Know What Your Body is Saying While Your Mouth is Moving to Interview Your Best

What does your gut say?

Many interviewers claim they make hiring decisions based on their “gut reaction”. Have you considered what makes up a gut reaction; most interviewers have not. Gut reactions are complex, however a substantial portion is based on unconsciously reading body language. Body language is a combination of eye movement, body orientation, hand movement, head position, and leg activity. When messages from all these parts are combined there is a lot your body is saying. The important question; is your body communicating a “hire me” message?

Lets examine some body language-

Eyes
Eye contact 60% of the time indicates interest and agreement however, eye contact 100% of the time indicates aggression. Frequent avoidance of eye contact may indicate a person is hiding something or lacks confidence. Rapid blinking indicates resistance to what is being said.

In your interview think about your eye contact. When you are asked a difficult question and you are not sure of the answers to you will tend to look away. This communicates lack of confidence in your answer and lets the interviewer know you are unsure maybe even fabricating an answer.

Think about maintaining good eye contact even when uncertain or nervous about what you are saying.

Your head
When a person’s head is tilted towards you it indicates interest. When tilted away at an angle with glances from the corner of the eye, it indicates suspicion, mistrust and disbelief. The head supported on a hand indicates boredom. Nodding indicates interest and agreement.

During the interview keep your head tilted toward the interviewer particularly when they are speaking. They will get the message you are interested in what they are saying. Avoid cradling your head in your hands. Nod in response to what the interviewer is saying, although not like a bobble head doll.

Your hands
Here is some hand communication:

• When hands are open and palms up, it conveys truthfulness and openness
• Hidden palms indicate something held back
• Clenched hands indicate tension, discomfort, or anger
• Hands covering the mouth or the nose or tugging at the ear indicates that a lie may be concealed
• A limp handshake with palm up betrays submission
• A firm handshake with palm down conveys strength and confidence
• A hand gripping the other hand, wrist or elbow communicates a desire to quell rising anxiety
• A hand behind the head betrays a need to fend anxiety, danger or discomfort.
• Steepled hands bear power and proclaims confidence and business
• The hand stroking the chin indicates ongoing evaluation of something just said
• Hands flat on the table indicate readiness to agree

Pay attention to your hands. What are they communicating to the interviewer? What are the interviewer’s hands communicating to you?

Body position
A closed position, slouching with arms crossed, communicates evasiveness and resistance. When you lean towards the interviewer you sends signals of interest. By leaning away you communicate disinterest or resistance.

In your interview keep an open body posture. If you cross your legs do not turn sideways. If your interviewer displays a closed body posture things are not going well.

Your doing well in the interview when
The interviewer maintains eye contact  70% of the time and is smiling. She faces you directly, nods frequently, leans toward you, and her arms and legs are uncrossed.

If you are not getting these body signs you will naturally,based on your gut reaction, tend to tighten up. Stay open, take a deep breath, and think about what is going on in the interview. You can even ask for some feedback about what the interviewer is thinking.

Use an interview presentation to improve your communication

Being Like Sully Sullenberger Will Help You Interview Your Best!

In an extraordinary performance of aeronautical skill Sullenberger exhibited the following life saving presence of mind-

Preparation: Like any pilot, Sullenberger was trained in flying and landing under duress. But he went further: he researched and studied crash situations and even consulted others on the matter.

Poise Under Pressure: When stressed by a challenging situation based on his training and preparation he knew the most effective routine. Once the plane hit the water, and he followed the routine to a T.

Execution: Not only did Sullenberger have to act fast when his plane encountered engine trouble upon takeoff, but he had to warn his passengers (the now-famous “Brace for impact” warning he said through the intercom) and then help them evacuate.

In interviewing preparation is 85% of the equation for success. Preparation provides the insights and information you need to answer questions and gives you the confidence to be relaxed, think clearly, and use the information to your best advantage.

The interviewer may throw you curves and ask unexpected questions however, being prepared and having a plan for your interview will give you the poise to perform under the pressure of the interview. Be prepared to introduce the information you want the interviewer to know about you so they know you are an excellent candidate for the position. The best plan is to have an interview presentation prepared to use during your interview.

Taking this analogy a step further, the interviewer is the pilot you are the co-pilot in the interview; you are not a passenger.  If the interviewer is doing a good job of steering the interview then sit in the second seat and do your job as a co-pilot by following the interviewer’s lead. Should the interviewer go off course, not obtaining the information they need to make a decision about you, take the controls.

Be prepared, have a plan for communicating the information you want the interviewer to know, and then execute calmly. And just like Sullenberger, don’t leave the interview until you have executed your plan.

Use InterviewBest to plan your interview

Do You Know Why They Are Not Hiring You Today? Find out to Interview Your Best

In the car showroom the salesperson is finished with their sales pitch and their final question to you is “Is there a reason you would not buy this car today?” This is an “objection question” and any good sales person in any sales situation asks a variation of this question (What would I need to do or provide to get you to sign the contract today?).  Once the salesman hears the objection(s), their challenge is to overcome the objection(s) and make the sale.

Is there a reason the hiring manager is not offering you the job today? Do you know what the reason is?

In the interview ask the objection question. However, you need to ask an objection question that works in a job interview and gets you the information you seek. Many interview books suggest a direct question such as, “Is there a reason you would not hire me” or even more direct “So do I get the job?” In my experience hiring managers simply duck a direct “objections”  question by saying “Well we have other candidates to interview so…”. My suggestion is to ask a less direct/confrontational question that will give you good actionable information.

Here is the question:
“Based on my background and skills what do you think would be the greatest challenges for me in this position?”

A “challenge(s)” is an objection to hiring you. The challenge may be major- you will not get the job, minor- you are in the running, or inconsequential- if no better candidate shows up you are in.   If there is a challenge voiced do the following:

1- Make the challenge specific
For example the hiring manager may say “You may not have the experience we need”. What experience do they need what experience are you lacking? Keep asking questions such as “please tell me specifically what you mean?” until you get the details and you understand the challenge.

2- Probe for the concern behind the challenge
“You are correct,  although I have worked for a financial services firm I do not have experience in commercial banking what is your concern about my lack of experience in commercial banking?

3- Play back the challenge to the hiring manager
So your concern is that I do not have enough client facing experience is that correct?

Once you know the details of the “challenges” you can formulate a way to overcome the challenge. It may be proposing a strategy you can use once hired to overcome the challenge or it may be emphasizing another area of skill or experience which is equally important and can overcome the hiring manager’s concerns.

This challenges question should be asked in every one of your interviews. It will give you very valuable information as well as provide a question you can ask whenever the interviewer asks you “Do you have any questions for me?”

Use an Interview Presentation to differentiate yourself, overcome objections, and interview your best

Why Curiosity Helps You Interview Your Best

Curiosity actually saved the cat

Most job candidates interview for jobs in industries in which they have experience. Some candidates have 15 plus years of experience in a specific job in a particular industry. Many experienced candidates make the mistake of assuming they know all they need to know about the industry, the company, and position for which they are interviewing.

It is easy to understand how a candidate may make this mistake. Take for example a Chief Financial Officer, a Chief Information Officer, or an experienced manager who has 10 plus years of experience in their job. For years they have been exposed to industry trends, competitors, new developments in their field, colleagues and other professionals,  etc. It is natural for them to assume they know all they need to interview well and they short change themselves on their interview preparation and do not listen enough in the interview. This is the same mistake experienced sales people make when they think they know as much or even more than their customer.

Here is what even experienced candidates don’t know- they do not know about the job from the hiring manager’s perspective.

As in any good sales process, the initial part of an interview should be spent getting to know the needs of the customer (hiring manager). Listen for the following in the hiring manager’s words:

• What specific problem is the position solving
• What are the immediate, mid-term, and long term priorities of the position
• How will success be measured
• What are the specific skill sets the position requires
• Significant industry trend/challenges
• Personal success factors that fit the company culture

To learn the above information, maintain an attitude of curiosity. According to Dictionary.com, curiosity is “the desire to learn or know about anything; inquisitiveness.” Curiosity also includes an openness to view things from others’ perspectives.  The challenge is to avoid having your preconceived notions and existing beliefs block learning the hiring manager’s views and perspective. You may think the hiring manager’s thoughts are incorrect, however it is her thoughts and you need to know them. I am not suggesting agreement only awareness.

Curiosity exemplified by good questions and open mindedness communicate positive traits in the interview. Also, it is a good approach to disagree by asking questions. For example, “I understand you think the emerging trend in energy is drilling for more oil, I am wondering what your thoughts are about alternative energy such as electric and hydrogen?’ You may learn something very interesting about the hiring manager’s thinking.

Once you are aware of the hiring manager’s perspective you can target your answers more specifically to the requirements of the position. In addition, you can determine if the job is for you.

Differentiate yourself with an interview presentation

Avoid These Sales Mistakes to Interview Your Best

The following list of sales no-nos is written by Geoffrey James and posted on bnet. I have included them here because they are almost completely applicable to an interview. With the exception of #8 (although these days there are stories of candidates bringing their mothers to interviews) each of these sales warnings should be heeded for an interview.

#1: Discuss politics or religion. Such subjects are almost always a trap into opinionated quicksand that’s hard or impossible to get out of.  Fix: keep the discussion on business or neutral ground.
#2: Dive into your product pitch. Sure you’ve got something to sell, but if you pitch too soon, you’ll get pitched out the door. Fix: Ask questions to understand needs, before you pitch.
#3: Arrive late to the call. If you don’t arrive on time it tell the customer clearly that you don’t give a damn about them or their time.  Fix: Always arrive 15 minutes ahead of time.  If you drive to calls, get a GPS.
#4: Appear flippant or sarcastic. A good-natured laugh at a joke might be taken personally by someone watching out the window, without hearing the context.  Fix: Watch your demeanor at all times.
#5: Lack requisite product knowledge. The prospect doesn’t want to hear “I need to get back to you about that”…over and over. Fix: make sure you’re trained on your current products and policies…before the call.
#6: Fail to plan the call. Sounds simple, but trying to close when should be qualifying (for example) is a lost sale.  Fix: Never enter a door without first thinking about what you plan to accomplish.
#7: Be too business-like at first. Remember you’re building bridges with another human being, not just a notch in your sales gun.  Fix: Smile and be friendly… but don’t get too gushy.
#8: Show up with a crowd. If you bring too many people, it will draw customer’s comments about why your costs so high  Fix: Use webconferencing when you need to include additional resources.
#9: Fail to check your appearance. Don’t show up with something amiss that a quick stop in the client’s bathroom could head off.  Fix: Make a quick pit stop – with a look-over – before the call.
#10: Forget the customers’ names. What could be more embarrassing than actually forgetting whom you’re talking with?  Fix: Write down the names down of everyone in the room with a small table diagram.
#11: Be rude to the admin. No flirting, of course, but if you act all arrogant and superior, you’ll just antagonize the help.  Fix: Be friendly and respectful of the staff – admin and otherwise.
#12: Ask personal questions. You may think that the customer is your friend, but you can easily screw up if it gets too personal.  Fix: Keep the conversation focused on business issues, especially the customer’s needs.

The appropriateness of this warning list further supports the InterviewBest philosophy – an interview is a sales call.

InterviewBest

Prepare Your References to Interview Your Best

Reference checking is a standard although flawed process. Candidates choose references that will speak positively about them so hiring managers are expecting glowing references with little valuable information. If a hiring manager hears anything that sounds the least negative they immediately see red flags.

Instead of your reference checks being a standard procedure with little information, you can have your reference check enhance your candidacy. Once your interview is over you will have a great deal of information about the position, the qualities the hiring manager likes about you, and any hesitations the hiring manager may have about hiring you. This is all very important information your references need to know.

Call your references and prepare them for the reference check call. Tell them about the critical requirements of the position, how you fit the position, and your strongest selling points. Tell them what the hiring manager likes about you and ask them to highlight those points. Mention any concerns the hiring manager has and ask your reference to talk positively about those areas.

The Business Pundit in his online blog suggests that hiring manager ask references the following questions:
* What did he learn during his time at your company
* If you could give him a single career suggestion, what would it be?
(If the reference was a supervisor)
* How did the candidate respond to your management style?
* Would you rehire her
You can discuss these questions with your references and prepare them with answers.

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.

Answer the Three Basic Interview Questions to Interview Your Best

Many interview books focus on helping Candidates prepare to answer the 250 or 500 most frequently asked interview questions. Questions such as:
* What are your greatest strengths?
* What are your weaknesses?
* How well do you work with people?
* Do you prefer working alone or in teams?
* What is the best thing that ever happened to you?
* Why should we hire YOU? What can you do for us that someone else cannot?

These are actually secondary questions designed to help Hiring Managers answer the three primary interview questions
1- Is the candidate interested in and motivated for this position?
2- Can the Candidate do the job and do it with good quality?
3- Will the Candidate fit in the culture of the company and will co-workers like the Candidate?

Let’s examine each of these critical questions-

1- Is the candidate interested in and motivated for this position?
People interview for a number of reasons. Some are out of work and are very eager to return to work almost regardless of the position. Others are employed and looking for a “better” position and still others are “just seeing what is out there”. How is a Hiring Manager to know the Candidate’s motivation? This is a difficult task for the Hiring Manager. Regardless of the Candidate’s motivation, each Candidate will profess an interest in the position so they can get the job offer and then make their decision about accepting it or not.

The answer to this question is best indicated by a Candidate’s level of preparation for the interview. A well prepared Candidate who has done their homework and knows the position, the company, and the industry is a good indication of a person who is interested in and motivated for the job. A poorly prepared Candidate indicates little motivation or interest. Unfortunately, like almost all aspects of interviewing this is not an absolute. Research shows that the majority (75%) of Candidates at all levels just “wing” the interview. They believe, based either on their background and experience in the industry or naiveté, that they don’t have to prepare for the interview. Thus, a well prepared Candidate is a good sign and a poorly prepared Candidate has to be questioned about their lack of preparation.

2- Can the Candidate do the job and do it with good quality?
There are two elements required to determine the answer to this question. The first is a good set of critical job requirements and the second is the Candidate’s clear communication about how they match the requirements. Without a good set of requirements, neither the Candidate nor the Hiring Manager can determine if the Candidate fits the position. It also puts the well qualified Candidate at a disadvantage because they do not know what information (background, skills, experiences, education) to bring into the interview to convince the Hiring Manager they are the best Candidate for the job. With well defined job requirements, the Candidate and the Hiring Manager can come to a common understanding of the job and avoid misconceptions about the position once the job starts, a common reason for early termination.

3- Will the Candidate fit in the culture of the company and will co-workers like the Candidate?
This is a more subjective question and the answer is typically based on”gut feel” or intuition. However, the Candidate can be asked about “personal success factors” that make them successful on the job. These are personal traits that they believe makes them good at what they do. A well qualified Candidate should be able to identify and then speak about “personal success factors”. As the Hiring Manger listens to a Candidate’s ‘personal success factors” they should be thinking about how the factors fit their culture.

Answering these three questions is the joint responsibility of the Candidate and the Hiring Manager. The Hiring Manager has the responsibility for defining and communicating the critical job requirements. Then the Hiring Manager and the Candidate have the shared responsibility to create a conversation within which a joint decision about the Candidate’s fit with the position can be determined. Once these three questions are answered satisfactorily other questions such as compensation, relocation, benefits, etc. can be discussed.