Category: Charting Your Career for Success

The purpose of conducting an interview is to decide whether an applicant is a fit for the job (1) from the company’s point of view and (2) from the point of view of the applicant.

The best way to get to know an applicant in a short amount of time is to hold the interview in a comfortable setting for a conversation.

Early in my recruiting career, my partner and I recruited for E & J Gallo Winery. At the time, Joe Gallo, son of co-founder Ernest Gallo, was effectively the chief executive officer.

The staffing director at the Winery invited my partner and me to join him, the senior vice president of human resources, and Joe Gallo for dinner in Gallo’s home in Modesto.  There was a member of the Gallo staff who worked in the kitchen.  We ate salmon.  I remember, because Gallo, not the kitchen staff, cooked the fish.

At the dinner that night, I got first-hand experience of how to ask a think-on-your feet question.  The conversation had flowed from one comfortable, general discussion to another as my partner and I got to know Gallo, his staffing director, and his senior vice president of human resources.  Then, in a tone of general curiosity and as I recall somewhat out of the blue, Joe Gallo asked me, “Jay, what is the leading political party in Texas?”

I do not recall my answer, but I do recall how thought-provoking the discussion had become.  The question was about politics, but it was not political.  The question was simply thought-provoking.

I later learned in working with E & J Gallo Winery that this type of question was common for Joe Gallo and was a practice he had learned from his father, Ernest Gallo.  What interviewers learn from this type of question is the conceptual thinking of the people they put on the company’s payroll.   Although it is probably safer to avoid politics in an interview process, asking a typically subjective question from an objective point of view enables an interviewer to learn whether an applicant can analyze and discuss situations objectively and intelligently and stick to the facts.

Many companies make it a practice for the hiring manager to take a management applicant and perhaps the applicant’s wife to dinner as one of the last steps in the recruiting process.  The dinner in Gallo’s home fits in with the common and recommended practice for final stage interviews for making management hires.

How well does that recruiting method work?  The people who work at E & J Gallo Winery come from the best schools in the country.  Many of the managers who work for the company have had earlier experience and advanced quickly through the ranks at competitive, major consumer packaged goods companies.  The Gallo method of sourcing and interviewing top management talent has enabled it to stay the world’s largest family-owned winery and the largest exporter of California wine.

The approach that each company takes to conduct its interviews can vary with a number of factors.

• Culture of the company
• Stage of development of the company
• Resources of the company
• Stage of the interview in the process
• Level of the position being staffed

The purpose, however, remains the same:  to decide whether an applicant is a fit for the position (1) from the company’s point of view and (2) the point of view of the applicant.

Dress in business attire.  Standard business attire includes a dark-gray or navy-blue suit or skirt and jacket, a white shirt or blouse, and black shoes. Wear those things to your interviews.  If you are interviewing with people who wear casual clothes to work, they will not fault you on your attire. However, if you go into an office where everyone wears business attire, and you are wearing jeans, you will probably have eliminated yourself from consideration for the job.

Interact and observe.  Whenever you enter a place where you are interviewing, you are under everyone’s eye, whether by design or incidentally. Be patient, thoughtful, courteous, and personable with the people you meet. Be confident and natural.  Breathe in the ambience of the environment. What do you see on the walls and around the offices? Is this a place where you want to be each day? Putting yourself in this frame of mind will help you be alert and learn and be proactive in your meetings.

Move forward.  As you meet people and as you make your way through offices, face the direction you are doing. Move towards people as you meet them and extend your hand.  There only one handshake. Firmly, briefly grasp the other person’s hand as you look them in the eye, and remembering to say the person’s name, say “Betty/Bill, very nice to meet you.  Thank you for meeting with me.”

Be prepared.  Prepare your agenda and use it. Give each interviewer a copy of the material you would like to cover: an outline of your questions, accomplishments, and what you can do for the company.

“The World’s Most Noble Headhunter”

Say Nice Things About Yourself.

In an earlier post about effective communications, I discussed the importance of positive direction.  Only tell people what you want them to do.

People remember what you tell them.  When speaking about yourself, if you can not say anything nice, it is probably better to say nothing at all.

The most common example of keeping comments about yourself positive is the advice on handling the interview question regarding your greatest weakness.  The conventional advice is to give a positive that you may need to reign in a bit.  For example, when someone says that is your greatest weakness, you might say you can get a little impatient with people who are giving less than 100 percent of their effort.   Then you can go on to say that you have learned to use that trait as a management tool to provide direction to under performers.

Also, begin to see yourself as a person who is interested in continually extending your skills and knowledge.  Keep a self-improvement program in progress and discuss this program with people who share your interests.

When I worked at Procter & Gamble, I joined a local Toastmasters group that met for breakfast once a week.  Each week a couple of the members would speak.

I signed up for the Toastmasters meetings just out of curiosity, but the fact that I was participating in a self-improvement program got a lot of play within Procter & Gamble.

Some of the things that I have more read recently include the following, more challenging books and manuals.

• James Joyce: Ulysses
• Homer: The Odyssey
• Edward Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Alan Roth: The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire
• Lisa Sabin-Wilson, et al: WordPress 8 Books in 1
• Thomas Cahill: How The Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe
• Steven M. Schafer: HTML, XHTML, and CSS
• William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August (1932), Absalom, Absalom!, The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion, and others

During a period when I spent a lot of time on an exercise bike, I found that audio tapes were great for learning new ideas and concepts.  I completed following audio series and others:

• Forty-eight-hour diplomatic series for French studies
• Zig Ziglar:  See You at the Top and Secrets of Closing the Sale
• Tony Robbins series Personal Power

Podcasts are easy to find and many are free.  NPR has a nice library of podcasts including The Ted Hour.  There are countless other podcasts.  I have also found do it yourself training very helpful.

I began studying website development on W3Schools.com and still find that website handy for website development reference help.  I completed the New Boston series on Javascript and have completed around sixty of the New Boston series on PHP.  You can find the series on YouTube.com.

There is new group of writers I follow.  The philosophy of these writers is that less is more through nutrition and better life choices:  Mark Sisson, Leo Babauta, Tim Ferris, and others.

It is better to discuss areas of self-improvement as attempts to become more effective than examples of your overcoming your shortcomings.  Any mention of your shortcomings may work against you in the future.

During an interview for a promotion at Polaroid Corporation, the supervisor conducting the interview asked if I had any weaknesses.  I told him that I conscientiously had to focus in on conversations when people were telling me things that I already knew.

I received the promotion.

About a year later, the One Step Camera™ sales had begun to falter through a worldwide inventory glut, and this manager was under a lot of pressure.  During a conversation on sales in my area, he asked me if my inability to concentrate might be contributing to the sales progress of my team.

The manager had drawn on what I thought was an incidental comment I made about how I dealt with long, boring conversations to bore in on issues with my team’s performance that were in reality consistent with the company’s worldwide performance.

I told my manager that I certainly remembered making that comment, but that I was paying attention to him now.  Then I laid out for him my strategies going forward.

So say nice things about yourself.  You do not need to brag.  Just keep it positive.

The more difficult interview questions are also the more common questions interviewers ask.

Preparing for these questions can help you in a number of ways.

• Make you more comfortable when interviewers ask the questions
• Help you anticipate what you need to know and perhaps need to  research further
• Enable you to review your career highlights and your career challenges from an interviewer’s point of view

During my sales training at Procter & Gamble, I learned to anticipate a buyer’s objections and research and prepare my answers.  Preparing for interview questions works much the same way.

“The World’s Most Noble Headhunter”

Hiring companies will very likely check references as part of your employment process.   You can help your references with information that will make them more comfortable, more positive, and be better prepared to take the call.

Provide them with the following information.

• The name of the person who will be calling
• The responsibility of the person who will be calling
• Some background information on the reference checker
• Information about the company to which you are applying
• A description of the responsibilities of the job for which you will be applying
• A review of the things you have accomplished that make you qualified for the job
• An understanding of your sincere interest in getting this job

The person acting as your reference is doing you a favor.  They are devoting their time and perhaps experiencing a bit of pressure in going through the process of discussing information about you with a third-party.

So make certain that you express your gratitude for the help your references are giving you.  You might send your references a thank you note for agreeing to help you, even before they receive the call from the hiring company.

All of these things work to your advantage.  With your help, your references who are likely to be enthusiastic, credible, and persuasive about your qualifications for and your interests in the job for which you are applying.