Communicate Multiple Ways to Interview Your Best

What is your dominant learning style – more importantly (at least during interviewing) what is the Hiring Manager’s? Some people like to hear information (auditory). Some like to see information (visual) and yet others obtain information through moving or touch (kinesthetically). Research shows that everyone has one channel that is more developed and thus more dominant than the others. Research further shows that 20% of people are primarily auditory, 40% are primarily visual and 40% are primarily kinesthetic. Information has the highest impact (most ability to persuade) when it comes through the dominant channel.

Do you see the problem here? Job interviews are all auditory which means that only 20% of interviewers are receiving information through their dominant learning channel. Traditional job candidates are “leaving a lot of information on the table”. It is important to engage additional learning channels. Information retention increases from 14% to 38% when listeners see as well as hear a presentation. Also, the time to communicate a concept is reduced by 40% with the use of effective visuals.

Here are some effective techniques for engaging all learning channels:

* Tell Stories – Stories are conveyed through words, however when a story is told well it creates a sensory impression. This is why people love stories, they can hear the words and experience the sensations. Truly terrific storytellers can almost create the smells. Stories are the most powerful way to communicate your background, skills, and experiences.
* Use visuals – Use the written word to “bullet point” what you are saying. Do not write a book for your interviewer(s) to read you will lose them. Give them the highlights or the title and then tell the story.
* Involve the Interviewer(s)- Get them to participate. Ask them questions, let them talk, give them something to write on (an interview presentation).

Also, you can use words to evoke different channels. For example, the phrase “Do you see what I mean” works well with visual people. “It feels good” works better with kinesthetic people. A good way to pose a question is to ask “what do you think”. This is a neutral question which does not favor any one learning channel. Compare this to “do you see what I mean” and “can you hear the difference?’”

If you listen closely to the interviewer you will begin to pick up their dominant learning mode. If they use the phrase, “I see what you mean” they are visual. If they say, “I hear what you’re saying” they are auditory. Are they taking lots of notes, kinesthetic, is their office highly decorated, visual, etc. Once you have an idea of their dominant learning mode begin to use words and tactics that communicate to that channel.

Ask the Most Important Interview Question to Interview Your Best

Selling is overcoming negatives, not just stating positives

There is a “one best interview question’ which should be asked by every candidate in every interview.

At the end of an interview, you need to find out how you did in the interview. “Hard sell” proponents suggest asking the question “is there any reason you would not offer me the job?” or “will I be asked back for the next round of interviews?” Both these questions are “sales close” questions and easily avoided by the interviewer by simply saying, “We have more candidates to interview before we can make that decision”. Even if they like you, avoiding the answer is a prudent response just in case subsequent candidates are better suited to the job.

Therefore, here is the challenge: ask a question that elicits an open, honest, non-defensive answer from the interviewer that tells you how they did in the interview. In addition, as a bonus, the question should enable you to answer any objections the interviewer may have.

The suggested question –

“Based on my background, experience, and skills what do you think would be the greatest challenges for me in this position?”

The honest responses to this question include the following:

No challenges or minor challenges
If the interviewer states there are no challenges or only minor manageable challenges, it is an indication that you did well in the interview and you are under consideration for the position.
A challenge in an important job area
When there is a challenge raised, ask how significant the challenge is. If the interviewer states a challenge which they consider to be important or even critical, which you cannot address, you are probably not a candidate for the job.
A challenge in an area about which you did not talk
The interviewer may mention challenges in areas where you have skills and experiences, however it did not come out in the interview. You now have an opportunity to share the information and correct the interviewer’s concerns.
A challenge to which you can provide a strategy for overcoming:
The interviewer may mention a challenge to which you can provide a strategy to overcome it. There may have been an opportunity for you to overcome a similar challenge on a previous job. Use that experience to tell the interviewer how you will overcome the challenge on this job. For example, “You are correct I am not good with Microsoft Access. However, when I started my last job I was not proficient with Microsoft Power Point. Immediately after being hired, I took a two day course, purchased training books, and practiced. Within four weeks I was producing good Power Point presentations and within eight weeks I was considered a highly skilled Power Point producer. I would learn Access the same way.”

Once you get a good solid answer to this question, it mitigates one of the most uncomfortable parts of the job search process – waiting for the hiring manager to call. If the hiring manager made it clear there are significant challenges to your performing on the job you can stop wondering if you will get the second interview or the job. If there were no challenges stated, you can maintain hope and be assertive in your follow-up.

Often, due to the stressful nature of the interview, good responses to challenges (objections) come to you after the interview is over. Use your Follow-Through Letter to address any objections you failed to address in the interview or reiterate your already stated interview responses.

Prepare Prepare Prepare to Interview your Best

The key is not the will to win…..everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.
Bobby Knight Texas Tech Men’s Basketball Coach

Research on interviewing behaviors shows that 78% of all people that interview just “wing” the interview. People applying for lower level positions do not think they need to prepare while people applying for upper level positions think they know all they need to know about the industry, trends, the position etc. As a result, most job candidates appear unmotivated, disinterested and are unable to clearly state how their background, skills, and experience match the job requirements.

Comprehensive preparation covers two topic areas 1- The company in context of the industry and 2- the specific position.

1-Researching the company has become far easier with all the information you can find on the Internet. The obvious place to start is the company’s web site which will provide the company’s view of itself (hint- read press releases they typically contain the latest information the company wants you to know). It is equally important to read news articles, industry magazines, and other sources of independent information. You can even go to www.vault.com to read what ex-employees say about the company. The information you learn about the industry and the company are particularly important as you formulate questions to ask the interviewer. The questions you ask should display a keen knowledge of the company and the industry.

2-Finding good, solid, helpful information about the position itself is more difficult. Typically, job requirements are poorly defined and include nebulous statements such as “good communication skills” or “team player” or “able to work independently”. The best job requirements are specific task or experience based statements that enable a candidate to specifically match their background and skills to the requirements. For example, “Ability to use XYZ computer program to develop direct mail marketing materials” or “5 years experience applying federal regulatory requirements in the pharmaceutical industry.” These requirements are specific and a candidate can state definitively how they have acquired the skills or experience required to do the task.

Other entries in this blog detail how an interview is a sales call. As a salesperson, it is incumbent upon you during interview preparation to uncover the position requirements. Like any salesperson, you should be asking good probing questions to learn the requirements. Possible questions include:

* What are three or four “must have” qualifications for a person to be selected for this position?
* What criteria will you use to make your hiring decision?
* What skill sets are required to be successful in this position
* What are the most important personal characteristics for a person in this position?
* What are the major responsibilities of this position?
* What is the highest priority for the person in this position?
* What are the important issues that need to be addressed immediately?
* What does a typical day look like for a person in this position?

These questions should be asked as part of the interview preparation not at the end of the interview. The answers to these questions will enable you to prepare the content they want to present during the interview. By the way, just asking these questions often impresses interviewers or internal HR recruiters. In addition, if you are working with an external recruiter the recruiter should have the answers to these questions.

The answers to these questions are best provided by the hiring manager, however other interviewers, the job posting, the HR recruiter, external recruiter, company employees, and information on the company web site are also valuable sources of information.

Here is a radical idea – prior to the interview call the hiring manager and say this, “I am preparing for our interview next week and I would like to ask you a couple of questions about the position so I can be well prepared for the interview. Do you have a few minutes to discuss the position?” What hiring manager would not be impressed and willing to spend the time to help a motivated and interested candidate?

In a recent discussion with a fellow psychologist, he stated the fear of rejection results in job candidates not fully committing to the interview and a symptom of not committing is not preparing. He stated, if a candidate does not prepare and they don’t get the job they can rationalize it by saying they were really not interested and if they had been they would have put more time into preparing. The fear of rejection lives in all of us, for some more strongly than others. Do not let fear of rejection get in the way of preparing for an interview.

Be the Solution to Interview Your Best

Figure out the problem, be the solution, get hired

Organizations hire people to solve problems. The problem can vary from, we need another set of hands to get our trucks unloaded on time to, our stock price has declined and we need someone to take this corporation in a new direction. When interviewing, thinking about solving a company’s problem provides a perspective that helps focus your interview preparation and guides your presentation in the interview.

The initial step in preparing for the interview is defining the problem. Typically, job descriptions do not specifically say “here is the problem, the problem is we need someone who can sell more of our product in a difficult market” or, “we need someone who can manage this new project and bring it in on time and on budget” or “we need someone to help the emergency department process medical records accurately”. Job descriptions talk about what the person needs to know or do to fix the problem but does not specify the problem directly. Interview preparation, and the initial part of an interview, should be dedicated to defining the problem in as much detail as possible. Once you have defined the problem you can clearly state how your skills and experience makes you the best solution for the problem.

Pre-interview, defining the problem is a matter of researching the company, the industry and the position. Also, use the screening interview to ask powerful questions that will define the problem. An example of a good problem-defining question is, “what are the three or four priorities for the person in this position in the next six months? Learning the priorities will inform you of what the “hiring problem” is. In the interview, spend the initial part of the interview listening to the hiring manager talk about the position and his or her needs and think, “what is the problem that needs solving?”

Once you have the problem clearly defined, follow a two-step process. First, clearly state the experience, skills, background and education that demonstrate you can do the tasks required to fix the problem and you can do them with good quality. Second, provide an action plan of how you will fix the problem. What will you do in the first 30 days on the job what will you do in the first 60 days? Your action plan items can be as simple as learning company policy and procedures so you can get along in the company or as complex as an initiating an analysis of current sales strategies and market trends. An action plan communicates to the hiring manager a high level of motivation and a proactive orientation. It says, “I am going to hit the ground running and contribute to the solution of this problem right away. I have good ideas and I am eager to get started”.

Hiring managers love to hear a candidate talk about having identified the hiring problem and how they are the best choice for someone to solve it.

Use a Presentation to Interview Your Best

Most Candidates and Hiring Managers think that an interview is a question and answer process. However, the best interviews consist of a combination of conversations, presentation, and questions. This article will focus on the presentation aspects of an interview.

Within an interview, candidates want to communicate their match with the critical job requirements, their fit with the company culture and how they can bring value to the organization. Most candidates hope they will be able to bring this information into the interview in response to questions from the interviewer. If the interviewer is skilled, they will typically be able to elicit most or all of this information. An unskilled interviewer will miss most of this information shortchanging the candidate. To assure all the important information is covered in the interview, the candidate can use a presentation to guide the interview and communicate why they are a good match for the position.

Using a presentation strategy, a candidate can either put together a well-crafted presentation they bring with them to the interview and go through from start to finish or find opportunities within the interview where they can give brief “mini-presentations”. Regardless, a candidate needs to develop a presentation as part of their interview preparation and then decide their presentation strategy.

An effective interview presentation, or any presentation, consists of a structure that frames the objective (presenting the reasons a candidate is the best choice), covers all relevant material, transitions smoothly from topic to topic, and finishes strong. In addition, it should be well organized, short, focused and relevant. A powerful interview presentation includes the following:

A purpose –
This is the one thing the candidate wants the interviewer to remember when they leave the interview. Typically, this is the same for any interview – based on my background, experience, skills, education and personality traits I am the best candidate for this position. An interview presentation can be introduced with this exact purpose. For example, “I have a presentation which communicates how my background, skills and experience match the critical requirements for this position and makes me an excellent candidate can I share it with you”.

Critical Information –
The most critical information in an interview is how well the candidate can perform the job. Performing well consists of doing the job tasks with high quality and getting along with others.The first piece of important information is the critical job requirements a candidate must do well to excel at the job. Thus, this becomes the first part of the presentation; “These are what I consider to be the critical job requirements for this position. I would like to discuss them with you to make sure we are in agreement about the requirements.” This aligns the candidate’s and hiring manager’s expectation and once there is agreement about the requirements, the rest of the presentation focuses on the match with the requirements.

Benefits –
Every person listening to a presentation is thinking, “How does this affect me or benefit me?” If there is no effect or benefit, the person quickly loses interest. Each item presented in an interview should be linked to a benefit for the hiring manager. For example, “You are looking for a person with experience in new consumer product introduction. In my last position, I introduced three mass consumer hardware products that accounted for $4.5MM in sales. As part of the introduction, I was responsible for consumer research, product development, marketing strategy and sales. As you introduce new products, I will be able to provide expert leadership in each of these areas which means that you will require fewer managers, save personnel costs and bring products to market faster”.

A written visual presentation (which makes an excellent leave behind) with all of the above elements plus good insightful questions, is the most powerful way to present in an interview. Candidates who have used interview presentations report amazing results and hiring managers are bowled over by their level of preparation, professionalism and organization.Even without a written document, developing an interview presentation as part of the preparation process is an excellent way to organize critical information that can be “presented” when the opportunity presents itself.

By thinking as a “presenter” a job candidate becomes an active participant guiding the interview as opposed to a passive participant hoping for the right questions.

Don’t Give it Away to Interview Your Best

An Interview is not a Business Consultation
I just heard about a situation from a recruiter where his candidate, following the first round of interviews for a VP of Marketing position, was asked to submit a written marketing plan via email. As all interested and motivated candidates would do, she followed through as requested and submitted a plan. A few days later the recruiter was notified that the candidate was no longer being considered because “the plan lacked meat”. This was a particularly blatant example of taking advantage of a candidate.

On occasion, companies cross over the line and ask candidates to do work that is beyond the reasonable expectations of an interview. The only thing a professional level candidate has to sell is their intellectual capital and trusted relationships. It is unreasonable to expect a candidate to give their assets away.

Here is another example, a candidate I was helping to prepare for an interview wanted to impress the hiring manager with his well-established customer base and contacts in his sales territory. In a prior interview with another company, he had prepared a customer/prospect list and brought it with him to the interview. The hiring manager asked to keep a copy and the candidate naively let him keep it. Subsequently, the candidate heard the list was circulated as a prospect list within the company where he was not offered the job. In the interview for which we prepared, the candidate talked about his established customer base, cited three specific customer examples, and spoke about the lucrative nature of the relationship. He also stated he had about a dozen more such relationships he could bring with him should he be hired and gave an estimate of the dollar value of the potential customers. He was hired. From the company’s point of view, they are challenged to verify that a person can do the job.

Seeing a work sample is an objective way to verify the candidate’s skills and knowledge. Work samples are fine; just do not expect the candidate to present a full-blown marketing plan.

There is a more subtle form of this phenomenon. A hiring manager will present a candidate with a problem they are facing in their department and ask how the candidate would handle it. For example, “We find our customer service people are taking too long on the phone solving customer’s shipping problems, what would you do to solve this?” This is a touchy situation, the candidate wants to come off as a knowledgeable problem solver and provide solutions, however they could dig themselves a hole. The candidate that launches into providing solutions is at risk of offering solutions that have already been tried and failed or solutions that given the specifics of the company/department (which is unknown to the candidate) will not work. Once the candidate has offered the unworkable solutions, the hiring manager is left wondering why hire a person that has no new ideas.

If you are in this situation, you should begin your response by saying “I don’t have enough information about the specifics of this situation to provide a workable solution” then proceed to talk about how you have dealt with similar problems in other settings or talk about how you would approach solving the problem. It is also helpful to engage the hiring manager in a conversation about solving the problem. For example, “I would begin to approach this problem by measuring the exact length of time the reps are taking and benchmark that against other companies, has that been tried?

You are understandably eager to demonstrate your knowledge and skills and this eagerness may make you vulnerable to free “consulting” rather than interviewing. When asked to provide a information that is tantamount to a consultation, it is perfectly all right to say, “You are going to have to pay me or hire me for that information”, but do it with a smile. Who knows, you may not get the job but you may get a consulting assignment.