The details were entertaining, including candidates who:

• listed “God” as a reference (though without any phone number)
• sent a 24 page resume to detail a five year career
• included a personal email address “lovesbeer“
• listed “Master of Time and Universe” under his experience.
• insisted that any new employer allow him to bring his pet monkey to work

Coincidentally, the same day that I read the article in The Telegraph, I received an email from the CEO of a local technology company who forwarded what may be the single worst resume I’ve ever read. (click on the image to view in all its glory). The resume is reproduced exactly as it was received, with only names and phone numbers excised.

As appalling (and amusing) as this singular resume disaster is, job seekers can learn a number of valuable lessons from its mistakes.

1. Pick a font size and format and stay with it. It’s expected that your name at the top of the resume will be larger than the rest of your copy, but you should not mix font sizes and justification throughout the resume. It’s distracting, visually disorienting and unprofessional. And, for most resumes, 12 point copy should be large enough.
2. Have someone else proof your resume before sending it out. This resume has dozens of spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors that could have been corrected easily by an attentive proofreader. I know employers that will trash any resume that contains errors, believing that any job seeker who doesn’t pay attention to the details of their resume won’t pay attention to the details of their job.
3. Procure a professional email address. Who would have thought it necessary to admonish job seekers not to include email addresses like “bonglover@gmail.com” or “dazednconfused@aol.com” on their resumes? This is your personal billboard, folks. You don’t want to broadcast your personal peccadilloes or your weakest personal attributes, even if you mean them in jest. Assume that every prospective employer is devoid of any sense of humor and include a direct email address consisting of “yourname@site.com“. You can’t go wrong with that.
4. Lead with your qualifications. I’m not sure what resume genius first suggested to lead your resume with your personal objective, but it’s lousy advice. Employers aren’t interested in your personal goals, but in the value you can bring to their organization. What are your strengths? What specific qualifications do you possess? What value are you capable of demonstrating? If you want to grab their attention, you need to appeal to their wants, not yours.
5. Tell a story with each job listing. Employers don’t want to know what tasks you performed, they want to know what you accomplished. And they want to know that you are aware of the difference. There are no unimportant jobs. Every job contributes to the organization’s goals in some way. Do you understand how you contributed? Did you apply yourself with care and attention? Did you demonstrate your commitment and work ethic? Tell us how.

And one final thought… don’t just shotgun your resume out to dozens of prospective employers (as this worst resume candidate did) hoping that it will get attention from one of them. It makes you look desperate and incompetent and may get attention, but not in the way you intend.

Finding and hiring bodies to occupy desks is actually pretty simple. Filling those desk chairs with genuinely talented individuals is extraordinarily difficult.

How Hard Can It Be?
For many job seekers, this dilemma seems unbelievable. With unemployment over 9% and millions of people actively looking for jobs, how tough could it be to find the right employee? Shouldn’t the biggest problem be selecting only one of many qualified candidates?

Regrettably, the answer is No.

While job seekers focus intently on communicating their professional qualifications – their degrees, certifications, and specific technical skills – employers are looking for personal qualities like work ethic, loyalty, commitment, passion, eagerness to learn and devotion to excellence.

What Do We Want?
As the CEO commented, there are two types of people in the world: people who can’t bear to watch the ball hit the ground and people who don’t care if the ball hits the ground. She only wants to hire the former. But they’re hard to identify and harder to hire because they’re in the greatest demand.

The CIO agreed and related that her recent employee selections for a necessary layoff were determined by the employees’ personal attributes not by the lack of any specific talent. Because every manager knows that an employee’s personal qualities are extraordinarily difficult to change, while new skills are relatively easily acquired.

Both lamented the lack of any foolproof method to ensure that a new hire would possess their desired qualities and would continue to demonstrate them while employed. No personnel test has worked, behavioral interview techniques aren’t certain, references don’t necessarily reveal motivation and even a proven record of success doesn’t guarantee future accomplishment.

Finally, the Secret Revealed
So, what’s the secret to finding and hiring talent? As far as we can tell, there isn’t one. But suggestions are welcome.

That’s why it’s essential for companies to look outside their own organizations to bring in talented individuals who have proven their ability to nurture innovation and guide organizational transformation. But, when the recruitment process is turned over to HR, do their established policies and procedures aid in the recruitment process or actively repulse creative talent?

I was reminded of these organizational conflicts last week when talking with an executive who had recently been approached by a large public company whose CEO determined that the company needed to emulate successfully innovative companies like Whirlpool and Apple to fuel their company’s growth.

Overcoming Organizational Memory
Recognizing that their current staff was likely incapable of crafting and implementing a dramatic shift towards an innovation culture, the company directed their HR department to recruit talent to help direct these new initiatives.

What followed was a laughably complex, lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful attempt by an entrenched HR department that followed their carefully choreographed hiring processes that served two purposes: to consolidate HR’s central role in the hiring process and to repel precisely the type of candidate they desperately need in-house.

The Process
The steps followed over the course of months (yes, months) was:

1. contact by internal recruiter
2. conversation with internal recruiter to determine nature of position and corporate commitment
3. conversation with senior recruiter to review candidate’s qualifications
4. requirement by HR for candidate to apply for the position through their unnecessarily complex online process
5. request for candidate’s resume, despite the fact that the company approached him and his entire portfolio, blog, references, presentations and public appearances were all publicly available online
6. follow up interview with senior HR recruiter to confirm level of interest (which was waning sharply by this point)
7. telephone interview with hiring manager
8. follow-up interview with senior recruiter
9. second telephone interview with hiring manager
10. in person interviews with hiring manager and four other executives lasting over half a day
11. request for personality assessment and permissions for assorted background checks
12. interview debrief with senior recruiter with promise to provide an answer within a couple of weeks, after they had processed several other candidates as well
13. silence

For those people involved with corporate HR there’s probably nothing surprising about the length or detail of this hiring process. And that’s exactly what repels the corporate innovator. After all, if the corporate processes to bring in a single hire are so complex and embedded, how sclerotic is the rest of the organization and how likely will any individual change, or even shift, an entire corporate culture?

The entire hiring process so repelled this executive that he ultimately abandoned any interest in the organization.

Do your hiring processes communicate what’s best about your organization or are you losing the competition for talent because your initial contacts turn off the best and brightest?

Most resumes adopt similar formats, and virtually all are created in Microsoft Word, using its default fonts, so making your resume stand apart requires some creativity.

Since your job search is really just a personal marketing exercise, why not incorporate the latest trend in marketing technology – QR codes – directly in your resume?

What is a QR code?
A QR code is a square 2-D barcode that can be scanned by a smart phone’s camera that generates an immediate action. Based on the type of code it contains, it might direct the viewer to a website, display a custom text message, deliver a vCard or more.

How can I market myself with QR codes?
Although they’re huge in Japan, QR codes are fairly new here in the States so many people won’t understand what they are or won’t have a smart phone with a QR reader installed, which could limit their impact. However, in certain industries or for those job seekers pursuing specific technology or marketing related positions, incorporating a QR code in your resume can help you stand out from the crowd.

How to Create a QR Code
Creating your own QR code, or even multiple codes for different purposes, is incredibly easy. Simply visit the Kaywa or QRStuff websites, select the action you want to generate, enter your website address or custom text, and click generate. The websites will automatically generate your personal QR codes which you can download and insert into your resume file as an image.

Whoever reads your resume can use their smartphone to scan your QR code to see where it takes them. That’s when you can get creative.

Creative Ways to Use Personal QR Codes

1. LinkedIn page – direct the reader to your personal LinkedIn page to provide more detail and depth to your professional background. It would be best if you have a robust LinkedIn page, complete with blog links, social media feeds and recommendations.
2. YouTube video – link to a YouTube video page where they can view you describing your professional strengths and detailing the value you can bring to their organization.
3. vCard – although this might not be the best idea if you’re applying to a very large corporation through HR, it could work well if you’re submitting your resume directly to an identified hiring manager. Knowing that they will likely want to contact you directly at some point, you can have your QR code download a vCard with all of your contact information directly into their smartphone.
4. Blog page – if you have a professional blog, direct the reader to your page so they can read your posts and get a sense of how you think about industry issues and gauge how well you communicate.
5. Display a creative text message – The QR code can instruct the reader’s device to immediately display a text message on their screen. This is a perfect place to present your unique positioning statement, like: Tim Johnson is the person who will build lasting relationships with the people you want to do business with.
6. Custom landing page – create a custom landing page that highlights your professional strengths and direct the reader to your personal sales page.
7. Portfolio page – Showcase your work and direct the reader to an online portfolio of your best work. This is especially powerful for those candidates in design and marketing who can display visual examples of previous design efforts or marketing campaigns.

Even if the individuals reading your resume don’t know how to act on the QR code, including it on your resume can still position you as someone who is technically proficient, stays up to date on business trends and technology and is an early adopter of powerful and creative ideas.

I’d love to hear other creative ways that QR codes can be used. Comments are welcome.

I’ve received a number of questions and comments about my previous post in the Toughest Interview Questions series: Why Should I Hire You? that suggest that some more detail and explanation is in order.

The reason the question is so difficult for job seekers, and so revealing for employers, is that it requires the candidate to assess their value, not just their strengths. And there’s a big difference.

Most job candidates take the time to catalog and assess their personal strengths. The prepared candidate will focus on their three most important characteristics throughout the interview, relating professional stories that illustrate these strengths in action. But what they typically fail to do is connect these strengths with specific value that is important for the employer.

One recent email query dealing specifically with this issue came from a gentleman interviewing for a server position with an upscale restaurant. He’d determined that his key professional traits were: his positive attitude, his ability to work well with other staff members and his strong work ethic.

All of these traits are positive and likely desired by any restaurant owner, but what they fail to do is differentiate this candidate from the dozen other candidates with similar traits. After all, you can’t expect any candidate to profess their relentlessly negative attitude, disdain for those they work with and their personal sloth.

So, how do you connect your personal strengths with a distinct value statement? The key is to determine what value your strengths deliver. What is the result of your friendliness? How will a restaurant owner benefit from your work ethic? What’s the one sentence that defines your unique selling proposition?

Creating this one sentence statement of your value is much harder than it looks because of its necessary precision. You need to be able to answer Why should I  hire you? with a powerful sentence that matters to the employer.

For the restaurant server, this positioning statement could be:

I deliver a memorable dining experience to every table so they’re already anticipating their next visit before they leave.

I deliver a level of service to each diner with the same care that your chef prepares his signature dishes.

I work harder than any server to deliver a level of care that appears effortless and masterful.

Notice that these statements didn’t focus on the candidate’s strengths, they focused on the outcome. They focused on what’s important to the restaurant owner and invited follow-up questions.

How do you deliver a memorable dining experience? What’s your definition of masterful service? How do you prepare to deliver exceptional service?

Having a single, precise and intriguing personal branding statement like these also eliminate the need to memorize a lengthy response detailing your personal strengths. Instead, your branding statement will generate conversation and follow-up questions that allow you to tell stories that exemplify your personal strengths in action.

What’s my definition of masterful service? When I was working at Amelia’s, I would arrive for work a half-hour early every day so I could review that day’s specials with the chef. I learned how he made each dish, took note of any special ingredients he used and where he got them, and practiced describing these specials so colorfully that my diners had to try them. I would also talk with the sommelier to make sure that I could make appropriate wine suggestions to accompany each dish. It took more time for me to prepare each day, but each table left the restaurant feeling that they just had an exceptional meal and a great dining experience.

It’s not a secret, but it’s not easy to do. You have to focus on one specific value that you deliver and let your supporting stories illustrate your personal strengths. And by focusing on just one thing – one distinct value – you separate yourself from every other candidate who rambles on and on and never clarifies why they should be hired.

Doug placed an ad for a marketing director on Craigslist, including a set of specific instructions that interested candidates needed to follow in order to apply for the position.

The following transcript, taken directly from their email exchanges (with the candidate’s name changed) shows how a negative attitude and hypersensitivity to critique can destroy promising potential.

Cathy-

Congratulations. You are the first person to include everything I asked for!

We’ll be in touch early this week.

Doug

Doug-

I follow directions!  My cell phone is broken right now, so I’ll be going to Sprint tomorrow to get a new one.  If you would like to contact me, please do so via email for now. Thanks!

Cathy

Hi Doug!

I recently added Sparkbase to my Twitter feed and noticed that you were advertising for a copywriter/marketing coordinator.  Is this the position that you were thinking of?  If so, I would love to express my interest as I am pretty sure it will be similar to the work that I did with Company X.  I look forward to speaking with you some time this week.

Thanks again!

Cathy

Cathy-

I need someone with strong copywriting experience. They need to be able to write a press-release, a case study, or a blog post with speed and maturity. We have a fun fast-paced environment, but need to be professional to everyone in the outside world.

If you think this is up your alley, we should continue the conversation. Have you written press-releases before? If so, do this:

Write the press release that we’d send out if you were hired. Write it as SparkBase, and write my quote, your quote, and the information that you’ll want to have out there. Find our boiler-plate, and format it as we’ve done the last few that we’ve sent out.

Email it to me and we can go from there.

-Doug

Hi Doug!

Lucky for me, I have had experience writing press releases for various non-profits and Company X.  Attached is the one I just wrote according to your specifications.  I’m positive that this position is right up my alley.

Cathy,

Not bad, but I’d have focused more on SparkBase than Company X. They are winding down, while we are winding up. You always want the company to seem like this is the best place in the world, and they have more work than you can handle.

I’m forwarding your information to a gentleman that is helping us qualify our candidates.

-Doug

Doug,

Thank you for the opportunity.  However, it’s been a rough year. I just cannot get emotionally attached to another position that I really want and that I know I could do well, only to have it be given to someone else.  I am qualified for this job-  but I would rather decline  than go through an arduous interview process only to be rejected again.  I’m just too exhausted.

Again, thank you so much for contacting me regarding this position.  I really do wish I had more fight in me, and I would have if this was about 8 or 9 months ago.

Best of luck to you and SparkBase!

Cathy

Cathy-

You’re giving up too soon. Throwing in the towel before your first in-person interview isn’t going to serve you well in this job market.

Best of luck. I hope you find some “fight” for your journey.

-Doug

I politely removed myself from your applicants with candor and honesty.  The response I got back was unfair, unnecessary and condescending- and quite frankly, it gave the assurance I had made the right choice. At this point in time, did not feel that it was in my best interest to pursue this position.  To say that my actions won’t get me far in this job market was a trite comment made without knowing me or what I have overcome this year.  I follow my heart and my instinct, and therefore I have no regrets as to where I am right now.

Again, best of luck to you and your endeavors- I mean that with all sincerity.

Cathy

The irony of this exchange is that Doug considered Cathy to be the top candidate for the marketing position. She followed instructions, was proactive in her communications, conveyed an enthusiastic attitude and demonstrated a facility for writing. He was eager to meet with her and was taken completely aback by her withdrawal from consideration in her final emotionally charged messages.

Active job seekers, including Cathy, can learn some lessons from this exchange:

1. Attitude is everything. Searching for work in a difficult economy can be difficult, time consuming, disheartening and even depressing. But the reality is that no employer is actively seeking to hire a depressed and disenchanted employee. Put a smile on, even when you’re not really feeling it.
2. Follow instructions. Doug puts a distinct series of instructions in every job posting as a method to screen candidates. If you don’t respond in the manner instructed, to the appropriate email address, with the specific information requested, then you don’t even gain consideration. Details matter.
3. Never, never, never, never give up. Winston Churchill first proclaimed this timeless advice over 70 years ago, and its wisdom is still entirely appropriate and true. Had Cathy simply compelled herself to work through a dispiriting day, she may have found herself with a wonderful job at Sparkbase today.
4. Don’t confuse critique with criticism. Every famous writer on the planet has an editor. Stephen King. Tom Clancy. John Grisham. Even after demonstrating a capacity to sell millions of books, they each have an editor who reads, critiques and edits every book they publish. Being able to handle constructive critique is an essential professional trait. If you’re too thin-skinned and immature to consider editorial comments as they were intended, you’re not ready for the adult work world.
5. When the CEO of a successful company offers you advice, take it. As shocking I found Cathy’s seemingly impetuous recusal from consideration, what I found most appalling was her reflexive indignation at Doug’s suggestion that giving up wasn’t going to serve her well in her job search. It was neither unfair, unnecessary nor condescending. In fact, if anything, it was a moderated response from an experienced executive with genuine concern provoked by the capricious and irrational responses of a young and seemingly reckless job seeker. His advice was sound and prescient, though I doubt that Cathy will view it that way.But, with luck, other job seekers will learn from her mistakes and keep their own job searches from imploding in such a cataclysmic fashion.

When you don’t get an invitation to meet face to face after your telephone interview, it’s likely that you made one of the following mistakes:

1. You didn’t convey enthusiasm and excitement for the position. When you’re face to face with an interviewer, they can interpret your body language, your smile and your posture while talking with you. On the phone, the only element that you control is your voice. It’s up to you to be energetic and enthusiastic in your responses – more so than if you were sitting in front of your interviewer. Stand up. Smile. Tell yourself to relax. And keep your energy level high throughout your conversation.
2. You didn’t sell yourself. There’s only one person on the call who’s looking out for your interests: You. No one else will read between the lines of your resume to divine your true worth. Do you want them to know what a great job you did on last year’s Xmas promotion? Tell them. Do you want them to know how much money you saved during last quarter’s reorganization? Tell them. It’s not bragging if it’s true.
3. You didn’t tell memorable stories. Facts are boring and forgettable. Stories, when well told, are memorable and make you distinctive. Be prepared to tell the stories of your career that illustrate your professional strengths. Have six stories practiced and prepared so that you aren’t caught off guard reacting to their probing questions about your accomplishments.
4. You didn’t actively listen. It’s amazing how much inside information that hiring managers will reveal to those candidates who ask questions, shut up and listen. Really listen. Listen to the tone of their voice – are they exasperated or enthusiastic? Are they anxious or excited? You can adjust your responses to assuage their concerns or contribute to their excitement. But only if you listen to what they’re saying rather than anticipating your own next response.
5. You didn’t follow up. A critical part of the job search process is demonstrating your capacity to follow up properly. Although every blog, book and column instructs job seekers to follow up with their interviewers immediately after each interviewer, fewer than 20% of job seekers actually do. You should send an immediate email thank you note, followed up with a note the next week if you haven’t heard anything. Diligent follow up can keep you in mind and make the difference between landing the job and joining the crowd of anonymous submissions.

You have the capacity to make a distinctive impression in your telephone interview, but it takes preparation, energy and thorough follow up to land the job you covet.

The most important thing is to send some kind of follow up after your interview. Despite that fact that every career guiding book, blog and video advises job seekers to send thank you notes after the interview, fewer than one in five candidates actually sends any type of follow up note. It’s actually shocking how few people adhere to the rules of common courtesy.

My advice: send both an email and a physical letter to each person that you interview with. However, do not send the exact same note to each person. Modify each note in some way so that it is personalized for the recipient. Why? Because they will compare notes to see if you were able to discern the needs of each interviewer and take the time to craft a meaningful note that addresses each party’s concerns.

Send the email the same day as your interview. Take a couple of hours to consult your notes, write your draft and personalize some element for each person. Send it to someone you trust to edit the note for spelling and grammatical errors. Wait for their comments, then email the note to each party.

You should also send a copy of your note as a physical letter, delivered through the mail to each party. Virtually no one receives a personal letter anymore. The only mail we receive are bills and mass produced pieces of direct mail. Letters are unique and distinctive. And they serve as a constant physical reminder of your thoughtfulness as they sit on the recipient’s desk.

Print the same note as your email on your letterhead, sign it and add one extra element: a handwritten P.S. below your signature that references some detail from your interview. Even if the recipient doensn’t read the text of the letter, they will always read the handwritten P.S.

Best of luck in your tennis tournament this weekend.

Thanks for the book recommendation. I just picked up a copy of  The Designful Company and am looking forward to reading it.

Since you know Bob Johnson, you should chat with him about the project we worked on together last year. It was a terrific success.

The follow up letter should help you stand apart from the crowd. Sending the note puts you ahead of the pack, and personalizing the note with your thoughts and observations can seal your position at the dominant candidate.

It is a near certainty that job seekers today will encounter the dreaded telephone interview during their job search. Knowing what to expect and how to prepare for the telephone interview can provide job seekers with an enormous advantage, but too many candidates make common mistakes that knock them out of consideration before getting a chance to really demonstrate their skills.

If you’re preparing for a telephone interview, check out our post on 7 Tips to Ace Your Telephone Interview and then avoid these common mistakes:

#1 you don’t understand the purpose of the telephone interview. The telephone interview is not intended to secure the job for you, it’s intended to weed out candidates from the initial pool being considered by the hiring company. You can’t win the job with a great performance, but you can lose a job with a poor performance. Your goal, then, is simply to avoid being eliminated from consideration.

Knowing this, you should provide just enough information in your responses to whet their appetite and want to learn more about you and how you can contribute to their organization.

#2 you talk too much. Recognizing that the purpose of the telephone interview is to remain in consideration and to secure a face to face interview, you can only hurt your chances of consideration if you drone on too long with your answers.

You face two risks with long, drawn out answers to interview questions. First, you may say something that raises a red flag with the interviewer. The more you talk, the greater the potential of saying something that they don’t agree with or are concerned about. So, your answers should be brief and to the point, not long and drawn out.

Moreover, the longer you talk, the greater the chance that the interviewer will become bored and distracted as you drone on and on about the details of last year’s ERP installation in Milwaukee. If they become bored, they’ll shift their attention away from you and onto other distractions on their desk – their email or their Facebook page – instead of focusing on you. Keep your answers short and on point to keep the conversation constantly moving forward.

#3 you don’t listen. Too many job seekers mistakenly think that the job interview is all about them. The fact is it’s not about you, it’s all about the hiring company and what they need. You are secondary. Your interviewer will provide detailed information about the job, its requirements and their specific needs and qualifications, but too many candidates are so focused on themselves and what they’re going to say next that they miss entirely the details and insight provided by the interviewer.

Listen carefully. If it’s a new position, find out what their expectations are. If it’s a replacement position, find out what went wrong with the previous employee. If they tell you that the last person to fill this job didn’t know how to motivate and lead his staff, you know that you have an opportunity to interject a story about your managerial skills that can set you apart.

#4 not having prepared responses. There is no excuse for any job candidate to be caught unprepared for the most common interview questions. Tell me about yourself. Why should I hire you? What is your greatest weakness? Questions like these are likely to be asked in every interview and you should be ready with a 45-60 second response to each of the most common questions. If you’re prepared with short, concise answers, you won’t make the mistake of droning on and boring the interviewer and you’ll appear alert and in command.

#5 you have a lousy mobile phone connection. Conduct your job interviews on a land line phone, not on your mobile phone. Too many interviews have been ruined by dropped calls and bad connections. Eliminate these technical problems entirely by securing a land line for your call.

#6 not displaying energy. You are at a disadvantage in a phone interview since the interviewer cannot read your body language to gauge your excitement and energy. The only thing that conveys your energy is the tone of your voice, so you must take steps to energize yourself so that your voice reflects your energy. Stand up while you’re on the phone. If you can, wear a headset so you can move around the room. By allowing yourself to move while you’re on the phone, you become physically animated, which alters and energizes your verbal presentation.

#7 not communicating interest. This is not the time to play hard to get. The objective of the telephone interview is to secure a face to face interview, so you’ve got one chance to let them know that you’re interested. The best way to show interest is to ask questions. Let them know that you’re researched their company and their products or services. Ask them about their plans for the organization, where they see growth coming from, and how they see your position contributing. Become involved in the conversation, don’t behave as a passive participant just waiting for their next question.

#8 not asking for next step. If you want to meet your interviewers personally and explore the job further, ask them. It’s that simple. As the interview winds down, tell them that you’re interested in exploring the position further and ask them What’s the next step? Too many candidates hang up without having any idea where they stand, when they’re going to hear something or who else they should meet. Don’t let this opportunity go to waste. Be assertive and try to get a commitment from their end concerning when you will hear from them and an outline of future steps.

From the hiring manager’s perspective they are looking to determine three things.

1. Are you capable of doing the job?
2. Do you want to do this job?
3. Will you fit in with the organization if I hire you?

Now there’s not much I can do to help you demonstrate that you have the skills to do the job they’re looking for. You either have the skills and experience the hiring manager’s looking for or you don’t.

However asking the right questions and showing enthusiasm and interest can help you demonstrate that you want the job with their company and that you’ll fit in with the chemistry and culture of their organization.

The most common reason for being dropped from a hiring manager’s hot list is the lack of any personal chemistry or rapport with the interviewer during the job interview. If their assessment is that you’re qualified but you simply wouldn’t fit in with their team, then you’re not going to get a job offer.

Most hiring managers believe they have an intuitive sense of who will and won’t perform well and fit in with the rest of their workgroup. However most managers aren’t formally trained to interview candidates and rely on personal intuition and subjective interpretation to select candidates.

So, your primary job during the interview with the hiring manager is to overcome their interview deficiencies and help the interviewer focus on how your unique skills can directly benefit the organization, convey your enthusiasm for the position, and engage the interviewer through thoughtful and astute questions.

Starting with a set of basic questions that can include:

• Can you explain the company’s organizational chart?
• Can you give me a more detailed understanding of what my days might be like?
• What are the specific challenges that you’re facing right now?
• What are the department’s specific objectives for the next three months/six months/one year?
• Why is the position open?

These leading questions should open up a variety of avenues for you to ask more probing questions that will help you truly establish whether you are interested in the company. The interview is a two-way street. You’re not there simply to sell yourself but to determine if you’re sold on the company.

Some of the more probing questions could include

• What are the things you’d like to see changed in your department/division/company?
• Are there plans for new products or services that I should know about?
• How is his job and performed in the past?
• What you see is the key goals for the company during the next year? For my department? For this job?
• How do you see my role in evolving in the first two years?
• What do you think my biggest challenge will be if I start working here?

Now, even if you’re comfortable with the job, the department and the company you should never underestimate the importance of the company culture and how you’ll mesh with it. So you should also ask questions that will determine whether you’ll be a comfortable fit with their organization. These would include:

• How would you describe your management style? Would you say it’s similar to others in the organization or would you consider yourself a bit of a maverick?
• In your experience what particular types of people do you seem to work best with?
• What particular traits do you value most in your subordinates?
• What kinds of people seem to succeed in this company?
• What have you enjoyed most about working here?
• What have you like least?

The answers to these questions do several things. First they help you define yourself according to the attributes of manager cites so you can position yourself as the ideal candidate possessing all the traits are looking for.

These questions should also give you a good sense of the values of the organization and the hiring manager and whether you’d be a good fit with both.

The important thing to remember is that asking cogent and insightful questions makes you stand out from the rest of the candidates and enhances the perception of your qualifications for the job.

Although you may assume that every candidate is prepared to ask intelligent questions, you’d be wrong. I get constant feedback from hiring managers who are shocked by the number of job candidates who don’t ask a single question during the interview. And not one of them gets a job offer.

By engaging in intelligent conversation with the interviewer you’ll separate yourself from the pack, make a sterling impression and hopefully get the chance to answer one final question, “When can you start?”