The interview was slated for one hour for a key sales position. This was the second for this candidate.
Our first time together was a 30-minute qualifying discussion to verify if the individual presented themselves well and demonstrated they met key elements of the role. Stan interviewed well. His answers were succinct and focused.
As we began the second session, I posed a statement that usually starts off many interviews, “Stan, tell us a little bit about yourself.” I like to lead with this because it gives me a sense of how well the person can “sell themself.”
Stan jumped off confidently but then quickly wandered. By the time he was finished, it was 28-minutes later! Yes, nearly half the interview he spent telling us “a little” about himself. Needless to say, it changed the trajectory of the placement process.
You might be thinking, “Why didn’t you stop him?” I let Stan continue because I was learning about him (and unfortunately for him) it helped me to know he was not the right person for the job. He did not come prepared and that showed with his opening and throughout the rest of the questions I was able to ask.
I’ve interviewed and have been interviewed for jobs many times in my career. Typically, successful interviews revolve around optimizing time. It is being aware of the level of groundwork needed, the necessity of what is accomplished in the interview, and being focused on trying to influence the outcome.
Over the course of three articles, I am going to provide a framework for helping those in a career search complete a great interview using the method of Preparation, Execution, and Control (PEC) found in my book The Time-Optimized Life.
We are going to begin with preparation. In my book I highlight the continuous or perpetual nature of planning.
“Time-optimized preparation taps into the previous knowledge and applying it in the present to help accomplish what needs to be done in the future. This type of preparation never ends; it is linear in execution and cyclical in evaluation.”
Let’s apply that to activities you can do that will elevate your readiness to manage your time well while being interviewed.
Stan made it to the second interview because he had a resume that stood out and the first interview was a fast paced that limited the interactions to responding to specific questions. What Stan neglected to do for the second interview was to consolidate his knowledge.
Interviewing is an opportunity for you to tell a story, your unique story. To do that, you need to know how you want to market yourself. If you were a product, how would you advertise yourself? Why would people want to buy you?
On top of that, we live in a social media age where the attention span is much lower, even for the interviewer. Therefore, establish for yourself a 2-minute rule. Do not allow any answer you give go more than 120 seconds – even the “Tell me a little about yourself.”
That means, you need to invest a lot of preparation time before the interview. Consolidating your answers allows the hiring manager to ask more questions, learn more about you, and to open more time for you to ask your own questions.
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“Knowing your audience” is a common phrase to understand how you can present yourself to a prospective employer.
Stan made a mistake emphatically stating he would not use a particular type of selling approach. Awkwardly, it was one of the foundational ways the company uses to sell its products and programs. Now while that was not disqualifying, when given an opportunity to explain his perspective, Stan was not ready to defend his position well.
Linear research is your way to:
Start wide and then keep getting more narrowed and focused.
Using the 2-minute rule and direct study leads to more time in an interview to ask the questions you need to answer.
I once had an interview where the hiring manager started with, “Dave, I have no questions for you, what questions do you have for me?” Because I was prepared, we spent the next hour with me “interviewing” him. I went to the next round. My questions said a lot about who I was as a person and employee.
Be ready with a variety of inquiries about the role, the environment, the hiring manager, and the expectations. Your aim is to create a cyclical formulation that, through the questions you ask, you can talk more about yourself.
Stan is a talented salesperson with a lot of experience. He’ll land somewhere that will be a better fit for that company and himself. However, even with a lot of knowledge, we all need to still prepare through being able to relay our knowledge quickly, be very linear in our research, and create a cycle of intertest through the questions we develop.
Our next article will cover the “E” or execution in PEC. It is all about how to make the most of the interview time.
David Buck is the author of the book The Time-Optimized Life, coauthor of The Retirement Collective, and owner of Kairos (Time) Management Solutions, LLC. Learn how to apply the concepts of proactively planning and using your time. Take the Time Management Analysis (TMA), the Retirement Time Analysis (RTA), or all the other free resources offered to help bring more quality time into your life.
The post Time-Optimized Job Interviewing – Part 1 Preparation first appeared on Infinity Lifestyle Design.
