Recently, I spoke with fellow jobseekers and we all reached similar conclusions: It is VERY difficult to get YES for an answer. What is the secret? How do YOU do it? What can we learn from each other?
I hope that this post serves more of an exercise in learning what works and doesn’t for all of us (not just Steve preaching to a bunch of folks hunching their shoulders!). I want to hear from you, on how you turn “maybe” into hired!
Before going on, I wanted to acknowledge that my premise for finding ways to get the hiring manager to say “YES” is a core concept espoused by Tim Johnston of the C3 (Collegiate Career Connection), a career counselor and consultant. I agree with his direct, no-nonsense approach to addressing the hiring manager’s needs and having your delivery align with their hiring priorities to answer to their pain and need.
Also the concept of managing your job search like an account manager is covered in Ellen Gordon Reeves’ April 2009 book Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?: A Crash Course in Finding, Landing, and Keeping Your First Real Job (Workman Publishing Company). The intent here is to augment the content in her book, as well as contemporize one of her central concepts. I give her complete credit for beginning this discussion, and do not intend to take anything away from her written material or ideas.
That said, I can start us off: When I think of the question of how to get a recruiter / hiring manager / anyone who is listening to say yes, I go back to the fundamental training that sales professionals receive. This is a combination of learning how to not take “no” for an answer, but also learning to provide compelling reasons for the customer (in this case those hiring) to say yes. There is a fine line though, between sounding confident and in control versus sounding desperate and paranoid in trying to overcome objections.
Candidates are sales professionals selling the product that is us. We are the account manager, and we are the ones that stand to benefit the most from being hired. Therefore, we must treat our pitch process the same way. We have to learn to be pragmatic, to prepare accordingly, and to learn from past failure to prepare for future success.
Prior to walking into interviews, I believe it’s best to do all of your research up-front: First, the hiring team (recruiters, co-workers, hiring managers, etc.) would not be interested in speaking to you, if either there was not a compelling reason to do so (your experience, someone you know vouches for you, you come from a targeted company, you come with a targeted major/skill-set, your previous experience closely matches what the hiring team is looking for). You should then reciprocate by being as prepared as possible to answer intelligently about the hiring company, where their pain or need is, and how you as a candidate can help them overcome this pain or meet this need.
After the pitch is done, and we have done our part to present a compelling case, the vast majority of us wait for some outcome (either a follow-on interview, or the unenviable “no” that comes in a delayed phone call or formatted, form-letter-style email. In some cases, there may be a silver lining wherein the hiring company may decide that while this position is not a fit, there may be some other opportunity that could better suit us as prospective hires.
As much as I appreciate the sentiment, given the circumstances, unless the other offered position is a step-up or upgrade from the original, interviewed position, my immediate reaction would be a flat “NO.” My rationale is this: Any position offered in place of another means having to settle for less than what you were prepared to accept. You (presumably) have diligently prepared yourself to take on this first intended position. That they have declined you for that position makes your preparation efforts moot and ineffectual. Granted, each candidate’s situation is unique. In some cases, being hired on at a particular company may carry more weight than the title, salary, or job scope. Given the economy, turning away jobs may not be the most beneficial action. Still, if other opportunities are available, settling for what you don’t want will not help you (accepting a lower position below your skill-set wastes your time, precluding you from the success of attaining your true goals through pursuing a career track closer to your interests, experience, and mindset).
Consider this from the hiring manager’s perspective: there is no reason to hold on to an employee who just “gets by” and either does not excel, produces a mediocre work effort, and therefore a bare minimum of value to the company. In the end, it will be more expensive to replace someone like that than to retain him or her. Employees need to own the position, role, and value they bring to the company. If they can’t, they incur inherent costs to train and motivate, needed to build up their contribution and value to the company.
Getting back to the original idea of getting them to say “yes.” We all must be creative in finding ways to turn pain into opportunity. In the end, we have to stop the recruiter and/or hiring manager and directly ask them the question; “What can I do to get you to say “YES”?” Is it additional training? Is it more experience? (Say, for a sales position) If I set aggressive sales goals, go off and achieve these goals, and come back in six months to a year, will you hire me? If I work for you for free for a month to prove myself, will you hire me, then? Whatever it is, you have to break through the barriers and make a case that YOU are the only one for this job and no one else anywhere can provide the value, expertise, and/or benefits that hiring you can offer.
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