What Interviewers really think during Job Interviews

By Jeff Hadden

In the best job interviews the candidate says a lot and the interviewer very little – after all, the interview is about the candidate, not the interviewer.

But there are some things interviewers would love to tell job candidates well before the interview starts.

1. “I really want you to stand out.”

A sad truth of interviewing is that later we often don't recall, unless we refer to our notes, a tremendous amount about some of the candidates. (Unfair? Sure. Reality? Absolutely.)

That means the more people we interview for a job, and the more spread out those interviews, the more likely we are to remember certain candidates by impressions rather than by a long list of facts.

So when we meet with other people to discuss and decide on the best candidate, we might initially refer to someone as, "the guy with the purple suede shoes," or "the woman who rides dressage," or "Duke grad who speaks four languages."

In short, we may remember you by "hooks" – whether flattering or unflattering – so use that fact to your advantage. While your hook could be your clothing, an outside interest, or an unusual fact about your upbringing or career, a much better hook is the project you pulled off in half the expected time or the improbably huge sale you made.

Instead of letting me choose how we’ll remember you, make sure you give us one or two notable reasons we’ll never forget you.

2. “But I don’t want you to stand out for being negative.” 

Again, there’s no way we will remember everything you say. But we will definitely remember negative sound bites: like the candidates who complain about their current employer, their coworkers, or their customers.

So if for example you hate being micro-managed, instead say you're eager to earn more responsibility and authority. We get there are reasons you want a new job, but we want to hear why you really want this job instead of why you just want to escape your old job.

Never forget that an interview is like a first date. We know we’re seeing the best possible version of "you."

So if you whine and complain and grumble now... we know you'll be a real treat to work with a few months from when the honeymoon is over.

3. “But I hope you don't start by telling me how much you want the job.”

We do want you to want the job -- but not before you really know what the job entails. We may need you to work 60-hour weeks, or travel more than half the time, or report to someone with less experience than you. So sit tight.

No matter how much research you've done, you can't truly know you want the job until you know everything possible about the job. (One good way to know you really want the job is to ask really smart questions.)

4. “I really want you to ask questions that are truly important to you.”

We need to know whether we should hire you, but just as importantly we need you to make sure our job is a great fit for you.

So we want you to ask the right questions: what we expect you to accomplish early on, what attributes make our top performers outstanding, what you can do to truly drive results, how you'll be evaluated – all the things that matter to you… and as a result to us.

Bottom line, you know what makes work meaningful and enjoyable to you. We don't. There's no other way to really know whether you want the job unless you ask great questions. So we want you to ask great questions.

5. “But I wish you wouldn't ask questions that have little to do with work.” 

We know you want a positive work-life balance. Everyone does. Still, save all your questions about vacation sign-up policies, and whether it's okay to take an extra half hour at lunch every day if you also stay a half hour late, and whether we've considered setting up an in-house childcare facility because that would be really awesome for you.

First let's find out if you're the right person for the job, and whether the tasks, responsibilities, duties, etc. are right for you.

Then we can talk about the rest.

6. “I really want you to be likeable.”

Obvious? Sure, but also critical. Skills and qualifications are important, but we all want to work with people we like... and who in turn like us.

So we want you to smile. We want you to make eye contact, sit forward in your chair, and be enthusiastic. (Here are other ways to be incredibly likeable.) The employer-employee relationship truly is a relationship -- and that relationship starts with the interview (if not before.)

A candidate who makes a great first impression and sparks a real connection instantly becomes a big fish in a very small short-list pond. You may have solid qualifications, but if we don't think we'll enjoy working with you, we’re probably not going to hire you.

Life is too short to work with people we don't like.

7. “I love when you show you can hit the ground running."

We expect you to do a little research about the company. That’s a given.

To really impress us, use the research you’ve done to describe how you will hit the ground running and contribute right away – the bigger the impact the better. If you bring a specific skill, show how we can immediately leverage that skill.

Think about it from our side of the table. We have to start paying your salary the first day, so we love to see an immediate return on that investment starting the first day.

In short, we’re happy to help you develop into a superstar… but we love when you’re already a star.

8. “Now I want you to tell me you want the job – and why.”

By the end of the interview you should have a good sense of whether you want the job. If you need more information, tell us so we can figure out how to get you what you need to make a decision.

If you don't need more information, do what great salespeople do: ask for the job.

One, we’ll like the fact you asked. We want you to really want the job – but we also want to know why you want the job. So tell us why: You thrive in unsupervised roles, or you love working with different teams, or you like frequent travel, or you do your best work when….

Ask us for the job and prove to us, objectively, that it's a great fit for you.

9. “I like when you follow up, especially when it's genuine.”

Every interviewer appreciates a brief follow-up note. If nothing else, saying you enjoyed meeting us and are happy to answer any other questions is a polite gesture.

But "polite" may not separate you from the pack.

What we really like – and remember – is when you follow up based on something we discussed. Maybe we talked about data collection techniques so you send information about a set of tools you strongly recommend. Maybe we talked about quality so you send a process checklist you developed that we could adapt to use in our company. Or maybe we both like motorcycle racing, so you send a photo of you standing beside Valentino Rossibefore a MotoGP race in Mugello (and I'm totally jealous.)

The more closely you listened during the interview, the easier it is to think of ways to follow up in a natural and unforced way.

Remember, an interview is hopefully the start of a longer relationship -- and even the most professional of relationships are still based on genuine interactions.

Customer Service on Social Media

The Last Hurdle™

With ever greater connectivity and more of us choosing to take part on social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter, many brands and companies are now using their own presence to provide a better customer experience. Others, however, are falling far behind, ignoring customer queries, failing to engage with those who want to reach out to them and damaging their presence online in the process. We have all seen the ‘ghost town’ Company pages with comments and complaints, perhaps because the page isn’t monitored or simply because the business doesn’t know how to handle the comments, these are left unanswered and the customers left to fester.

Customer Service on Social Media – It’s Good to Talk

The way business talks to customers has changed. Not only can your most precious asset contact you directly they can also complain to their friends, and everyone else who is listening in, helping to spread those good and bad words more easily than before the world’s companies became accessible on social media. If your business fails to respond then it will be noticed and you’ll quickly get a reputation for not caring.

One company in recent years that has certainly taken this on board is JetBlue Airways. When a customer recently complained in a tweet that their flight was delayed, the customer service department contacted them with their own message saying that if he provided the flight number they would look into it. And what’s more, they came back on Twitter with a timely update that kept the customer informed.

With any business things can go wrong and problems need sorting out. The difference these days is disgruntled customers are more likely to post a comment on Facebook than pick up the phone and call customer service. If you don’t reply it looks as if you don’t care. A number of larger companies now have a separate social media contact for their customer service and support which is manned constantly so they can get back to people as quickly as possible.

Starbucks go one step further and have an extra account that gives their customers the chance to put forward their ideas to help improve the company.

The reality is that customers now have high expectations of getting a response to their query on social media and nearly half expect a response within the hour. That can be anything from a question of how to use a product more effectively to a complaint about a particular service.

Brands and companies ignore this simple fact of life at their peril!

Customer Service on Social Media – What Bad Communication Gets Your Brand

It’s strange that most companies know effective communication lies at the heart of customer engagement but still fail to use customer service on social media. This may be because they are set in their ways or don’t have the infrastructure in place to deal with such things. For any brand, customer service on social media is here to stay and a strategy for dealing with it will need to be developed.

British Airways came under fire recently when a disgruntled customer used a paid for Tweet to complain about their lost luggage. The message was seen by over 50,000 people but the company’s reply was to apologise for the delay and explain that their Twitter feed was only open during office hours. Their unhelpful message received an even more disgruntled reply for the customer which in turn was retweeted by 50 people to their personal followings.

Bad customer engagement in the world of social media is a problem that all businesses need to be aware of, whether they are large conglomerates or SMEs with a small following. On the plus side, good customer relations online can show that your company cares for its fans, will generally build greater trust and will also improve sales because you have answered queries in a timely and helpful manner.

Customer Service on Social Media

Top Tip: Do NOT, under any circumstances give in to the temptation of deleting negative comments and blocking the user – that kind of action will just fan the disgruntled flames and worse, you now can’t see the comments by your customer! Far better to resolve any issues in a calm, professional and helpful manner.

Preparing for Hiring Potential Employees

Below please find some subjects to consider prior to conducting interviews for potential employees:

1. Develop a written Position Description and a written Document identifying the qualities/experience you seek in a candidate. Without doing such, you do not have a basis for an evaluation of any potential candidate.
2. Consider an interview a two-way street.You need to assess the candidate and to “sell” them on the organization. The latter point is important, because you want candidates to have as positive an image as possible of the organization – even if you do not hire them. “People do gossip!”
3. Create a relaxed and informal environment. Such an environment permits the candidate to be more forthcoming.
4. Avoid interruptions. Interruptions like answering the phone interfere with a smooth flowing conversation.
5. Focus on the experience, capabilities (e.g., intelligence), motivations, and attitudes of the candidate. These tend to be the most critical factors in job success.
6. Use relatively “open-ended” questions.Questions that permit a “yes” or “no” answer do not provide in-depth knowledge of the candidate, whereas “open-ended” ones can. For example, when someone is asked, “What do you like to do the most in your work?”, their answer probably will indicate what they do best.
7. Do not rush the interview process. It is much better to take your time to hire the right person than to have to terminate them in the near future and repeat the hiring process. “Do it right the first time!”
8. Have others interview the candidates and consider psychological testing. Bottom line, within reasonable time and money constraints, “the more input, the better”.
9. Meet the “significant other”, if the position is a high level one. It is amazing what you can learn from “significant others”.
10. Conduct Background Checks and contact several references. Related to references, a candidate typically provides references that will say good things about them, so the key is to obtain other references (i.e., names of other people that know the candidate) from the supplied references – or through other resources. Then you increase your chances of obtaining valid input. Obviously, you usually should avoid contacting people with whom the candidate currently works.