It's About Them, Not You

I recently met a young man who had gone to the same school as my children. I learned he has been interviewing for a new job. He has gone to interviews with three companies but nothing seems to be happening. I asked about his approach. He said everything has been great in getting the interviews. They seem to go well, but then he gets the "We're just not sure there is a match reply.

I asked about what the interview discussions covered and a pattern immediately surfaced. When each interviewer asked him if he had any questions about the position he was applying for, this young man asked about benefits, vacation, profit sharing, 401k, and so forth. His fatal mistake was asking what the company can do to meet his self-interest.

But the company wants to know what HE can do for THEIR bottom line. Period.

Make yourself stand out in an interview by asking your interviewer questions like these: ask informed questions about the company, ask about what they value in their employees, and ask what you can do to help the company become more profitable.

Ask About the Company

Learn everything you can about the company: their services, their products, their market visibility, and their clients. Visit their website and read the pages other than the "Careers" page. Learn who runs the company, the company officers if they are a large corporation, and their company locations. Understand exactly what products and services are provided by the location where you are interviewing. When you show you are willing to do preparation like this, they will see you are willing to be thorough and informed, and that you are actually interested in them.

Ask About What They Value in Employees
You will always get some boilerplate answers: honesty, integrity, creativity and so forth. But you might get some other useful information as well: willingness to work long hours and weekends, willingness to travel 50% of the time, and so forth. This will tell you a lot about the management and company culture. When they state an attribute that aligns with your personality or skills, you can reply with a statement such as "I am glad to hear that. One of the areas I have focused on in all of my work is being sure I am always working on what will give the company the highest value." Reinforce what you can do to meet THEIR values.

Ask What You Can Do to Make Them More Profitable

You might have specific, valuable skills such as project management. But don't start by telling them what a good project manager you are. Ask them where the company needs additional or improved capabilities beyond what they have now. What are the company's plans to improve their bottom line over the next year? When you hear what THEIR plans are, you can then describe what you can to do help them achieve THEIR goals.

It's really simple, but too many job seekers fail to look at the job process from the company's perspective. And this is the only perspective that matters if a job offer is desired. The young man above fell into the trap of thinking his job search was first about him and his goals. These are important, of course, but getting to the offer requires convincing the company that you are the one who will help them meet THEIR goals. After we talked a bit he started to realize that his next task was to see job search from the other side.