Tony Beshara

over the next few posts, I’m going to speak to you about stories … can’t tell you how impactful stories are during the interviewing process … and it’s very important that you get this so that you can weave your stories into your interviewing presentation about yourself…

From philosophers we learn that stories that are more than entertainment, they teach us the art of being human… When you tell stories about yourself or your career, you’re communicating your human side as well as explaining what you’ve done in the past and how you will be successful for the company that you are interviewing with…

From psychologists we learned that stories are successful because they remove the prejudice of the listener toward the storyteller and encourage the listener to identify with the person in the story … people remember stories because they identify with the people in the stories … by doing that, the listener becomes more engaged with the storyteller and asks themselves questions like “what would I have done in that situation? “… That is why Jesus Christ taught in parables … the Buddha, Aesop another great teachers taught with stories…

And from the King and Alice in Wonderland we learned how to tell a story when he instructed to the white rabbit to “begin at the beginning …and go all the way to the end”…

these three pillars of story telling are the basic reason why and how stories about you in the nterviewing porcess will help you do well

This is the easiest of all the questions you’ll be asked in the interviewing process and, interesting enough, it only amounts for 10% of the hiring decision … and it is the easiest of all the questions to deal with …

The reason that it is easiest to deal with is that if you do a good job in all of the other questions … the really hard questions.. the money usually takes care of itself …. money and the discussion of money rarley end up making a difference in a candidate excepting a job or not…

Many people looking for a job talk about money in the initial stages of interviewing process simply because it is a common denominator and while they may not be able to define a job that they might consider or might want without being too abstract, they can discuss money in very concrete terms…

Don’t be nervous about money and don’t overreact to it one way or the other… but when it comes time to speak about money approach it like you would any other issue… is fair to ask what kind of money is associated with the position, if you don’t know that already

do not have any preconceived “bottom line figure”  that you will or won’t accept … it’s more important to consider many other aspects of the job before you consider money…

remember that money and title are the two most flexible things that an employer has to deal with and they are the two issues  most influenced by performance…

Now, if you are presently employed and you have for offers that you are considering, you may have a little leverage when it comes to discussing money with a perspective employer … if you have been out of work for six months and this is the only job offer you’ve even come close to, you’re likely to be a lot more flexible…

try to always discuss money face to face … try to never do it over the phone and don’t get too nervous about it … simply state what you think is fair after you hear what the employer thinks is there and try to take an “we’re all and this together” approach … never be confrontational or adversarial…

And contrary to most people’s beliefs, companies are not trying to pay as little as they can and candidates are not necessarily trying to get as much as they can… This has to be a really good deal for everybody and nobody should feel taken advantage of… If you take it a “we’re all in this together … let’s try to work it out together ” approach it will be easy and fruitful for both of you…

Practice your discussion of money with your spouse or a trusted friend

This amounts to 40% of hiring decision … that’s right 40% … people really don’t like hearing this… It makes everyone uncomfortable because they think that hiring ought to be more “fair”  then having your personality and being liked play that much of a role in the hiring process…

But that’s the way it is … reality, whether you like it or not… people hire who they like and they don’t hire who they don’t like, no matter how qualified to candidate might be…

In fact, I have seen more less than qualified candidates… event downright unqualified candidates hired because they were liked then you can ever imagine… and, as a corollary, I have never seen even the momst well qualified candidate hired that wasn’t liked by a the interviewing and hiring authorities…

What does this mean? Well, it means that you need to be a “likable” person in the interviewing process … it means being warm, friendly, engaging, vulnerable and affable without being contrived … it means being able to communicate yourself and your successes in stories that people can identify with … it means identifying with the interviewing and hiring authorities…( it sure helps to do research on these people when you are going to interview with them … any common knowledge or experiences are always appreciated)…

Simply realizing that this issue is so much a part of the hiring decision gives you an advantage… practice your interviewing style… practice being “likable”…

This is the most basic question that a hiring authority needs to know… now it may seem obvious, but you might be surprised that the number of people who know, because they make the assumption that they know they can do the job, assume that the employer or hire an authority and knows that to…

Don’t make this assumption! … Be sure that you make it clear to the interviewing or hiring authority your basic skills, exactly what you have done in the past that would lead them to belief that you can do what they want done…

this issue is only 20% of a hiring decision, but it is the first 20% that a hiring or interviewing authority is going to try to establish…

No matter how good you are, if you don’t make it clear to hiring authority how  your skills and experience relate to the job they want done, that you clearly can and do their job… You won’t get hired…

I can’t tell you the number of follow-up calls that I’ve made with perspective employers, after interviewing one of my candidates, they reflected that they really seem to like the candidate a lot, but they got so wrapped up in the interview that they never really established confidence that the candidate could do what they want done… Why? … They never asked, and the candidate assumed they knew that he or she could do the job…

So, be sure to establish your ability based on your experience to do the job… It is certainly fine, at the end of the interview to simply ask the hiring or interviewing authoirity if they’re clear about your experience and background and your ability to do the job they want done…

DON’T OVERLOOK THIS SIMPLE BUT IMPORTANT QUESTION!

…brian goes to the final interview with the VP…he is one of four and the process has taken six weeks..
even the hiring manager is sick of this…he was suppose to have this hire done a month ago..but the “new” hiring process has two more steps in process  than it use to be and, of course it has e-l-o-n-g-a-t-e-d beyond reason..(they lost three candidates due to the process)
but brian is really good..as the interview winds down, brian says, “do you have any questions concerning my ability to do the job?”…the answer was, “Not at all…”
so, brian says, “WILL YOU SUPPORT MY CANDIDACY…WILL YOU TELL MARK (the hiring manager) TO HIRE ME?”
brialliant!…turns out that brian was the only one of the four candidates that asked this…

…i have been finishng my third book…gonna give you excerpts over the next few months…

we are asked every day, “why do employers take soooooo long to decide anything…to interview and then to decide on who to have back…then who to hire….why does it take so long?”

well, it isn’t a simple answer but here is why…when the economy is good and companies are making money, they operate out of “vision of gain”…
when the economy is tough and companies don’t know when they will recover, they operate out of “fear of loss”

whenever companies and the individuals in them operate out of “fear,” they slow everything down…everything …

and when it comes to making any kind of decision the fear of “making a mistake” is even greater…we hear it daily..”we don’t want to make a mistake”

so, hiring authorities look at you and as they interview you, they think, “how will this candidate not work out?”
they don’t see the upside, they see the downside…

sooooo, it all takes longer…any decison out of fear takes longer…

this is simple…record your name on your vm message on your cell…so folks know who they are calling when they leave a message…

“but they see my number on the resume,” you say…

look, companies keep your resume..you hope…and when and if they call you a year or so from now you want them to be sure it is you…

can’t tell you the number of times i have gone thru my data base, seen a candidate i recognize and need that i spoke to two or three or five years ago..call his or her number…get a vm that simply states a number…and hang up…

i’m not sure who i’m calling, so i don’t leave any message at all…

so, be smart, record your name on your vm so when your potential new employer calls you two or three years from now, they will know it is you…

one of the companies and hiring authorities i “warm” call every three months or so, presenting an excellent sales candidate,  has never called me back…for five or six years…never!

a week ago monday, i leave a message for the hiring athority…(the guy was even a candidate of mine quite a few years ago)…it was a typical monday…hard to get started…and the day never got into any kind of a flow…

at 5:35, the hiring authority calls me and tells me he can see the candidate at 7am the next morning…

great candidate..i call chayson…he says. “where do it go?”…no hemming and hawing…no “well, geez, this is awfully short notice..” or “well…who is it with?”

and that is what i would hear from 98% of the people that think they are serious about looking for a job…NOT!

don’t know if he will get hired..but i called the employer and left a message that chayson would be there and how impressive it was that the guy didn’t hesitate…he figured out how to make it happen…

of course he did well on the first inteview…that kind of sense of urgency is really hard to find…made all those years of calling worth it…

marcia has been with the same fortune 500 firm for 22 years…she has had a metioric rise and, especially as a woman, been told how wonderful she is..

they keep promoting her, helping her get her MBA…and working her to death and, of course, not paying her all that much…(they don’t pay anyone on her “director” level all that much)…but they get the security of working for a well recognized, presigeous firm…

she works at a very narrow job, supporting a division on a world-wide basis..has to travel at a drop of a hat…all over the world…which sounds like fun until you have to do it all the time..and by the way…no social life…but her company doesn’t care…

so, for the past few years, she has gotten more and more frustrated with the company, the job and, most of all, beinig underpaid and underappreciated…

so, she is gonna show ’em…she will just leave and find a better opportuntity where she is apprecaited and paid well..

of course, she wants a director’s job…and $100,000 more a year than she is making…’cause she is worth it (her words) and since she has had a phenominal trajectory up the corporate ladder and she is a woman, she knows she can get it..just ’cause she knows she can get it

so, she gets referred to me and proceeds to tell me what she will and won’t accept…how much she will or won’t take…blah, blah, blah..

she has been “looking” for six months…had only two inteviews…didn’t even give them the time of day…she was simply better than any of those jobs..couldn’t see promotion in the near future…wanted to know “where will i be in five years”…

she is gonna be looking for a very long time…and, likely stay where she is…she won’t like it, but that is likely to happen…

look, 99% of american companies don’t run like your fortune 500 firms…her skills are excellent but they don’t apply to most companies…and, she certainnly isn’t gonna get $100,000 more in salary..

it is kinda sad…she has been drinking the company potient that she is exceptional…but they have boxed her in…and they did it on purpose…they promote her, underpay her…and now she is mad as hell and is gonna show them…

the kind of thing she has been doing is so narrow and so specific to the company she works for, she isn’t conna find anything like it…not likely she can find a director’s job…and certainly not likely to get a $100,000 raise..

she is mad as hell…but that won’t help..

look, all that stuff they tell you at your big company… at your MBA school doesn’t mean poop if the real market won’t bear it…

marcia…settle down…quit being mad…quit feeling indignant and taken advantage of…look for a decent job at a level you can get hired at…work hard…get promtoted..the money and title will take care of themselves