Interview Guide; how to prepare and ace it!

Interview Guide from mynewcv.ie

(if you are reading this from Galway, send me an email, tnx, R)

This guide is a step by step guide to making sure that you retain as much control as possible over the interview process so that with preparation and your own experience you can anticipate and correctly answer each point. All of this follows a simple process aimed at ensuring that the interviewer will be confident that you:

·         are able to excel at the position in hand

·         can get up to speed quickly

·         will bring value to the existing situation

·         ultimately save/make the company time and or money

We have broken this document into the following headings and sub headings. Namely:

Introduction to the Process

·         Interview Principles

·         Linear Approach

·         Thinking Across the Desk

The Basics

·         Location

·         Appearance

·         Time Keeping

·         Focus

Preparation

·         The Curriculum Vitae

·         The Company

·         The Job Specification

·         The Interviewer

·         Why you? Why them?

·         Situation, Behaviour, Outcome (SBO)

·         The Mock Interview

·         Curveballs

Body Language

·         Attention

·         Comfort

·         Passion v Gravitas

·         Rapport

Closing and Following up

·         Any Questions?

·         Next steps

·         Call to Action

Telephone Interviews

Conclusion

Introduction to the Process

The Interview process is the tried and trusted way for companies to hire what they perceive to be the best staff for each position that arises, whether the candidate is internal or external. However, it’s important to take a step backwards to consider why you have been called for the interview.

It’s safe to assume that you, the person looking for a new job are extremely aware of your own circumstances and these are different for each candidate, but we need to consider the hiring company.

Hiring Company A has a vacancy. To correctly prepare for the interview you will need to ascertain why the position has arisen and put some thought into why this reason aligns with your own situation.

Either the vacancy exists due to success of the company or because of a requirement to backfill, i.e. the previous incumbent has left or is leaving.

If it’s a new position, your mindset has to match the hiring company’s thinking. You’ll be taking a leap of faith with them.

If the vacancy is for a backfill position, this gives you the opportunity to research the previous holder of the role, why if possible they have left and this can allow you the chance to mentally focus again on the needs of the hiring company.

Establishing this fact can be easy. You ask the person who has called you for interview.

Why is this important? For roles to be backfilled there’s an existing structure, reporting line, targets, timelines and other factors already pre-defined.

For new roles, you must ensure that you have considered these.

·         Interview Principles

By dint of your Curriculum Vitae, Market reputation and/or word of mouth you have been asked to be interviewed for a given role.

The hiring manager wants to find out:

·         Can you do the job in front of him?

·         Do you want to fill this position?

·         Are you motivated to improve the performance of the company?

·         Will you fit in with the current team/customer/client base?

·         Will you provide return on investment for them?

·         Is your background what they are looking for and will it improve the existing team?

These are the principles that you must consider and have foremost in your mind to prepare correctly for every interview, whether it’s an initial telephone screening or if it’s the final round of interviews.

Bear in mind that there may be numerous other people being interviewed for this role but by the same token it’s important to realise that their performance and/or background is beyond your control.

·         Linear Approach

What we are creating here is a logical “Critical Path” method of looking at the interview process.

Approaching it as a Project Management based task you must have schedules, to do lists and tasks prepared, each leading on to the next one. At the conclusion of the document you’ll find this broken down into tasks for the interview. Apply this process and it will ensure confidence and belief.

·         Thinking Across the Desk

As mentioned above, during this process you will need to be able to put yourself in the chair opposite. To correctly match your skills to their requirements and present them correctly you need to Think Across the Desk.

The Basics

A lot of this information you may have heard before, but put a foot wrong in the basics and you are in trouble. It would be remiss to provide an interview guide without mentioning and addressing each of these points. It’s not an exhaustive list and following these guidelines will not get you hired but if mis-handled it can guarantee that you don’t.

·         Location

Simple, I know but do you know where you are going? Googlemaps is a vital help to finding a specific company and many companies will have this on their own site.

Recently I visited a client based in West Dublin, used the Googlemap on their site only to find that indeed I was on the correct road, but this road was part of a really complex flyover system and although as the crow flies I was very close, I had to drive a further three miles and was late through bad map reading!

Consider how you will get there versus where you are scheduled to be immediately prior to the interview. Be prepared for bad weather, bad traffic and bad public transport!

I cannot stress highly enough how important it is to reconnoitre the building. Look at it, if possible during business hours. You’ll see employees and how happy they look (or unhappy), their dress code and notice things such as parking, one way systems, where to lock your bicycle and so on.

·         Appearance

Your appearance, demeanour and even odour can be vital in an interview scenario. Showing up dressed incorrectly will definitely work against you.

So what is the best way to dress?
The tried and trusted method is slightly more formally than their dress code. You can ask the hiring manager in advance what the dress code is and establishing this is mentioned above. In the case of IT and Technology roles, smart casual is probably best, but if you are attending the interview directly after a day’s work, the hiring company should be told this and of course you will be adhering to the dress code that currently applies. This will not be an issue as generally interviews whilst already employed are of course frowned on and companies accept this.

If you smoke, don’t smoke for some time before the interview, ensure that a modest amount of aftershave or deodorant is used; too much is worse than none and that you are clean shaven or at least your facial and head hair is clean and tidy.

If you wear glasses, make sure that they are smudge free. I once interviewed a man that I could smell before I could see and who had a massive thumb print on his glasses. It shows lack of attention to detail and would rule any client facing roles out immediately.

·         Time Keeping

Being late can be disastrous. It demonstrates lack of motivation and sends a really bad message.

Unless you have the phone number of both the interviewer and the front desk saved in your mobile phone. If you are going to be late, call them and let them know and you’d better have a good reason. But if you are late without prior notice and an excellent reason…..? Be 10 minutes early.

·         Focus

One thing that is very important is keeping focus on the questions being asked, the reason that you are in front of the interviewer and the fact that this is an interview. This is not a casual chat about your next career move. They may say it is, but it is always an interview. Don’t bring in water bottles or chewing gum. If you meet in a hotel or a bar, don’t order alcohol.

Later on we’ll introduce the concept of Situation, Behaviour, Outcome which will help the focus, but it’s vital not to forget to focus. If you feel the interview is going well it’s easy to relax, maybe even slouch and start making jokes. Appropriate humour is welcome, but if you’re not focussed it’s easy to say the wrong thing. Remember, this is NOT a chat, it is an INTERVIEW.

Preparation

This is the real bones of this process. All else is pure common sense, however in this section we will break down the methods to ensure that you are supremely confident going into any interview. As time goes by this process will become second nature and you will follow it automatically.

·         The Curriculum Vitae

Your own CV you should know like the back of your hand, however in your case it’s a relatively new document perhaps using phrasing that you normally wouldn’t use yourself.

For this reason it is imperative that you are very very comfortable with each word and every benefit.

This will not take much time but it will require a friend to help you.

Hand the CV to a friend and ask them to read it to you, line by line.

After each line you should then tell them all about it.

E.g.:

·   Senior Sales Manager with direct responsibility for improving margins, client register and geographical reach; achieved 74% increase in turnover within a 6 month period

Tell them about client register. Assume you are to be interviewed by a Managing Director. Her job is to manage and direct. Her direct reports deal with these issues and it’s just words to her. So the real test here is can you explain complex issues to an audience who may not be directly involved in your role?

Your friend will get up to speed quickly with this process and might even learn something!

What this will achieve is that in a short time you will be able to speak at length in plain English about each and every skillset on your CV. Therefore, no matter what is thrown at you during the interview, bearing in mind that all interviews are a combination of the Job Spec and the CV you will be comfortable, knowledgeable and able to project your knowledge easily.

·         The Company

Would you employ somebody who knows nothing about your company? Neither would I. Going into an interview without having researched the company, the Organisational Chart of Employees (even a notional one is good, use LinkedIn or the Company site) and where the company has come from and where it is going, is vital.

You won’t need to work too hard to demonstrate this knowledge but it will help guide your answers. From a business standpoint, you will be able to establish what type of technologies they use, what their competitors use, what’s coming down the line in terms of future plans for development, social media, mobile advances etc. and you can leverage this knowledge in how you frame your answers.

Use Social Media to get a grip on how they operate. Find their Facebook page and join it. Follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn.

You need to know:

·         The origin of the company

·         The future direction of the company

·         Who are the players here?

·         Who is the competition?

You will find other nuggets on their websites and other sources, but research is key.

·         The Job Specification

The strongest clue you have to their requirements is the Job Specification. Later in this point I’ll address what to do if none is provided but we’re assuming that in this case they have.

The genesis from “Across the Desk” for the Job Specification is simple. They write down what the role entails and what their vision of the successful candidate is. Remember, it’s generally a wish list. If someone fills every criterion then they already work for the company!  Another point to consider is that if the role is for a Contract or Interim position, then the successful candidate must be more experienced than the role in hand. If it’s a permanent role, in normal circumstances then the candidate should be slightly below the requirements so that the move suits all parties and there’s a motivation to move to this role on the part of the candidate. However, in recessionary times this shifts to parity with the experience required. Employers generally can pick and choose from a range of candidates.

If no Job Specification is supplied, then you need to write one for the role. How do you do this?

If the Job Title in question is: Senior Sales Manager, what you need to do is write a checklist of what you think the client is looking for.

·         Experience in exceeding sales targets

·         Internal liaison experience

·         Industry knowledge and the ability to bring in new clients

·         Extending geographical reach

·         Onboarding exceptional sales staff and mentoring same

Assuming that you now have a Job Specification, we will address this specific preparation in the SBO heading below and for this purposes we will use a real world specification.

·         The Interviewer

We have briefly touched on the interviewer above but you need to be as armed as possible based on what knowledge you can garner about the actual person who is interviewing you. A simple Google search will probably find something on almost anybody but I strongly suggest using LinkedIn.

Obviously they are a senior person in this organisation, so where did they come from? Are there any similarities between them and you? Perhaps they are interested in Mongolian Throat Singing too? You never know and if you can find a common area of interest beyond the area the role is in and have a legitimate reason to bring it up, this can allow you to demonstrate attention to detail, rapport, how seriously you take and want this role and generally put the interviewer at their ease.
If you go too deep you can possibly make people feel a bit weird, so keep it above the belt.

·         Why you? Why them?

Part of what the interviewer needs to establish is precisely this. Why you and why them. You need to be able to demonstrate to the interviewer and the company at large that you are the best mix. You need to show that you can fix their pain. You are looking for a Solutions Designer. I design solutions.

From the other point of view, Why Them? When I used to interview Recruiters to join my organisation and this was their first interview, I always sent them away to interview with other companies before confirming a second interview. This is because hiring companies want their prospective employees to WANT to work for them. Imagine Google. Lots of people really really want to work for them, but why? Great PR? Super funky offices? Perhaps and they hear that all the time. However, the people that they do hire are genuinely aligned to their core values.

They want not to be evil! They want to be part of the most innovative and creative software related company in the world. Not what the company can do for them, but what they can do with the company, to paraphrase. When your interview is confirmed, consider this sentence and what is it you want to do with the company. Not how much they can pay you.

·         Situation, Behaviour, Outcome (SBO)

As mentioned above regarding Job Specifications, SBO is the easiest and most overlooked method of acing interviews. In the interview itself you will be asked questions based on the Specification and your CV. To make sure you get your point across you should take the following steps.

·         Listen to the question and you request clarification or repetition if required.

·         Tell the interviewer the Situation. This is how it was.

·         Then tell them the Behaviour. This is what I did.

·         Then tell them the outcome. This is how it is now.

·         Smile politely and answer follow up questions in the same fashion.

If you are lucky enough to be called for a competency based interview, approaching each competency or line from the Specification in this fashion with prepared answers will allow you to score incredibly highly (as it’s a statistical way of interviewing). If it’s not a really formal competency based format and a more traditional “chat” one, then the interviewer cannot help but be impressed with your approach and your no nonsense or waffle way of answering the questions.

SBO appears to be all very well but how do I prepare? Going back to the real world example mentioned here is a Job Specification for a Sales Manager. It’s essentially Responsibilities v Requirements.

Responsiblities:

·          Building a business field sales team capable of meeting and exceeding the companies sales targets across the companies network footprint

·          Hiring and managing a sales team consisting of individuals capable of performing at or above target

·          Manage a team of 6 Field Sales Reps with focus on activity based selling

·          Supporting Individual sales people through coaching and mentoring in sales, product and time management issues

·          Supporting sales people with individual sales opportunities and assist in closing deals at meetings on a regular basis

·          Building monthly sales volume to meet or exceed company targets through generating sales of the product set within the SME and Corporate space

·          Working within guidelines set by the Company in relation to sales process and activity levels

·          Resolving issues across the company through positive and proactive engagement with other departments, removing barriers to sales.

·          Developing with Marketing Department marketing initiatives and events to support Business sales.

·          Representing the company at industry or other networking/promotional events. Reporting sales volumes and commissions to senior management and so on…

Requirements:

·          5+ years experience in Sales Management in the telecommunication and/or IT industry

·          Team Management experience

·          Presentation to clients up to Finance Director and IT Director level

·          Driven approach to meeting and exceeding sales targets - new business

·          Experience in Sales of Telecommunications/ICT solutions into the SME and Corporate market"

·          Experience of working in a team based environment

·          Proven sales and sales management skills

·          Excellent Presentation skills to individual and group audiences up to Director level

·          Proven ability to work within a cross functional team environment

·          Full Driving Licence

So, taking the first line…

·          Building a business field sales team capable of meeting and exceeding the companies sales targets across the companies network footprint

Interviewer will ask this question or something very similar.

Tell me about a situation where you built a sales team and exceeding targets?

Situation

When I was promoted to Sales Manager the team was underachieving and were low on morale.

Behaviour

I put in place a number of initiatives, refocused the team by predefining exactly what Key Performance Indicators were expected of each and created an ongoing training programme to help them identify and address issues that each were having. I also negotiated a bonus with management for a weekend away for the entire team if we hit target by Christmas.

Outcome

By Christmas, we had already hit the initial target and brought on board a new staff member, so we all received our bonuses but also went on our weekend away.

And repeat. For each line of the Job Specification you will now have an SBO ready. The hiring company wrote the outline of what it is that they want. Now you have been told what they need to know. You should prepare in this fashion so that anything they ask you about in any of these areas you have knowledge of you will have examples. And you will have examples in the SBO format that follows the linear fashion that most interviewers want, and especially technically minded people.

·         The Mock Interview

As mentioned above you will need some help with preparing the CV. Use the services of your friend when you have prepared your SBO and hand the spec to them.

Ask your friend to Interview you based on the spec.

“Tell me about read a line from the spec”

Using your memory of creating your SBO, brainstorm the answers. You now have written the answers down, you have answered them in a mock environment and verbalised them. From a psychological point of view, seeing the words and getting them out of your head is all very well, but enunciating them is a different kettle of fish and can be very hard to do the first time.

You now are very well prepared for the interview by knowing your own skills and how they are presented and taking their requirements and matching your skills, with the ability to present the answers that they need to hear in the Situation, Behaviour, Outcome format.

·         Curveballs

It’s extremely difficult to prepare for curveball questions, but there are the classics.

What are your weaknesses?

What mistakes have you made?

And so on.

Giving answers to these are always on a case by case basis. What you can control is what not to say. Turning a weakness into a strength can be construed as arrogance. So be careful.

E.g. I work too hard sometimes…

Prepare an answer for this that is honest but not over the top.

Don’t say..I drink too much and hate Mondays but maybe something like..”there have been occasions in the past where I’ve focussed too much energy on areas that are not critical to the go live period. I’m aware of this, so I tend to be a stickler in dealing with issues of clarity with Project Managers. This can drive them mad on occasion but it’s important for me to make sure my work is focussed.”

Something like this shows self awareness and an ongoing ability to fix it.

A good rule of thumb however is to ask yourself this.

What are the questions that I really hope are not asked.

Write down three of them and then write the answers down. You’ll then find yourself hoping that they ask those formerly tricky questions.

Most people’s insecurities are based on not addressing issues that are bothering them. Face up to what you’re afraid of in these situations and you will become bulletproof.

Body Language

My main concern with looking at body language is that it’s an art in and of itself. So much effort can be put into body language and how to convey meaning and subtext, truth and belief that to the untrained eye, this person is jerking all over the place.

You can avoid this by only paying attention to the most important things to get yourself in the situation where all of your body language is natural and effective. Getting passionate about your subject matter.

·         Attention

Once I had a direct report who never looked me in the eye at meetings, doodled and slouched during important discussions. I learned that he in fact took in every word, but his body language was all wrong.

Take some time over the next few weeks to watch the body language of people who are engaged in what they are doing. Watch the focus as the barber cuts your hair. See how the football fan is on the edge of his seat during a big match. Also, watch the politician standing behind the Taoiseach in an interview who doesn’t want to be there.

What makes the interviewer see that you are engaged will happen as long as you are engaged and you know that they need to see it. Look like you’re paying attention. Don’t slouch, don’t doodle and maintain eye contact during the question.

·         Comfort

This is more about mental comfort than physical comfort. Assuming your clothes fit correctly and you’re dressed correctly for weather conditions you’ll be fine. But if you have prepared you are comfortable. You can discuss at length anything that’s asked about your CV, your experience, the company, the jobspec and even curveballs that are thrown at you.

Preparation is key and if you’re prepared you’ll win. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

·         Passion v Gravitas

Passion can become excessive, where you’re discussing a given technology and foaming at the mouth, going off topic because you’re discussing your two favourite subjects. You and Technology.

Gravitas is the demonstration of your seriousness of the situation, i.e. the interview and the chance to work with this company and should temper the passion. Passion + Gravitas = Credibility.

·         Rapport

As mentioned above you may find common ground with your interviewer on a personal level. Maybe you are into golf and they have a golf trophy on their desk. Golfers love golfers, sci fi nuts (like me) like other sci fi nuts!

Rapport cannot be faked but it’s important that the interviewer likes you. And of course that you like them. It really helps to be in a positive frame of mind. To remember that each of us has our faults and as such, we’re all in this together.

Of course there is such a thing as negative rapport, but that’s beyond your control.

Closing and Following up

Here we will consider what happens towards the end of the interview and after it is over. Again it’s important to remember that the interview itself is only part of their process, although it’s extremely big for you, it’s part of their day to day operations and they may be interviewing several other candidates.

To this end, you need to consider the following.

·         Any Questions?

Have you any questions for me (us)? A line that gets asked at pretty much every interview.

You MUST prepare good interesting questions for this.

How long have you been with the company?

Why have you stayed so long with the company? What attracts you to here?

These are good examples of leading questions that allow the interviewer to talk about their two favourite subjects. Lots of rapport building and it also gives them a chance to sell the company to you.

The interview should be a two way process and people do turn down offers of employment. You need to be comfortable continuing with the process.

·         Next Steps

Depending on the scenario itself, are you dealing with the HR department, interviewer direct, recruitment agencies and so on, each process will be different. However my strong advice to you (unless you hate the company) is to give them the impression that you’d like it there!

“Really good to have met you and I enjoyed hearing about the company, I’m definitely interested in meeting again” is a good line. But however it’s delivered you want them to feel wanted.

·         Call to Action

This again is essential. Irrespective (as above) of the nature of the process and who you’re dealing with, you definitely need clarity on how it’s going to go. Ask them. What are the next steps?
Should I give you a call? Will you speak to my references etc?

Before you leave the room you should find out how and when the next contact will happen. If you don’t, then you’re in limbo and waiting for the phone to ring and that’s bad for you.

Telephone Interviews

I won’t go into them in much detail bar the following.

·         Use a landline

·         Make sure you will not be disturbed

·         Prepare as above

·         Be aware that they want to find out “Can you do the job”

·         By dint of it being a telephone interview, they need to shortlist quickly, therefore no waffle and very little in the way of small talk

·         Before you get into the call, make sure that your voice is steady and relaxed – the 100% surefire guaranteed way to do this is to sing very loudly (and if you’re like me, badly) about half an hour before the interview. This technique is used in almost all television interview scenarios for amateurs. Seriously.

Conclusion

This document should be read over and the steps recommended taken until such time as you do not need to refer to it again.

When you feel that is the case, read it again once more then put it aside.

There are no silver bullets but with preparation which will give you confidence you will leave your best game on the pitch.

To learn more about interview preparation and expert CV and Resume Advice, please contact Ruadhri McGarry, Managing Director of mynewcv.ie on 086 – 1282591 or sales@mynewcv.ie.

How to write a CV Part One

How to write a CV Part Two

Who do you want to work for? Do you know??

Who do you want to work for? Do you know???

In this blog we’re going to look quite specifically at figuring out where it is you want to work and how to go about it as well as a little tip about Search Optimising the CV based on how recruitment software works.

So, assuming you’re looking for a new role, and if you’re reading this I guess that’s a safe assumption, you should at least have developed some class of strategy to get your new job.

But, are you just being reactive, that is, keeping an eye on various jobsites, speaking to recruiters to see what’s out there and so on?

Is that really good enough? Are you content to be moved around by currents, effectively rudderless?

I’m aware that sounds a bit controversial but think of it like this; by keeping an eye on what’s out there and even emailing and visiting recruitment consultants, you’re fishing. Sitting on the bank waiting for a fish, occasionally putting some bait on the line and casting into the water and seeing what you catch?

I put it to you that you can do better and you should. You should put on the right clothes, select specific bait and wade into the water with a net and a big stick, tell the family you won’t be home for a few days and catch the big one!

This is what I’d call extreme jobhunting! What you’re doing here is effectively becoming very proactive in the search, being laser focussed on the exact role you want and full on going for it.

So, how do you go about it, taking control and direction of the jobsearch.

It’s always one of the questions I ask my clients. Where do you want to work? Are there any companies that you actively would like to work for? You’re at a crossroads in your career right now, why not take a different approach to the jobsearch and instead of focussing on what is going to pay the bills, use these circumstances as an opportunity for making your career a happier place!

So, to this end, make a list of the companies that you’d like to work for.

Is it Google? Is it Microsoft? Is it that excellent pet shop down the road?

Perhaps you’d like to work for a company that is opening up in Ireland, or a company in a different country.

Let’s say that you’ve now identified five companies that you want to work for.

There are a number of steps that you can take to get in front of the right person. Generally it’s unlikely that a simple phone call will work, you’re getting into the world of gatekeepers and people who say no for a living so don’t go there.

Here are the steps and I’ll expand on each:

Who is the main decision maker for the role you want?

What is their email address?

Tailoring the Cover Email and the CV

Background information and how to find it

Tracking and following up

Not taking no for an answer

So to address each point:

Who is the main decision maker for the role you want?

The very easiest and simplest way to do this is to firstly figure out the position or job title of the person that you’d report to.

Would it be Sales Director, Managing Director? HR Manager? Figure it out and write it down.

Now, put that title in inverted commas and the company name and city, Dublin, Cork, London or whatever into a search engine.

Chances are you’ll find out their names.

Alternatively you could use LinkedIn which if you’re not on, you should be.

If it’s not forthcoming, then you use the telephone and ask!

Now we need to find their email address.

This is generally very easy once you have the name as each company generally has a certain format of the name followed by the website address as no doubt you know. At mynewcv.ie we’re firstname at mynewcv.ie.

How do we figure this out?

Enter the web address, for example cpl.ie without the www into a search engine. The first page of results shows that it’s first name dot last name @cpl.ie.

If this gives you no joy you can use inverted commas, asterisk at cpl.ie close inverted commas into an engine.

Now we have the right person and their email address.

Tailoring the Cover Email and the CV

Assuming you’re familiar with the brand, you’ll have noticed that the website, and all sites follow this theme, or corporate brand is uniform across their business.

View the font used on their website and change your CV and Cover email to this font. This goes a long way towards mirroring their corporate image from the start and believe it or not, employees of this company, especially at a senior level, where you’re aiming view this font all day every day, so mirroring it is a great psychological advantage for your application.

If you don’t know what font is being used, feel free to ask us here or put it out to your social media network, crowdsource it! But more of that anon.

Bear in mind that you may need to reformat the CV because certain fonts change sizes etc, but take your time and do it right. Retitle the CV to Google CV or whatever and save it as such, this will help the reader to realise that you’ve taken the effort to approach them specifically and will bolster their good impression.

The Cover email should be simple and contain three things:
Why you’re writing

Why you’re good for the company and a

Call to action:

If you’re applying internationally, ensure to correct the documents to the local language or version of English, UK, Irish or American/Australian etc. A small thing but the fewer red lines on their screen the better. Remember, they won’t have the same spellcheck installed as you, so be aware of this, have the CV opened on a different machine than the one that you composed it on and this will give a good idea of how it will look when opened on the far side. If possible for this instance use PDFs as they hold formatting 100% but failing that save the Word document as RTF or Rich Text Format as it’s not as good but better than .doc. What ever you do, try not to use doc.x format as depending on the software on the other side of the desk, it may not open correctly or indeed at all, or may have to be converted taking about ten seconds which is a poor first impression!

Background information and how to find it

As above, we mentioned crowdsourcing. This is a chapter by itself however for this purpose and prior to sending the CV I’ll explain how to crowdsource to get some information on the company in question and how it can be useful.

Assuming you’re on Facebook, Twitter and or LinkedIn or even boards.ie or online forums you frequent what I strongly advise you to do is to ask your network about the company.

Post a status update or start a new thread saying: anyone here work for or know anything about working for company x?

You’ll be getting into the laws of unintended consequences here but here are the possibilities:

Someone you know either works there, used to work there or knows someone there.

You’ve told people you’re interested in working for this company.

Somebody will tell somebody else about you

Someone will tell you what it’s like

Someone will ask for your CV, tell you who the new hiring manager is and so on….

This is effectively using your social network to work for you. It’s impossible to gauge how well this will work, but what is 100% guaranteed is that you won’t get if you don’t ask. The whole point of this exercise is to take as much control as possible and follow your stated aim to work for company X or Y.

You can then use what you have found out, perhaps a new project upcoming within the company that you have had prior experience in, put it in the cover email, or indeed a current employee lets you know that they have an in house referral scheme and he/she will get €500 if they bring a new employee on board.

The best outcome here can be that you forward your CV to a friend and they pass it on internally.

Thinking across the desk again, put yourself in the position of the hiring manager. A colleague emails or hands you a CV of a friend or acquaintance of theirs. Unless they want to risk some seriously messy internal politics from their point of view they will at least review the CV and get back either to you or your friend with feedback.

Bear in mind that with all of this process it’s important to remember that there just may not be a place for you here, but as you’re sick of me saying in different ways, if you’re not in you can’t win!

Tracking and following up

Working off your initial list of say five companies, identifying the best person and contact details, amending your brand to mirror theirs and crowdsourcing for additional information, you are ready to send your emails.

It is vital and I cannot stress this enough, to track every contact you have with these companies.

You have to know when and to who and what exactly you have sent. This will avoid confusion and you must look good all of the time!

Use a spreadsheet, a hardback notebook, a word document, whatever you use have a system, saying all of the above and have it dated.

You may not hear immediately about your email, the recipient may be on holidays or very busy or may even delete the email, but you need to be ready to follow up.

In my experience one week is the optimum time to follow up.

Prepare and send an email, ideally forwarding the original without the CV this time politely asking if the hiring manager has had the chance to review the previous email and if they require any clarification on the initial email.

Also, take this opportunity to get closer to them, use your research to demonstrate that you are following the company closely.

e.g. I’m very eager to work for a company like X as I feel closely aligned to your key ethics and I love the product/service etc.

I wouldn’t use that exact quote but phrase it in such a way that doesn’t feel wrong to you, but you must get that sentiment across. And log and track everything.

Now here’s the really tricky part.

I suggest that if you get not satisfaction or feedback, then keep going. Call the hiring manager, send them another email until such time as they give you an answer. Never lose the positive tone and the demonstration of passion and constant research.

Which ties in nicely to the final point;

Not taking no for an answer

You get no response or you get a Dear John response as was so eloquently put by a client of mine recently. I normally use a ruder expression but you know what I mean.

Is that it? Do you close the door on this company that you really want to work for?
If the answer is yes, that you walk away and say, oh well at least I tried…then I put it to you that you weren’t actually that interested in the company in the first place. Start again and this time, name the company that you do really want to work for.

But if you get a no, that at least is a response, you’re not being ignored. Depending on the nature of the contact your response must be for more information, that is to ask “when would be a good time to get back in touch”?
What advice would you give me about certain courses to do or specific industry experience would I require to be considered next time? Would you be happy for me to contact you in three months?

And a million other responses all saying, I hear you when you say that you have no role for me now and why that is, however I’m not giving up as I really want to work for this company and I want to know what steps I should take to be considered next time.

Also, try and keep abreast of what’s happening locally in this company. Use LinkedIn to see who is working with, joining and leaving this company.

Get in touch if you need some help with this, how and why to do it.

Use Google alerts to be automatically emailed each time this company is mentioned online. Join their Facebook group, follow them on Twitter and use your real name.

Get yourself super familiar with their brand and if possible begin conversing with people who work there, irrespective of what department they are in.

Email and general electronic contact is great for this kind of thing. I recently saw a documentary that included a given artist talking about something. I Googled the person and emailed them with a question. Before I knew it I’m Facebook friends with this artist and we keep in touch regularly. Same goes for politicians and celebrities. It’s really easy to do, and people don’t get freaked out by random people like us contacting them in this way as they know they can just delete the contact.

Calling on the phone every day or hanging around their houses is definitely not recommended but you should effectively cyberstalk the people in question.

To conclude and recap; if you know who you want to work for and you’re serious about doing so, you have no excuse in not putting yourself forward in as intelligent and focused way you can.

This company are unlikely to ring you and offer you a job. Offer them a great employee!

I hope all of this makes sense, but please email me at sales@mynewcv.ie for clarifications and also if there’s anything else I can advise on in this whole area.

Cover Letters and Cover Emails. What's it all about?

I often get asked about Cover Letters and Cover Emails and I get sent a lot of them to review. Recruiters and hiring managers get many many examples of good and bad, but ask yourself. What is the point of the Cover Letter/Email? It's to be used as a brief selling tool but mostly (90%) to make sure that your CV gets read and considered for the right role. What not to do! Don't write your life story! Don't make any mistakes! Simple is best. Recently on behalf of a friend I reviewed 100 CVs in one hour to create a shortlist for a job he had advertised. About 40 of them had cover emails so poor that it was obvious from even that much that could not do the job in hand. Which gives a 60% pass rate even before we get to the CV! What should it say? It should be as simple as possible and contain. Why you're getting in contact! Why you have the experience they're looking for! Call to action! Contact Details! All of this sounds obvious but if you can get this right, you're already ahead of 40% of the competition. Feel free to contact me for specific advice on this and other issues.