10x your odds of landing a job - using this interview hack that only recruiters would know.

In this article, I’m going to be sharing a very unique interview hack that only if you’ve ever worked in recruiting, you’d know.

And since I have plenty experience in recruiting, I’m going to spill the beans and share with you this interview hack that can 10x the odds of you walking away from the interview with an offer letter in hand.

Ok, let’s jump right into it.

First, we need to see the whole “interview process” as a two-stage system - generally speaking.

There’s the first stage where once you apply to a job online, you’ll afterwards get a call from someone for a telephone interview.

If you pass that then there’s the second stage where you’ll be doing an in-person interview with the actual hiring manager.

Now, let’s dissect the first stage a little bit more.

Most often than not, these people who are conducting the telephone interview have some variation of the following titles…

• Talent Acquisition Specialist
• Recruitment Consultant
• Recruiter

For the sake of this example let’s call them “recruiters”.

These recruiters, their goal is to place well-qualified candidates in front of the hiring manager, who they’ll probably be working under if hired.

Their internal motive is to impress the hiring manager by placing qualified people in front of them for interviews and if they get hired, these recruiters will be praised very well.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that the person on the other side of the telephone interview is actually there to help you get the job because they depend on it.

Now, let me show you how you can strategically use these recruiters to:

• Find out the second stage interview answers
• Figure out what the actual hiring manager is like and what they look for in new hires
• Learn how to best prepare for the second stage interview

So, let’s say that you passed the telephone screen and then you had an in person interview scheduled in about a week.

Here’s the approach I recommend you take.

After the interview is done follow up with the recruiter the next day with the following email…

Subject Line: Thanks Again!

Hello (insert recruiter’s name),

Thanks again for taking the time to interview me yesterday for the (insert position title) role, it was great speaking with you, and I look super forward to meeting (insert hiring manager’s name) next week for the in-person interview.

I just have a quick request to make, I was wondering if I could ask you for some personal advice that’ll help me prepare for the in-person interview happening next week over a brief 15 minute phone call between us.

I just want to make sure I don’t let you down and that I’m prepared to the best of my ability for the interview so that I can really impress (insert hiring manager’s name).

If you’d be open to that, I’m free (insert date between mon-fri) at (insert time ranges between 9:00am – 5:00pm). Please let me know a time that works best for you and I’ll be sure to send you a Google Calendar invite right away.

As well, I’m sure your schedule must be very busy so if this is something that you cannot commit to right now, I absolutely understand!

Thanks a ton for reading over this email and I look super forward to hearing back from you.

(Sign off)

Now, when the recruiter receives this, they’ll be impressed for many reasons.

Let me break down and dissect this email to tell you exactly why they’ll be impressed by you.

"Subject Line: Thanks Again!"

The subject line here is very straight forward “Thanks again!”. It’s very clear why you’re sending this, it’s relaxed and informal.

But more importantly, it doesn’t sound like corporate mumbo jumbo.

Let me ask you this, would you rather open an email that said: “Jess, thanks again!” (assuming your name is Jess) or would you rather open an email that said, “In Recognition for the Appreciation of Optimizing Corporate Agile Culture”?

Not only is the informal one more personable, friendly and something you feel emotions towards, but with a subject line like that, the odds of it getting opened are significantly higher.

If you find this topic interesting, I’d recommend you take a course on “copywriting”, it’s basically a persuasive writing style that get’s people buying, clicking and reading more.

"...prepare for the in-person interview happening next week over a brief 15-minute phone call between us."

Now, in this part of the email, you’ll notice that we’re making a very small request from the recruiter, just a 15-minute phone call.

I mean it’s just 15 minutes, right?

Everyone can spare 15 minutes, it’s not a big ask.

The busy recruiter reading this will think “Yeah, just 15 minutes. I can do that”.

When sending this off, try not to worry about “Oh my god, 15 minutes is not enough, how am I gonna pack everything into just a 15-minute call?”

Remember, the goal here is to just get on a call with them, that’s it.

Often times what’ll happen is, when you’re on the call with them, that call itself will probably go over 15 minutes and the recruiter won’t mind it.

In fact, you both might even lose track of time, who knows?

So, don’t worry, you got this.

"...I just want to make sure I don’t let you down and that I’m prepared to the best of my ability for the interview so that I can really impress (insert hiring manager’s name)."

Now, this is the paragraph that’ll really make the recruiter go “hmmm, this is interesting”.

Here’s why.

When you tell them “I don’t want to let you down”, what you’re saying is “I value this opportunity you gave me and I’m not taking this lightly”.

And when you say, “so that I can really impress the hiring manager” the recruiter will think “Hmm, if I coach this candidate for just 15 minutes, Fahad, the hiring manager, will be really impressed by me.”

It’s like a double-barrel shotgun.

Now, let’s dissect the email a little further.

"...If you’d be open to that, I’m free (insert date between mon-fri) at (insert time ranges between 10:0aam – 5:00pm)."

This sentence here is very important and here’s why.

When you give your availability, you’re making it as easy as possible for the recruiter to schedule a call with you.

All they’ll need to do from their end is to just look into their calendar and pop a scheduled event, that’s it.

You want to essentially minimize any unnecessary back and forth between you two and reduce the amount of friction from their end.

Quick note, make sure you give availability between Mon – Fri, 9:00am – 5:00pm because they’re most likely working those hours.

I’d doubt they’d want to jump on a call with you at an awkward 7:45pm right when they’re about to pick up their kids from their soccer game, only to talk about work with a stranger they’ve met over the phone.

"...Please let me know a time that works best for you and I’ll be sure to send you a Google Calendar invite right away."

Now, here’s a really clever way to show the recruiter that you take proactive initiative.

I personally do a lot of cold emailing to book workshops and meet people and I’ve been toying around with sending people Google Calendar invites once we’ve scheduled something over email.

I initially did this because it serves as a reminder for them and minimizes any flops.

At first, when I started doing this I thought it would be a little weird and I might be seen as the “overly formal and attentive to detail paranoid guy”.

But what I’ve actually found is that people actually appreciate these because not only does it make things easier from their end – I mean, wouldn’t it make your life easier if you plan to meet someone and they already scheduled something in your calendar with the itinerary, date, time, and location all good to go? – but also, it shows that I’m someone who takes things seriously and that I’m not going to flop on them.

So, don’t think of it as weird to send the recruiter a Google Calendar invite because the fact is, other candidates won’t take things this seriously and you’ll be the one dream candidate in their eyes that is different from the rest.

"...I’m sure your schedule must be very busy so if this is something that you cannot commit to right now, I absolutely understand!"

Ok, now let’s talk about the last paragraph of the email.

There’s a reason why you’re telling them “hey if you can’t do this, it’s cool”.

You want to essentially make it easy for the recruiter to let you off in the event that they cannot make the call.

Imagine you were a busy recruiter, you’re managing a pipeline of candidates in the Applicant Tracking System, interviewing candidates, finding hiring needs from managers and the whole shebang.

In fact, your 9-5 starts to be stretched to an extremely packed 8-7.

And then within all this chaos, you get an email from a guy asking you to jump on a call with them, but you know you can’t commit to that because you’re too busy.

Now you start to feel because that you can’t help them out so, you decide to get back to the email later only to have forgotten it within the trenches of your inbox.

But now, let’s say that the guy reaching out to you said: “Hey, totally understand if your packed and make this call, no hard feelings!”

Now you as the overwhelmed recruiter think “phew thank god, he won’t think I’m a bad person for not agreeing to the call. Wait, you know what? Let me just write him 3 quick bullets that’ll be useful for him instead”.

And there you have it, a super-effective email that’ll make the recruiter want to help you out.

But we’re not done yet.

Let’s fast forward a little.

You’ve scheduled some time with the recruiter for tomorrow at 11:30 am and sent them the invite.

Now, here’s where I’m gonna surprise you a little.

Now that you’ve scheduled time with the recruiter you want to send one more confirmation email and yes, I hear you.

“Alif, another email? What’s with you and emails? No wonder people call you an email nerd”.

Here’s the thing.

This next email you’re going to send them will be the icing on the cake. It’ll make the recruiter think, hmm, this is legit.

Here’s what you’re going to do.

Once you both have set a date and time, you’re going to send them the following email:

Subject Line: Looking forward to our call!

Hello (insert recruiter’s name),

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to speak with me, I’ve gone ahead and sent you a Google Calendar invitation to confirm the details.

I also want to be very mindful of your time and make the most out of our 15 minutes so here’s a list of four questions that I’d like to ask you over during our call to give you some context and help you prepare:

(list questions)

Hope this helps, looking super forward to speaking with you!

(sign off)

Simple, yet super effective.

Think of it like this, not only did you…

• Proactively ask for advice that’ll not only help you out but will help them out
• Proactively went out of your way to send them a meeting invitation

But you also made the call super easy for them by giving them questions beforehand, I mean talk about going above and beyond right?

Want to know the wildest thing out of all this?

I can guarantee you that 99% of all candidates who apply for the same job as you won’t do this.

Not only will this whole process make you super memorable to the recruiter but it’ll also leave a good taste in their mouth about you.

Ok ok, I’m getting a little excited but let’s talk a bit about what sorta questions to ask during the call itself and to write in the confirmation email.

Here is a couple of rule of thumb that I’d recommend you follow when formulating your questions…

• Don’t ask questions that can easily be found online, it’ll make you look unprepared and a little shallow.
• Don’t ask for the direct interview questions the hiring manager will be asking, I mean, that’ll make you look weird.
• Don’t ask questions that’ll result in generic answers that can easily be found on Yahoo Answers like “be confident” “make eye contact” “dress for success”. Be very strategic with what you ask.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the type of questions to ask.

But before I get to that, I want to make sure that you understand exactly where the recruiter is coming from when they jump into this call, that way, you’re able to be really strategic about what kinda questions to ask.

Here’s the rundown.

The recruiter and the hiring manager probably have a very good relationship, I mean the fact is, the recruiter probably submitted tons of candidates the HM’s way.

Through all those candidates some of them were probably a decline while others were super successful.

And from this experience, the recruiter probably has a really good idea in terms of what exactly the hiring manager is looking for in successful candidates.

And now your job is to ask your questions in such a way that you’re able to get the recruiter to vomit out the criteria and pretty much dump it all over you.

Sorry I know, a little too graphic.

Here are a couple of example questions you can ask…

• Can you tell me of a successful candidate that was hired and what exactly about them appealed to the hiring manager?
• I understand that this role requires XYZ skills, can you give me examples of tangible projects that I’d work on if I were hired for this role and would require such skills?
• Would you describe the hiring manager as a ‘straight to business’ person or more ‘team culture’ orientated and based on that, what advice would you have for me to fit into their working style culture?

Those are just three to get your brain thinking, there’s probably a ton you can also find on the internet as well so, make sure you do your research.

Now, let’s fast forward once more to the day of your actual in-person interview.

Not only now do you feel more prepared than ever but most likely, the recruiter and the hiring manager had time to connect and the recruiter probably put in a great word about you.

How awesome is that?

Now, you’re probably thinking, “this is great and all, but does this actually work?”.

Well, let me give you a real-life example.

I ran a group coaching program a couple of months back and one of the clients I was coaching had a second stage in-person interview coming up.

She reached out to me and asked me if I had any tips for her.

I told her this exact method that I just went over with you and she decided to implement it.

A couple of days later inside our next group coaching call, she told the group how she took my advice and not only was she able to get some great advice from the recruiter but she also got a great introduction to the hiring manager from the recruiter because of how proactive she was through the whole process.

So, if you ever have an interview coming up, make sure you try this strategy out because who knows, maybe this strategy alone can be the sole reason you get the job.

-Alif