Interviewing 101 for Job Seekers

Those who are best prepared WIN!!

Get familiar with the company and players

  • Web site, press announcements and published profiles
  • Research leadership, revenues, funding Crunchbase.com
  • Look at all open positions published on their site, Linked In and other similar resources. Where is investment being made?
  • Who do you know that works there? Internal references are golden – linkedin.com

Prepare Yourself!

  • Be prepared to cover your relevant educational background and each successive position you have held. Why you were hired, your role and examples of the success you had that would be relevant to the conversation.
  • Be prepared to articulate reason for leaving each job. Positive statements about the new role and why you made the decision to go to the next opportunity.  Always demonstrate personal growth and opportunity.  Be positive and be succinct – this is NOT an area to spend much time.
  • Practice telling your story and reduce it to its simplest and most impactful form.
  • Have several relevant examples of achievements you are most proud of.
  • Have several thoughtful questions about the company, the role and the business priorities.
  • What are your strengths, what sets you apart, makes you unique and why YOU for this role?

The Interview

  • Strong handshake, eye contact, speak their name. Think about body language and position as you get settled.  Forward leaning, good posture.  Again – Eye contact.
  • As you get settled and the interview begins let the interviewer frame the discussion, but make sure to interject early in the conversation one simple question, such as – “Thank you for having me in. I am excited about the opportunity and have studied the job description, done my homework and believe I am a great fit.  To make best use of our limited time would you please outline for me the keys to success for this role and the non-negotiable attributes you need to see?  I will do my best to focus on what matters to you and the team.”
  • Have your story for each transition and reason for making career moves prepared in your mind. How did it grow your skillset, make you better and qualify you for this role?  Have a good quality notebook with notes written ahead of time for accomplishments, thoughtful questions, or any other subject is a good idea.
  • Compensation – if he/she wants to cover money that is a great sign. If they ask what you are “looking for” simply say you are looking for an opportunity where you can grow professionally and this looks really attractive! Remember NEVER quote numbers!
  • ALWAYS close on the next steps in this way – “Do you have any concerns at this point, or areas I can clarify further?

If YES – address directly and succinctly, then ask if your answer was sufficient.  If NO go to close – “Based on our conversation I see this as a great fit.  This looks like a good opportunity for me and I’m confident I would be successful in the role.  What are the next steps in the process?”

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Importance of the Feedback Loop When Recruiting in a Competitive Job Market

Here at Broadreach Staffing we work hard to build close client relationships that include tight feedback loops when recruiting for them. In today’s job market it is not unheard of for a strong candidate to be to be “on the market” for less than a week, which means unless you are prepared to move quickly, top talent will go to the company that is out to “win”. This article is meant to help you “win”!

If you think about the evolution of recruitment for a moment, we start up conversations with potential candidates that up until this point may or may not have been looking for a new job.  Once that happens, the candidates’ ears are typically open to other recruiters and opportunities and boy can things change in a hurry.  Phone interviews are scheduled, feedback is sought, live interviews scheduled, feedback sought, second round of interviews and yet again more feedback sought.  What happens next depends on the pipeline of qualified candidates a company is fielding.  This process can take many weeks to complete before offers are in the works.

In today’s job market, which is very competitive in the software engineering world for example, I’ve seen top talent swooped up after a single interview.  Meanwhile, I am waiting on and prompting for feedback from my client after the initial phone screen a couple days ago.  Many times, I get extremely positive feedback and they want to move the candidate forward through their process, but due to scheduling and other delays, it might be a week or more for that next step.  Unfortunately, it’s often Goodbye Jack, our highly qualified candidate has already accepted another offer.  Painful for all of us.

Our jobs as recruiters are to understand where candidates are in their job search, what’s most important to them, timelines they are looking to move and assess how in demand the candidate is in so we can inform and advise our client appropriately.  When we have done our jobs effectively, we will have presented a highly qualified candidate that is ready for the hiring manager to interview.  We will also have established an open channel of communication to ensure feedback is complete and timely so we can manage the candidate accordingly and advise our client in the event our candidate is looking at imminent multiple offers.  When feedback is slow or incomplete candidates will lose interest and focus on companies that show a strong interest in them.  If you have a healthy pipeline of highly qualified candidates you might be ok, but in the long run the companies that implement a close working relationship with their recruiting teams (internally and externally) and ensure timely and complete feedback will significantly improve their overall hiring process and close the gap in the time to hire for critical openings.

At Broadreach Staffing, we understand the value of time in the search for talent. That’s why everything we do revolves around this fundamental question, “will this save our clients’ valuable time?”

Please contact me at my email as I would love to work with you on all your critical recruitment needs.

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