I've been on more job interviews this year than any other year in my life.
This is a good thing (theoretically, at least) because it forces you to figure out who you are and sell it.
Can't do that? You lose.
TIP #1: Miss the point.
Earlier this month, I hired a young female journalist to write a guest post on this blog for $100. (Expect to see it soon.) As a hirer, I was forced to confront the real reason why people hire you.
Because they like you.
This has been said elsewhere, but it is the single truth people fail to grasp about interviewing. It's not about your skills, it's not about your resume, it's not about if you answered the questions right.
Do they like you? If they like you the best, they will hire you. If they don't, they won't.
People tell themselves their "experience," their successes-filled resume, and their above-par interviewing skills are what will get them the job. That's simply not true. It's what people want to believe because if that were true, they could quantify why one person gets hired and why another does not.
Interviews are like two dogs sniffing one another's butts. Either you click. Or you don't.
I chose the young female journalist I did because I like her. Sure, she's talented. Yes, she's a good writer. Absolutely, I knew she would work hard on this project. But, for the most part, I just liked her.
Why?
Because she reminded me of me.
TIP #2: Sell yourself wrong.
Recently, I had dinner with a stripper. The stripper's name is Bubbles. At least, that's her stripper name.
Bubbles has been in the business of stripping a long time. Suffice to say, Bubbles knows her game. And if you've ever known a stripper — a good one — you know that a stripper is nothing but a businesswoman in a thong.
I asked Bubbles how she does what she does. I don't mean to say I asked her: "Oh, my God, how do you take off your clothes in front of a room of men!?" I wanted to know how she hustles. What she does to get her customers to hand over their money. Because if you are applying for a job as a cook at McDonald's, a vice president at an ad agency, or an engineer at Google, you are engaging in the same transaction as the stripper. The other person has money. You want their money. How do you get them to give you their money?
The stripper said — well, it's hard to say what the stripper said. Because when the stripper said it, she sort of cocked her head, and she flicked her wrist, and she half-smiled. And while she was saying stuff like, make them feel like a VIP, and tell them what they can get from you and only you, and figure out exactly what they want and convince them you can give it to them, it was what she was doing, physically, that sells you on her. You see how she does it. She is charming. She reads you like a book she has read a thousand times before. For you, there is sort of a relief in what she is doing. At last, you think, someone understands me.
This is what strippers are good at: it's not taking off their clothes. It's making you believe they know what you need, and if you give them your money, they will give you what you want.
If Bubbles can't read her customer, she will not sell a lap dance. If you can't read your interviewer, you are lost.
TIP #3: Be a sucker.
If you are a woman and want to get depressed, read: "I work for a large multinational tech company, I regularly hire woman for 65% to 75% of what males make. I am sick of it, here is why it happens, and how you can avoid it."
The reason [women] don't keep up, from where I sit, is simple. Often, a woman will enter the salary negotiation phase and I'll tell them a number will be sent to them in a couple days. Usually we start around $45k for an entry level position. 50% to 60% of the women I interview simply take this offer. It's insane, I already know I can get authorization for more if you simply refuse. Inversely, almost 90% of the men I interview immediately ask for more upon getting the offer.
It gets worse from there. When women do counter-offer, they ask for lower sums or name no sum at all. "At the end," the reddit poster says, "most of the women I hire make between 45k and 50k, whereas the men make between 60k and 70k."
There are so many stories about how women get screwed in the workplace. How this is really unfair. How women make less than men. How women have it very hard. How women are victimized by the corporate world's endemic sexism, and women keep hitting their heads into the glass ceiling that men have built to keep them out of the C-suite. But what in this story is the fault of men? It is women who are asking for less. The shocking conclusion? Women are getting less. Whose fault is that?
As long as women continue to see themselves as worth less, they will make less. See yourself as worth more, and maybe you will make more.
Stop pointing the finger, and start taking responsibility. That way, when you succeed, it will be yours. And when you fail, it will be yours. But either way, it will be yours.
Thanks to Susannah Breslin / Blogs Forbes
http://blogs.forbes.com/susannahbreslin/2011/06/22/how-to-fail-at-a-job-interview/?partner=alerts
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