Kula Consulting Blog

Does this experience sound familiar?  After two rounds of interviews, the first round with the hiring manager and an H.R. representative and the second round with a prospective colleague, the company brings you back for a “courtesy” interview with a few of the executive staff, or the CEO, or your prospective team.  It’s billed as no big deal, just a get acquainted meeting, sort of an informal thing.  You have a nice meeting with everyone and then you don’t get the job.  What happened?  The “courtesy” interview is what happened.  All interviews are job interviews, they all have an agenda and you didn’t know the agenda.  The major means of evaluating prospective employees are:  1. A close match to the particular job’s requirements, 2. Strong references and “proof” to back-up qualifications and 3. Performance(s) during interviews.  The candidate has some control over the first two items.  A clearly written resume and cover letter will detail skills sets, work experiences and accomplishments, and educational and professional achievements, and will provide a prospective employer with a means to check your fitness for the opening.  Strong references and documented “proof” of skills and accomplishments provide independent back-up to the claims and information provided by the resume and cover letter.  In fact, strong references by someone known to the prospective employer are powerful tools to getting the job.  But, I believe, the most important evaluation tool is the interview process.  I’ve read somewhere (I always seem to remember the info, but not where it came from!), that sixty percent of the hiring decision is made during the first interview, and usually the positive or negative feeling is made in the first few seconds/minutes of the interview.  Of course, this goes both ways.  A candidate makes decisions right away as well.   

Let’s say that you sail through the first and second rounds of the interview and are told: “You are the top candidate for this position, and, as a courtesy, we would like you to come back in to meet X, Y, and Z.”  This is good news and a warning.  The good news is you have almost reached your goal.  The warning is:  “The evaluation process isn’t over!”  In fact the true decision makers, or parties with veto powers, are now being revealed.  Here’s an example:  We had a regional CPA firm client who loved our candidates, but never hired any of them.  The fall-out always came after they had our candidate go to dinner with the rest of the staff.  The staff gave a thumb’s down every time.  After some digging, we found out they had a conflict of interest:  The firm offered a $5000 referral bonus to employees and the staff saw our candidates as competition, plus - - they liked going out to dinner!  Here’s another one:  Recently a client decided not to move forward with an “A+” candidate after two rounds of interviews.  The reason?  While doing a “courtesy” interview with the accounting staff, the candidate detailed how he/she had improved the close process at “ABC” company.  The staff liked the status quo and voted thumb’s down because the candidate might not “value the way things are already done here”.  Now we submit only status quo people with a “Gee, you guys are great!” attitude to this client.

How do you get over these hurdles?  Research and preparation for each round of interviews are the keys to reaching your goal:  A great job offer.  What this means is learning whatever you can about the people you will meet with.  Do you know anyone who knows them?  Do you or a friend know anyone who currently works or recently worked for the company?  Press releases, financials, social networking sites, biographies on the company website, all provide information about the people you will be meeting.  Another key is to ask what the purpose of the interview is, and how the person you are meeting ties into the hiring decision-making process.  Do whatever you can to determine what it is they want to find out about you and how that fits with who you are.  If you are well prepared for each round of interviews, you will be ready to be yourself and present the skills and personal qualities that match well with your perceived needs for the job.  If you have prepared well, you will also be able to connect with all who interview you and gain that crucial 60% positive bump at the beginning of every interview, “courtesy” or not.  By the way, if you are working with a recruiter, they should be doing most of this research with you.