Job Search Blog

I had two candidates in second interviews for the same position. The first one was a stellar candidate with a great job history and great potential. But in the second interview, he did not ask any questions to the hiring authority. He answered those questions asked of him, but did not appear interested in finding out anything more about the position.

The second candidate asked:

• What is my competition like?
• What do I need to do to make it clear that I am your best candidate?
• Are there any concerns about my experience that I need to make clear?
• What, in your eyes, might be concerns about hiring me?
• What, in your eyes, are my greatest strengths relative to this job?

She asked strong, hard, confident questions.

She wasn’t afraid to lose..she got hired!

Mary had been a candidate of mine since 2002. She is absolutely stellar and always has been… top performer in every place she’s ever been. For all that time she has worked for large companies…really large companies. I would call her from time to time when really good opportunities came up. She always made a lot of money and there never is as many of those kind of jobs as everybody thinks.

She never really relished the politics of big companies and always managed to do really well. Most success in our profession is timing. It’s simply catching the right person at the right time in their career. It’s a high-volume business, making lots of calls and talking to lots of people and getting down the timing of supply and demand. If you talk to enough people and do it intelligently, sometimes it just works out.

One of our clients is a fairly small software firm that’s been around for 10 years. But the technology is phenomenal and they have hit the market at just the right time. They have less than 100 people in the company but their trajectory is phenomenal. The folks that run it are absolutely first-class and are about as good as it gets. They needed a salesperson who had been extremely successful, so, I called Mary.

She had been at a very large software firm for the last year, and although she was doing well (as she has done in every place she’s ever been), she was a little disappointed. The five people that she was hired with in the new group her company was building had all left, and her management was wondering, out loud, what they were going to do with her. The timing was right.

She agreed to meet with our client, but was very afraid of it being a very small company and she kept saying that in the interviewing process. She had just never worked for a small company and had heard all kinds of stories about “small companies”. I kept sharing with her, as I’ve written here before, that the size of the company has nothing to do with success or lack of it; it has to do with the people.

Mary is the kind of person that everyone would want to hire. Even after she met with all of the managers in the company and agreed that they were as good as I said they were, she was still dubious about a “small company.” But, she thought the perceived risk might be worth it, so, she joined.

Talk about make my day! Mary called me on Friday and said that this was by far the most impressive company that she ever worked for in the 30 years of being in the workforce. She said it was a phenomenal opportunity and she was so glad she joined. She claimed that they had better ideas, better resources, better managers than three of the largest software firms in the world that she had worked for. She called to simply say she was about as happy as she could be, and was thrilled with everything and wanted to thank me for helping her overcome her fears of a small company.

Not all of the placements we make work out quite this way. After all, it took me 20 years to find this lady the right opportunity. But when someone of her caliber calls, and is so grateful for the service that she got, that joy goes beyond the business transaction. She not only made my day, she made my week. Since I know the CEO, receiving the note about how grateful Mary was to be associated with their company gave me great joy.

What fun!

Juan had been through six corporate interviews with one of our clients. They were being phenomenally careful and have put him as well as three other candidates through the ringer. It was one of the most important jobs in the company, traveling internationally, and establishing the company’s presence around the world. So, admittedly, it was understandable that they were being so careful.

According to the Executive Vice President, all three candidates were really equal, and it was going to come down to one last interview with the CEO. All three candidates were to spend about one hour each in a video call with the CEO. Before the final interview, I can’t really say that our candidate, Juan, was ranked one, two or three. The direct hiring authority told me after the interview that Juan was a pretty distant second. But Juan got hired.

Here’s why. The CEO asked Juan what impressed him about the company. Juan revealed to him that he had spent six hours doing an online tutorial concerning the software products the company developed. He explained to the CEO exactly how he would introduce it to the countries he was going to be responsible for. That sealed the deal for Juan.

It was a little thing, but it made a really big difference. The company is thrilled and Juan has a phenomenal new job.

I placed Suzanne 15 months ago.

She called me and said, “You know, Tony, I really like this job and I really like most of the people that I work with. I’m doing well and I’ve gone beyond the expectations of the owners. In fact, I won rookie of the year award and am pretty happy.”

“But when I first got here, my then boss said that he had discussed it with one of the owners that if I hit a certain sales number in my first six months. I would get something like an $8,000 bonus. He never put it in writing, but said that he had discussed it with the owners and would do it. Well, I hit my number and waited and waited and the bonus didn’t come. After about a month, I emailed my boss and reminded him of what he had promised. He wrote me back and said he would ‘ look into it’ and I didn’t hear a thing about it for another month.”

“A month later I wound up reporting to a different manager. She has been with the company for a long time and is well-respected. Since she wasn’t involved in the agreement, I wrote my previous boss, current boss and the owner that was involved asking them when I could expect the $8,000.”

“Now, keep in mind that I made about $180,000 last year. It isn’t that I need the $8,000, but it’s the fact that nobody seems to be concerned about it. After I wrote my previous boss, my new boss and the owner, the owner wrote back and said he’d look into it. The more I think about it the madder I get. I don’t want to quit over $8,000, but I wanted your opinion. I’ve been owed the money now for nine months and nobody seems to care.”

I explained to Suzanne that it wouldn’t be a good idea to quit over this issue. She’s doing well and although this is an irritating situation, it is not disastrous. She agreed and made it real clear to me that she didn’t call me to suggest leaving. I think she wanted to simply vent and there are very few people she could do that with. We agreed that it would be a good idea for her to press everybody a little bit more about getting the $8,000.  It’s nine months overdue.

I hear things like this all the time. I’m always amazed at how management and lots of organizations upset their employees over even minor promises that they don’t live up to. I place salespeople and, for instance, I hear a lot that companies often don’t publish sales commission programs for the year until three or four months after the year has started. Salespeople are expected to do their job, not knowing just how they are going to be paid. It frustrates them to no end. This kind of thing doesn’t cause good salespeople to leave, but if you pile this issue on a lot of others, it sure makes some very unhappy. And it’s a needless irritation.

Suzanne hung up the phone, admitting that she just wanted to vent. She appreciated me listening. But she’s still irritated over the $8,000. It isn’t the money itself. It’s the idea that she was told that she was going to receive the money and nobody seems to care.

These are the kind of things that will eventually cause good employees to leave. It’s really unfortunate, because it’s so simple to keep from happening.

 Had a great VP of Sales job provided to me from an executive VP who I placed 25 years ago and he remembered me.  It’s a good job, a front line management position with seven reports, the company is phenomenal and the growth and earnings potential are excellent.

I call one of my candidates, Don. Here’s how the conversation went:

I explained to Don what the opportunity was and how it would be good for him…the company…the job.. the executive VP…the works!

Don: “Tony, I am just absolutely so covered up. I can’t do any kind of interview. I got my kickoff meeting coming up that I need to prepare for. I know I need to leave this lousy company that I’m at. I hate the place, but I’m just so covered up I can’t interview anywhere. It sounds like an okay job, but I just am too covered up to give it any time today.”

Tony: “I know you’re covered up, good people always are, but we’ve been looking for a new position about six months now and we haven’t found but one interview since then. Positions like this at the money you make are really hard to find and you owe it to yourself to speak to these people. It’s only going to be 30 or 45 minutes of video call and you owe it to yourself to at least talk to the guy.”

Don: “I know these things are hard to find, but I’m just so covered up with all the things I have to do I just can’t take the time to do it. And I’m going to get a bonus at the end of this month and I probably won’t leave here even though I hate the place until then.”

Tony: “Don, you owe it to yourself to at least talk to the guy…even if it’s for down the road.”

Don: “Well Tony, I’ll do it for you because you’ve been trying so hard to get me interviews. I’ll make you look good. But I’m just too covered up and stressed.”

Don has the interview. Don calls me.

Don: “Wow Tony, you were right. That’s one of the best guys that I’ve ever interviewed with. It’s a great job and it fits me perfectly. We talked for an hour and he’s moving me to the next level of interviews. I really like him and he says that I would be one of the top contenders. It’s a $20,000 better base than I’ve got now, the company was just taken back private and it’s going to be going public in three to five years. There is lots of stock and the job is perfect. I’m anxious to go to the next level.”

Moral: NEVER pass up an interview!

One of my candidates who studied my online program, www.thejobsearchsolution.com,

was one of four finalists for a V.P. of the West for a company..he goes into the executive interview video with the CEO, the Exec. V.P. and two other V.P.’s…he makes a presentation of what he would do in the first 30-60-90 days with a plan modeled after what the program taught him…one advantage of zoom interviews is that you can interject PowerPoint tight screens, which he did.

He gets the job…turns out he is the only candidate that did anything like that….$180,000 base and with bonuses he will make $400,000…not bad for simply following instructions.

For those of you that read this blog religiously, you will remember the quote last week from the employer who interviewed one of my candidates. For those of you that didn’t catch it, here’s what happened: I sent two candidates to an employer, and here is what he wrote about one of the candidates:

“Seemed distant, poor body language, and lacked enthusiasm.  He also seemed to not have done much diligence on researching our company or preparing questions that would give him more insight into the position or general responsibilities.  His previous production numbers also seemed askew from what our expectations for the role would be, which I know I’ve shared with you.  When asked about how he would go about prospecting into smaller clients than at his last two positions, he replied by defining a market segment that was not in line with the market segment I had just explicitly defined.  Also, he was dressed in an unpressed button down shirt and slacks–no tie, no jacket.  While I would not find this an automatic disqualifier, combined with the other mitigating factors, I do not believe he will be a good fit at our organization.”

Well, the candidate got hired Friday. (It was not one of our clients, but that’s okay. We’re really proud of him.) He said that he learned from his interviewing mistakes. He did research on the company. He had some really good questions. He said he was more engaged in the interview. He said that he made it a lot more clear what his production and previous performance numbers were. He said that he dressed much more professionally.

He thanked me for what he learned and was grateful that he found a position. We are very proud of him and confident that if he keeps learning what he did here, he’ll do fine.

It’s rather unfortunate that hiring authorities decide about a person’s ability to do a job based on their interview performance. But, interviewing is like democracy, it’s not really fair, but it’s the best we’ve got.

Congratulations to our candidate!

I had two candidates interview at the same place back-to-back. On paper, both of them were equal. Both had different backgrounds, but experientially. They were about the same. Here is the feedback the hiring manager wrote me:

Candidate #1:

Intelligent, articulate, sound sales acumen and realistic expectations on what an inside sales role would be like for him.  Was open about needing to get up to speed on some of the technology that would be necessary for him to be successful and asked very good questions about the company.  Came well prepared, took notes, good energy, and appears detail oriented which is an absolute must for working at Mentis.  Next step in our process would be an interview with Jason and another member of our outsourced sales management team and will need his availability for next week.

Candidate #2:

Seemed distant, poor body language, and lacked enthusiasm.  He also seemed to not have done much diligence on researching our company or preparing questions that would give him a more insight into the position or general responsibilities.  His previous production numbers also seemed askew from what our expectations for the role would be, which I know I’ve shared with you.  When asked about how he would go about prospecting into smaller clients than at his last two positions, he replied by defining a market segment that was not in line with the market segment I had just explicitly defined.  Also, he was dressed in an unpressed button down shirt and slacks–no tie, no jacket.  While I would not find this an automatic disqualifier, combined with the other mitigating factors, I do not believe he will be a good fit at our organization.

These two guys that were relatively equal, I couldn’t  believe it! I helped each one of them exactly the same way. One of them obviously worked hard at preparing for the interview. The other one obviously didn’t. It’s really sad and a shame. The second guy’s skills were really good, but he certainly didn’t communicate that at all.

The lessons are hard to miss.  Dress properly and sell yourself the right way.

It’s a daily occurrence in our profession that people don’t call us back when we’ve been trying to help them. I’m not complaining about it, because I would’ve gotten out of this profession 48 years ago if it really bothered me that much. It’s sadder than it is anything else. And it’s kind of a shame that we treat each other that way.

The biggest issue regarding courtesy is hiring or interviewing authorities returning calls from candidates to let them know that they are no longer being considered for the position, or that someone else was hired, or nothing happened at all. This is probably one of the most frustrating, if not, the most frustrating experiences that, especially candidates, as well as hiring authorities (recruiters also), go through. Us recruiters get used to it and don’t take it personally. We realize that as Teilhard de Chardin writes, we’re all “spiritual beings acting human.”

I’m not trying to make excuses for this kind of lack of courtesy. But how much effort does it take for an interviewing or hiring authority to pick up the phone and, at least, leave a message that their call was appreciated, but the organization is going to go in another direction? It’s so very easy to do. It doesn’t take much of an investment, and certainly doesn’t take much time.

Ninety eight percent of the time interviewing or hiring authorities just plain don’t return calls or emails or texts to candidates they are not going to hire. I’ve never quite figured out why it’s so hard to do and why people don’t do it. The vast majority of the time, job seekers are already experiencing emotional distress. Looking for a job, even if you have one, is an emotional strain. And then to be “rejected” by simply being ignored is simply discourteous.

Interviewing and hiring authorities aren’t the only people that do this kind of thing. I can’t tell you the number of candidates that I’ve interviewed over the years, gotten them an interview within one or two days of when they visited with me, call them numerous times, only to have them never call me back (until, of course, they need me again). I realize that we are in the kind of business that when people need us, they really need us, and when they don’t, they just don’t. Okay, fine! But how hard is it to pick up the phone or write an email or text me and simply state that you don’t need me anymore. No problem.

This is more of an observation that it is a complaint. Complaining about this won’t do any good. I’m also convinced that making an observation about it isn’t going to change the fact that most people are going to continue to do what they do. I’m not sure that this lack of courtesy is intentional. In fact, if you ask most people, “do you like being rude?”, very few people would tell you that they do. And wouldn’t it be nice if we all did everything we were supposed to do. We are not talking about saving the whales here. We’re simply talking about courtesy of informing a hopeful job candidate who thinks he or she has done well on an interview and is being considered for a job that they are no longer in consideration. It doesn’t even need to be a phone call. It could be a text or an email. But simply ignoring people and not responding to them in any way, just is not very nice.

A number of years ago, I presented a candidate…a rather perfect candidate…  to a prospective employer. It was a vice presidency’s position and carried a $200,000 base salary. My candidate had been one of my clients and had lost his job due to a restructuring. VP jobs are not easy to find and he had been out of work for about three months. On paper, he was absolutely perfect for the job. When I presented him to the hiring Executive Vice President, he started laughing. He explained to me that he wouldn’t hire my candidate if he was the last candidate on earth. After a pregnant pause, he explained to me that a few years earlier, the roles were reversed. My client had been looking for a job, interviewed with the fellow who was now my candidate, and claimed that he had been totally ignored. The now hiring authority claimed he called my candidate numerous times, emailed him a few times and never heard anything from my candidate. According to the now hiring authority,  this took place after a seemingly splendid two-hour interview where the now Executive Vice President was told he was a “perfect” candidate and that he should expect to hear from my now, candidate’s company immediately. And then nothing!

I know that I don’t return every call to everyone who I work with… especially candidates.  But I try to make it clear to everyone that I work with in the beginning that I won’t be able to return every call. All it means is that I haven’t found them an interview. But I am sure that there are lots of candidates out there with whom I did not make that clear. For that, I apologize.

Again, getting upset about this kind of thing that goes on does not do any good. But if a gentle reminder to be courteous nudges just one person to return a call, this was worth writing.

I got this email today:

“Tony, hope all is well. Tonight, I participated in my company’s ‘Iclub.’ It was done virtually. What a joke. I got a $300 bonus.

I’ve always loved my company, and I’ve always loved what I’ve done. I have been bought in for the 23 years that I’ve been here. However, I have never felt less appreciated.

Given that and the fact that I know my comp has fallen far behind the market, it’s definitely time for me to see what’s out there.

Spiffing my resume up this weekend. Call you Monday.”

Thanks,

XXXXXX

It’s always been this way. The major reason that people leave the company is because they don’t feel appreciated. A little love goes a long way!