The best time to start a job search

I am often asked by candidates when is the best time to start a job search.  Especially this time of year with holidays, fourth quarter projections, and year-end financials being figured.  Regardless of the calendar I always recommend the best time to start a job search is YESTERDAY!

Why am I so emphatic on this concept?  Plenty of reasons.  It starts with the picture I chose for today's blog.  If you are considering entering a job search, I can guarantee you there are others that have already thought about it, are acting on it, and might be interviewing for the job that is actually perfect for you.  Only problem is that the employer doesn't even know you are available.

Let me back up and make a clarification - I am not suggesting that everyone should be searching all the time, starting yesterday.  Instead, if you have been thinking about considering a career move for some time, this message will really apply to you.  If you are incredibly happy with your current position and experiencing all kinds of success, this subject matter will not be of any help to until you get to that juncture in your own career.

But if you have been mulling over the idea of seeing what else might be available to you, the time to start is now.  Another quick clarification - you may enter into a job search only to find out where you are at currently is the absolute best place for you.  That is the beauty of starting on the search as soon as possible.  You may begin the process, even interview for another position, and ultimately settle on the idea of staying put for the foreseeable future.

Another reason to consider starting your job search now is that the position you are seeking may be available this very moment.  You won't know unless you start looking around.  Think how you would feel if you procrastinated until after the holidays, only to find out the ideal role at the company you've always wanted to work for was filled right before the end of the year.  Once a company gets rolling on a search, they typically don't wait around once they find a pretty viable candidate.

Additionally companies often look to make hires before the end of the calendar year for budget purposes.  So a role that is available right now going into the early parts of December may need to be filled by December 31 or not happen at all going into the new year.

Lastly, companies often like to interview pro-actively at the end of a calendar year to project for strategic hires going into the following year.  They may not hire until January or February, but you'll have a leg up on the process if you start now.  It also gives you food for thought going into the holidays to look at the broader picture to see if a job change is one of your New Year's resolutions!

How to have an attitude of gratitude in a job interview

I could not resist the urge to have a holiday-themed blog post the week of Thanksgiving.  I have held off in the past, but for several reasons I decided to go with it this year.  I will focus primarily on job search tips instead of recipes or decoration ideas.  I am sure you have plenty of those already.

Today's picture is from our team going downtown to a local hospital to help prepare the children's craft table for an upcoming event.  We mostly cut and organized a mixture of items that children will be able to then take and create a holiday decoration to take home.  The organizers were incredibly grateful as our team of seven was able to knock out quite a bit in the short time we were there on a Friday afternoon.  It got me thinking about how candidates and employers alike can sometimes miss the boat on easy opportunities to show gratitude during a job search or interview process.

First of all, take time to thank everyone involved with the coordination of a job interview.  It is easy to thank the person across the table or desk who might be the hiring manager or someone in human resources.  But what about the administrative assistant who emailed you the address of the office location?  Or the receptionist that greeted you at the front door and knew you were there for a job interview and asked if you wanted a cup of coffee before things got started?  A lot of effort goes on behind the scenes to make an interview run smoothly, and it is always a good idea to acknowledge those efforts, no matter how big or small.

Secondly, be thankful at every turn.  My favorite candidate or employer contact is the one that thanks me EVERY time we talk, coordinate a detail, or de-brief after an interview.  Everyone's time is valuable, and it is a nice touch to remember that with the occasional "thank you" comment, call, email, or text.

Speaking of modes of communication, my next tip is to mix up HOW you thank people that are invested in the interview process.  The lost art of a handwritten thank you card is a valuable resource if you use it wisely.  Who doesn't like getting actual snail mail, even if the message is plain and simple?  I can count on one hand how many handwritten notes I have received in the past year.  So you can imagine how impactful and memorable they were to me.

Regardless of how little or how much you like text messaging, it can also be incredibly effective and efficient.  Those can be sent overnight when someone likely isn't available to talk in great length.  Or possibly over a weekend if you have an interview late in the week.  But can be another great way to have another opportunity to connect with your audience.

Lastly, be sincere and explain WHY you are thankful for something in the interview process.  Be specific.  Maybe it was the attention to detail in the agenda you were given ahead of the interview.  It could have been the array of beverages to choose from to keep you hydrated during a long conversation.  Or maybe it was a lunch that was catered.  I'm here to tell you that I have heard many, many stories of interviews that did NOT go well.  So telling someone how they did something well is certainly worth noting.

Regardless of the how, when, why, or what of the attitude of gratitude, simply try engaging in the process and share with others how it was received.  My bet is that it will always be welcome!

When a "no" could mean "yes" in an interview

In more than twelve years of recruiting I have heard "no" far more often than "yes" when setting up interviews or taking next steps in the process.  I have learned in that time that sometimes the "no" could turn into the "yes" that you are ultimately seeking as a candidate or an employer.

Another way of putting it is actually one of my favorite phrases - yes AND no.  How is that possible, you might ask?  There are many ways.

The first example I can think of is the idea of "no, not right now".  This can be a possible outcome of an interview for many reasons - budgets, timing, revenue projections, turnover, etc.  It happens most often when a candidate is presented to an employer as an opportunity hire.  There is either no position available currently or there has been consideration of adding to staff, but timing is uncertain.  As a candidate you can take comfort in the "no" answer, especially if an employer shows commitment to keeping in touch.  As an employer, of course, you have to do a good job of keeping that line of communication open to keep the candidate's interest.

You can also receive a "no" answer when candidate is not a good match for the specific position they are being interviewed for.  This can turn into a "yes" when there is another position that might simply be a better match.  Perhaps you were interviewed for a management role, and in the employer's infrastructure you would be better suited for an individual contributor role.  Or vice versa.  As a candidate you simply have to keep an open mind and trust that the employer has everyone's best interests at heard.  As an employer you have to communicate clearly why one is a better match than the other and focus on the positives of that match, not the negatives of the one that is not a match.

A third way to receive a "no" answer may be the toughest one to hear.  It is when you simply don't have the proper experience as a candidate that the employer is seeking at that time.  The good news here is that it could turn into a "yes" over time if you make a good impression.  Maybe you only have two years of experience and they need ten years.  Or the employer is seeking a designation or a degree that is attainable over time.  As a candidate you need to have patience with the process.  As an employer you need to be sure to catalog the candidate as a keeper if you think there could be something in the future that would be a match.

Finally, a "no" could quickly turn into a "yes" when discussing compensation.  As a candidate you never want to hear "no" to a request for a salary requirement.  What you need to do, however, is really dig into the details to make sure the entire picture is presented clearly.  The base salary may not be equivalent to your hopes and dreams, but perhaps the total compensation potential is higher.  Sometimes a rich benefits package can also make up for any possible salary gaps.  It is always prudent as a candidate to make certain all details are clearly explained before you think there is no way an offer can be accepted at a particular level.  And employers need to effectively communicate all objective AND subjective benefits of working for the company.

Have you ever had a "no" turn into a "yes" in the course of an interview?  If so, how did you respond?

How to ask tough interview questions

Last week I outlined some ideas regarding how to answer tough interview questions.  So this week I thought I would flip the script and talk about how to ask tough interview questions from the other side of the desk.  These are the questions that you may have wanted to ask in the past, but didn't quite know how to approach it.

I decided to Google the phrase "tough interview questions" to see what might pop up.  The very first article that I found was from a well-respected publication.  They had a few good ones, but a few that sure seemed like filler for the article.  One, for instance, was "Tell me about yourself".  If that is a tough interview question, I wish all of my clients had that as their "difficult" litmus test to knowing the true character of a candidate.  While you might learn a few good things from that line of questioning, I don't believe that is what I'm going after today.

There are a few keys to really asking a tough question where you actually expect an answer that you can use objectively when considering a candidate's professional background and work experience.

1)  Listen carefully.  Seems like an obvious one, right?  But I can't tell you how many times I have de-briefed with a candidate that says they didn't get much of a chance to actually answer questions.  If you have a tough question to ask that you truly want an answer to, you might have to suffer through some silence and unnatural pregnant pauses.  The whole point of a tough question is to really get to the heart of an answer.  If you jump quickly to another question after five seconds of awkward silence, the question wasn't worth asking in the first place.

2)  Be honest.  Maybe you have gone through a lot of turnover recently, causing a bit of instability.  Or you have a longtime employee in the department that can be difficult to work with.  Or maybe during a busy time of the year everyone is expected to work some long hours to get through projects.  Don't ever shy away from asking those questions during an interview.  If you don't, you will regret it.  Over time the candidate you hire will figure these things out and wonder why they weren't told about it earlier in the interview process.

3)  Be confident.  Salary is one place where people tend to squirm a little.  It is another time in an interview where there could be some silence or awkward pauses.  But it is a key indicator of whether or not a candidate is a match for a particular job.  I even like to ask it early in a conversation when I first meet a candidate.  The less of a big deal I make out of it, the less anyone thinks about it.  Yet I get the crucial information I need to know if I can really help a candidate.

4)  Don't ever regret not asking the tough question.  Within the boundaries of ethics and legality, don't ever pass over that question you really want to ask, but can't find the right time to ask.  Just pull the Band-Aid off and run with it.  Examples here include asking about gaps on a resume, a lot of job hopping, going in and out of industry for some time, significant geographic moves, and even education.  Don't ever assume what you think might be the case is actually the case.  I have been surprised many times over the years when I ask the tough question that I fear I already know the answer to and don't really want to ask.  But by asking I learn a lot.

As with anything, practice makes perfect.  The more comfortable you get with asking the tough questions, the easier it gets.  Any advice that you can share on how you approach the tough questions in an interview?

How to answer tough interview questions

Have you ever been in an interview where a question absolutely stumped you?  Or baffled you?  Or maybe even offended you?  As you can imagine, I have heard a wide range of wild questions asked during an interview.  De-briefing with a candidate after an interview is one of the favorite parts of my job.  You just never know what you are going to hear.

So how exactly do you answer the tough questions in an interview?  The ones where you might not have a complete answer.  Or feel like there is more than one right answer.  I have a few ideas that will hopefully be helpful the next time you encounter a particularly difficult one:

1)  It is okay to say "I don't know".  These are three words we as humans don't like to say very often.  Whether it be your personal life or professional life, it is not a good feeling to not know an answer to a question.  I am here to tell you, however, that the quicker those words fly out of your mouth in certain instances, the better.  Time and time again I have spoken with employers after an interview only to find out a candidate rambled when asked a question they didn't have an answer to.  Talking just for the sake of talking and hoping the right answer is eventually spewed out is not a good strategy.  I recently even had an employer tell me that the question that wasn't answered wasn't a critical one.  But the candidate so badly butchered the answer that they were eliminated from consideration at that very moment in the interview.  When instead saying "I don't know" likely would have only resulted in a small blip on the radar of the overall interview feedback.

2)  It is okay to not answer at all.  Before you think I have lost my mind, hear me out.  This is only in reference to a topic that may not be work-related.  We all know the topics that are supposedly off limits - politics, religion, etc.  So if asked a question about current events or something that could be considered a hot button topic, be careful how you answer.  Not having an opinion or answer will likely keep the emotion out of the discussion.  Focus instead on your ability to do the job.

3)  Keep it simple, Sam.  I know you've likely heard this one before, but it still holds true.  Sometimes employers ask edgy questions just to see how candidates react.  So it isn't always about what you say, but how you say it.  It is much easier to say too much than to say too little.  An additional tip here is to ask a follow up question at the end of a succinct answer.  That keeps the conversation going without you needing to provide useless filler.

4)  Be unexpected and creative.  Sometimes tough interview questions come as completely subjective.  These are intentionally asked to see how someone will react on their feet.  It could be something related to a tough work situation.  Or a colleague that is tough to communicate with.  Or the client who everyone knows is difficult to work with, but might be assigned to you.  While you don't want to go too far off the deep end here, you sometimes have to take some calculated risks to stand out from other prospective candidates for the job.  Provide examples and details of why you think your radical idea might work.

5)  Be prepared.  In other words, expect some tough questions.  If you walk into any interview thinking that it will be all roses and rainbows, you are in for a sorry surprise.  Be ready for all kinds of crazy questions.  If none come, at least you were ready for it.

What are some of the tough questions you have heard in the past?  And how did you react to them?