Case Study: How We Prepared Our Client For A JP Morgan Final Round

Last week my client made it to last round of interviews at JP Morgan, and the same way I shared how we prepared for that one,

I'm going to share how we prepared for this one.

But this time, on a short article.

For the sake of brevity, I'll summarize it short, simple, 3 steps.

Steps many of you have heard me talk about.

I'll cut through the chase. These are:

• Mindset & Self-Image
• Strategy
• And Tactics

Starting with Mindset:

Mindset & The Client's Self-Image in the Process

After going through the hype of making it through the first technical round of interviews,

The client and started working on his self-image.

Particularly with disarming false-beliefs, and aspects of the process that would undermine his self-image.

With such a top employer, it’s easy to fall in trap of thinking that "you’re lucky" to be in that interview with that calibre of. a company.

That "it must have been a coincidence"

But the reality is, that if you’re in there, is because they really want you, they really need you. You have something they need.

In this case, we uncovered that the past company he'd worked at, was an actual service provider of JP Morgan in a particularly niche position.

Furthermore, a former employee of his former company, was currently working at JP. And they were very happy with his work in the recent five months.

So that was kind of endorsement for him.

See it is another type of indirect referral. Totally unexpected. But surely we would ride that leverage.

Disarming False-Beliefs and Reinforcing Self-Image

So in short, we disarmed the following self-image beliefs and false-beliefs about the candidate, JP Morgan, and the industry, including:

• "It's not luck, they need you"
• "You have a solid track record. They hired someone like you 5 months ago"
• "They told you in the first round, they'd let you know in 7 days, they called the day after"

Strategic Actions

After going through initial round of empowerment self belief, and planting the right seeds to put him in the best mind game,

We drafted a careful quality-based research plan.

This included what I call online and off-line research.

The first thing we did, was to reach out to somebody that had been working on a different vertical in the same industry.

We knew that given his experience and position in the industry (just a couple years more senior), this person would be magnificent at pointing out the different blind angles of the industry.

Ones that we ourselves could not see.

This is a tricky part of the process because you'll not always have the perfect contact to reach out to, and also you’ll be most likely on a time crunch.

This is were our services and network came into "hard play".

Perseverance here and sticking to your own timings of this is super important.

Strategic Action #1 - Interview an Expert In The Field

In this particular case, the contact we were going to interview, was in Pacific Time zone while the client was in European time zone.

Surely a challenge to get on the phone with given work schedules. But we pushed hard and we made it happen.

Strategic Action #2 - Do Offline Research (The Gas To The Fire To Let It Explode)

Another massive aspect, is that we asked the Contact if we could record the call so that we could revert back through the process of preparation.

We had one week for the interview preparation.

This call was paramount for several reasons, including but not limited to:

• Creating very good research questions for the end of the interview
• Understanding the position, at a team level
• Getting to understand what the internal lingo and internal conversations so that when he went into the interview...
• He could speak just like if he was another colleague doing the job.

Subconsciously, this shifts them away from the thought of hiring you or not.

And instead makes them feel like they're in a dream - like you’re already there working in the office.

When they wake up from the dream, it'll suck for them.

They realize that you’re not there, and instantly will want to hire you.

After this, it's when we got to the "grunt work"

Tactical Work

At this point, all we had to do was literally smash the interview prep.

For this we needed time.

Yes, chronological time. So that’s why it’s very important to manage your timing considerably well.

The basic rule of thumb here, is to "over prepare" on the front end, so that you don’t run short the days before the interview [as this can bring you unnecessary anxiety].

Let me explain.

Tactic #1 - Interview scheduling

It's very important to give yourself ample time to schedule the interview. I typically go for about 6 to 7 days out.

That means that when the recruiter asked for a date and time to interview, we specifically gave them a date further out on the next week.

I typically like to shoot for last round interviews on Thursdays or Fridays.

Many reasons for this, but if anything, I feel that people have unloaded projects, and don’t have heavy and stressful meetings on those days.

Subconsciously, they tend to be already thinking on the weekend, on their hobbies, their families, their loved ones, etc.

So the perfect frame of mind to show up to someone.

(Better than crisis-mode Mondays).

Tactic #2 - Mind-Scripting

The key to great interview preparation.

It’s not to try to memorize the answer to +100 questions.

That’s just not gonna happen.

The only thing that this will bring, is anxiety and stress.

Preventing you from being the person you need to be in that interview.

Instead, you have to go from mind scripting.

A technique I’ve "stolen" and developed through the years from brain coaches, that work in Hollywood.

(If you’re interested in this, read, Limitless, by Jim Quick. Will Smith's brain coach.).

Yes, believe it or not, I took scrip-writers' and brain coach techniques from the movie industry, and adopted them into interview psychology.

I use a specific interviewer framework called Situation, Behavior, and Outcome. This framework was recommended to me by Boeing’s former Lead Recruiter.

What I like about this framework, is that it’s focusses on your behavior.

I.e., Your Attitude.

And trust me, after going through thousands of interviews, I realized that your ideal job and ideal culture, hides behind people that hire for attitude.

Not skills.

Human.

People.

Consistency Is The Name Of The Game

And that's it for today.

The next step is to smash this process.

Get really, really good at it.

To the point where you just flow through the last round process.

Where at this point, it becomes a numbers game.

Get into enough last rounds (2/3 does the trick), and you'll start seeing insane results.

Get your dream job as a result.

-Gonzalo

#careers #interviews #emotionalintelligence #personaldevelopment