All interviews are always a unique blend of a sales call, an audition and finally, an attempt by both parties to validate their work guidelines/philosophy to the other interview participant.
Since we are dealing with human beings and not machines, the outcomes are in many, if not most cases, emotional and not merely analytical. The fact, that the hiring cycle is filled with risk for both the applicant and the hiring authority is not far from both of their conscience and sub-conscience thoughts. Many hiring authorities think of all prospective hires, as parents think of the residual byproducts of feeding an infant. Your job as a candidate is to focus on the reward that the hiring authority will realize from hiring you, but never take the hiring authority’s personal/professional risk for granted.
ATTITUDE
Developing and maintaining a positive attitude can predetermine your ability to interview, to be successful in your pursuit, close, and finally be successful in that position. The normal feelings of panic, disorientation, discomfort that always accompany all dislocations will evaporate or at least be significantly mitigated by maintaining and working on a positive attitude toward transition. Your ability to control your negative emotions and use a PMA will be the difference between getting a job you deserve, and getting a rejection note. We are usually all very easy to “read,” especially since our words only make up 6-10% of communication; the rest is eye contact, carriage/posture, body language, dress, and personal hygiene. In other words, is there a winner still living in your skin, or has it been defeated by the vagaries of the employment world?
There are six aspects of the job seeking process; time, money, ego/feelings, family/friends, and for want of a better term “dislocation”; but the single most compelling component is always attitude. Remarkable, as it sounds, the driving force that will or won’t get you the job and which will or will not make you successful after you take that next job; is always in your power to control! Recruiters use the “O” word, opportunity, several hundred times per day, but that real opportunity cannot and will not happen; unless you provide it via your positive almost infectious attitude. There is a rule of thumb in sales and transition. If possible, you must have 9 or 10 opportunities in front of you, at all times. Do not rely on the “Alter of Good Hope.” Remember, in transition you are the product; not merely the candidate in transition.
Your positive attitude and “story” must address in every interview situation the following five concepts. You must learn how to convert the concepts below to words that best fit you and the potential interviewer. The hiring authorities must see you as an opportunity.
They must see that they will:
1. Make more money
2. Relieve Stress
3. Get recognized for superior leadership qualities
4. Make work for their managers easier
5. Actually reduce their personal risk of termination when they hire you.
The second part of interviewing, we have alluded to before; “all interviews are in reality auditions.”
AUDITION
Regardless of what you may think, all interviews require that you constantly remember that interviewing is, was and always will be a combination of a “sales call and an audition.”
Do not fall into the trap, sometimes purposely laid, of conversation vs. presentation, of “solution sales call” vs. a social visit. If you fail to close, secure, ask the client to be engaged, or whatever euphemism you use for “ask for the order,” you will not be treated to a return visit. (Remember, Broadway here we come.) Aggressiveness, that is not abrasive, is indeed your validation. The interview is your audition for the road company to the client’s play. It is your demonstration of how you will act when you are by yourself in the field (job). It is a window into the future of you as the possible representative for the client company calling on their accounts. All three tenses are going on in every interview; your past (ACP+CIP), and present and the HA’s future. The HR’s interview “riskometer” is set to evaluate your present presentation to your future presentations when you represent him/her in the trenches.
You must EARN the offer.
To keep the analogy going; the offer is their applause. You earn it by your performance. That offer is based on that glimpse of the future that you give the Hiring Authority during your audition. Think about the ACP that we discuss here often, there is a reason for the order, “potential” is what determines the offer. Two pieces of the CIP, that we have discussed before are there by design, the Candidate Needs Assessment and the Accomplishment Report; both are predictors of the future, both are performance based. Indeed, even the resume must be accomplishment based.
The idea is to present a picture of the future at the beginning, middle, and end of YOUR presentation/audition.
Those predictors give comfort to the Hiring Authority that their decision to possibly bring you on board is based not just on “paper” or the interview; but on your past “performance” and how you will perform when they are not with you.
Therefore your audition; that cluster of a positive attitude, carriage, enthusiasm, drive, assertiveness, preparation and “performance” all will determine the offer status more than the “credentials” you have so painstakingly prepared. Remember, there are plays with minimal sets, THE ACT COUNTS!
You must become the person of opportunity.
The interview situation is akin to courtship. It is a “love” dance; your preparation can and will predetermine the outcome.
In today’s marketplace good opportunities are significantly less frequent. Therefore impressions, verbal, written, physical, gesticulations all play a more compelling role.
Luck can and will only get you so far. Know why you are there.
If you have found these concepts useful and want more in depth information, please check out our book, CD’s and website at www.get-THAT-NEXT-job.com. Our website is constantly being updated. Please check for updates.
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