Then Change it. Now.

by Chris Ziembko
Editor of TheDailyIntern.com

The fact is, interviews are not a meaningful way to evaluate job candidates.  At the most, they are a mediocre way of evaluating the candidates’ personal skills.  They don’t tell the employer what the candidate can do or how he or she will fit in at the office.  The guy who nailed the interview could end up being an arrogant know-it-all at the office, and the guy who was nervous at the interview could end up being the one everyone liked.  But until a better system comes along, we’ll have to make the most out of the interview process.

Interviewing is a skill.  Some people are great at it, and some people aren’t.  For those of you who are good at it:  way to go, you can stop reading this.  For those of you who haven’t mastered the interview: you can learn, improve, and become an expert.

When I have sought interview advice, a lot of people have told me, “Relax and be yourself.”  I have never found this helpful, and it’s the first thing everyone tells me.  Instead of this vague guidance, I’m going to give you a concrete checklist to help you master the interview.  If you follow this 10-point checklist, you WILL show your value to employers and you WILL have your best shot at landing the job.  This is personal advice that you won’t get from your career center.

Remember that employers want to hire you.  It’s easy to forget this.  Your interviewer WANTS you do to well during the interview, and your interviewer WANTS to hire you.

1. Have some conversation starters/topics ready to go.  Practice them.  Seriously, it helps a lot.
2. Focus on being social instead of answering and asking conversations.  Obviously, you will be answering and asking some questions.  But make it natural and let the conversation flow.
3. Convey the right amount of status.  You deserve to be there, so act like it.
4. Have confident and relaxed body language.  Be sure of yourself.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Fidgeting and quick movements say that you are not sure of yourself.
5. Have a confident and relaxed voice tone.  Speak slow and from the stomach.
6. Maintain good eye contact.  Eyes are the window to the soul, and good eye contact conveys confidence and trust.  7. Quick eye movements and looking away show that you lack both of these.
8. Have your professional story together.  The interview is a balance between professional and personal.  Be able to talk intelligently about your studies and any past internships.
9. Assume that your interviewer loves you and can’t wait to hire you.  This is a very simple and very effective mindset to be in.  Get in any other helpful mindsets while you’re at it.
10. Don’t put the interview or the job above yourself.  You are equal to the job and your employer.

Another thing that helps me is remembering that I have nothing to lose in an interview.  I’m just some guy in the 1:30 slot.  My interviewer has probably interviewed hundreds of people in her career, and she’ll go on to interview hundreds more after me.  Even if I don’t get the job, I’ll have more experience for the next interview.
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Read 8 quick internship interview tips!

How can you internally sell your university recruiting program? If you work on the college recruiting team for Company X, how can you increase your budget and get on upper management’s radar?

The answer is quite simple: make the ”sell” a financial “sell.”  Talk numbers, not catchy slogans. But, catchy slogans are easy, aren’t they? Numbers are difficult. Number require time, commitment, and hard work. The “sell” is easy when you can make a business case, but the journey to that business case is extremely difficult.

Most university recruiting teams internally sell their programs based on what I call “soft issues.” These soft issues are almost entirely identical and they all sound lovely! The ”sell” continues to be the same: “Talent matters!” or “Talented young people can change our organization!” or “People are our number one asset!” Sure, this sounds pretty good, but it won’t get the CFO to increase the budget for your university recruiting program. So, what argument will increase your university recruiting budget?

A winning argument starts off like this: “Recruiting top students will increase revenue $250,000 over the next two years. Let me show you how.” Business leaders respond to arguments based around money, not soft issues. Please also note that I used the term “revenue” instead of “cost savings” – this is crucial. When your team becomes a “revenue generator,”  the chances are far greater that your team will receive its desirable budget.

As mentioned earlier, the hard part is the journey to these numbers. You can’t just make them up (although an estimate is better than nothing). It may take years and maybe you are not interested because you will change jobs by the time you can create a business case. For a quicker turnaround, I recommend using the following (easy and simple) example: Judy produced $100,000 in value more than Robert. Give me more money and I will hire all Judys and as compared to Roberts.

My team is building this financial argument right now. I will be honest, the journey is painful, but I can’t wait to arm you with the business case. It is going to change everything. Get ready.

I made a mistake. I did not know how to network effectively and it was awkward. Believe me, I know now. Allow me to share with you what I learned in hopes that  you do not make the same mistake when you are looking for a sale, a job, or an internship.

It is relatively easy to get someone to meet with you and if you are somewhat likable, he/she will enjoy the encounter. However, there is a significant difference between this type of networking meeting and a networking meeting where the other side walks away, settles back to his/her desk, and shoots out three emails saying, “You have to meet this guy named Ted.” The first meeting mentioned above is worthless while the second meeting is extraordinarily valuable.

GrouperEye is a new company and the lifeblood of any new company is sales. Sales are never easy for a startup, but sales at a startup with a novel concept (pre-launch) are especially difficult! For this reason alone, it can be determined that networking plays a critical role.

The lesson I learned is simple: give a gift. Successful networking is about giving.

It was 5:25pm. I was in San Francisco at a Panera Bread. I sat across the table from two leading HR consultants. They were exceptionally smart and I had been telling them about my product for about three hours. I will never forget a comment one man made, “Give me a gift.” I replied, “What do you mean?” He said, “Give me some insight.” I gave him a blank stare. He was right, I did not have anything to “give” him in return. Never, ever, will I make that mistake again.

Lesson learned: Do not show up to a networking cup of coffee meeting unless you can “give a gift.” I am not talking about a bottle of wine or a gift card to starbucks, I’m talking about knowledge…expressed as the gift in insight.

Imagine the difference between these two meetings: (1) Sara grabs a 30 minute cup of coffee with an alumni who is the VP of strategy at a local ad agency. She asks great questions about strategic vision for clients and how the agency goes about doing market research. She seems very interested to learn more and asks about entry level job opportunites. (2) Sara grabs a 30 minute cup of coffee with an alumni who is the VP of strategy at a local ad agency. Sara says, “I noticed that Burger King is a client of your agency. I did a quick survey with 40 of my friends. The results told me that chicken nuggets were associated with obesity. I know I am just a niave student, but I thought about how to reposition chicken nuggets through an online campaign – here is my 12 page report and survey results. Has your team thought about this?”

Think about how this changes the conversation. You start doing the job instead of talking about the job. Huge difference.

Get into gift giving, it pays off.

I recently did some consulting with a group of university career service offices. Before working with the career service team, I wanted to get a thorough understanding of what might be a typical interaction with students. So, I went online and applied for a job through the career service office software. What I found was amazing.

From start to finish, to apply for a job through the career service office it took me 24 minutes. I went through 8 different pages, filled out a profile, and entered my phone number and email address. Wow.

From start to finish, to apply for a job through craigslist took me 3 minutes. I went through four pages.

Let’s recap. University career services: 24 minutes and 8 pages. Craigslist: 3 minutes and 4 pages.

Rest assured, I have no problem spending the extra 21 minutes (with the university career service software) if it helps me secure a better job or increases my chances at landing a worthwhile job. But nowhere, on any of the career services websites, did I receive any type of value proposition! And to be honest, the jobs on craigslist seemed just as good. My point – If you want me to spend 24 minutes, tell me how this increases my chances of getting a cool job!

It’s no wonder that students continue to question the value of their university career service office thus resulting in capable students never even entering the doors of those offices. If I ran a career service center I would immediately do two things: (1) Create a position title “User Experience Manager.” This position would track student’s experiences with every career center touch point, create an open dialogue with students, and develop software with students in mind. (2) Implement Google Analytics on my university career service website. This is free! I would use this to track where students exit the site and how they interact with the processes. Measure everything.

24 minutes vs. 3 minutes. What would you choose?

For a couple of minutes, let’s forget about the physical and financial limitations of face to face recruiting. Let’s take a step back and focus a specific piece of feedback that my team has received from perspective clients. The feedback: “I like your product, it makes sense, but I believe you have to be face to face for effective college recruiting.” So the question I want to address is – Do you have to be face to face to recruit the most innovative college students?

No.

Absolutely not. The working world is rapidly changing and those that don’t change with it will soon become obsolete. Technology has changed things forever. There is no going back. Teams are already starting to work virtually. I understand that recruiting is about relationships. Sure, one of the best ways to build a relationship is face to face, but it’s simply not necessary. Relationships can successfully develop by doing stuff together.

Quit judging a candidate by the strength of his/her handshake and start evaluating them by the quality of their work. It is not easy sometimes, but it’s the future and it is here to stay.