No B. S. Job Search Advice Radio

What Superpower Would You Like to Have?

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On today’s show, I explain how to answer the tricky interview questions, “If you had a superpower, what superpower would you like to have?”

[spp-transcript]

I’m back today with another one of those tough interview questions that are designed to make you uncomfortable, squirm, say dumb things… All that sort of stuff.

Today’s tough interview question, to me, is remarkably dumb but firms do ask it.

“What superpower would you like to have?

Isn’t that an important thing with for them to know to hire you?

They’re not expecting a serious answer, although if you came up with something related to your job, great! They’re not expecting you to say, “I would like the superpower of analysis.”

You can be playful and say, “Hmm . .. Well, I yes I would like the superpower to fly so that that way I cared work faster!” They all chuckle at some point. It will take away some of the seriousness of the conversation.

I also want to remind you that there is usually a point where you can ask questions of them. When that happens, I want to encourage you to ask them, “What superpower were you looking for?” Their answer might be very revealing to you about what their expectations are.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Two Second Interview Questions and Answers

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer two tricky questions that are often asked on second interviews.

[spp-transcript]

Today, I want to talk with you about two questions the rest on second interviews pretty regularly. They aren’t difficult but, because of the stress and tension that is often associated with a second or third interview, people sometimes panic and blow the questions.

The first one is, “What have you learned about us so far?”

This requires a certain amount of good preparation for you because it will help coalesce your thoughts and opinions of this firm before the interview. You may be on a second or third interview. Each interview, you probably have spoken with different people or different groups of people that give you impressions about the job and the organization. You may have visited the website at some point before the interview.

Answer by starting off with an overview of the position as it is been discussed with you. When you get to the end of your description, pause and say, “Have I described it accurately because if I haven’t, I want to get the correct description of the position.”

Then talk about each of the people you’ve spoken with so far, what your sense of the personalities is and how they presented themselves to you ALWAYS IN COMPLIMENTARY TERMS, of course. Speak about the firm, what it’s standing is in its industry, what it does. That will come from the website and any other research that you’ve done.

So, that’s the easy question to handle. Then, there is the follow-up, “how would you proceed if you were hired for the role?”

Some people talk about it beginning from day one. I suggest talking about a firm before day one.

You receive the offer; you accept the offer; you give notice. You speak with your future manager about what their expectations are starting the role. You do that right after you give notice. In this way, you can lay out some plans, perhaps schedule some meetings not long after you come on board. Perhaps they have an idea of what your early schedule will be like, but it is best to talk about this proactively before you start, rather than beginning with your first day.

“On my first day, what will wind up doing is walking in and… ” Whatever

these are very simple questions but because of the stress associated with second or third interviews, you want to demonstrate that you have done your homework well.

And the second question (the one about preparing for when you start), that one is an easy one because what you are doing is showing that you are go-getter, aggressive, you are hardcharging and that you are getting yourself prepared even before you start.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

How to Ask for the Job – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to ask for the job at the end of your interview.

[spp-transcript]

Today, we’re going to talk about ending the interview and asking for the job.

Asking for the job is one of those classic pieces of advice that recruiters offer and no one really explains how to ask for the job. You never want to go into that situation by saying, Please give me the job! I need a job!” or anything that could be interpreted in that way; instead asking for the job is really a euphemism for expressing interest. So, I don’t think it’s appropriate at the end of the interview to say things like, I would be a perfect for this job. When are you going to hire me?” . . . or words to that effect or anything they could be interpreting that same way. Instead you want to express interest.

So at the very end, when they signal they are wrapping up,” I think the smoothest way to end is to say,”I just want you to know how interested I am in this role. Have I answered all your questions? Is there anything else you need to know in order to feel comfortable with me in this role? Is there anything that’s left unaddressed that you might want to ask me?” In this way, you have you given them one more cut at asking you questions you also expressed interest.

When they say “no. I think I’ve gotten everything I need.”

“Great! What would the next step be there in the hiring process? When might expect to hear back from you in one way or another?”

“Well, I expect we’ll finish first round interviews next week. We’ll be back to you right after that.”

“As things stand now, how do I rank? Again, I’m very interested.”

That’s it of very blunt question that requires that they give you a candidate assessment. To me, it’s best that you know right then and there, but you don’t have to necessarily be that blunt if you’re not comfortable with that. You can again say,”Again, I want to be clear, I am very interested in this role and look forward to hearing from you about next steps in the process. If I heard correctly. I know this isn’t cast in stone, because sometimes cancellations and reschedules occur but I might expect to hear back from you within the next week.

“Yes.”

“Terrific, thank you so much look. I look forward to meeting you again as well as other people on the team.”

The idea is to express interest. I happen to like that question about where you rank in the process because I would rather have you get honest feedback than the current BS where they don’t respond back right away and getting delays and you are holding out hope unecessarily. Sometimes, people make the mistake of freezing other interviews, waiting for that one thing.

You keep going out there interviewing until you have the offer in hand because otherwise, you can get caught short. You can be misled by someone who doesn’t have the courage to be honest with you. And, again, if they say to you, “You did really well. We think very highlyof you,” they still not committing themselves to you. At least you’re getting good feedback by being told you interviewed well.

There may be reasons why they choose someone else that include in differences in the compensation, personality and fit and a variety of other things.

At least for now, you’re getting feedback that you interviewed well. So, to me, the best way to ask for the job is to simply say, “I just want to know how interested I am in this role. What would the next steps be like? When would I expect to hear back? How would I rank amoung the other people you’ve interviewed so far?

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

How to Respond to a Low Ball Job Offer – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter offers  a simple strategy for responding to a job offer lower than what you are looking for.

[spp-transcript]

 

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

When To Schedule Your Next Interview – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains when to schedule an interview for and when not to schedule an interview for.

[spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Why Should We Give You a Job Managing When You Haven’t Managed Before?

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this difficult interview question.

[spp-transcript]

Today, I am going to address one of those tough interview questions and help you get out of one of those “stumper situations” that people find themselves in when they interview.

The question is for people who haven’t managed before and are interviewing for a managerial job. Invariably, someone is going to ask you (if you’re lucky, they’re going to ask you; sometimes they just leave it on said and you need to be proactive with it), “You’ve never managed before and this is a managers position. What makes you think you can do that?” A lot of people fumble around with an answer and there are a few different ways to answer it.

The first one is to justify it. I’m not a big fan of answering this way because the interviewer can basically nod his/her head in agreement and dismiss your answer. There are a few different ways to answer it.

“Managers have to have these attributes,” and you list a couple of qualities that managers need to have. “They need to be driven, motivated, knowledgeable, empathetic, need to be able to coach and mentor…” You talk about a number of different qualities and attributes a manager needs half. Then from there, you say, “I haven’t done them all together. I’ve been in situations such as…” And then you talk about one situation where you had to coach and mentor. Another one where you didn’t have the authority but, ultimately, you are able to influence people to follow your lead and do the things that the manager would have someone do. That’s one approach to take, but it’s easy to dismiss these arguments as being BS.

It is my favorite way of doing it. Someone asks you a question or they haven’t asked you the question and it’s late in the interview and you want to address this proactively. Let’s say they ask the question.

“I’m sure some point you didn’t manage people and were stepping into your first management job. What made you think you were capable of doing it and how did you get your shot?” When they talk about why they were able to do it, you respond by saying, “I much the same way I’ve done (and mention a few things) and I’m ready. I know I’m ready.” Or, if they just choose to talk about how they got it, you follow up with, “what qualities did you have or experience that you have that prepared you for that moment?”

You follow up by saying, “I’m that way, too.”

If they don’t ask it in the question is hanging out there on asked as the elephant in the room, toward the end of the interview or at the very end if they asked, “if they ask is there anything else,” you say, “I’m sure one point you weren’t in a managerial role. Someone saw in you the experiences and determined that you are ready. What did you’s think of yourself at that point? Did you think you are ready?”

“Yes, I thought I was ready.”

“Great. What qualities and experiences prepared you for that moment?” They will then talk about their life which, I’m sure, is not radically different than yours. You will respond by saying something like I said before. “That’s my situation, too. I know I’m ready at this point. I’ve had these experiences, as well. As such, I’d like to be able to step up in the next organization and help you folks succeed, just as I felt my current firm succeed.”

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

How Much Are You Looking For? Version 1

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job-interview-intro__1303750811_5965 Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter provides you with two ways to answer the question, “How much are you looking for,” at an interview.

[spp-transcript]

I will talk about how to answer that great question that is often asked at first interviews, that is asked 10, 15, 30, 60 minutes into the conversation, where they look at you so seriously and say, “so, how much are you really looking for?” Or something to that effect.

When all is said and done, you can answer that question… But I don’t think that serves you best. Let me give you two examples of ways to answer that.

Number one. You start by saying, “I’m currently earning such and such.” The reason you start that way is that for most of you, the fact is (to be clear, I’m not talking about a senior executive who is looking at a board level position or senior executive position. You’re probably not listening to this podcast anyway. You have an agent working with you who’s coordinating everything related to the search. They’re handling it for you.”, But for Average Jane and Average Joe, if you choose not to answer that question, firms will press you and will give you two choices: answer it or I will escort you out the door.

Here’s how you do it. Both of them start off by telling them how much you are currently earning. Here is variation number one: “I’m really looking for an opportunity. If you decide on the right person for you, and, Lord knows, this seems like a great opportunity for me, I am just going to ask that you make your strongest offer.” Notice how you are avoiding stating a number?

If you give a number, that becomes the benchmark. If you give a range, I know you mean the highest number and they think about the lowest level in the range. So I’m not a big fan of “the range” even though sometimes you have to get one.

Here’s the second option. Again, you tell them your current salary and continue on by saying, “We are just getting to know one another. You haven’t decided if I’m right for you and I really don’t know enough about the role, so it’s hard for me to set a price point for it so I just want to say that if this is for both of us, I’m sure we can come to a satisfactory agreement. Suffice it to say, it’s not going to be for the same amount of money that I’m making now. I will be looking for an increase but I just want to get a better feel for the job before I start talking numbers with you.”

By doing this (I happen to be a bigger fan of the second answer than the first but I don’t know your capacity for delivering these lines so I’m giving you two choices), by using a line like the second one requires confidence in yourself. It requires a degree of self-assurance. It requires the capacity to present yourself authoritatively.

Again, notice what I did. I started off by telling them how much you’re currently earning and saying, “I really don’t know enough about the job to set a price for myself. Yes, I’m looking for an increase. I’m not going to take the same money as I’m making now to do this job, but I’m looking for, ultimately, is an opportunity and I just don’t know enough about the opportunity but if both of us are interested, I’m sure we can come to an agreement.” That’s ultimately what you’re saying to them.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

When Your Current Employer Wants More Than Two Weeks Notice

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to respond when your current manager asks for more than two weeks notice.

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you about those instances when you are giving you notice in your current employer turns around and says, “No! No! No! Not two weeks notice. We need four, six, eight weeks notice two months notice! Two years notice!” Whatever it is, it’s more than two weeks.

Here’s how you respond to it. I want to understand that the reason you doing this is that if you agreed to their unreasonable request (and it is an unreasonable request), it has an impact on your relationship with your future employer. That’s where you are going to be for the next period of your life, not with your former employer.

You just very simply respond by saying, “I understand your concern. I want you to know that I’m very prepared to do over time in order to ensure that this is a smooth transition. I given a commitment to my future employer on a particular date. My commitments are important to me; it’s important to them as well and I’m going to be there on that date.”

“If you need me to work overtime or participate in the interviewing for my replacement and assist with the hand off , I can take phone calls, not a ridiculous number of phone calls but I can take a phone call or two when my new job and will be happy to answer the new person’s questions. However, again, I need to be there on this particular date.”

If you work for big or midsized company, you don’t have to worry about this, because sometimes we work for a small firm or the owner is very hands-on you, may have to contend with an owner who says, “What! If you feel that way, get out of here now!” And they throw you out of your job now. If that happens, they obviously didn’t need you for more than two weeks, right? If you want to start sooner at your next employer you can contact them and say, “The person I was working for decided it would be better if I left now and I would like to join sooner.”

“Why did they feel that way?”

“They had an emotional tantrum when I gave them two weeks notice and they asked for four and I said I’m going to keep my commitment.”

That reinforces an ethical quality in the mind of the next employer in you.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn 

The Easiest Way to Apply Isn’t Usually the Best Way – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discourages you from applying to jobs using convenient buttons on job listings.

[spp-transcript]

today, I’m going to talk with you about a mistake the job hunters are making our convenience. Often, at the end of the job description, there are a group of buttons that allow you to apply with LinkedIn, apply with indeed, or apply with monster. These are not ideal ways of applying for jobs.

They are easy and convenient ways but they are not ideal. Let me give you an example.

You see a job description and say to yourself, “this is easy. All I have to do is click the apply with LinkedIn gotten.” Here the problems:

  1. LinkedIn usually doesn’t give you a great resume. Most of you right your profiles as a synopsis of your experience. So it’s kind of thin.
  2. For all of these, whether you use LinkedIn, indeed, or monster, you haven’t tailored the submittal to what the client is looking for. You are sending a generic response.

Before you actually apply using one of these buttons, think to yourself, “what am I sending? How does it demonstrate that I actually fit the job that’s involved?”

Without that, you’re actually flipping a bad resume like a burger at a fast food restaurant to the job at.

With many of these, certainly with the LinkedIn profile, many of you don’t put a phone number in your profile or open up your email address to the receiver. How was someone supposed to contact you? An email exchange? No! We are there to interview you. We want to talk to you.

Replying by email saying, “send me your phone number please. I would like to call you.” Garbage! It’s a waste of time!

If you think were making that phone call first when we have people who actually gave us their phone number to call them and made it easy for us to reach out to them, you’re mistaken.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Why Did You Leave Your Last Job? – No BS Job Search Advice

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses how to answer this tricky interview question.

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you today about one of those tough interview questions that are designed to help you hang yourself. The question is, “why did you leave your last job?” And as they asked the question they try to make it seem like you should tell them intimate details of your life that are completely inappropriate to talk about an interview. They act like they want you to confess.

Playing on that, there are two scenarios. The first is, if you got laid off, you you are not obviously going to say, “I was the least productive person in my organization so that was easy for them to choose me.” Obviously that’s not the right answer from your vantage point; from there’s they respond by saying, “okay. Thank you very much.”

In that situation, you talk about an organization was struggling financially and across-the-board cuts and, unfortunately, based upon seniority you are either (A) the least experienced person amongst your peers or (B) one of the more expensive people in the department and they decided, quality of work be damned, they could take out one person and save the money out of that department or three people and they opted for the one. That’s one approach.

Again, if you got laid off to you the most junior, that’s easy. They took a seniority approach. “I was the most junior person in the organization. You is not an issue or my work because all my reviews were terrific. Ultimately they chose me.”

If you are in a situation where you were not laid off, where you had a choice, this is a subtle one.

As you listen to this, remember, I believe in acting over the course of an interview. Thus, you want to act like you are agonizing and going back in time to think about it. You then say something along the lines of, “this was not an easy decision for me. I have gotten frustrated because they saw me as someone who could run this department, be very good as a programmer… Whatever it is… I didn’t want to sit in the same job for the next 20 years of my life. It became real clear to me that that was going to be the case where was. So, after speaking with my manager and he being very clear that this was the plan for me, I decided that, although I like my job, although I like the work I was doing and like the people, I had to think longer term. I start to go out on interviews and organizations saw me very differently. They saw me as someone who had a huge upside. It wasn’t that I was going to come in and do the same thing repetitively, organizations spoke about how they would do career development for me to help with my growth.” That becomes a different approach.

The second scenario is when you were let go, when you had a rough situation he decided to look at other opportunities.

Using myself as an example, I left a firm at one point where I was a top performer. I came to realize I wasn’t getting the support that I wanted or needed to do what I do. Management kept reducing tools and I kept reaching into my own pocket to pay for things. Eventually, I paused and asked myself, “if I’m going to keep doing that, why, if I’m going to be paying for this stuff myself, why am I giving management such a large percentage? If I’m going to do that, why give management such a large percentage of each sale that I do?” So I decide to hang my own shingle up.”

Did you notice what I was doing? I was painting a situation with the story so that it is understandable from the audience’s standpoint.I’m not acting bitter in any way. I’m not speaking harshly; I just decide to explain it in a very forthright way.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn