Ready, Set, Interview
Pre-Game, Gametime and Post-Game
There are three parts to a successful interview process: Preparing, Doing the Deed and The Day After. I’m also providing an extra credit session on Employment Apps/Background Checks. Here’s a rundown of each.
Preparing
Do your homework:
o Never fail to review the website of the company, and do a Google search to find out any current news. If it’s a startup, look them up on Crunchbase. You can also look the up on Glassdoor — they have some good input on a company’s interview approach and questions. There is a grand total of ZERO excuses for not being prepped.
o Look up the LinkedIn bios of the people you’ll be meeting. If they have blogs, read them.
o Do some competitive analysis
20 Questions:
o Common questions to be ready for:
▪ “Why are you thinking of leaving your current company?” — even if you’re miserable, don’t badmouth. If you are unhappy with your current employer, don’t dwell on negative aspects. Focus on what you are looking for in an opportunity with the company you’re interviewing with.
▪ “Tell me about yourself” — Go for a short, but sweet synopsis of your education, career and key accomplishments. In general, nix the personal details, hobbies, or personal stories.
▪ “What are your values? — Cultural has become as important as the hard skills you bring to the table. Many companies want to make sure you will jibe with their soul. You can usually research this via their mission statement, culture/value statements on the site, etc. Please promise me you will never lie about your values to land a job — trust me, you and they will end up miserable. But get clear on what your key values and drivers are, so you can speak to cultural fit.
▪ “What are you Strengths/Weaknesses?” — You have to ride the fine line between being honest, yet neither boastful nor disclosing too many skeletons in your professional closet. Whatever you say, be genuine. Here are a few examples:
● Strengths — Dedication, Integrity, Hard Working, Great Customer Service skills, Organized, Great follow through, etc
● Weaknesses — Best to face this head on. You can also try to turn this into an opportunity to speak about a situation where you faced a challenge/failure, and what you learned now to turn that weakness into a strength. Something like this may work well — “I tend to get very involved with my team’s projects, and if it doesn’t go well, I sometimes take it as a personal failure”. Whatever you say, don’t say you have no weaknesses. We all have weaknesses, and we can all learn and grow from them. Focus on the self awareness and growth.
● Be ready for the “Do you have any questions for me?” prompt. We suggest coming with a list of at least 5 questions. Try to make them fairly open-ended to elicit a real dialog. Here are a few suggestions:
● What are the company’s growth plans?
● How does ________ (the job you’re in play for) fit into the overall organization?
● What is the business problem you are trying to tackle by filling this position?
● What overall qualities seem to work best in the culture of this company?
● Be ready for objections. If you have a sketchy job history, have your rationale ready. If you live 100 miles from the company, be prepared to explain how you could tolerate that. If you are relocating, be ready to let a prospective employer know if you will pay for your own flights out to interview, pay for your own relo, when you plan to be living in the city where they are located, etc.
Know Thyself — review your resume and be prepared to speak to anything on it.
Stuff to Bring:
o Hard copies of resume (yes, they have it, but bring them anyway)
o Notepad/Pen to take notes
o Info you would normally need to complete an Employment Application — work history/contact info, education history/contact info, references, etc. More info on filling out an Employment Application is below.
Doing the Deed
Day of Prep
● Aim to get to the front desk about 10 minutes before the scheduled interview time. Have your route planned out and Waze ready to roll. Make sure you’ve scoped out parking.
● If you are comfortable doing so, ask the interview organizer what the dress code is for interviews. Some people are business casual (or super casual) day to day, but they still like it when people wear suits to interviews. If you can’t find out beforehand, if it’s a startup, go for nice business casual, and if it’s a more established place, go for professional attire. The place may be totally cool with jeans, tats and piercings, but hedge your bets during the interview, and save the goodies for your first day once you get the job!
● LEAVE THE CELL PHONE IN THE CAR! Really. I meant it. (remind me to tell you about the time I walked into a conference room to interview someone, and he had his legs up on the table, was reading a magazine, and held his finger up and mouthed “hang on a second” while he finished up a call.)
● Make sure you bring all the Stuff to Bring, above.
● If this is a phone or Skype/Zoom/Hangout interview, be sure to do the following:
o Prep the sitch — make sure you have good reception, and for video, check the lighting and background (remind me to tell you about the time a naked person walked by in the background).
o Make sure your outgoing message is benign and professional, just in case a call goes to vmail (remind me about the time the outgoing message said “What’s up Motherf*****s. Leave a message. Yo.’)
o Remember to breath! When you are on the phone, you miss the normal visual cues you would get from a person telling you when you have said too much. Start at a high level, feel it out, and dig into more details if that’s what’s warranted.
o If a company calls out of the blue, try not to get flustered — simply state that you are not able to speak and either schedule a time then, or tell the person you will call back as quickly as you can do so.
It’s Showtime!
● May the handshake be firm, the eye contact solid and the attitude positive.
● Be nice to everyone! Never underestimate the power of having good manners with the security guard and/or receptionist. Or the power of treating them poorly.
● There is no such thing as an interview that is a “formality”. It’s never a formality. Stay professional and don’t let your guard down. Keep your language clean, your feet on the ground, and keep your political opinions to yourself.
● Let the Interviewer lead the interview. Answer directly and with enough info, but know when to stop. If you see the person’s eyes glazing over, take the cue.
● If you get a Yes/No sort of question, try to turn it into a positive. For example, if you are asked if you have ever led a project with a budget over $20M, instead of just saying “no”, try “I haven’t had a chance to lead a project quite that large, but I have led multiple concurrent projects, and one was close to $10M. I believe I know enough about the core fundamentals of project leadership to simply parlay that experience into a larger playing field.”
● Be prepared to speak to how your experience and skills map to this particular position. This is not the time to tell them you are fine at this sort of job, but you really want to be VP. Unless you really want to be a VP, in which case you are wasting everyone’s time.
● At the end of the interview, it’s a great idea to ferret out any concerns before you lose the chance to assuage them. You might say something like “I am extremely interested in this role, love your company’s culture, and feel my skills are a great match. Do you have any concerns about my ability to hit the ground running?”
● If you are asked about salary, it’s fine to tell them what you make. If you asked what you require, avoid saying a single number (if it’s more than their budget, you’re out, and if it’s less than their budget, guess how much they will offer you? ☺). Go for a range, and make it clear that you’re interested in the role and the overall package will be considered, but I’m aiming for something in the XX-XX range.
● Remember to ask for business cards so you can ….
The Day After
● I’m a big fan of manners, and thank you emails or texts are on my top 10 list of favorite manners. If you did collect business cards as advised above, you’re golden. If you didn’t, you can Google around to see if you can figure out the company’s email name formatting convention, and then take a stab at it. I typically advise sending a separate email to each person, personalized to that person. If there was some point that you really connected on (common interest, work challenge where you have an idea, etc), definitely include that in the note or text. It remains a very nice touch, and can give you an edge.
Extra Credit — Employment Applications/Background Checks
● Many companies will have you complete an Employment Application, including an Authorization for them to proceed with a Background Check. The key thing to note is that when you sign this form, you are essentially swearing that all the information is accurate. I’ve seen countless offers reneged due to someone saying;
o …they have a degree when they don’t (even if the company could care less about degrees)
o …they make 5k more than they actually make (even if the company would have been happy to give them 5k more)
o …fudging the dates of employment, weather intentionally or because a person simply forgot (even if a company didn’t care an iota about a small error.)
● If you do not remember something, it’s best to put “approx.” next to it. It’s fine if you do not remember something, but it’s not fine to sign off on inaccurate info.
● Most Background Checks include these categories below — there are some state by state limitations on the type and amount of information that can be checked.
o Criminal — local, county and federal.
o Financial — bankruptcies, debt, etc (this is especially critical for Financial Services companies, and/or any company with access to sensitive information such as SS numbers)
o Social Security
o DMV
o Education Verification
o Employment History Verification — title, dates of employment and salary.
● Even if you have padded, embellished or plain old forgot things on the resume, it’s critical that you put accurate information on the Employment Application, even if there is a discrepancy. The Employment Application trumps the Resume.
● Disclosing things that you know will pop up on during the Background Check process may make or break whether you get a job offer. We have seen companies that would normally never hire someone with a bankruptcy, proceed with an offer since the person disclosed this information at the start of the interview process. She was able to explain her unique circumstance, show a recent 3 year history of responsible spending, and prove to them that she would never land in those circumstances again. It’s a billion times better preempt awkward conversations by dealing with background blips head on.
Related posts you may want to check out:
· Creating a Great LinkedIn Profile
