The Recruiter Said "You've Got 20 Minutes - Impress Me!"

Dear Liz,

I read your columns religiously and I get a mojo boost every time I do! I'm job-hunting right now and I'm not desperate, because I have a survival job that pays the bills.

I've recently passed a Human Workplace milestone!

When I first started job-hunting, I was embarrassed about my survival job at a retail store. I didn't mention it in my resume and I didn't say anything about it to recruiters, but that caused a problem when I was scheduled for interviews during the day.

Finally I started to say "I work at a retail store and I'm available to interview after four p.m."  Some of the recruiters said "Your career job search is your priority" and I said "The job I've already got is my priority until I get a new job, because I have bills to pay."

One recruiter seems to have dropped me and that's fine with me, because I didn't like the guy anyway. I didn't like the way he talked down to me.

I've been sending out Pain Letters and having good success. I've got an interview coming up  next week that I'm excited about. My next step is to get my consulting business cards and step into my new part-time consulting persona!

Last week I had an interview with an in-house recruiter at our local newspaper. I was applying for the Classified Sales Manager job. I applied for the job because I want to get experience managing people.

I waited in the lobby for about fifteen minutes and then the receptionist showed me to the conference room where they hold interviews.

I sat down at the table, and into the room walked a guy about forty years old with a cup of coffee for himself. Nobody offered me coffee during my pre-interview wait!

Maybe it's instinct or my own little cultural litmus test, but I said "Oh, coffee! That's perfect. Is there a coffee station close by?"

I stood up. The recruiter looked very startled  - but what he could he say? He couldn't very well say "No coffee for you!"

He said "Around the corner to the left." He didn't get up and show me where the coffee station was. I found it and made myself a cup.

Luckily there was a woman in the break area who showed me which mug to use, because there were no disposable cups.

She gave me the designated visitor's mug. I went back to the interview room, sat down, and the recruiter said "You've got twenty minutes. Impress me!"

"Oh, dear," I said, "I didn't realize you used that style of interviewing here. I view an interview as a get-t0-know-you conversation.

"I'll just sit here and finish my coffee, but you can leave if you want. I'm sure you have a lot of work to do!" 

Now the guy's head was about to fly off his shoulders. "That's okay," he said. "We can talk."

He fumbled his way through the interview, asking all the awful questions you tell people not to ask. I kept trying to make it a conversation, and he kept going back to his script.

Inside I was thinking "I knew there was something odd about this opportunity, but it worked out fine. Look at the new muscles I'm growing!"

When I got home there was a phone message from the newspaper's VP of Sales. He said "I heard that I should meet you. The recruiter said you were spunky." No one has ever called me spunky before, but I was proud of myself.

Should I go back for the second interview? I didn't expect to stay in the pipeline after I told the recruiter I didn't come in there to impress him!

Thanks for all you do, Liz -- you're a life saver!

Yours,

Monica

Dear Monica,

Isn't it a great feeling to go on a job interview and be open to whatever happens, with no attachment to any particular outcome?

When it really hits you in the gut that there are jobs you just couldn't do for any amount of money in the world, that's real empowerment! Then you view every interview as an exploration, not an audition for "The X-Factor."

You realize that if you can't be yourself at work, what's the point? Are you going to be yourself when you're at home and with your friends, and pretend to be somebody else five days a week? Forget it!

You are a super star, Monica! You know that getting the right job is a million times more important than grabbing the first job that comes along.

Your muscles will keep growing as you say "No thanks!" to the wrong things and invite the right ones in.

I'm excited about your next step, too - that consulting business card! You already look like a consultant to me -- and you sound like one, too.

Let's devote ten seconds now to feeling sorry for the scaredy-cat guy who doesn't offer job applicants a cup of coffee and thinks that your assignment is to come to a job interview to impress him.

Doesn't it make your skin crawl to imagine treating job-seekers that way? You did the perfect thing -- you shook his frame! You named the elephant. You said "If that's how you want to play it, you can hire somebody else."

You gave him an answer he wasn't expecting. In this case, he liked it and referred you to the VP, but you were prepared for your interviewer to hate your response and ready to walk away if the newspaper folks didn't get you.

That's the only way to save your sanity and your self-esteem - to stay in your body and let people react to you however they like.

I had a lady ask me to sell her an ashtray once at a job interview when I was nineteen. She chain-smoked throughout the interview and talked in a raspy chain-smoker voice.

She said "I need a protégé!" and I thought "That's a fate worse than death. I'll work at a fast food place before I take this job!"

God bless the people the universe chooses to put in our paths. They guide us in the right direction and give us good reason to count our blessings.

If you feel like it, go to the interview with the VP - who knows what might happen? Your mojo is high now, and that's always the best time for forward motion.

Stay in your body and ask the VP questions about his pain. I guarantee there is major pain. Press on the pain points a little, just enough to remind him that his life at work is not a bed of roses.

The promising interview you've got coming up will keep you grounded when you meet with the VP.

Nothing the newspaper VP can tell you in the interview will keep you from going to meet the other folks you're excited about, and that's the best possible position to be in.

You have a heart and a soul and a good brain to bring to the people who deserve you, Monica. Not everyone has those gifts. Stay on your path and you'll be absolutely fine!

All the best,

Liz

Questions and Answers

Monica is going to wait until she gets the right job before accepting an offer. She's  going to keep her retail job and pinch pennies until she meets the right people -- people who get her, and therefore deserve her.

How do you get a great job, one that deserves your talents?

Learn how to use Pain Letters, your Human-Voiced Resume and the direct approach to hiring managers the way Monica has done!

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