As author Jim Collins said in “Good to Great”, get the right people in the right seats and the bus can go anywhere. Whether you’re looking to staff an organization or find the perfect job, you’ll find yourself at a real or virtual interviewing table. It’s more than a good chat. “Chatters” make poor hiring decisions over 80% of the time and mistakes cost companies over 2 times annual salary! Educated interviewers understand the technical and human qualities needed to conquer obstacles and leverage opportunities and the process associated with narrowing down resumes and phone screens. They ask behavioral-based questions, probe, convey a realistic and compelling picture of the company and job, keep candidates engaged and encourage enquiries.
Job seekers learn to think like interviewers, anticipate personal qualities additional to technical requirements and transform themselves from a “piece of paper” into a Compelling Story. Through conveying experiences, they follow a framework sharing situation, obstacles, actions and results. They indicate how they can add value, and they assertively ask questions to ensure they fit well with the job, company, boss and team.
INTERVIEWING
Looking to Hire . . . or . . . Looking for a Job: Learn the Skills to Make Good Decisions
Case Study: Job-hunting during a pandemic.
An Ontario professional association was concerned about members who lost jobs because of the pandemic as well as new grads looking for work. They asked me to create a virtual training program to give their membership the tools to showcase their capabilities in interviews when supply exceeded demand.
The Solution
Called “Put the Job Offer Odds in your Favour,” this 2-hour Zoom training covered the fundamentals of job hunting, as well as some of the differences of doing so in Virus Times.
- Succeeding at Virtual Interviews
- Putting yourself in the interviewer’s position
- Getting through the phone screen
- Passing the First Impression test
- Answering Behavioural-based questions (“Tell me about a time when…..”)
- Showcasing your “story” using the STAR format (Situation-Task-Actions-Results)
- Creating questions for interviewers
- Following up
- Practice-Practice-Practice