Re: phone interviews

Subject: Re: phone interviews
From: "John Posada" <writer -at- tdandw -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 09:14:58 -0500


...
> > So let's add some standard advice for phone interviews:
> > Always ask first thing: "Is there anybody else listening
to this
> > conversation?"
>
> Don't be surprised when the answer is "none of your
business." That is one of
> those questions that makes you sound really paranoid
and/or obsessed with
> fairness. And people obsessed with fairness often are the
least qualified

An interview is a sales presentation, you are the salesman
and the product you are selling is yourself. Your job is to
sell your product and get the best possible price for it.
The customer's job is to get exactly what they need at the
lowest possible cost.

The first rule of sales is to know your customer and the way
you do this is research and by understanding the RFP, which
is the job requirements. The second is to know your product.
You would think that this is easiest becuase since you are
your product, nobody knows the product better than you. This
may or may not be the case, but that's a topic for another
conversation.

At this point, everything else is up for grabs. There is no
fairness. Infact, one of the customer's questions is how do
you work under unfair conditions. I'm asked almost everytime
how I gather information from developers who don't play
fair, who don't want to meet with me, who don't care with
deadlines. Also, how do I manage unfair deadlines and
workloads.

They WANT to see how the product performs under stress.

Regarding the point about asking being paranoid, maybe, if
you express it that way. OTOH, in a sales presentation, one
of the things you must get established is who are the other
decision makers in the evaluation process.

Right?

This is the same thing...you just have to ask in a way that
is not insulting. I try to do this is by phrasing it
something along the following lines: "BTW, Bill, I was
wondering if anyone else is in the room or listening in. The
reason I ask is that I want to make sure that I address
everyone's questions." At this point, you may get a No, a
yes, or a none of your business...then just move on.

> > I would go further and say that there may be some
ethical issues
> > involved here. The true conditions and the full agenda
of the
> > interview weren't being disclosed.
>
> Where did you get the idea that job interviews are fair?
They aren't. Not even
> a little bit. As the job candidate you are at a supreme
disadvantage.

Again, when you are selling a product, it is your job to
take control, and Andrew, I'm sure you do it well. I'm sure
that when you present your security services, you don't feel
that you are at a supreme advantage. You take control by
knowing your product, knowing the questions BEHIND the
question being asked, drawing the customer in to the
discussion through proactive questions that allow you to do
the asking and to guide the conversation in a way that
allows you to show your strengths and hide your weaknesses,
You pretty much conduct the show, including bringing out
documentation (our portfolios are your brochures, our
references are your customer recommendations, our samples
are your white papers).

An interview can be adversarial or it can be a learning
experience. It can be a miserable experience comparable to
having your teeth scraped, or it can be an enjoyable
experience for everyone. Sometimes, they can be like a chess
game.

I like chess...I happen to enjoy them.

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
writer[at]tdandw.com


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References:
Re: phone interviews: From: Andrew Plato

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