Numbers Don’t Lie Part 4: 10 reasons you’re not finding a job

by Mitch Byers :: May 31st, 2006 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |

Kate Lorenz, Editor at Career Builders shares Top 10 Reason Why You’re Not Finding a Job. I first saw the list on Guerrilla Job Hunting Blog.

In summary, the top 10 are: 1. You’re not making finding a job a job itself! Many people don’t adopt a committed, passionate, failure-is-not-an-option attitude.

2. You haven’t developed a system of finding a job. The system should entail everything from goals and intentions that dictate planned activity to role-playing of interviews.

3. You have an unrealistic idea about the market for your skills. There is a tendency for people to over-inflate the ease of their ability to find a job.

4. You aren’t acknowledging the psychological and emotional stress that changing jobs entails. They confuse activity with productivity and focus on minor things that appear to be job-finding activities, but aren’t the most fruitful activities.

5. You ignore small businesses. You’ve forgotten or don’t realize that 97 percent of the businesses in the United States employ fewer than 100 people.

6. You don’t recognize that face-to-face interviews are the only things that matter. Pulling out all the stops by doing anything you can to get in front of a hiring authority with pain (the need to hire someone) is key.

7. You don’t prepare well for interviews. Most people are either not confident in themselves or act arrogant in the interviewing process simply because they are not as prepared as they should be.

8. You’re not selling yourself. The vast majority of people going into an interviewing situation simply don’t sell themselves very well..

9. You have the attitude, “What can you do for me?” Most people don’t realize that there is nothing to consider until you have an offer.

10. You give poor reasons for leaving your job. Whether it’s why you left your last employer or why you want a new job, most people present the reason from a selfish point of view.

Excellent list. My favorites are 2 and 9. When it comes to securing a new position, too many people shoot from the hip – and miss. An effective “system” will include Guerrilla networking; Careful analysis of job descriptions (preferably through the core competency schema); Customized resumes which address desired knowledge, skills, abilities, and job behaviors; Developing effective career stories (something I call �Memory Triggers”) which capture relevant career experience, Preparing for the interview (company research, etc.); Competency-based follow-up notes; and Salary negotiations.

When you develop a comprehensive strategy, then item 9, “What can you do for me?” begins to take care of itself. By thorough preparation, you begin to see the position from a new perspective, more closely replicating that of the hiring manager. When this happens, then suddenly you are “talking the same language.” It is much easier to build rapport when you are on talking the same language. Building rapport is critical your interviewing success. The hiring manager is going to hire a) someone that is qualified and b) someone they like.

Don’t think of the interview as the hour you are in the hot seat, but the 20 or 40 or 100 hours you spend to getting to the chair. This is the investment that will reap rewards.

Off-the-wall job interview questions and answers

by Mitch Byers :: May 28th, 2006 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |

Chris Sells is Program Manager for Microsoft. On his personal web page he invites visitors to share their Microsoft interview experience.

Chris lists a variety of non-standard job interview questions one might expect to hear at the main campus at Microsoft. The list of job interview questions is quite extensive and are divided into four categories. While there are a few that are relevant (see below), a majority fall under the “Strange” category, such as this situation: The interviewer hands you a black pen and says nothing but “This pen is red.”

A few listed that are relevant:

• If you had to learn a new computer language, how would you go about doing it?
• If you are going to receive an award in 5 years, what is it for and who is the audience?
• Why do you want to work at Microsoft?

These are listed as relevant because they could help determine your needed expertise or your motivation. Admittedly, I would never utilize these questions without appropriate follow-up questions and a way to measure their relevance to a particular position.

Here is a brief sampling of questions for each of the four categories.

Riddles

• You’ve got someone working for you for seven days and a gold bar to pay them. The gold bar is segmented into seven connected pieces. You must give them a piece of gold at the end of every day. If you are only allowed to make two breaks in the gold bar, how do you pay your worker?
• One train leaves Los Angeles at 15mph heading for New York. Another train leaves from New York at 20mph heading for Los Angeles on the same track. If a bird, flying at 25mph, leaves from Los Angeles at the same time as the train and flies back and forth between the two trains until they collide, how far will the bird have traveled?

Algorithms

• What’s the difference between a linked list and an array?
• Implement a linked list. Why did you pick the method you did?
• Implement an algorithm to sort a linked list. Why did you pick the method you did? Now do it in O(n) time.

Applications

• How would you redesign an ATM?
• Suppose we wanted to run a microwave oven from the computer. What kind of software would you write to do this?
• How would you design a coffee-machine for an automobile?
• How would you build an alarm clock for deaf people?

Thinkers

• How are M&Ms made?
• If you had a clock with lots of moving mechanical parts, you took it apart piece by piece without keeping track of the method of how it was disassembled, then you put it back together and discovered that 3 important parts were not included; how would you go about reassembling the clock?

By far, a majority of the questions are ego driven and fall under the umbrella of “Stress Questions.” I use to support a hiring manager who would routinely ask technical job seekers, “If you were a fruit, what would you be?” and “Describe the month of June.” It is questionable if any of these types of questions do more than waste precious time.

From the hiring manager’s perspective, I can understand a need to develop tools to get beyond the boring and shallow job interview questions and answers, like “What are your strengths” and “What are your weaknesses.” Too many job seekers exercise Impression Management and provide a canned answer. Hiring managers want to dodge these worn out answers and avoid the job seeker’s “self-monitoring.” Snyder and Grangestad define self-monitoring individuals as those with the ability to “regulate their expressive self-presentation for the sake of desired public appearances, and thus be highly responsive to social and interpersonal clues of situational appropriate performance.” In brief, a well-prepared job seekers will tell you what you want to hear.

It is the hiring manager’s job to peel back the onion – to find out who this job seeker really is. Beyond their polished resume, what is this individual really bringing to the table? What value can be placed on their knowledge, skills, and abilities? Sure, they have an impressive background, but how successful will they be on MY team?

One of the key problems is hiring managers only have an hour or two of interview time before they make a hiring decision. Odds of making a hiring mistake are high – very high. We can date someone for three years before deciding to marry. Even with a three-year investment in time, the chances of us staying married are only about 1 in 2. How then, can we expect the hiring manager to make a quality decision in a day, or a week?

So what is the work around? Asking questions like, “Explain a scenario for testing a salt shaker?” Sure, if you are a salt shaker manufacturer. Obviously, asking the traditional interview questions has not worked for Microsoft (nor most other companies.) Here are a couple of suggestions that could be utilized separately, or in concert with another:

Benchmarking: Microsoft has some incredibly gifted individuals. Figure out what makes them tick. Look at the top performers and develop a Competency Model. A Competency Model is created by determining which 8 or so core competencies are required for a superior performer. Based on the questions presented earlier, I suspect two of the competences are Analytical Thinking and Conceptual Thinking. Another obvious one is Expertise, specifically Technical Expertise. I have actually developed a method for deconstructing a job description and assigning core competencies. If anyone working at Microsoft would send a copy of their job description, I’ll provide a pdf of the step-by-step process. The information can also be found in my book, InterviewRX.

Competency-Based Interview: Once the Competency Model has been identified, then behavioral interview questions can be assigned to each of the Competency. It will be important to set up several follow-up, probing secondary questions. This will allow the hiring manager to peel away the layers of the onion and get to the detailed information required for a reasonable hiring decision. A scoring system (generally 1-5 points) should compliment the behavioral questions. It is important that everyone on the interview team understand the relevance of the interview questions and be instructed on how to score the answers.

Pre-Employment Assessments: There are several excellent pre-employment assessments, such as the EQ-I or the ZRHS assessments. Both assessments measure components of Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is our non-cognitive abilities, such as Assertiveness, Independence, Self-Regard, Empathy, Adaptability, Stress Management, Impulse Control, and others. 20 years of research and accumulated data has determined that our IQ (cognitive abilities such as Analytical Thinking and Conceptual Thinking) accounts for only 6% of our ability to succeed in the workplace. A growing number of companies are coming to the conclusion that IQ is a poor predictor of our professional success.

Emotional Intelligence, when measured is referred to in terms of the Emotional Quotient (EQ) and is normed to 100, just like the IQ tests. Our EQ has shown to account for approximately 27% of our job performance. In comparing IQ to EQ, EQ has four times the impact of IQ in our professional endeavors. Any company should be taking a serious look at the EQ of their potential hires.

I am not familiar with Microsoft’s interview and hiring processes to know which, if any of the suggestions may already be in place. The comments are really more global and are meant to be considered as a framework for any company trying to develop best practices.

Personality or competency

by Mitch Byers :: May 21st, 2006 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |

o In a recent DDI (Development Dimensions International, Inc.) study, 44 percent of managers said their most significant hiring surprise was that a candidate’s personality in the interview differed from what they are actually like on the job.

Let’s examine the closely associated competencies, some of which are used more than once: Flexibility, Organizational Commitment, Initiative, Self-Confidence, Diversity, Self Control, Integrity, Achievement Orientation.These eight competencies, when bundled together, create a competency model – the characteristics that individuals have and use in appropriate, consistent ways in order to achieve desired performance. In fact, this competency model indicates the person will be 14 times more likely to become highly engaged employees. That is impressive. That is the power of understanding and screening (through assessment and/or interviews) for competencies.

It could be argued that most (if not all) of the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types could mirror this competency model. For this reason, I think it is important to clarify the difference between personality and competency. Both are important, however their difference is as distinct as Mars and Venus.

Audio Tip: Tell me about yourself

by Mitch Byers :: May 18th, 2006 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |

David just completed his Master’s degree. On a recent job interview the first question asked was “Tell me about yourself.” He found the question awkward – he was not sure how to answer it. David’s response to this often asked interview question is critical. Research has shown that hiring managers begin to formulate hiring decisions as early as four minutes into the interview.

Let’s say David takes five minutes to answer the Tell-me-about-yourself question and the hiring manager doesn’t like his answer. Like the Titanic, he just hit an iceberg.

Let’s assume that David did OK on his first interview and has been invited back for his second interview. This time, he wants to plan ahead for how he answers the question. David wants to avoid the two major pitfalls of answering the Tell-me-about-yourself question.

The first pitfall is not sharing relevant information. David may be sharing what he feels is important career news with the hiring manager, but they may not see the value of his information. While he is talking about international trends, they may be wondering how to keep their regional distribution plant open.

The second pitfall relates to sharing relevant information. David does not want to provide details that are not yet asked for. If David begins talking about details too early in the interview, it won’t take long before the eyes of the hiring manager begin to glaze over.

David rehearses his answer to assure he is sharing relevant information and avoiding unnecessary details. His response: “As an overview, I have over six years in the retail industry, with a focus on sporting goods. What started as a part-time job has developed into a rewarding career. Over time, I have progressively taken on more responsibility and during the last 14 months have served in the capacity of Store Manager. Now that I finished my master’s, I feel I am ready to contribute at a higher level.”In less than a minute, David answers the Tell-me-about-yourself question. David may have wanted to provide details about his ability to build creative displays. But how effective would that be if they were more interested in knowing how he was going to reduce the high turnover rate? David would have hit an iceberg. David glided by the iceberg by answering the tell-me-about-yourself question briefly.

Now, David needs to ask the interviewer to guide him to an area that is important to them. David simply asks, “What areas can I provide more information?” Following a brief answer with a qualifying question provides David an opportunity to address an area of hiring importance. When asked about reducing high turnover, David can mention his ability to mentor and train staff and his track record for keeping turnover below industry standards. Maybe later in the conversation there will be the opportunity to discuss his experience building displays.

David started the interview off on a positive note by providing a brief a brief overview of his background, and then asked a question to help guide the conversation. By getting past the me-about-yourself question quickly, he gave himself a real chance of being hired.

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Numbers don’t lie Part-2: What scares CIOs

by Mitch Byers :: May 18th, 2006 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |

Numbers don’t lie Part I: Thank-you notes

by Mitch Byers :: May 15th, 2006 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |

According to the article NO Thank You Could Mean No Job on CareerBuilder.com, the following numbers were given, based on a survey of more than 650 hiring managers:o 15% of hiring managers say they would not hire someone who failed to send a thank you note following the interview

o 32% say they would still consider the candidate, but would think less of them

o 26% of hiring managers expect to have the thank you note in hand two days following the interview

o 36% of hiring managers expect to have a letter in hand within three to five days following the interview

o 21% prefer a typed hard copy

o 23% prefer a handwritten note

o 25% prefer an emailed thank you note

o 19% prefer emailed followed up with a hard copy

To add to the author’s general comments, here are a few additional helpful hints:

o Note cards generally come 10 to a box. Make your purchase at an upscale stationary or card shop. Any note is better than none, but one thoughtfully written in mailed in a beautifully lined envelope helps differentiate you from your competitors. The receiver will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

o Ask for a business card from each person you meet with. This will help you spell Cathy or Kathy or Kathi or Cathee correctly. You don’t want to insult anyone by spelling their name incorrectly. Also, everyone loves their title. Be sure to include the person’s correct title on the envelope.

o If you have a morning interview, mail the note the same afternoon. If your interview is in the afternoon, mail the card no later than the next morning.

o Show your enthusiasm for the position.

o Be specific in how the company will benefit by hiring you. Instead of, I feel my experience would be a great asset to your company, use My success at reducing customer hold time and improving employee retention would be of value in the reorganization of your customer service department. If you have a sparkling thank you note, please email it. I will add it to the Resource section of the website with your permission.

Audio tip: How memory triggers can improve your interview

by Mitch Byers :: January 29th, 2006 :: Posted in Interviewing to Win |

From time to time, we all find ourselves in the state of job transition. The job transition may be because of a plant closing or industry consolidation. Or, like John, maybe your job transition is self-imposed. John has been in his role for several years and is ready to step up the corporate ladder. John has received excellent performance reviews. He even took time to get industry certification. However, that doesn’t mean his next job is going to land in his lap.

John knows he has plenty of competition. And he remembers past interviews. The hiring manager seemed interested in him, but after the interview, things fizzled. The hiring manager got distracted – he was off to meetings, was putting out fires, or had an out of town trip. John was a viable candidate, but he somehow got lost in the shuffle. John needs a plan to help him stand out from the crowd. One simple strategy is Memory Triggers.

A Memory Trigger is simply a real life story of your professional experience. Authors Danielle Beu and M Ronald Buckley note that career stories help document or prove a candidate’s claim in the interview – to a strong work ethic, a particular competency, or their interpersonal or leadership skills. The authors reason that interview stories, “when well-constructed and well-delivered will help [you] stand out from the crowd by serving as a memory trigger for the interviewer.” Providing a solid memory trigger gives the hiring manager something concrete they can remember. In fact, a well-delivered memory trigger should linger in their minds up to the point of the hiring decision.

Constructing Memory Triggers is a simple three-step process. When John is asked about his experience at a particular company, he can deliver his career story in three layers, or as I like to call it, PAR: an acronym for Problem, Action, Results: o First, John sets up a business problem. Say the business problem was redundant data – too much information on too many reports o The second layer is Action. John will spend a moment to explain his specific involvement related to the business problem. John can share how he gathered data and how he analyzed the reports to pinpoint the redundancy. o Finally, John needs to express the positive results of his actions. The results need to be specific. Sharing that he consolidated 6 reports to 4 will have greater impact than simply saying he improved the reporting process. Providing quantifiable results better enables the hiring manager to envision John succeeding.

John needs to deliver his Memory Triggers with confidence and genuine enthusiasm, moving smoothly through each of the three layers. However, John’s stories do not need to be long and involved. In fact, his Memory Triggers should be short, punchy, and to the point. The stories should not be diluted with excess details. If more details are needed, the hiring manager will ask.

Memory Triggers – compact career stories that highlight a business Problem, your Actions, and your specific impact on the outcome – a great strategy to take on your next job interview.

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