[transcript]
So….You’ve got an interview, congratulations.
You may well have two or three interviews. Well done.
But now is not the time to pat yourself on the back, sit back and relax and rest on your laurels and hope that one of the three interviews will turn into a job offer. Far from it!
Now is the time to use the opportunity to leverage even more interviews. If you need support to get offes for the jobs that you really want, you can contact me to talk more about your interview strategy
I always recommend that you have at least three to five interviews per week for the next two, three, four weeks, or around about ten to twelve interviews over the next four weeks.
Let me make it clear, I’m not talking about interviews with the recruitment consultants here, I’m talking about interviews with employers. You’re going to hear me talk about this a lot because it’s so important. And so many people make the same mistake, and settle for one, two or three interviews, and feel as though the hard work has been done. What’s more and probably even worse, is that you’ve probably got interviews via your recruitment consultant, and probably don’t have interviews that were generated through your own networks. What you need is a combination of interviews generated by recruitment consultants and those generated through your own resources and contacts.
The general message here is, you need to do more.
As with many things in life, you need to put in the hard work up front, to reach a point where you can achieve the goals that you set for yourself, so that you can be happy down the line, and avoid having to do is all again in the next three to six months.
Interviewers keep their options open
The first reason that you need to line up around ten to twelve interviews over the next few weeks is because there is no such thing as loyalty in the world of recruitment and employment. It’s highly unlikely that the company you are interviewing with will only interview one person for the role. On the contrary, it’s likely that they have at least around four to five people lined up for interview, in which case they have a choice to make. Given that there is no guarantee that they’re going to select you, you need to get busy and start to line up more interviews as your insurance policy.
Who knows if the jobs right for you?
Another good reason to line up a number of interviews within a relatively short space of time of each other, is because there is no guarantee that you will be right for the job. By that I mean, there have been times when I’ve gone to interviews myself and have come out of the interview feeling that this job is not quite right for me. It might be because I didn’t get along with the interviewees or didn’t quite like the way that they work, or the business ethics and values didn’t quite suit my own. Either way, if I only got one interview and it turns out to be a disappointment, I need more options to improve the probability of success.
It puts a spring in your step
Whenever you have an interview and are meeting people for the first time, it’s important to have an air of confidence and conviction so that you make a great impression. There are a number of ways of gaining confidence, but I find that one of the most empowering methods to get that much needed boost of confidence is by lining up multiple interviews. For me personally, if I attended an interview knowing that I had another four or five interviews that week, it would mean that I had a feeling of being in demand, and I had a sense of validation, because my experience and skills were a value to a number of employers.
You can make an informed decision
One of the benefits of meeting multiple people at interview is that you get an opportunity to understand the culture and values of the business, and you also learn more about the business itself. I tended to make notes after each interview of points that I liked and things that I disliked, but I also go on gut instinct when making my decision. I would then rank each of the businesses in order of preference, based on a number of criteria, and then I’d discuss each with my friends, family and colleagues. Going through this process of meeting multiple people and tracking the relative positives and negatives meant that I was able to come to an informed decision, and I feel comfortable I’ve done everything in my power to meet as many people as possible, so I could arrive at a decision that was the right choice for me.
Isn’t it usually the case that when we see something that is a limited time offer, or a special deal that has limited stock, that our desire to make a purchase is heightened, because the perception is we’ll miss out on something that is of high value? In a nutshell, that’s the principle in sales and marketing, which is referred to as scarcity. That principle can be applied in some way to you in the interview process. Let me explain, there have been times where I have interviewed people for roles and at the end of the session, they have proactively alerted me to the fact that they were in a number of other interview processes, one or two of them may have been a second interview with a decision pending.
Usually, this is communicated in a confident and professional way that enhances my respect toward them as potential candidates for the role I’m interviewing for. In knowing that specific candidates were in demand and that there was a likelihood that they would not be available for long, their perceived value in my mind would increase immediately, and my urgency and desire to want to take them forward in the process or hire them would increase greatly.
Employers expect you to have more than a couple of interviews
If increasing and improving your perceived value is not enough, then bare this in mind, employers expect that you have multiple interviews lined up, or intend to have multiple interviews in the future. If you don’t, they’ll begin to question your value and ambition.
You’ll be in strong position to negotiate
The interview process is a continuation of your job market research.. Once you’ve met ten or fifteen people for interview, you will have a much more accurate understanding of your value in the market, and for the specific roles that you’re interviewing for. Over time, that original ten or fifteen interview will be whittled down to maybe three or four second stage interviews running simultaneously.
At the end of the process, you will hopefully have two or three offers on the table to consider, and you’ll be able to use all of the information that you’ve gathered throughout the process, for example, remuneration, benefits, bonus, location, holidays, training, to determine the optimum requirements for your career, and you can compare and contrast each offer in turn. There may be one role that you like more than the others, which perhaps doesn’t offer all of the same elements that another role offers, but of course you’d be in a great position to negotiate, given your insights and the fact that you’re working from a position of great strength.
Next Steps
I want you to target hiring managers directly (not recruiters) and begin to engage directly with them so that you can start to create a pipeline of interviews. Ideally you’ll have at least 2-3 interviews per week for the next few weeks contact me to talk more about your interview strategy and how you can finally get the job you want.