A Job Hunting Secret
At my day job at Symmetry Software, we have been searching for some new employees to fill some open positions. We are outsourcing the candidate search to a local employment agency. In this economy, with almost 10% of those looking for a job unemployed, there is a huge pool of well qualified labor just waiting to be had. We have interviewed several folks over the last few weeks. Throughout these interviews, I see one common problem that keeps us from hiring candidates that are good people and very well qualified.
When you are shopping for a new car, do you go in to a dealership without researching and determining which car you are looking for? Do you accept the words of the salesman to understand what you are buying?
What if you were trying to figure out which college or university to attend? Would you determine the best schools based on your interests, or would you simply find the closest one to your home?
There are two sides to a job interview; the employer and the applicant. The employer tries to find out everything possible about the prospective employee before offering a job. This could include searches of Facebook posts, Google searches for a name, background and credit checks and finally, the actual interview. That is where the secret lies.
If you make it to an interview, preparation is absolutely the most important thing you can do. That includes rehearsing answers to potential questions, dressing up, planning to arrive early and preparing extra copies of resumes to distribute. The employer however, wants to know if you know what you are getting into. Did you research the company first? What do they do? What product lines do they offer? Do these interrelate? If you have no idea what the company does, then you will stumble when asked questions about your prospective employer. That sends a signal that you don’t take things seriously. Stumbling around trying to make a cohesive answer about something that is so dear to the heart of this prospective employer will win no points. In fact, it will likely cost you the position.
At least having some familiarity with the structure and product lines of a company will allow you to ask clarifying questions. This gives the employer the notion that you actually care about the company and that you are not a “fly by the seat of your pants” kind of person. I think you’ll find that prospective employers will take more notice of what you bring to the table with this trick.
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Samuel Kerch, CPA
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Ask CPA Sam A Job Hunting Secret | Executive Search Talk — June 13, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
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