Interviewing: First Impressions

YES! A recruiter reaches out to you via LinkedIn, email or phone and would love to set up a time to talk. That talk will be the very first impression of you. Think about that, the very first impression. Every question they ask you will help them understand whether you are truly a viable candidate for the role and the company.

And yet, recruiters report some candidates take the first phone call on the grocery store line, or while eating their lunch (chomp, chomp), or while chewing gum, or while their kids are screaming in the background. During the first contact with a recruiter, the candidate should be in a quiet place with a good phone signal. The candidate should also be calm. If you know you have a day full of back to back meetings, don’t “fit” the recruiter between meetings. Find a time and a place to speak where you can compose yourself a half hour before the scheduled meeting.

Tip #11: How you answer the hard skills questions will answer whether you have the soft skills to “fit” in the company.

There is nothing worse than making a hire and realizing the person can’t navigate the culture and the person realizes they are failing but can’t figure out why. That’s why the recruiter screen is critical to determining whether you have both hard and soft skills to be successful. 

The first phone call is the “get to know you” call and to tell you about the opportunity. The “get to know you” part is the recruiter trying to determine whether you have the exact hard skills. Reminder, hard skills are the actual skills needed for the role such as: Are you proficient at SalesForce? SQL? Have you written a press release before and how many media outlets picked it up? Most of that is covered in your resume so the recruiter is just confirming you’ve done what you say you’ve done. 

Even more importantly, the recruiter is trying to determine if you have the soft skills to fit in the company culture. For example, if you worked at a large company where all of the processes are already in place and you are applying to a start-up, you may be asked if you are comfortable with a lot of change/chaos, not a lot of process, and with loosely defined swim lanes for work? How you answer those questions will determine if you fit in a company’s culture.

Most recruiters will ask you five basic questions:

1. Tell me a little about yourself

This question is universally asked, unnerves nearly everyone, and yet people don't prepare for it. Do you talk about your career history? Do you walk through your resume? Do you talk about your hobbies? What does a recruiter want to hear when asking this question?

They want to get to know you a bit. Remember, first impression. It’s an ice breaker question to get to know you and how you answer it will set the tone for the rest of the conversation. So it’s critical that you prepare and have an answer so you are not stumbling over it.

They want to hear your energy, passion, level of authority, whether you are super serious or can be personable with a light joke. They want to get to the heart of YOU to determine if you will fit in the culture. They also want to know what you are aspiring to do.

So, now, substantively, how do you answer it? With your values. What is important to you that relates to the workplace?

Some soft skills that relate to the workplace are: people management, decision-making, influencing, learning something quickly, working without process, working cross-functionally, interpersonal skills, being solution oriented. 

Think about what you really love in your job (even if you hate your job) or in your personal life that relates to work and focus on that. For example, are you a voracious reader? Do you love to learn and/or teach others? Are you the person everyone comes to when they need to solve a problem or they need someone to talk to who will listen? Do you like to mentor and coach people? Are you good at letting things roll off your back and not get rattled under stress or pressure? Determine what soft skill you have that is related to work and discuss that.

For example: “I am a voracious reader. I read pretty much everything I can get my hands on and that has really served me well in learning new areas quickly. I have transitioned careers a number of times to a field I knew nothing about at first. But reading, talking to people, asking smart questions and listening has allowed me to learn anything I don’t know quickly.”

Here you are answering the question, but also stating you can transition careers/jobs/ industries because you are a quick learner.

Someone who likes to travel and is applying to a global role may say, “I am a big traveler. Learning about new cultures is important to me and the best way to learn about them is to travel. My last adventure was to Singapore which is a really interesting country from a social hierarchy standpoint. It’s similar to India in that reputation and manners influence how you work successfully in those countries.”

By answering the question with a little bit of knowledge, this candidate is showing an understanding of different cultures and how that plays out in the workplace. 

The answer to the question is never personal. Do not bring up your family, kids, spouse, medical illnesses, hardships, or anything negative. No pressure but the answer to this first question and the energy and vibe behind it will either entice the recruiter to want to hear more, or make the recruiter end the call early.

2. Walk me through your resume

This sounds like an easy question, but it’s not. A recruiter is not asking you to talk about everything you did in each job or even talk about each job. They want to hear a story and they want to hear about transitions from job to job and what you learned. And they want to hear your entire career story in under 2 minutes.

Your story starts with your first job or if you have been working for 20 years, it’s a summary of the “type” of jobs you had early in your career. For example: A marketer who started her career in advertising sales in three different jobs, she wouldn’t walk through each job, but would say, “I started my career in advertising sales and that is where I was able to hone a pitch and understand how to influence people.”

Then as you move through your resume from the oldest job to your most recent role, discuss why you made the move from one job to another. Did you apply? Were you poached? Were you fired? Transitions are important, especially if you were poached because it infers your value. Previous colleagues valued you so much, when they moved on, they wanted to bring you into their new company. 

If you were fired, that’s the toughest one. It’s never a great idea to say you were fired, but if it was during a mass layoff, reorganization, change in management, or company shut down, that’s fine. Most recruiters understand that. If you were fired when you were younger and the hiring manager has mutual friends and knows about it, make sure you explain what you learned from the experience and how it made you grow. Showing self-awareness of your flaws and failures can be a positive. Saying you were fired and your boss was a jerk (even if he/she is a jerk) is not the way to go because that just makes you sound like a negative person with no self-awareness.

3. Why do you want to leave your current company (or why did you leave your most recent company?)

If you haven’t already answered this in the question above, then it’s important for you to know why you are leaving. Every article about employee attrition and employee engagement will tell you, people leave jobs because of they hate their manager or there is no room for growth. It’s no great secret. Again, it’s probably not the best idea to mention anything negative about your manager because it could reflect poorly on you that you don’t know how to find a way to get along with your manager and the conversation could open the door for the recruiter to wonder if you are the problem and not your manager. 

If you have been at a company for a long time, or you didn’t get the raise/promotion you want, or you are finding your growth stunted by your manager, you can say you are looking for a new challenge or you are at the top of your game in your current role and looking to grow. If you are transitioning careers, you can talk about the steps you took to know you want to be in the new career. If you are looking at the next level role because you can’t grow at your current company, you can say you are looking to find a new challenge at the next level.

Connect the dots from each job to the job description for the job you are applying to.

4. What interests you about the role at the Company?

Research. Research. Research. You must do research on the company before taking a recruiter call. You are expected to know what the company does, how big is the company, is it private or public, and anything else you can find online or by talking to any contacts you have at the company. 

After doing your research, you should be excited to work at the company for some specific reason. It’s the leader in the market? You’ve always wanted to work in a company in X field. You’ve spoken to colleagues at the company who have always had wonderful things to say about the company and the culture and you through this role would be perfect for your skill set. The answer can be that simple.

5. What is your expectation for compensation?

Recruiters in some states may ask you your salary but some states now have laws that forbid a recruiter from asking what you currently earn. They now ask “What are your expectations?” For most people, this is one of those really uncomfortable questions. Ask for two much and you’ve priced yourself out of the role. Ask for two little and you’re kicking yourself for years and not feeling valued in your new role from a compensation standpoint. The most important thing to do is prepare your answer. If you are staying in the same field, you should know what the market rate is for the role you are applying to. If you are transitioning careers, you should ask colleagues or friends what the role would pay in the new field. Either way, the answer is simple, “It’s negotiable. I want to be fairly compensated for the value I’ll be bringing to the role.” Or consider answering the question with a question, “Is there a range for the role?” They should have a range for the role. If pressured for your expectations and you feel like you need to answer, then the goal is to tell them what you truly expect and that it is negotiable.

To figure out what you should set as your expectation, determine the minimum you need to put food on the table and a roof over your head. Then determine what you think is a fair wage for your years of experience and the location of the role – the same role in San Jose v. Oklahoma City is going to pay a lot more in San Jose because the cost of living is so much higher. Check sites like salary.com, payscale.com, Glassdoor, google salary calculator. There are dozens of them. Then hopefully you have a good idea of what you are expecting. If you shoot too high, and the recruiter says, “Oh, this range is a lot lower,” then ask for the range and say you are open for the right opportunity (assuming the range fits within the range you determined you need).

Ask Questions

Interviewing is your opportunity to also ask questions and learn more about the company but keep in mind your audience and how much time you have been on the phone. The recruiter has probably set aside 30 minutes to talk to you. Don’t keep a recruiter on the phone needlessly because it’s the first recruiter who has shown any interest in you. Ask one or two questions. I always like, “What is the interview process like at X company?” By asking that question, you will know where you are in the process at all times if you get a transparent answer. I also like, “What makes people successful at Company X?” or “What makes someone a successful candidate at your company?” Reminder: you are interviewing them to gather information as much as they are interviewing you. Make sure you ask questions a recruiter can answer, not questions that would would be better for the hiring manager.

Interviewing should never be stressful no matter how much you want the job. In the end, if you are the right fit, you will get the job. If you are not, you won’t. If you don't get the job today, the recruiter or a hiring manager may remember you the next time there is an opening. So make that first impression last.

Next week: Preparing for the Interview panel