Competition for jobs is so fierce, and hiring the wrong person can waste time, money, energy, productivity, and cause a lot of stress for everyone involved.

This article is written for the hiring manager, to help them make a great staff decision, but it is also helpful to the job candidate as they prepare for the interview.

When I coach my small business clients that are growing their business and hiring new employees, I give them the standard questions to ask, such as “Tell me about yourself”, “What are you three best skills”, “What is your biggest weakness”, “Where do you see yourself in three/five years”, “Why do you think this would be a great job for you”, etc. 

We also work together to create questions that asses skill sets that they want their new hire to have a mastery of.  These questions typically start with “Tell me about a time when…” and end depending on appropriate skill or characteristic that is being assessed.

For example:

“Tell me about a time when/describe a time when…”
- “… you had a disagreement with your manager, but you just knew that you were right.”
This can asses many things: conflict resolution skills and styles, relationship building & maintenance skills, communication abilities, etc.

- “… you were working with a difficult or irate customer.”
Obviously, this looks at their customer service tendencies, philosophies and behaviors.

- “…as you approached an important deadline, you saw that you weren’t going to make it.”
This can show how they prioritize and set action plans and goals, in addition to how they handle unexpected and possibly stressful situations.

- “…you had to give a poor review or rating to an underachieving employee that you were managing.”
This might give a glimpse to their leadership and mentoring abilities and styles.

Some follow up questions to their initial answers might include:

- How did you handle that?
- What was your biggest concern at the time?
- Do you feel the situation was resolved?
- Looking back, do you think you would have done anything differently?

These are great questions from the hiring manager’s perspective, and they can be difficult for the job candidate to prepare for.

I suggest an interviewee take a look at the job description and make a list of probable skills that the interviewer may want to measure appropriate for the position. Prepare examples from your experience that demonstrate positive outcomes. Sometimes there is no “right answer” – the interviewer just wants to asses your thought and communication style to see if it is a fit with theirs or with the department or company culture.

And lastly, both sides need to be very truthful when answering interview questions. If you concentrate too hard on selling yourself or your company during the intweview, you’ll probably accomplish just that. But when the new hire begins working, you might find it’s a very poor fit and will probably not have a happy ending for either side.

I hope these ideas help both job candidates and hiring managers alike.

To your succes,
Jason

Where is Jason speaking next?
Take a look at www.DistinctiveCoaching.com/events/ to find out or have him speak at your event!

Jason E. Rosado
Business Coach & Professional Speaker

Helping entrepreneurs, small biz owners, and sales professionals achieve your ideal business in 12 months or less. 
Vision, Strategy, Sales, Success.

773.829.1276
Jason@DistinctiveCoaching.com

Website: http://www.AchieveYourIdealBusiness.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BizCoachJason
Facebook Profile: http://profile.to/BizCoachJason
Facebook Business Group: http://groups.to/IdealBusinessCommunity

Looking for a great networking event that also lets you learn and practice new business skills and use them immediately?  This workshop is two events rolled into one!

Business networking is all the buzz, but as many people discover, it’s a lot harder than it sounds; it’s time consuming; and yet it’s becoming even more vital and more challenging.

Saturday, September 15, 2007
10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
1400 West Hubbard Street, Suite 210, Chicago, Illinois 60622

Event Contact: Jason@DistinctiveCoaching.com

To give a brief intro of me, I am an electrical engineer and an MBA in Finance from Mumbai. Currently working as a management trainee at Development Bank of Singapore Chola, Mumbai, India.Recently I have started looking for a job change and have appeared for nearly 30 interviews, but still wasnt able to land on a job.  I just cant understand where the things are getting wrong.I have done all the research work about how to give an interview, I dress properly, have good communications skills, exude confidence, have good body language, blah, blah, blah …

I would be grateful if anyone can provide me with some pointers as to what mistakes I am making. I am not sure if this is the place to ask for, but have posted as we have senior people over here.

Thank you for your consideration.
Regards.

my reply: 

I know where you are coming from.  I have been there myself, both as an interviewing candidate and also a hiring manager.The problem could lie in any of a number of things.  It sounds like you’ve already done quite a bit of research to narrow down those possibilities.  As a career coach, I would recommend working with someone similar near you.The two main categories to focus on are:
·         What you are saying
·         How you are saying it

What you are saying: You need to make sure you are getting across your “value proposition”—what you bring to the company, job and hiring manager, and why they should hire you over other candidates.  You should be asking thoughtful questions and making sure the interview is a two-way street. 

How you are saying it: You already mentioned your body language, dress, confidence, etc.  Great start.  But just because you researched it, does that mean you have perfected it?  Take billiards for example.  I know the geometry of the shots—the angels, the spin needed on the ball, etc.—but I lack the physical skill to make the ball go where I want it to even though I have properly assessed the situation and set up the shot.  There’s a lot more to being capable of something than just knowing how you are supposed to do it.  So I suggest working with someone such as a coach that has lots of experience with interviewing from both sides of the desk, knows what works and what doesn’t.

I hope this helps. All the best and good luck.
Jason

Hello,

I am wondering what do each morning to make yourself go in to your job day in and day out? I am starting a job downtown on Monday and I am not looking forward to it. I have been out of work since April so I definitely need the income. But the first thought in my head when I wake up in the morning is, “I don’t want to go to work.” It is too early and I hate commuting to the Loop.

I have never kept a job for over 2 years. Once I can no longer force myself to go to a job, I quit and find another one to eventually be miserable at.

So how about some feedback? Oh how I wish I was a workaholic and could get excited about this opportunity… would hypnosis work? :)

Dave

my reply: 

Dave,

Even though you’re not all that excited, I still want to say congrats on the new job.

Having said that, is there anything you do like about the job? You may not know yet, since you haven’t started yet, but hopefully you will find something that you can look forward to each day.

With most people, it’s their coworkers and the environment that make or break it for them, not the actual job tasks. The most important relationship is with your direct manager. Job satisfaction, or lack of it, is most largely correlated to the health of that relationship, then those of your peers and people you manage. Ironically, the actual job duties really fall last in determining how well you like your job.

I would suggest getting off to a great start with your new boss on the first day. Come in excited, energized and happy to be there. This will set a positive tone for the relationship.

If you have the time to sit down during that first day, try to get a very clear understanding of what he/she expects from you and let them know what you expect, want and need to be happy and productive. If this is laid out from both sides, there should be minimal surprises later on… “Well, I had no idea that is what he wanted of me!”, etc.

Some things to consider bringing up during this discussion — these also should be discussed during the interview as well, so you know before you accept if it will be a good fit:

• How do you like to be managed — hands-on or hands-off, lots of direction or little, etc.?
• What is the preferred management style of your new boss?
• What reason did the last person vacate this position?
• What is the first thing they would like to see you accomplish in your new role?
• What are the three most important aspects or characteristics of this job? And of the person hired into the job? (You should definitely ask this second question during the interview.)
• Any other questions that you can think of that will help you understand where your new boss will be coming from, and ones that will let them know your work preferences and wishes.

Dave, I hope these help. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Best to you and good luck!

Jason
www.DistinctiveCoaching.com