So Far In the interview process, we have considered you and the hiring manager. By acting like a consultant, you can negotiate a job that's right for both you and him. But there are other players and other complexities in this drama. First, you have competitors. They may be other people the interviewer is seeing, or your competition can be an ideal candidate in the interviewer's mind. In addition, there are all the other people you meet during the hiring process. They are influencers and, in fact, may influence the hiring decision more than the hiring manager does. These are people the hiring manager trusts and on whose opinions he relies. Finally, there are complexities such as outside influencers, the timing of the hiring decision, and salary considerations.
This chapter contains case studies of how some people considered and dealt with their competition. In the next chapter, we'll give you the guidelines they followed, that helped them decide what they could do to win the job. Remember, the job hunt starts after the interview. What can you do to turn the interview into an offer? You may think you have done a lot of work so far in your job hunt, but you still have a long way to go. This is the part of the process that requires the most analysis and strategic thinking. But since most of America is mindlessly watching TV right now, you have a chance to win if you spend some time thinking. Think objectively about the needs of the organization and of everyone you met, and think about what you can do to influence each person.
If you're in a seller's market, however, you may not need to follow up: you'll be brought back for more meetings before you have a chance to breathe. If you're in a buyer's market, you will probably have to do some thoughtful follow up to get the job.
Because effective follow up is a lot of work, your first decision should be, Do I want to get an offer for this job? Do I want to "go for it"? If you are ambivalent, and are in a competitive market, you will probably not get the job. Someone else will do what he or she needs to do to get it.
Follow ups will not guarantee you a specific job, but extensive follow ups on a number of possibilities increase the number and quality of your offers. If you focus too much on one specific situation and how you can make them hire you, that won't work. You need both breadth and depth in your job hunt: you have both when you are in contact on a regular basis with six to ten people who are in a position to hire you or recommend that you be hired. You must have six to ten of these contacts in the works, each of which you are trying to move along.
Ideally, you will get to a point where you are moving them along together, slowing certain ones down and speeding others up, so you wind up with three concurrent job offers. Then you can select the one that is best for you. This will usually be the job that positions you best for the long run the one that fits best into your Forty Year Plan. It will rarely be sensible to make a decision based on money alone.
Therefore, if one situation is taking all of your energy, stop right now for ten minutes and think of how you can quickly contact other people in your target area (through networking, direct contact, search firms, or ads). It will take the pressure off, and prevent you from trying to close too soon on this one possibility.
I came up with two piles: One of seventeen rejects, and another of the three I would present. A few people called to "follow up." Here's one:
ARTIST: I'm calling to find out the procedure and the status. Do you mind? ME: Not at all. I interviewed twenty people. I'll select three and present them to my boss and my boss's boss. ARTIST: Thanks a lot. Do you mind if I call back later? ME: NO. I don't mind.
The artist called every couple of weeks for three months, asked the same thing, and stayed in the reject pile. To move out, he could have said things like:
- Is there more information I can give you? Or
- I've been giving a lot of thought to your project and have some new ideas. I'd like to show them to you. Or
- Where do I stand? How does my work compare with the work others presented?
If all you're doing is finding out where you are in the process, that's rarely enough. The ball is always in your court. It is your responsibility to figure out what the next step should be. Job hunters view the whole process as if it were a tennis game where thwack the ball is in the hiring manager's court. Wrong.
Me to job hunter: "How's it going?"
Job hunter to Kate: (Thwack!) "They're going to call me." When they call, it's to say, "You are not included." If you wait, not many of your interviews will turn into offers.
CASE STUDY: RACHEL Trust Me
A man is not finished when he's defeated; he's finished when he quits.
RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON
Rachel had been unemployed for nine months. This was her first meeting. She was disgusted. I had an interview, she said. I know what will happen: I'll be a finalist and they'll hire the other person.
Rachel was nice, enthusiastic, and smart; she was always a finalist. Yet the more experienced person was always hired.
Here's the story. Rachel, a lobbyist, was interviewing at a law firm.
The firm liked her background, but it needed some public relations help and perhaps an internal newsletter. Rachel could do those things, and wrote a typical thank you note playing up her strengths, playing down her weaknesses, and ignoring the firm's objections. She highlighted the lobbying, and said that PR and a newsletter would not be a problem. She could do it. She was asking the firm to "trust her."
