hungry for success, find out what other people have done to be successful in your field, listen to every podcast on the topic, and start taking action. No matter what field you are in, there are experiences you have had that you can share with others that can help make them better at their jobs, too. If you become an expert, here are some opportunities that you will have available to you:

·         Get recruited by a competitor or vendor: Believe it or not, there are very few people in this world who bring true passion to what they do. If you are in a company that values that passion, then by all means stay, but if you are in a situation where you are demonstrating excellence in what you do, believe me, other people will start to notice.

·         Create an info product to teach other people what you know: People love success stories, and they love learning how to get to where you are. If you create an info-product, an e-book, online videos and tutorials, then you will further separate yourself from the average Joe or Jane. If your product is good, people will buy it, and you’ve just created a new opportunity to make more money.

·         Speaking opportunities within your field of practice: Speaking is not only a great opportunity to establish yourself as an expert, but it is a great way for you to grow personally and learn more about the thing you love. Start with professional associations, but be open to opportunities where you can meet new people and give back.

·         Start a side consulting business: If you are serious about creating more revenue for yourself, then doing consulting work will make you more money, and fast-track your knowledge. When you consult, you are going to have significantly more exposure to case studies and different scenarios, and you will find you become exceptionally effective at solving specific problems. Create a system around how you solve those problems, and package it for more than you make in your current role, and sell it.  Side note: Just double check your standards of conduct first to make sure you don’t have a conflict of interest in your present company.

·         Mentorship opportunities to teach junior employees, interns or even high school students: The best career advice I’ve ever received came from my old coach, Robert Schantz who always said, “Come from a place of contribution.” Don’t expect anything in return, just help others and your life will improve.

What I want to express more than anything is that you have options available to you. If you are passionate about what you do, then get ahead by investing in yourself. As you develop yourself in time that would have otherwise been spent on your department budgeting report, you will find you can start to have a vision of possibilities. Out of that vision, you can create opportunity, set and achieve goals, and drive your future exactly where you want to go. When you have that clear vision, then you will see that anything standing in the way of you reaching that goal is simply not worth your time.

Reasons Why You Didn't Get Hired: #1- You Didn't Do Your Homework

 

 

 

Hello High-Gearers!

I am launching this blog with a series I'm writing called "Reasons You Didn't Get Hired." This is #1 and hopefully you will enjoy the content I've created. My goal is to provide valuable information from the other side of the interview table- truths that you wish your Recruiter or Talent Manager would share, but unfortunately cannot. Please let me know what you think.

            In the job market, it is absolutely critical that in order to be a true contender for any given role, that you will first have to find both the right company and the right job to satisfy your needs.  When you engage with an organization for employment services (meaning, you are getting paid by a company to do a job) you are agreeing that for a certain agreed-upon sum you will provide services (including “other duties as assigned”) for a period of time that you decide you no longer wish to do it, or until the organization decides they no longer want you to do it. Either way, you will be required to do work once you accept the job, so doing your homework will be a critical factor for both you and for your future employer.

1.      Think About the Environment Where You WANT to Work.

            If you are currently sitting in a cubicle, wearing a suit, and feeling depressed then seriously think about this. If you are surrounded by 4 gray padded walls each day and the only thing that gets you through is conspiring with your cubicle neighbor on creating an escape plan, then you are not thriving, my friend. You should do one thing right now: Take in a deep breath right now, fill your lungs, expand your chest, and hold it for a second. Now breath out a huge sigh of relief, because what I am going to tell you may change all of that. Not just your job, but your quality of life, how you sleep, and how you feel about yourself in general.

            By doing your homework, what I mean is that I want you to become an investigator of the company and the job you want. I want you to find the ultimate career at a great company, and chances are that you are not there now; otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this blog at work. Now, you may be thinking that this all sounds fine and dandy, but you don’t know how to find your dream job, and your dream company. That’s ok, I will give you some tips for how to do it.

            The first thing you want to focus on is your environment. Ask yourself the following questions when you imagine yourself doing your job, and write down your answers:

·         What are you doing?

·         Where are you doing it?

·         What is the environment like?

·         What are you wearing?

·         How do you feel?

You may have just realized that the job you’d like to do is outdoors, at a gym, 30,000 feet in the air, or in a trapeze. Regardless of the environment, you can start taking steps to get there, just start one at a time, and little-by-little you will make your way. Chances are if you arrived at the job you got to today and you are unhappy that you spent more time thinking about your paycheck instead of where you’d be sitting, but you’re sitting now, so write a list.

2.      Find Your Dream Company

            We all have things that are important to us, right? Right! In addition to my day job, I like to be involved in fitness, nutrition, wine-tasting, speaking French, reading, hiking, and so on. You also have interests: sports, running, gaming, pets, going to the movies, waterslides, whatever.  So, what I want you to start thinking about is companies you like and have a personal interest in. Maybe you’re a runner and you wear a Garmin watch, or you wear Asics shoes. Well, the logical place to start would be to find those companies. By finding a company with whom you share a passion, you will be starting your day off on the right foot by making your workplace somewhere you will want to go.

            Let’s say that you follow my advice and look up Garmin. In fact, for research purposes, I did just that. I see they have an open position in HR (interesting) and I click on the link to find that the position is located in Olathe, Kansas. Since I presently reside in beautiful Northern California this is going to be a stretch, but just go with it for a minute. While Garmin has done a great job citing reasons I would want to move to Kansas (including awesome BBQ), come up with a list of your own. If you found your dream company what are the conditions you would accept to move for work. Or, what are the benefits of moving to Kansas, in this instance:

·         I could practice my organic farming on my own ranch because it’s relatively inexpensive to live there in comparison to where I presently live.

·         I could finally buy a home, awesome.

·         I could eat BBQ all the time.

Then look at the other side. What would be the drawbacks to moving to Kansas for such a job:

·         I’m overqualified for the job, so I would take a pay cut (not happening)

·         I love wine-tasting and I’m presently a 20 minute drive to Sonoma (negotiable)

·         My family is in Sonoma County (preferred… sort of)

So, personally, I’m overqualified and despite the fact that I have no children, or significant ties to Sonoma County, it is a great place to live and my family is here, so I decide that I don’t actually think it would be a good fit for me for all of those reasons.  Let’s say that you are geographically tied to your location because you have children, who are in school, and you don’t want to move them, or you have a sick parent you are caring for. Sometimes life happens, and you have to stay put, and that’s ok, you can still find your dream job, even if it’s not at Garmin.

               Just because things didn’t work out in the situation with Garmin, what do I do? Give up? Nope, keep searching.  Look up Asics, look up Clean Bottle, thinks of products and services you use, and find what's interesting to you. If you are geographically tied to an area look for companies within a commutable distance that are close to you. You can find this information by visiting your local Chamber of Commerce or local business journal websites, or you can also use Linked In. 

            Most local Business Journals have an annual awards list for best places to work, which identify specific company benefits. If you have a company in your area that offers incentives for volunteering and you love to volunteer, that could be a great company for you.

3.      Find Your Dream Job

In order to find your dream job, you will need to think about the role you have today, and the steps you need to take to get to the role where you want to be. If you work in Accounting, and you want to become the CFO, look over the job description of the CFO and start gaining knowledge and experience in all of those areas. If you are already in a company you want to grow in talk to your supervisor, apply for higher level positions, and kick your career into high gear by going after what you want.

What if you don’t know what you want? You may be sitting in front of your computer right now and have no idea of what kind of career could be appealing to you. If that’s the case then start thinking about and writing down the following:

·         When you are happiest what are you doing?

·         What do you do well?

·         What brings you joy?

·         What job do you look at and think, that looks like a fun job?

Get out, join a meetup group, network, meet the people who do that job, and find out how they got started. Take them to coffee, buy their time if you have to, and take action to move things forward.

Doing your homework is actually quite simple when you get down to it, because when it comes to the job-hunt, there exists an opportunity to totally reinvent your life, live in a new place, consider new opportunities, and create new experiences. The job market is tight for good talent. Recruiters I know everywhere are dying to meet awesome candidates because so few people we do meet aren’t awesome at all, they are pretty hum-drum overworked, disengaged professionals who want nothing more than more money because they think it will make them happy—the kind of people who haven’t done their homework. But, let me be honest with you, more money, even significantly more from what you make now, will NOT, let me repeat WILL NOT make you more happy if you don’t enjoy your work.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. Please feel free to share and leave comments below!