Devious interviewing tactics in the coming months

How to prepare for these abrasive tactics. What will recruiters be looking for?

The Bad News:
The field of recruiting (internal and external) is encouraging harsher interviewing schemes to wash out more candidates. Supported by two surveys, Garret Miller is zealously promoting a callous approach in order to not make costly hiring decisions in his article 7 Tips for Hiring Great Employees, published in the March 2011 issue of HVACR Business, a trade journal.

The two surveys:

SurePayroll Inc. asked small business owners to quantify the cost of a poor hiring decision; resulting in approximately $10,000 per hire.

Leadership IQ: “…nearly half of all new hires (46%) fail within 18 months…” “Managers indicated they believed the most common reason for the high failure rate was because “flaws were over looked during the interview process.”

Garret’s strategy has four main points that each candidate must “pass” in order to be considered for the position: Work ethic, Humility, Integrity, and Maturity. Otherwise known as WHIM strategy, in his book titled Hire on a WHIM.

The Good News:
According to the same article, many industries will find themselves “…in a hiring frenzy this decade…” due to many reaching the retirement age. As such you can prepare and succeed for your battle with HR, the recruiter, or decision-maker by knowing what questions they will be asking and how to answer them.

The following tips will probably be reformatted to the particular organization, field, and/or industry. Therefore you must analyze the posting and any interviews you have had thus far for the position in order to help you prepare for the next encounter.

Garret’s Tips

1. “Listen” to the resume.
   Garret’s advice to recruiters: analyze the resume for patterns in overlapping activities, jobs, length of employment, work settings, and job structures.The Professional’s Edge advice to candidates: You can control this by analyzing your knowledge, skills, and abilities; developing strong examples and communicating them through your materials. If you are tailoring your materials to a specific job, remove all extraneous examples and concentrate on providing examples that strictly match the posting. In other words, be the custom designed solution to their needs.

2. Assess their Work ethic.
   Garret’s advice to recruiters: have candidates illustrate, in detail, their academic and/or employment experience. Pay attention to positive and negative emotions, passion and enthusiasm, or the lack thereof.The Professional’s Edge advice to candidates: The interviewer is looking to find out anything that might rattle you. When they find something they will dig deeper and deeper until you “fail” the question, thus reducing the applicant pool by one more. Be prepared to discuss your work history, learn it, memorize it, memorize your achievements and failures. Develop positive outcomes for either the company, customer, or yourself. Positive outcomes for you would probably include learning something and then being able to apply it to other similar situations. Be prepared to end on that positive note. This communicates a willingness to learn and grow with the position.

3. Discern their Humility.
   Garret’s advice to recruiters: Have the candidate explain the last process they had to learn. With a follow-up question on what the candidate felt was their most humbling moment and what they learned it.The Professional’s Edge advice to candidates: This question is designed to find out two things 1) can you ask for advice or help from another, and 2) to determine your preferred working conditions.Communicate your intelligence by recognizing you are not an island, that you do not exist in a vacuum. Though you might enjoy trying to figure the puzzle out on your own, fear of asking for help or advice is a weakness an organization cannot afford. There are pros and cons to working either alone or with others: “We all bring different skill sets to the table, those that are my specialty – I can handle. Those that are not my specialty, I turn to those subject matter experts.” If you convey to the interviewer that you mostly prefer to work in groups or alone, they may see a potential problem for the organization in the future.

   The follow up question on your most “humbling moment” is designed to see you get uncomfortable, see how you react to stress. We all have regrets and personal secrets; you are not required to tell an interviewer your absolute most humbling (embarrassing) experience; the question also included a second part about what you learned from it. Okay so we have all screwed up in our lives, design your answer around the mistake you had the most positive learning experience from.

4. Determine their Integrity.
   Garret’s advice to recruiters: Ask candidates to describe their biggest disappointment or failure.The Professional’s Edge advice to candidates: the interviewer is analyzing your tonal and body language to see if there are/were any moral or ethical conflicts in your decision(s) and action(s). Additionally, they are looking for an answer that indicates if you were/are mature enough to take responsibility. The interviewer is trying to ascertain whether you can you be trusted to do the right thing.Also, this may be a follow-up to a Double Sided Question, with the first question asking about your biggest achievement. Because each person has different ideas of context and levels of disappointment you may want to clarify the question, “I’m not sure I understand the question, can you give me an example of potential disappointment or failure?” Their answer may be more or less than you were expecting, so adjust your answer accordingly.

   Preparing your answer ahead of time, allows you the opportunity to adjust the intensity of your answer to fit the situation. Questions like these are suppose to make you uncomfortable, however your preparation will alleviate some of the nervous and unintended body language that may indicate more of a problem than there really was.

5. Evaluate their Maturity.
   Garret’s advice to recruiters: Ask candidate where they see themselves in five years. Ask about greatest regrets or biggest weaknesses.The Professional’s Edge advice to candidates: The first question is designed to see if you have a plan or if you are just coasting through life, stopping at whatever job comes your way. Proactive people have a plan, where do you want to be in 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. Design your answer around this plan to be brief but provide just enough detail to answer the question. If your plan does not include this type of work in the future, don’t include that part. Your answer should focus on the job at present and your professional growth through accomplishments in that position. “Well that’s an interesting question. As you have described this position, I believe my short term objectives would be to ____.” Followed up by medium and then long-range goals with the caveat that there is much room for flexibility based on professional growth within the organization. Develop a logical progression of your career and present this to the interviewer. This kind of answer presents the interviewer with a picture of you in the organization for the long hall, you are trainable, flexible, and an understanding that you can plan and execute a plan.The darker side of this question is for the interviewer to learn whether you are the whiny, complaining, bitter type or a mature individual. Preparation for this kind of question is important, you can practice your answer with a trusted friend to help rid it of any negativity.

6. Throw in a wrench.
   Garret’s advice to recruiters: Alter the rules of the game for the candidate, see how they react to rapid changes. Change the setting for or during the interview by taking them to the lunch room for a cup of coffee or something. An unplanned for change of venue tends to create stress and show the candidates personality traits.The Professional’s Edge advice to candidates: While Garret’s advice may sound like a normal part of an interview; the idea is to see how you “chat” them up while you are in line. Understand that from the time you enter the parking lot to the time you leave the parking lot; you are in the interview. Everything you do on property and say to anyone can be reported back to the interviewer.

   Personally, I know of an interviewer who purposely provides inaccurate directions to a candidate for the interview, with planted people at three different locations to provide new miss-direction in order to truly throw a candidate off balance.

   While I do not agree with this tactic, it does provide a mechanism to break down the protective wall of a well-guarded candidate.

7. Heed your gut.
   Garret’s advice to recruiters: The candidate must provide at least one solid example for each of his WHIM qualities. If the candidate’s answers appear to be weak, venerable, or do not totally fit into the position – dig deeper and deeper until you uncover the real incompetence.The Professional’s Edge advice to candidates: You should have at least two or, better yet, three solid examples of your efforts. Include what you did, the goal of the task/project, and most importantly the results of the task/project. Having two or three well practiced answers, you can show strength, depth, and mastery of the quality and may prevent the interviewer from digging deeper until they find a weakness. What may be a strong example to you may not appear to be strong in the new organization, having those extra examples may be the difference between a “thanks, but no thanks” letter and a second interview.

Beyond the 7 Tips for Hiring Great Employees listed above, Garret indicates the interviewer should try one more time to find the candidate incompatible with the position and/or organization. Rather than asking the question, “Why should we hire you?” the author suggests trying to dissuade the candidate from the job, simply stating that they [interviewer] is not certain the candidate is really qualified for the job or even wants it.

Try to sell [him/]her out of the job enough to examine one last time whether [he/]she thinks it’s right for [him/]her.

The Professional’s Edge advice to candidates: This is a slippery slope the interviewer is proceeding down. While it is wrong on so many levels, it is typical of many callous interviewers. However, answer it in the same way you would the question “Why should we hire you?” Initially, for the cover letter, you should have analyzed the position matching your knowledge, abilities, and skills to the position. That information is good for the initial interviews, however with each successive interview you should revisit the analysis with the information gleaned from each interview to add, change, or modify your answer to this question. Each piece of information you obtain about the industry, organization, and position allows you to position yourself as the best candidate.

Don’t forget to use this same analysis to complete your Thank-You letter(http://wp.me/p1fSNS-5m).

Find specific and other topics below

• Interviewing
• Development of Marketing Materials
• HR and Recruitment
• Labor Force Statistics

Looking for a Job or a Career, What Does your Online Presence Say about You?

What does your online presence say about you? What if you could raise your presence? Part of that is cleaning up your existing presence by deleting any online photos, posts, comments on your friend’s pages, and off of your pages.

Redesign your personal Facebook/MySpace pages to include personal accomplishments and results. Get a professional email address, post it to your sites and paste it into your resume.

If you have the capability to create your own website through GoDaddy or some other site creator, DO IT! Demonstrate your knowledge, skills and abilities.

Click on the titles below the pictures to see these great examples of what a career marketing eProfile should include.

Accounting and Finance

Management

Sales

Technology

Transportation and Manufacturing

Cover Letters

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics approximately 1 in 6 people, in the labor force, are either looking for work or better work. This does not include all of the people who are no longer in the work force because they have “given up” or have “dropped off” the unemployment rolls because they have been unemployed for “too-long.”

So, how important is a cover letter?

Given two people with equal qualifications (according to the resume) which one will move on to the next step in the screening process? The one with the cover letter. It shows a more polished look.

A cover letter is supposed to be the first impression someone in the on-boarding process has of you. The supposed part of this is that in many cases your cover letter is read after your resume, if you have qualified for the next read. Your cover letter if often the second thing that read. However, there are a few tricks you can use to help it move up in the pile.

One of the first realizations a job seeker must make is that the reader of your materials will only take between 8 and 30 seconds to decide if you are qualified to pass on to the next reader. As a whole, cover letters are generally fairly plain, predictable, and seen over and over and over. A cover letter that states the candidate is applying for the position and that they can do a good job and not much more. Setting yourself apart from your competition by telling the employer exactly how you can solve the employer’s problem.

Here are tips and tricks that you can really use to help raise your materials toward the top of the keep pile.

• Analyze the position. What exactly is the employer looking for? If you cannot figure out what the employer is looking for how can you answer their call? Make a list of the knowledge, abilities, and skills the posting is looking for, then rate each one to its importance based on the posting. The Tailored, Job Specific Resume
• Your opening paragraph should be a single sentence to indicate the “position title, where you found the posting, and to please consider the following.” Your last paragraph should include your “belief in yourself to do the job and that you are looking forward to a meeting to discuss your qualifications soon. You can be reached at the above telephone numbers.” In other words, set the expectations and live up to them.
• Limit your cover letter to one page. Pick the top 4 or 5 characteristics the employer is looking for, based on your analysis. List their qualification and then your accomplishment fulfilling that requirement. Use the same formatting in your heading as your resume (Name, contact information, etc).
• Between the first and last paragraph, use your accomplishments to demonstrate your ability to be successful in the job, include results (qualitative and/or quantitative). Similar to showing a house for sale, you have to take out all of the personal items to let potential buyers see themselves and their new home. Avoid company or field specific acronyms and lingo, the first and probably second person to see your materials will be from HR. It is up to you, to help the reader of your materials see you in the job and doing it successfully. Don’t just tell them you can do the job; show them how you can do the job and do it successfully.
  If you are an experienced word processor, organize the middle of your cover letter in a left/right format. A table is often the easiest way to do this. List their requirements in each of the left cells and your accomplishments in the right cells.
  Your resume should contain your primary example as well as 1 or 2 other examples of each requirement to demonstrate the depth of your knowledge, skills and abilities as demonstrated in other jobs. Don’t forget your qualified or quantified results on your resume. The Tailored, Job Specific Resume
• Since most marketing material is passed through an employer or recruiter’s website, use the content of your cover letter to copy and paste into it. Sometimes it can be difficult to find out who exactly to send the email or letter to (HR types tend to be enigmatic about releasing names). If you can find the name, use it. Otherwise, when you have a telephone screening, ask if you can email your cover letter and resume to the telephone screener, since internet sites don’t keep the formatting. Address your email to that person. Copy the content of your cover letter to the body of the email and attach your resume. When you have your face to face interviews change the addressee to the person or persons you will be meeting with. This information can be found out during the scheduling of those meetings.
  When you print your letter and resume to take with you to the meetings, use a higher quality paper than regular copy/printer paper. Standard copy/printer paper is 20 pound paper, go to your local office supply store and get 22 or 24 pound extra or bright white paper. Ask the copy desk to show you white samples, if you are not sure. The color and weight of the paper will help you to stand out from your competition.
• Unfortunately, the rules that apply to candidates do not apply to HR. The accuracy of descriptions in postings and spelling/grammatical errors in those postings aside, there is zero tolerance for these kinds of errors on your materials. Check, Re-Check, and Triple Check your documents. Have someone else read them. Read them backwards (this is an old trick used by editors and copy writers in order to avoid spelling mistakes).
• Plan your follow-up strategy. For some reason, HR (as a whole) doesn’t believe it is important for them to confirm receipt of your resume or to respect you as a person and let you know the schedule of interviews or your disqualification from the on-boarding process. You must instigate the contact; you must call/write to them to get your status in the process. Since they do have many resumes to go through, give them at least one week but no more than two before you attempt contact (Whatever Happened to General Courtesy).

Email me and I will share with you a specific exercise to help analyze the job. The Professional’s Edge

Resumes and Other Marketing Materials: Resume Composition

For both the All Purpose and Tailored Resume Depending on how you are going to use the resume, your format will be a little different. As the old saying goes, “Use the right tool for the right job.”

A resume can communicate a lot of information to your intended audience, quickly. The question as to

Page Set-up:
All Margins should be equal; set the page margins at 0.5, 0.75, or 1.0 inches for top, bottom, left, and right margins. This will give an esthetic appeal to the reader.

Use a font like Arial or Times New Roman at a 10, 11, or 12 point font for the majority of your material. There are a few exceptions to the point size as we will get to next. Both of these fonts are easily read online or in print.

All Purpose Resume

Name:	Should be prominent, larger than the rest of the text on your resume by 3 or 4 points. Sometimes a different color can be chosen for this text, a solid dark or Navy blue has shown well in tests. Don’t choose colors that are avant-garde. Left Justified. You can also utilize the border tool to add a line across the page under your name, dividing it from the rest of your material; by doing so, you have created your own letter head that can be used on your cover and thank you letters.
Contact:	Your contact information should be the same size or smaller than the rest of the text, this can give you added space at the bottom of your resume if needed. If you are still searching for more space, consider using a floating text box (without borders or fill-in color positioned in front of your other text. This will allow you to move the information around as you adjust your document. Contact information should be right justified so that it can be easily read and distinguished by the reader.
Title:	Add your title, change the color to match your name, adjust the point size up one or two, center and underline it.
Objective Statement:	Using either your generic statement or a tailored statement from the posting, add your statement under your title. It should be the standard size of text as the rest of your document.
Selected Achievements:	Leave a blank line between your Objective Statement and the Selected Achievements section. Type the words “Selected Achievements” and format them the same as your title (same color, justification, point size, etc.). By doing so, you create a visual break for someone as they are reading your materials. Using the examples you created demonstrating your particular knowledge, skills, and abilities categorize them into three to six basic groups and name each group accordingly (Management, Leadership, Project Management/Coordination, Detailed, Finance, Sales, Creative Solutions, etc.). As you group these bullets together you will see common threads that you can use in developing a title. List your categories with the associated accomplishments bulleted underneath them. Leave a blank line between the last bullet and the next category. Bold the and underline your categories to provide a context and reference point for the reader.
Work History:	Leave a blank line between your Selected Achievements and the work history. Type the words “Work History” and format them the same as your title (same color, justification, point size, etc.). In reverse order (most recent to distant past) add in order. If your jobs have been at different companies (one company one title). On the same line: Job Title (left justified) and the years of service (right justified) On the next line: Company Name (left justified) and the City, State (right justified) Under the company name line: Type in a quick two or three sentence, generic, HR descriptive paragraph of your job. Leave a blank line and begin your next job title and dates of service If you have had multiple jobs at one company then follow this format. On the same line: Company Name (left justified) and the City, State (right justified) On the next line: Job Title (left justified) and the years of service (right justified) Under the company name line: Type in a quick two or three sentence, generic, HR descriptive paragraph of your job. Leave a blank line between jobs. Add the next title and dates of service and continue adding the information until you have finished with all the titles for that company. Leave a blank line and begin with the next company
Education:	If you have a formal education, leave a blank line between your Work History and the Education Section; type the word “Education” and format it the same as you did your title and Work History (same color, justification, point size, etc.). Note: If you received your degree within the last two years, then this section should go between your objective statement and your work history. If it has been longer than two years, it should go below your Work History. Since most of us with a degree, did so in our early twenties, leave the date off. It will only serve to age you. The format you should follow centered, in reverse order (most recent to distant past), and leaving a blank line between degrees. Degree School City, State
Optional Sections:	Professional Education: Whether or not you have a formal education, a section titled “Professional Education” and format it the same as you did your title and Work History (same color, justification, point size, etc.). Adding a bulleted list of training topics (not a list of specific courses) can be helpful in communicating that you have up-to-date knowledge of certain topics. Community Involvement: This is a great section to incorporate into an All Purpose resume. Give it the section title “Community Involvement” and format it the same as you did your title and Work History (same color, justification, point size, etc.). Add community based items (i.e. Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Some kind of charitable event for the underprivileged). Be careful not to add items that could be seen as potentially creepy (i.e. Sunday School teacher to 7 year old boys). This last one, if you knew the man wouldn’t think anything of it. However, the person reading your resume most probably doesn’t know you and out of context (knowing this man), it can sound a little creepy. You must proof your resume (or have someone else proof it) as if you don’t know this person. Licensures/Certifications: Give it a title and format it the same as each previous section. Bulleted list of your licenses and any license number as required. Leave off unrelated licenses to the job if you are creating a Tailored, Job Specific resume.

Tailored, Job Specific Resume

Name:	Same as above
Contact:	Same as above
Title:	Same as above
Objective Statement:	Same as above
Work History:	Begin the same way as above; The only difference between the All Purpose resume and the Tailored resume is the placement of your achievements. Instead of having a “Selected Accomplishments” section, copy and paste the appropriate achievements under each title (hence why I suggested add your job title and company after each achievement in parentheses). In reverse order (most recent to distant past). If your accomplishment doesn’t answer what they are looking for, leave it off.
Education:	Same as above
Optional Sections:	Same as above With a warning… if you happen to have a commercial pilot’s license, that’s great, but what does it have to do with the job you are applying for? Just as in the previous example if you don’t know who will be reading your resume you might want to leave off that you belong to the State-wide Miniature Remote Control Association. If it doesn’t answer what they are looking for, leave it off.

Resumes and Other Marketing Materials: Summary Description of Skills

Most people develop some kind of whiny objective statement about what they want in a position. This is not your fault, no one told you the rules changed. As in the example below:

Professionally poised to obtain a position where opportunities exist to participate in systematic approaches which utilizes my business leadership and professional psychology background. Apply statistical decision-making skills, theoretical knowledge, implement, and evaluate process improvement procedures.

I almost gagged when I read this the first time. Wow, really nothing about what this person can do for an organization. It is all about what they want to do. Instead, communicate what you are and what you bring to the organization. Are you…

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL
Highly motivated and creative IT professional with over 12 years’ experience in management, business analysis, technical sales, project leadership and application development. Communicates effectively with all levels of an organization to understand user problems, diagnose issues, and develop solutions to resume normal user productivity quickly.

This kind of statement captures the attention of the reader by immediately communicating what she/he can do for the organization. Utilizing many of the buzz words in the job posting will move your resume through the electronic filtering to a real live person. After all isn’t that the initial goal?