Why Being the Best at a Job Interview Doesn’t Always Mean Success

Have you ever been invited to a job interview and after that you went home confident that all was great and that the job was yours? Have you been so confident that you knew all the details they asked for and that you went with your friends to town to celebrate before the company even called you back for a feedback? Have you been so well prepared for all the questions and you did so well that you were sure you blew their mind with your knowledge? Have you been so sure you were the right candidate; the one and only, that you had the best skills, the best knowledge, the best attitude, and the best of the best?

Did they call you later to tell you that you were rejected, the whole world crushed around you and you simply didn’t understand why no matter how hard you tried to figure it out? Well, here are some possible reasons (I am talking only about professional reasons, not silly and unethical reasons like they hired someone’s friend or relative instead):

-          Sad as it may be, you simply weren’t the best as you expected – there was another candidate just a little better; what can you do – simply ask what you could have improved and do it; some recruiters will tell you;

-          You were the best, but the team manager didn’t see you as part of their team– being the best individual doesn’t always mean that the candidate is right for the team – each team manager investigates candidate’s skills to see if they would work well with the rest of the people in the team – no matter how great you are, not working well with the existing team can mean project failure;

-          They found out some information about you that they didn’t find suitableor that damaged your image – did you check all the profiles and comments that you have made public on LinkedIn or other similar networks? Did you check all the photos that you have available on Facebook? Did you do a simple Google search with your name as keywords to see what comes up? Did you ever think that your picture from the seaside 4 years ago that you placed online, picture where you were happy to show your friends how drunk you were after drinking 6 bottles might be available and might affect your credibility?

-          Have you been a good employee in all your previous jobs? Did you know that HR people know each other most of the times and can ask for unofficial information about your performance, behavior, attitude, team work, loyalty and so on? Sometimes labor law requires that the candidate is informed when background checks are done, but let’s be honest, if you had a friend in another company and wanted information about something happening there, wouldn’t you just ask unofficially? Just between friends? Well, HR people do that, just between friends and sometimes find out interesting information about candidates; so you must be really careful as the past can haunt you;

-          They have some hidden selection criteria that they are not allowed (by law most of the times as this is considered discrimination) to publish, but which unfortunately exist – what I mean, they need to hire a man instead of a woman or the other way around (for example you will be selling lip gloss, you are a great salesman, but they think a woman would make better connections with their target audience), they have a specific age range in mind, they don’t want a mother with children as she is not available to do overtime and they want someone willing to do that, they prefer someone single who can travel a lot (even if you say you are available, being married and traveling all the time may affect your relationship and at some point you may quit and they don’t need that after they have invested in you) and other similar ones;

-          You have some specific features that they would like to avoid due to some previous negative experiences they had with similar candidates – for example – we were searching at some point for our help desk team French speaking candidates; we found some great ones that had French teaching as previous professional background; we hired a few and after a short while most of them decided to leave as they considered the job too demanding and below their professional level. This was a mistake from our side as we didn’t check their motivation thoroughly enough and we offered them just because they were the best French speakers. We found out that teachers most of the times have a much less demanding job in school than French speakers in a help desk center dealing with angry customers all the time, that they have 3 months of vacation during summer which was not the case in our company, that they had the respect of their students while our clients would be always angry and treat them badly. All this made us think really well if we wanted to hire another teacher again, no matter how great their French was.  Do you understand my point?

I hope that my article will help you choose the positions you apply for wisely. Make sure that you really want the position and make sure that you are really well informed and ready for what is expecting you.

Take care,

Geo

What Is Headhunting? Beginner’s Guide…

Most of you have probably heard about this term. It’s actually not new in recruitment. Headhunting has been used for several years now and sometimes successfully. But did you know that headhunting is not accessible to all recruiters, that some hate doing it and that you need some special skills (similar to those used by sales people) to actually be successful? Did you also know that not all candidates are on the list of headhunters?

Well, in this article I will tell you about headhunting from scratch – my goal is for every potential candidate to be able to identify headhunting when they are facing it. In order to do that I have decided to reply to a few common questions about headhunting for you to get an idea:

1.       What is headhunting?

Headhunting is a form of recruitment and selection where the recruiter finds the contact details of a specific candidate that has some specific skills and contacts him/her in order to convince him/her to participate in the recruitment process. Headhunting doesn’t mean that the recruiter is calling you to make an offer. Just to convince you to participate in the process. They may have liked your CV, but they need to test you, so don’t be super excited. However, if they have called you without you applying for the job, your chances for the job (considering that you do have the skills you mention in your CV), are higher than those of some other regular candidates that applied directly. Headhunting means that the recruiter has done some research concerning you and that they are interested in your knowledge and experience. So, is them calling you a good thing? Of course… if they are interested, it means you are able to have higher demands.

2.       Why do recruiters do it and when?

Recruiters normally use headhunting when they have listed a certain position on the market and nobody interesting applied, when they are looking for certain skills and don’t want to waste their time placing ads that useless candidates would apply to, when a certain position is rather confidential and they don’t want to list it publicly on the market or simply when filling a position is critical and needs to be done fast and they don’t have the time to wait for candidates to apply.

3.       Who is usually on the list of headhunters?

Not everybody of course – just those candidates that have special skills, employees from the competition most of the times. If you are a fresh graduate, don’t wait for recruiters to call you because they won’t. Apply yourself and hope to be called later when you get those special skills they need.

4.       What skills does a headhunter need in order to be successful?

As I said earlier, not all HR people can be headhunters. You need to have some skills similar to those of sales people:

·         you must be tough and don’t take rejections personally (this time the candidate is rejecting you as a company not the other way around);

·         you must have a vivid imagination concerning how to get contact details (candidate’s email and phone number don’t just sit there waiting to be discovered – you must search the internet, call people you know that may know the candidate you are interested in, sometimes invent stories over the phone or email – believable and professional stories - to get to the ones you are interested in);

·        you must be persuasive (to convince the candidate to accept to come meet you or the hiring manager);

·         you must be shrewd sometimes – I told you earlier that sometimes you have no idea how to contact someone; that someone may be a key resource of a competitor, a manager or who knows what important person that won’t just give their contact details to just anyone; you must have believable stories for their secretary, their colleagues who may be answering the phone; sometimes you have to lie, to invent details and all just to get some contacts. If you feel you’re not up to it, just give up;

·         you must be fast – sometimes there may be other headhunters interested in the same candidate – you must be there first;

5.       How should a candidate behave if approached by a headhunter?

Nothing special. If they are interested in the position – ask questions and agree to come to the meeting; if not, simply thank the recruiter for the call or email and explain that they are not interested either at the moment or at all. If some specific project is not allowing you to change jobs right now, it’s fine to accept that the recruiter keeps your CV for later use. You don’t have to be suspicious and ask questions like “Where did you get my phone number?” or “Who gave you permission to call me?” This will only look bad. Just be polite as you may never know what great position they may be offering you in the future.

6.       Is headhunting illegal?

Well, it depends on what the recruiter does with your contact information which should be confidential and protected by law. If they don’t make it public and just use it to contact you while explaining how they got it and what they need from you, then it’s fine. Making headhunting illegal or not depends on how professional the headhunter is.

7.       Where do headhunters find your contact data? Are you allowed to ask how they did it?

First of all, yes, you are allowed to ask. Just be natural and open if you really care so much how they got it. In terms of where they get the data, there are several sources – they may be a connection you had not noticed on LinkedIn, Facebook or other social network, they may have your details from one of their contacts who knows you, they may have bought it from job portals who allow recruiters to unlock your CV after paying a certain amount of money, they may have found it online somewhere if you have a personal website or are a public person, you may have applied at some point in your career to the company they work for and have forgotten since, or you may have applied to some position in another company they worked for and they have saved your contact details just in case (this one is a bit on the edge of illegal, but it’s possible), they may have told someone that knows you a story and convinced them to give them your details, you may have exchanged business cards at some meeting you no longer remember – the possibilities are multiple and they only depend on the imagination of the headhunter;

8.       What are the risks of headhunting?

For the candidate there’s the risk of being heard by someone while answering the phone and accepting to meet a headhunter. So if someone calls you and they tell you they are interested in your CV, just ask them to call you back if you can’t speak and are really interested in finding out more. For the headhunter the main risk is that the candidate rejects the proposal and that the position doesn’t get filled in on time – this is just time wasted. There’s also someone else at risk – the company the headhunter works for – if the candidate is being part of a headhunting process, they may get the idea that they are highly desirable (which is true) and ask for more money than the company intended to pay or can afford.

All in all, is headhunting a misleading black practice? Well, not really. It may be perceived so because headhunters must sometimes turn to almost illegal ways to contact candidates. However, headhunting proves sometimes even more efficient for both the company and the candidates than regular recruitment and selection. Headhunting must be taken as it is and must be practiced in a professional manner.

Take care,

Geo

*** Video version of this article available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKel3cQ4INs&feature=youtu.be

  Enjoy!

I’ve Recently Been Promoted. How Can I Gain the Respect of Older Team Members?

This is a typical problem that young and ambitious managers that have just been promoted face.  It’s completely normal that at some point in your manager career this happens – whether you like it or not. You’re either promoted from your old team or you have just been hired into a new one – no matter which is which, you will most often have someone in your team that is older than you are. You may be in the lucky situation where this person doesn’t want your job (is either satisfied with his current one or doesn’t feel strong enough to lead a team) or you may be constantly watching your back as this team member was your competitor during the assessment and is waiting for you to make a mistake just to prove to your managers that your promotion wasn’t such a great idea.

My advice comes to help you in the latter situation. So, what to do? Quit? Reject the promotion you’ve been working for such a long while? Absolutely NOT. If they promoted you, you must be good and you must deserve it, so be proud of it and act as a manager – make the team work together with you and deal with their frustrations in a diplomatic manner. If you run away, you will learn nothing out of this experience and the next time you apply for a new promotion, your current fears will overcome you once again. So, here’s what to do:

·         Involve the team members you fear most in your projects – make them feel more important than the rest of the team; seek their advice, ask for their opinion and even try to implement their suggestions if they are good; if not, explain to them why they are not – make them realize that in your position you have a larger picture and they will understand in the end;

·        Transform these older team members into change agents – meaning that you should explain your vision to them, make them improve it and embrace it, ask them to implement it into the team and reward them constantly (individually and publicly where necessary) for their success;

·         Delegate important tasks to these team members – again make them feel important and make them get a taste of what your job is like; this will make your job easier and also they will understand the challenges you face and will support you more than if you impose some actions on them; dictatorship most of the times ends in a “blood bath” – this sounds war like, but you get what I mean – they will try desperately to sabotage your every decision and your image as a manager;

·         Whenever  you get the chance, show them your knowledge – if you got the promotion, then it was for a reason – identify your strengths (your manager or the promoting committee can help) and try to make these visible to the team – whether you have great decision skills, you are a great organizer, you are stronger and don’t fear a direct talk with the client, whatever it is, make sure the team know your strengths;

·         Be open minded and admit your mistakes if you make any. Accept constructive criticism and thank those team members that discuss openly with you about mistakes, change and solutions.

Please feel free to add any new suggestions to my list from your experience. I am looking forward to your comments.

Take care,

Geo

Who Is Better in Human Resources? Men vs. Women…

Since there’s a timeless dispute between men and women concerning who is better at something, I decided to fuel it as well by asking the challenging question of “Who is a better HR person – men or women?”  Tough one…

Well, to be able to decide upon that, let’s see what a real HR person should be like:

• Should be sociable since work involves people every day;
• Must like working with people;
• Must be patient and understanding of others’ problems;
• Must be empathetic and must easily sense people’s feelings;
• Must see below the surface and by that I mean being able to read hidden body language, gestures, expressions below standard verbal language – people don’t always say what they mean – an HR person must be able to get that;
• Must be well organized since the volume of work is quite high in all areas of HR;
• Must be a good mediator quite often; since a lot of people have trouble communicating, HR must help them do that;
• Must be a good listener;
• Must be always ready to help;
• Must be a good diplomat – do the job even if you don’t like the people you work with;
• Must understand that inside the company, the employees are your clients and that clients’ needs come first – I really dislike this one, but it’s true unfortunately so you must deal with it; you know –client is king, client is always right and all that;

That’s more or less all there is to it. Foreign language skills or PC skills are useful, but not always top priority in this job. There are people who can help you with reporting or translations. Working with people is your main job.

And to make it more interesting, I would like to tell you about men and women from Alan Pease’s perspective. This is a fragment from one of my articles on www.lady-driver.com:

“Allan Peasein Why men don't listen and women can't read maps (very smart and funny video showing years of experience in the field - you can find it on YouTube):
Women:

• focus more on relationships and feelings rather than on facts; better social skills than men;
• can't point North;
• have a brain that is more complex;
• are multitasking - can perform more simultaneous non-related tasks because their brain has more connections;
• have poor sense of direction;
• can't read maps; have the tendency to rotate them to face the direction they are traveling;
• estimate distances poorly and need great exercise to improve; 
• have parking issues and speed and distance estimation problems;
• can use both hands simultaneously without much difficulty;
• sometimes have difficulties telling left hand from right hand;
• see better at short distances rather than long distances;
• have good peripheral eye sight ranging up to 60 degrees;
• can't look at information three-dimensionally - poor visual skills;
• prefer to park in a large space and walk rather than squeeze the car in small dangerous spots.”

Some are not relevant, but I preferred to include all just for you to understand women better and look for Alan’s video.

Now, coming back, since there aren’t so many men in the field, women must be better, right? In all the companies I have worked for, I had only 2 men colleagues in HR out of around 20. Also, I have never been at a workshop or conference where there were more than 10% HR men. Well?

Women must be better since they have better communication and social skills. This however doesn’t mean that man should completely stay out. A lot of HR men are very good at what they do. But women rule in HR as men rule in jobs like air traffic controller, pilot or aerospace engineer. 

Just to make it fun, I have placed a small survey on the left of the article. Please reply with your opinion concerning this debate. Who do you think is better in HR? Men or women?

July 8th: Survey is closed - please find results below:

 

Thanks and take care,

Geo