interviewing Archives - Page 8 of 9

always, always, always follow up!

every counselor/coach/recruiter in the world tells a candidate to follow up with a “thank you” note as well as a note as to what the candidate can do for the company..

well, our candidate thought he had a lousy interview so he didn’t follow up with the note…

well, the hiring authority thought the guy was great..couldn’t understand why the guy didn’t follow up..

when the candidate found out that the hiring authority really liked him, he was motivated..wrote the note….too late, the hiring authority thought about it…decided to go after someone else..

LESSON:…follow up…always follow up with a thanks!

By Tony Beshara|2008-07-15T22:05:26-05:00July 15, 2008|communication, interviewing, psychology|

take any interview you can

i referred one of my candidates to a company…he knew the V.P. of sales, the guy he was suppose to interview with…they had worked together before..

my candidate didn’t like the guy and told me he really didn’t want to go on the interview…after down right cajoling him, i got him to go…”you never know what might happen,” i said

well, he got to the interview and the V.P. marched him into the CEO’s office and the CEO started interviewing my candidate for a position they had just thought about creating..

it was on the same level as the V.P.’s job…

you never know about what kind of position you might be interviewing for…go on every interview you can..

By Tony Beshara|2018-07-25T13:38:48-05:00June 29, 2008|career development, interviewing|

be nice to the administrative personnel

one of our candidates today whose “healthy” ego became too big lost a great opportunity

the hiring authority of our client company purposely makes candidates sit and wait at least 20 to 25 minutes after the interview is suppose to start..

he does this to see if the candidates are nice to the administrative personnel at the front desk…he want to see if the candidates engage with the admins in a nice way…

after the formal interview, he asks the administrative personnel if the candidate was nice…cold…grumpy, etc….he makes much of his decision on how the candidate treats these folks…

our candidate’s ego got the best of him…he was cold..grumpy..impatient and not engaging…in fact, he was down right rude to the admins… but, boy!…when he got into the formal interview, he was as nice as he could be…

dumb…dumb…dumb…moral: be nice to everyone..especially when you are interviewing…you never know if you are going to be “tested”

By Tony Beshara|2008-06-16T22:08:40-05:00June 16, 2008|communication, employers, interviewing, job search strategies, psychology|

…things that come back to haunt a person

had a candidate that was an employer of mine who hired people from me…four years ago, he was interviewing candidates and, as many employers do, didn’t really communicate with all of the candidates he interviewed.. in fact…he was rude to them…telling them he’d call them, then never do it…telling them they were good candidates but never following up with them..

now everyone is busy, but it is courteous to do what you say you will do…many, many hiring authorities don’t do this..in fact, it is one of the biggest complaints we hear, that the hiring authority said they’d be in touch then don’t..

well, one of the guys he treated this way is now a hiring authority…i presented the man ..the original one that was rude to the new hiring authority…he laughed and said there was no way he’d interview him because he’ been so rude four years ago…

what goes around…comes around

By Tony Beshara|2015-02-20T19:53:12-05:00May 20, 2008|communication, interviewing, psychology|

good grades in school

we are at Wake Forest this weekend…our youngest son is graduating from there…it made me think about how getting good grades in college can really makes a difference in your future…

now, many of us, like me, got by in undergrad with C’s…we still did OK, because we work hard…

BUT, it sure makes a big difference if you can show folks that you are smart..yes, even, “book smart”…common sense has to be there…but being smart sure helps you in life…and employers love it..

so when interviewing, even if you have been out of school for a few years, if your grades were really good, let the hiring authority know you did well in school…

if you didn’t do so well in the first year or two of college and did well in the last couple of years …or you had good grades in your major, but your overall gpa wasn’t so hot…don’t hesitate to share with a hiring authority that you did well in those situations…

if your grades in college were not that hot, whatever you do, don’t justify poor performance…something like, “My grades were not as good as I would have liked. If I had it to do over again, I would have studied harder,” works well. Then emphasize working hard at “other” things, like a job during school, or social activities, i.e. fraternity, sorority, organizations, politics, etc.

You will never be able to make reasonable excuses for poor grades, so don’t try.

If your kids or someone you know is starting college, tell them that Tony said that few things take the place of being smart…you can open many more doors in your career with good grades…

By Tony Beshara|2008-05-18T14:25:36-05:00May 18, 2008|communication, education, interviewing, job search, job search strategies|

…so this is what we decided was the right thing to do

…great candidate..she decided that she should tell potential employers that she was pregnant..

two of the companies she spoke to loved that she told them..said that they had lots of moms there and she would fit right in..one of them is strongly considering her..

two of the companies she interviewed with quietly said very little, but “passed” on her…never said a word as to why..but we all know why..

here was our rational..if she didn’t tell them and she went to work..left to have the baby and didn’t come back to work, which is always possible, that firm most likely would be very upset with her…

no matter what anyone says, it can really put a company in a very awkward position if they hire someone who leaves to have a baby in six or seven months…especially if they are a small firm that depends on every employee..

if a candidate who becomes an employee puts the company in a real pinch like this, the people in the company may really resent her not telling them…so, the right thing to do is to “treat others the way you’d want to be treated”…don’t suprise folks…

By Tony Beshara|2008-05-14T22:03:30-05:00May 14, 2008|communication, interviewing, job search|

…pregnant candidate

..one of our candidates says she is 2 months pregnant…still needs a job, as she is unemployed…

asked us if she should tell people when she is in the interviewing process that she is pregnant…

an employer cannot ask if a candidate is pregnant…but a candidate can offer it if she wishes…

what do you think she should do???

i’ll tell you what we advised her later…what do you think?

By Tony Beshara|2008-05-13T22:05:38-05:00May 13, 2008|communication, employers, interviewing|

…never talk about the money you want on the first interview

My candidate last week was perfect for the job. She goes to the interview and things are going great…until…she starts talking about how she has been under paid and she is now going to make up for it by being sure she gets paid “what she is worth”.

The hiring authority, naturally, asks her what she thinks she is “worth”…she tells him $20,000 more than what she is now making.

The interview went south after that….

Don’t ever, ever, ever talk about “what you are worth” until you have established your value to an employer.

By Tony Beshara|2018-02-21T16:38:23-05:00May 3, 2008|communication, interviewing, job search strategies, negotiating|

…it was a disaster..

…the saturday interviews…well, the CEO brought her six year old to the office with her…while she interviewed…

even worse…one of our candidates, who had his daughter for the weekend..(he’s divorced) couldn’t find a baby sitter on such short notice, so he took his eight year old daughter with him to the interview…with crayons and all…instructed her to wait in the reception area of the company..

between the CEO and this candidate, they talked about kids most of the time…very little about his qualifications, etc.

the other interviews didn’t go much better…it is hard to get someone’s attention when they have their six year old with them doing anything..

try not to interview on a saturday morning…stay home with the kids and watch power rangers or something like that!

By Tony Beshara|2008-04-27T12:14:56-05:00April 27, 2008|interviewing, psychology|

saturday morning interviews

Hiring authority insisted on interviewing tomorrow morning…she is looking to replace her controller and doesn’t want the whole office to know it, so she decided to interview four candidates tomorrow…

I have never liked Saturday interviews…too casual…just isn’t business…we’ll see how it goes…

I guess it is better than no interviews…but it is still not the best environment…

we’ll see…

By Tony Beshara|2008-04-25T22:07:32-05:00April 25, 2008|employers, interviewing|