Can You Answer the Interview Question “Why are you no longer working?”

Make Sure You Have A Solid Exit Statement

Prepare Exit Statements

Interviewers frequently ask, “Why did you leave (or why are you leaving) that employer?” This is a difficult question for many candidates to handle well. If a candidate was let go for cause, answering is an embarrassment. Even in a bad economy, where the reason is a layoff, a candidate may get defensive and tend to ramble with his answer. To effectively answer this question, prepare an exit statement for each employer for whom you worked. The statements should be brief, factual, and not defensive. Some examples include:

     *     Candidates who’ve been laid off

“Due to declining market conditions, Konix underwent a major reorganization. This resulted in the elimination of more   positions from the national sales force, including mine.”

“Due to market conditions, Mileage Automotive has reduced the size of their workforce by 350 positions. I was able to retain my job through two rounds of layoffs; however, my position was eliminated in the third round.”

    *     Candidates who are working and looking for another job

“Although I’m performing very well as a senior business analyst with Capital Tech, I have learned that there are no opportunities there at the level appropriate for me, especially across the disciplines in which I work best. Therefore, I’m exploring senior-level management positions that will leverage my understanding of technology, marketing, communications, and sales.”

     *     Candidates who’ve been fired

“The culture at my last company was not a good fit for me. My style is to bridge differences to find common ground. I believe that’s the most effective way to move forward when two sides disagree. That style was instrumental in the successful resolution of several serious negotiations at Zenox Company, but at Stricker, I found the situation to be quite different. In fact, when I tried to intervene to resolve a problem that had brought our new product group to a standstill, my manager pulled me out of the group and told me he thought the creative differences would result in a better product. This trend continued for the 18 months I was there, so I wasn’t really surprised when I was asked to leave.”

A few rules about exit statements:

     *     Never be negative about the employer. Even if the layoffs were due to terrible planning or you were let go because of a bad boss, do not be negative. Notice that in the first exit examples, layoffs were due to “market conditions,” not bad corporate planning. If you were fired, don’t blame your boss; talk about strategic differences or differences in work philosophies.

     *     Keep it simple. The briefer the better. Only give pertinent information, and do not go into detail. Long explanations make you sound as if you’re being defensive and covering up something. If the interviewer wants more detail, he will ask for it.

     *     Communicate magnitude. If you were part of a large layoff, include numbers. Being one of 15 or one of 2,000 (depending on the company’s size) makes it clear you weren’t singled out.

     *     Mention multiple rounds of layoffs. Often, companies lay off workers in multiple rounds. The common perception is that the first round of layoffs consists of marginal workers the company wanted to get rid of anyway. The subsequent rounds begin to include good employees. If you were in a second or third round of layoffs, mention that in your exit statement.

Go to www.activeinterviewing.com to learn more interview winning strategies

Are You A Commodity in the Employment Marketplace?

Competition is Fierce

In a competitive and crowded marketplace, every product and service must differentiate itself. It is not enough to be simply as good as all the rest, because there are too many “all the rests” in the market. In addition, with easy access to cheap (or even free) Internet advertising, there is a great deal of advertising that makes differentiating services and determining buying decisions difficult- just think of all the pop-up ads you see online. In the employment marketplace, this is exemplified by the tens of thousands of job sites and hundreds of resumes submitted over the Internet in response to advertised jobs. To rise above the flood of advertising, successful companies establish powerful branding and distinct value-adds. You can adopt the same strategy to rise above the flood of your competition in the employment marketplace.

A value-add refers to an extra feature of a service that goes beyond the standard expectations and provides a more compelling reason to purchase. A value-add makes the service more desirable and positively influences the buying decision. However, a value-add has no value if it is not in addition to good service. Always having on-time delivery does not make a difference if the pizza tastes terrible.
The worst position for a service is to be a commodity. A service is a commodity when it is equivalent no matter who provides it. A provider of a commodity service is easily exchanged for another provider of the same service who offers a lower price. For example, many dry cleaners provide a commodity service. Customers will change to another dry cleaner if they can find one that costs less. In the employment marketplace, many employees[md]even mid- and senior-level employees[md]are commodities in that they provide a service that can be replaced easily. In bad economies, companies replace more expensive “commodity” employees with cheaper employees. Are you a commodity in the employment marketplace?

If you are a commodity, it will be difficult to differentiate yourself in interviews. However, most of us are not commodities we just have not deteremined out value-adds. To determine your value-adds:

Know Yourself

Take a complete inventory of your skills. Do not limit the inventory to skills applicable to the job for which you are interviewing; do a full inventory. This inventory should include skills connected to your job, interests, hobbies, and leisure activities. When you have a full inventory, you can choose which skills serve as value-adds for the job for which you’re applying.

Know Your Profession

Every profession has a number of areas of concentration and a large skill base. For example, within human resources, you might be applying to be a compensation manager. However, the human resources field has a number of other specialty areas and required skills, such as diversity management, employee retention, job-task analysis, and international employment. You might have experience in international employment, and even though you’re applying to be a compensation manager, having international employment experience could be a differentiating value-add for a multinational company or a company that is expanding internationally.

Once you have determined you value-ads, use an interview presentation to clearly communicate them in your interview. To learn more about value-ads in interviews go to Active Interviewing.

Read Active Interviewing to Learn More About Value-Ads

Do you Know That Telling Stories Win Interviews?

“Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones.” Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister

Stories persuade and land jobs

Every day, you are faced with a barrage of efforts to persuade you to buy a product or service. The vast majority of these efforts are forgettable and totally unpersuasive. Occasionally, however, one of these communications breaks through the noise, catches your imagination, and speaks to you personally. What is happening? Many times, it’s not the service or the brand that gets through, but how the information is communicated.

In every interview, interviewers listen to candidates answering questions to try to persuade them that they are the best candidate for the job. Most questions in an interview can be, and should be, answered by saying “Let me give you an example. However, the vast majority of these examples are forgettable, mundane, and totally unpersuasive- in short, they’re boring. You can avoid boring if you have a good delivery.

Good delivery consists of three factors:

     *     Sincerity and wholeheartedness. Any success story you tell has to be honest and real. Don’t make up a story to respond to a question. A fabricated story will lack sincerity; your heart won’t be in it, and the interviewer will know!

     *     Enthusiasm. These are stories about you at your best, about achievements you are proud of, so being enthusiastic should be easy. Being enthusiastic doesn’t mean you have to be artificially animated or jump up and down on a couch; just let your pride in your success shine through. However, don’t get too enthusiastic and get carried away[md]remember, no story should take longer than two minutes.

     *     Animation. A great deal of your story is communicated nonverbally, so show some emotion in your gestures, voice, and facial expressions. Smile, move your hands, change the pitch of your voice, and maintain eye contact. A great success story told with a deadpan expression and in a monotone is boring.

Learn to tell good stories and your interviewers will be more engaged and more persuaded that you are the candidate of choice.

Give a presentation to tell a good story

This book has the strategies you need to win interviews

Focus on Your Contributions to the Company to Win Your Interview

Focus on Them

Focus on the buyer

Nobody cares about services or solutions. That’s the hardest thing for sellers to realize. Buyers only care about the benefits the services or solutions will provide his or her organization. Similarly, buyers don’t care about the gains a salesperson makes from a sale. Would you be more motivated to buy if a salesperson said to you “Buy this car and I will make my quota for the month, I will get a bonus, and I can finally put that addition on my house”, probably not!

If you mention to a hiring manager that the job is a good career move for you, it is a shorter commute, and it is a higher salary with better benefits, they’re not interested. Focus on them, talk about the tangible outcomes they’d get from using your skills and they will be interested. In interviewing, focus on your value to the organization. Avoid talking about how the job will benefit you.

For example, if asked where you want to be in five years rather than talking about the progress of your own career, relate your answer to the organization. “In five years I want to have taken on more responsibility in the organization and have increased the value I bring to the job.” Similarly, if the interviewer asks “Why should I hire you?” focus your answer on the benefits you will bring to the organization in general and the hiring manager specifically.

Use an interview presentation to communicate your value

This book has the strategies you need to win interviews

Cover the Past, Present, and Future to Win Your Interview

Past Present and Future

Our brains have evolved the ability to recall past experiences and learn from them, to come up with strategies for managing things in the present, and to imagine future possibilities and outcomes. This is known as a person’s time perspective and each individual tends to view the world in relation to which time perspective they find most comfortable. Although every individual uses all three time perspectives, individuals differ in the degree to which they use each of the three thinking perspectives to make decisions.

• Past thinkers want verification, they place a high value on testimonials, a proven track record, credentials, or the research/proof that went into creating something. These thinkers try to get to “beyond a reasonable doubt” level of certainty.
• Present thinkers are interested in how a product or service can help them solve or manage a problem they’re dealing with now. They analyze probabilities of any given outcome and to manage to them. A present thinker is goal oriented.
• Future thinkers look at a product or service and imagine the possibilities it opens up, and how it might impact their life moving forward. These individuals are able to imagine an infinite set of future possibilities and engage in creative and innovative speculation. They tend to be less concerned about rules.

In your interview listen for the interviewer’s time perspective. For example, one interviewer will delve deeply into prior positions and your success stories which provide proof you can do the required work- they have a past perspective. Another interviewer may be uninterested in reviewing your work history but is very focused on asking questions and discussing how you would solve certain problems- they have a present perspective. Another interviewer will speak about future plans and want to explore how your skills and experience may contribute to future success- they have a future perspective.

Throughout your interview it is important to address each time perspective- past, present, and future. However, if you detect the interviewer’s dominant time perspective, spend extra time presenting information and use language which supports the perspective. For example, with an interviewer who has a past time perspective you can answer questions with the preface “As I did in my past positions….” With an interviewer with a present time perspective you can use the preface “With my skills and experience I will immediately be able to .…”“ With an interviewer with a future perspective you can use the preface “ I imagine I can use my skills to ….”

Use an interview presentation to cover the past, present and future

This book has the strategies you need to win interviews

Be Like a Laser to Interview Your Best

Many people are very proud of all the tasks they perform(ed) at work. When I do job transition workshops, attendees talk about wearing multiple hats, doing  tasks outside their job description, and being of value in many ways to their company.  All this is important and contributes to a persons work-esteem, however in an interview (and in a resume) focus on what is of value to the company that is considering hiring you.

Candidates try to load too many things into an interview and they lose focus. Candidates also tend to get too detailed thinking that the larger the volume of things they talk about the more persuasive they are. Too many details and too many tasks tend to confuse the interviewer and once confused they get turned off.

As I often state, the interview is a sales call. All good sales calls are targeted towards solving the buyers problem. Determine the problem and focus on it like a laser.

What specifically are you being hired to do. Look below the surface. A person being hired to do collections for a company is not just collecting money they are solving the problem of reducing accounts receivable and improving profits. Anything  talked about in the interview should have the ultimate goal of reducing accounts receivable and improving profits. Even a question related to getting along with co-workers or a supervisor should be answered in the context of how does the answer relate to reducing accounts receivable and improving profits.

By focusing on being the solution to a problem, your answers will be more targeted and less rambling. As each question is asked, think to yourself how does this relate to solving the ultimate problem. Then leave out anything that does not contribute to the solution. Also, if you are not asked a question that elicits a task or skill you have that contributes to solveing the problem, be sure to bring that out yourself.

To prepare for your interview first define the problem the job solves and then list all the things you can do that contributes to solving that problem. Bring the list with you to the interview and make sure you cover each thing on the list.

People only buy what they need and only hire you for the things you can do to solve the problem. Focus in on the problem, keep it simple and be persuasive.

Focus your interview with an interview presentation

Do You Know Your Competencies? You Should to Interview Your Best

High Performance

Employers hire people based on their ability to perform a job. The ability to perform a job is based on the “competencies” a person brings to the position. What the heck are competencies and what do they have to do with interviewing?

Let’s start defining competencies by  doing some differentiation. Job descriptions typically list the tasks or functions and responsibilities for a role, whereas competencies list the abilities needed to conduct those tasks or functions. Thus, competencies are the basic skills you offer an employer and are independent of the specific job for which you are interviewing. Employers are primarily interested in your competencies and during the interview you should make sure the interviewer hears all about your outstanding competencies.

Here are the competencies you should be communicating:

Managing Resources: Identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resources

• Time – selects goal-relevant activities, ranks them, allocates time, and prepares and follows schedules
• Money – Prepare budgets, makes forecasts, keeps records
• Material and facilities – acquires, stores, allocates, and uses materials or space
• Human resources – assesses skills and distributes work accordingly, evaluates performance and provides feedback

Managing Information: Acquires and evaluates information

• Acquires and evaluates information
• Organizes and maintains information
• Interprets and communicates information
• Uses computers to process information

Using Systems: Manages complex relationships

• Understands systems – knows how social, organizational, and technological systems work
• Monitors and corrects performance – distinguishes trends, predicts impacts on system operations, diagnoses deviations in systems performance and corrects malfunctions
• Improves or designs systems – suggests modifications to existing systems and develops new or alternative systems to improve performance

Understanding Technology: Works with a variety of technologies

• Selects technology – chooses procedures, tools, or equipment including computers and related technologies
• Applies technology to task – understands intent and proper procedures for setup and operation of equipment
• Maintains and troubleshoots equipment – prevents, identifies, or solves problems with equipment, including computers and other technologies

Basic Skills: Reads, writes, performs arithmetic and mathematical operations, listens, and speaks

• Reading – locates, understands, and interprets written information in prose and in documents such as manuals, graphs, and schedules
• Writing – communicates thoughts, ideas, information, and messages in writing; and creates documents such as letters, directions, manuals, reports, graphs, and flow charts
• Arithmetic/mathematics – performs basic computations and approaches practical problems by choosing appropriately from a variety of mathematical techniques
• Listening – receives, attends to, interprets, and responds to verbal messages and other cues
• Speaking – organizes ideas and communicates orally

Thinking Skills: Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes, knows how to learn, and reasons

• Creative thinking – generates new ideas
• Decision making – specifies goals and constraints, generates alternatives, considers risks, and  evaluates and chooses best alternatives
• Problem solving – recognizes problems and devises and implements plan of action
• Visualizing – organizes and processes symbols
• Knowing how to learn – uses efficient learning techniques to acquire and apply new knowledge and skills
• Reasoning – discovers a rule or principle underlying the relationship between two or more objects and applies it when solving a problem

Personal Qualities: Responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity, and honesty

• Responsibility – exerting a high level of effort and perseveres towards goal attainment
• Self-esteem – believes in own self-worth and maintains a positive self view
• Sociability – demonstrates understanding, friendliness, adaptability, empathy, and politeness in group settings
• Self-management – assesses self accurately, setting personal goals, monitoring progress, and exhibiting self-control
• Integrity/honesty – chooses ethical courses of action

Here is the way to use this list-

1. Think of those competencies which are most critical to the position for which you are applying. Be prepared to answer questions related to those competencies.
2. Ask the  question, “What are the basic competencies a person has to have to be successful in this job?”
3. Think of situations, on and off the job, where you used one of these competencies.  Write a brief description of the situation. During the interview, if you are asked a question where you can use an example of one  your competency do so.

Good interviews are based on a common understanding of the job and the skills a successful employee has to have. Thus, knowing about the competencies required to perform the job is critical for both the candidate and the hiring manager. Focusing on competencies assures a best “fit hiring” decision for both candidate and company.

InterviewBest helps organize and communicate competencies

Differentiate Yourself From the Other Stars to Interview Your Best

You are a star in a very dense universe. What does this have to do with interviewing? Everything! Most candidates don’t think about how they are perceived in the bigger world or how they compare to hundreds of competitors. They focus only on their own basic skills which does not differentiate them from all the other stars.

Most candidates claim: “I have the skills; I’m a good, smart person; and I’ll work really hard for you.” That line describes you and about 20,000 other “stars”.  Skills aren’t enough these days because they’re just a baseline of what you offer. What you need to promote is your unique skills that will provide different and remarkable benefit to the hiring company.

Here is an example, I am working with a client that was a mid-level manager working in a large telecommunications company doing accounts receivables. Accounts receivable sounded pretty ho-hum until she began to talk about managing monthly receivables for Federal and Government business units for contracts valued between $2M and $20M. Expertise at collecting money from the government as Obama’s stimulus package gets delivered; that is a great selling proposition. Collecting government funds is the most unique benefit or value she can offer to an employer.

Take your value a step further
When preparing for an interview, first understand the company’s and the hiring manager’s basic needs and understand how your skills, experience, education match those needs. Then take it a step further and identify your outstanding area(s) of value; and yes we all have one or more. Once you have identified your outstanding value, prepare examples of times when you applied that value successfully in a work situation. During your interview be sure to talk about these examples. Do not leave the interview without having clearly communicated the outstanding, and differentiating, value you will bring to the company. If the interviewer does not ask questions that elicit the value just say, “I have outstanding value I will bring to your company, I would like to give you examples”.

Your Hired

In our current economy companies are interviewing more candidates for each position. Their belief is there are a lot of stars looking for jobs and they can be choosier than in the past. Every person interviewed meets the basic requirements of the position. You need to meet those requirements and then shine brighter to ace the interview and land the job.

Use an Interview Presentation to communicate your unique value

You Better Be Presenting To Interview Your Best

It isn’t a news flash that job are scarce, competition is stiff and companies are more selective. Here is the news flash- there is a unique approach to preparing for and managing a job interview that will differentiate you, impress the interviewer, give you more confidence, and win the interview; a job interview presentation.

Imagine a structured tool that walks you through preparing for an interview, focuses your thinking about the critical requirements of the position, helps you develop a strategic action plan and then prints out a professional presentation that you can take to your interview. Would that tool improve your chances of acing the interview, you bet it does!

Here are some typical questions about using an interview presentation:

Who Controls the Job Interview?

Won’t it take control away from the interviewer and don’t they mind?
Let me answer this question with a question, who is in control of a sales call the salesperson or the customer? Neither, it is a shared responsibility of the salesperson and the customer to make sure the customer ends up with the best product or service to meet their need. The ultimate choice resides with the customer but the salesperson needs to do a great job presenting their product/service. Also, the customer has to give the salesperson the information and opportunity to do a great presentation. Every good salesperson goes into a sales call prepared to do an excellent sales presentation. Every customer expects the sales person to do a great sales presentation. Customers like good sales presentations it helps them make purchasing decisions. Clear enough? Interviewers like interview presentations, it gives them the information they need to make a hiring decision.

Presenting

I am not a good presenter, should I still use an interview presentation?
When used correctly, an interview presentation creates a powerful “hiring conversation”.  So even if you are not a skilled presenter, an interview presentation will be of great benefit. The presentation provides talking points and guides the interview to focus on content you want the interviewer to know. It also serves as a great leave behind.

How do I know what to put in the interview presentation?
Fortunately, this is the easiest part. Simply go to www.interviewbest.com and use the iBest Presentation tool to guide you through developing a presentation (full disclosure- this writer is affiliated with InterviewBest). It can take as little as 30-40 minutes to develop a professional presentation.

Take the Risk

So here is the big question; why aren’t more people using it?
Well it is new, it is different, it is not well know (hence this blog entry) and many people are hesitant to take a risk on a new approach to the old job interview. But think about it, doesn’t using a presentation in a job interview just make good sense? And where is the risk? Develop a presentation, get the great preparation, and then decide whether or not to use it in the interview.

An interview presentation is a new “technology” you can apply to the job interview. Walking into an interview and putting a professional presentation on the table lets the interviewer know you are prepared, motivated, professional and qualified. All the information they need to say “your hired”.

Present to Interview Your Best

Know Why job Interviews Suck To Interview Your Best

I have worked with literally 1000s of  job candidates training them for interviews. While many say “Thank God I have an interview” not one has said “I am really looking forward to my interview.” For most job candidates an interview is somewhere between a trip to the dentist and an IRS audit; understandably so.

Why are interviews so painful? Here are some of my thoughts:

A job interview is a  pass-fail test:
Adults don’t  like taking tests particularly ones that  are difficult to prepare for, the scoring system is typically haphazard, and even though they get the results they don’t know how they achieved the results. What is worse, often times candidates don’t even get the results just silence which after a long enough time results in the conclusion – no pass.

Being interviewed is an out of control feeling and and who likes that?
The typical interview is like an interrogation or a cross examination. Candidate comes in, sits down, answers some questions, and gets up and leaves. The interviewer controls the interview asking the questions they want answered. Bad interviewer, which is not uncommon, bad interview and loss of opportunity. Most candidates  just don’t know how to influence the direction of the interview and end up feeling helpless.

Interviews are arbitrary and subjective
Most interviewers are not trained to interview and they make decisions based on what they think are highly intuitive “gut feelings”. Problem is these highly intuitive gut feelings are only accurate 50% of the time. Following the interview, many candidates think they did a good job and nailed the interview only to find they are not offered the position. When asked, many interviewers can only come up with vague nebulous reasons for rejecting the candidate. Companies say employees are their greatest assets but they choose them in essence by guessing.

Questions Questions Questions
There are literally thousands of possible interview questions from sensible to ridiculous. Candidates are often asked questions which seem to come out of left field and have no obvious purpose.  Interviews are typically question answer question answer rather than a productive conversation. Candidates get caught up in preparing to answer random questions for their interviews rather than preparing to sell themselves into a position.

Its a long long process
These days candidates typically go through multiple rounds of interviews strung out over many weeks. This makes it an excruciating process rife with frustration and mystery about what is going on. Most companies are terrible at supporting candidates and only communicate when absolutely necessary. This leaves candidates guessing and wondering am I still a candidate, when will I hear, has the job been filled, should I call, etc etc.

Companies don’t know what they want anyway
Many companies begin interviewing with poorly defined job descriptions. This results in a confused selection process with poorly defined hiring criteria. It also results in hiring the wrong person 50% of the time. Good candidates lose out to a poor selection process.

Overall, interviews are a difficult and stressful process with poor predictability. However, there is no systematic attempts to improve them. With the exception of interview presentations, interviews remain the same and typically suck.