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Don’t miss the Tipping Point 2
by Mitch Byers :: May 25th, 2008 :: Posted in Uncategorized |
Author of nearly a dozen books, Jeffrey Fox shares, “The interview is a sales call to sell yourself.” You want the hiring company to “buy” you. At which point you receive an offer letter, you have a clear picture of the exact value of the transaction. However, the decision to buy happens long before the offer letter. If fact, it may be much earlier than you image. Research shows that interviewers are far more influenced by information emerging early in the interview than later. If fact, studies show that hiring decisions often (not always) happen after only four minutes in a thirty-minute interview. In the balance of the interview, the interviewer spends confirming their initial impression.
How do you know when you have crossed the magic threshold and transitioned from a candidate to an employee?
1) Watch their body language. They will be more relaxed. They might crack a smile. Their gestures will be more animated. The formality of the interview will melt into a more casual tone. I once had a hiring manager stand up in mid-sentence and start an impromptu tour of the facility. A good sign indeed.
2) They are off script. Many hiring managers follow a scripted interview. When they put the pen down or push the paper aside, they have made up their mind.
3) They will stop asking questions and start talking about the company. Think of it as their sales pitch to you. Sharing details about a specific client or an upcoming project highlights a growing trust. They would not be sharing their “secrets” if they were not interested.
4) They will mention names – future coworkers or other managers you will have to meet before they make the (official) hiring decision. They are already beginning to see you functioning in their organization and interfacing with the team.
Some managers are sly poker players and the interview game becomes much harder. Their actions will be more subtle. Look for a personalized touch. Instead of dropping you off in the lobby, they will walk you to the door and linger a moment before saying goodbye.
Once you receive one or more buying signals you will want to communicate in kind. State your specific interest in the company followed by a trial close. “Tom, the job description provides a good outline of the position. You filled in a lot of the holes and I am getting a good picture of how I will be able to contribute. My interest in the position is extremely high. What other background information can I share with you?” Tom may continue to ask interview questions, which indicates a need for additional information before making a decision. Otherwise expect a comment like, “It looks promising. Let’s set up a time for you to talk to Samantha next week.”
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Speed interviewing coming to a company near you
by Mitch Byers :: May 19th, 2008 :: Posted in Enhancing Your Career, Interviewing to Win, News & Events, Selection & Hiring |
A recent article from Dr. John Sullivan discusses up an emerging trend – speed interviewing. Speed Interviewing takes its name from the once popular, Speed Dating. Speed Interviewing severely compresses the interviewing process. Compare cooking popcorn the old fashion way – heating up oil in a deep pan and adding a shallow layer of popcorn to today’s fast and easy microwave popcorn. The popcorn today is ready in jiffy with no mess or cleanup. Speed interviewing hopes to achieve the same results: faster and easier without all the messy protocols of a traditional interview. The slimmed down version is making inroads because traditional interviews has several problems:
- Traditional interviews demand time from multiple parties, impacting production activities
- Most managers would rather do ANYTHING other than interview someone they have never met
- Many managers have little to no training in the interview process
- Many hiring decisions are seen as a 50/50 crap shot, no matter how much time you spend trying to analyze the candidate
- Many hiring managers believe their intuition is the most valid measuring stick to make hiring decisions
The article supports the point of psychologist John Gottman, whose research in the dynamics of snap decisions and first impressions is discussed in Malcom Gladwell’s best-seller Blink. Gladwell explains how “thin slicing” videotaped interactions between married couples provided Gottman the ability to predict, with 95% accuracy, the long-term outcome of the marriage.
While Gottman is able to rationalize a relationship in a matter of seconds, Dr. Sullivan’s approach is more akin to speed dating, and suggests setting a time limit between 5 and 15 minutes for the interview. This caught my interest, because when I was conducting research for InterviewRX I found a study that concluded most hiring decisions are made between 4 and 10 minutes into the interview. This coalescing research suggests speed interviewing may be valid for some companies.
Sullivan points to several advantages of speed interviewing:
- It provides for an immediate comparison between candidates. In the morning you can interview the slate of candidates and have an offer ready that afternoon.
- Less time is spent with people you know you will never hire.
- If available, you are able to interview more than 2 or 3 people with the best resumes.
- Hiring managers are more willing to interview people if they know they can get in and out and on with their day.
- Most hiring managers don’t enjoy a formal behavioral interview and prefer to go with their gut. Hiring managers are proud of their ability to ready body language and understand emotional nuances. They don’t need an hour to figure out if they can work with someone.
- Speed interviewing appeals to college students and recent graduates.
- Because of the time constraints, overly prepared candidates have to abandon their canned answers and respond off the cuff, providing the hiring manager with a truer assessment.
While speed interviewing is not yet fully embraced in HR and recruiting circles, there are enough companies using or experimenting with the concept to rethink your interview approach. From the hiring perspective, committing to a hiring decision after a ten-minute conversation is pretty gutsy, but one most of us do internally, even if we don’t make our decision “public” that soon.
Sullivan mentions that IBM, Abbott Labs and Texas Instruments are using Speed Interviewing, though no specifics are given. My personal opinion is that companies will be reluctant to embrace a snap judgment platform, but may follow the pattern used by Tower Consultants. An employee from Tower shares the company speaks with as many as fifty prospective candidates in a day, allotting about 5 minutes with each one. The speed interviewing is the first step. A more rigorous technical and behavioral interview follows before a hiring decision is made. In my own experience, initial phone interviews have become considerably shorter over the years. Today, I allow 5 to 7 minutes to capture essential qualifying information. From there, face-to-face interviews are scheduled.
The bottom line for Tower and a growing number of companies is that the “speed interviewing works” and I believe it will be a trend more and more people in job transition will experience.