Selling yourself in an interview

[mikester]

Well; so far it's a non starter. I called in at the scheduled time and got voice mail. I waited another 10 minutes and got the same.

I'll call again shortly but I have a 10am meeting I have to go to. Doesn't look good.

[350HP930]

Oh, was this a phone interview? Phone interviews are the suck.

[mikester]

Yeah - rescheduled for 4pm this afternoon.

More reading time...

[mikester]

Soooo....here goes.

This guy really let me play Lubie's advice through very carefully.

IT was like he had spoke to Lubie and come to a consensus on what to ask me and how to do it.

He asked me about previous projects and he asked me about previous successes. I told him them and told him what I learned during those successes and how I think those will help me when he hires me.

He asked me where I see myself in three years *IF* this opportunity never existed. My response was I would still be working toward the same goal.

He asked me to name three failures. LEft it open ended like that so I did; I named three key failures and elaborated the lessons I learned from them and how they will help me when he hires me.

Then; every chance I got I made it clear I wanted the job. I made it clear that this was an exciting opportunity for me and that I was chomping at the bit to get going on it. All true too of course. In every response I highlighted how my experience and knowledge was going to help him make money.

I'm in IT so he asked me how I felt about being in a support posture. I told him I wasn't comfortable in a pure support role because I Wasn't making money for the company directly. My job while it does support the bottom line does not "make money" if anything it saves money. I've been in the making and the support money makers role and I much prefer making the money and the bottom line. The bonuses are bigger there and I have a family to support. That was a nice segway to asking me about my family which I told him about. He asked me how I felt about travelling to San Jose once or so a month. San jose isn't that far so it's no big deal. I used to go there for day trips for my previous job on occasion.

Then the close; I said I really appreciated the opportunity to talk to him and I extremely wanted the job (I didn't word it exactly like that). I was very excited about it and the chance to work with the folks that I would be working with (turns out I know them a bit). He told me that I did very well and that he was going to have more engineers call me.

Then he asked me to prepare a 15 minute sample presentation that was 5 slides on a subject (which he told me) and said I could get help from my insider (who used to work for him) if I wanted too.

So...there it is. I think I did as well as I could have done over the phone and I want to say thanks to all who helped me. I'll keep you posted.

[M.D. Holloway]

Mikester, that is great news! Congrats. Slides? Wow - this is a great opportunity to really shine! Tell us more about that...

[mikester]

Well; the company has a current marketing strategy for their products as a whole and he asked me to prepare a 5 slide, 15 minute presentation on that stratagy basically pitching it to him.

I've seen the marketing slides so many times myself that it's ingrained in my own mind...I'm very familiar with it but still he said I could use the literature off of their web site. I figured I would do that and present it in the way I would present it to any CIO I might work for to invest in the technology so I didn't have to work so hard. That's just how I approach these things...how can I work smarter, not harder. That's what success is - doing more with less. Especially these days.

[74911targa]

May I suggest.............(This works).

1) Grab a napkin, like a Starbucks napkin or something
2) Write these 5 words on it..
a. Motivated
b. Enthusiastic (about the opportunity)
c. Cooperative (team player)
d. Assertive
e. Self Starter

3) Go into that face to face interview and within 30 seconds after you meet everyone that you'll be interviewing with say this. "I don't mean to interupt, but I was doing a little thinking before I came hear today and I realized that there are a few things that you should know about me that aren't on my resume and I wanted to share them with you. I jotted them down real quik (pull out the napkin, Yes pull out the napkin) I want to let you know that I am a very motivated person I see myself being nothing but an absolute success within this industry, I want to let you know that I've done some research and I'm very enthusiastic about the prospects of working with your company, I'm a very cooperative person, I'm not one to stir things up at all. You should know that i'm a very assertive, so if I see someting that isn't right I will bring it to your attention and not just let it slide. The last thig I wanted to mention is that I'm a self starter. It doesn't take much for me to hit the ground running. These are just a few things that came to mind while I was thinking about this opportunity and I wanted to share them with you." ---------------You just gave them the answer to every question they were about to ask you in their own round about way. They knew that you could do the job from the information on your resume. That's what got you the interview. Now they know that you want to do the job and they should be convinced that you will do the job. Congratulations!!

[mikester]

Had the second techincal interview today and it went well as well. He said I was in line or better than some of the SEs they have now.

Lots of technical details...glad I did a little reading today. Some of it I was a little rusty on.

He said I would get a "go" sign from him.

I'm sure there will be more techincal interviews as that is how it goes. It is EXTREMELY competitive to get in so they do a lot of interviews.

Technically this is my 5th technical but 3 of those were for other positions.

[mikester]

Okay - the first fellow that I had the technical interview with called me again today to give me an inside scoop. I passed the FIRST technical round.

They will likely be calling me for the SECOND technical round.

He said I need to start brushing up - from here it gets ugly.

[M.D. Holloway]

Dang! This is worse than he!! week! I hope thay are coming in with some serious chink along with options. Is a contract out of the question?

[mikester]

Well; a sorely needed update I suppose.

I don't think I got it and in the 36 hours since the final interview I haven't heard anything so I'm second guessing the heck out of it at this point.

The final interviews between the 4 candidates were on Monday late afternoon into the evening.

They do a round-robin style deal where one candidate moves from person to person until everyone's been interviewed by everyone else.

There were 7 folks there to interview us and it lasted from 3pm to 9pm.

I feel that I did fantastic with the 3 engineers and the 2 sales managers (local and regional guy). The two hiring managers ganged up on me though and that made me a little nervous (which it doesn't normally so I don't know why it did this time other than the fact that absolutely wanted the job). It's not like me to be nervous in situations like this so I was a bit caught off guard by the feeling I suppose. When I was in with the hiring managers for the hour they had me I did my 15 minute presentation, the whole situation is a little rushed so I was also a little rushed. The constructive criticism given after my presentation while I was talking about something else quite excitedly was that I should have had that same enthusiasm during my presentation.

It was then that the gravity of the position started to be impressed upon me. They told me how important it was to them for next year's goals.

In my next interview with another engineer it was again stressed to me.

So in the next interview, with the regional sales manager he too impressed upon me the importance. So, being the frank and honest guy I am I asked him a killer question. Maybe not even killer in a good way...

"Why are you going to trust such and imperative and important account to a newbie?"

The regional manager, who this almost matters the most to was quite certainly stunned by the question. He even said, "Well, that's a hard question to be sure." In fact, he didn't have an answer except to say that a newbie might be hungrier to do well than someone already established.

Back to the Hiring manager's interview; I lost track of some key points and I can't fault anyone but myself for that. I just don't think I stressed well enough why they should choose me over one of the other guys. But in that I think I only missed one point - it was a good point but it wasn't specifically the only point and I feel like the other items I stressed were valid and stand well together.

So; the Technical interviews (3 of them) went quite well and being that I'm technical as well I was easily able to get into them and make personal connections as well as professional. Almost all of them gave me their cards so that I could contact them outside of this process. The Sales managers as well I feel went very well and the regional manager gave me his information to contact him afterwards as well. I plan on contacting all of them to get their feedback but I am going to wait a week just for good measure.

The plan was that they would have a decision by Tuesday to make an offer to someone. I left a morning and an afternoon message with the hiring manager as well as sent an email. I probably should try to call again but at this point I am pretty discouraged. I had been up against one of the other candidates before so we spoke again and since we had exchanged contact info before we talked yesterday. He had not heard anything either.

I really think I did well all in all; I know I did better than I've done before. I'm a little down but I know I gave it an extremely good shot if not my best shot. I'll likely try to get in again as I'm sure there will be other opportunities. It was end of year for them this week so they were trying to slip this position in under the wire; maybe that in and of itself cause some issue with it.