stop messing up interviews

full transcript

auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.

Thank you for tuning into Guy's Councilor 2.0, Amanda, what's going on. I like this new set up. I dig it. I dig it. I dig it. I got the light, got the Instagram, got everybody else. So again, thank you for tuning to Guy's Councilor 2.0 on this Monday morning. I'm going to talk about interview. How does messed up interview? And so many people bought interviews. I'm sick and tired of it. I kind of want to go to my new thing. I'm sick and tired of it. I think that should be a new live show title. Sick and tired of it. So I'm sick and tired of canned bombing interviews.

So we're going to talk about that today. Before we dive in, if you're a hiring manager or a lead and you hire in some capacity, I would love to work with you in 2021. A goal I set on this live show every morning is to meet new people, to develop community, to create community and also to work with new people. So if you're a hiring manager, it doesn't even have to be in tech. If you are looking for 10 admin assistants or 10 accounting people or whatever, us and make go can staff for you, we can do it. So again, if you want to work with me, shoot me a DM and I love the partner with you.

Even if you want your recruiting process, audited. So that's one thing I'm going to start giving out is free auditing advice. If you need your entire recruiting process, audited, please DM me. I'd love to help with you with that. Few shout outs from my incredible marketing team, Alex Pooler. Alex Pooler, design at gmail.com who does all of my graphics. We got Summer Ledington. I had a call with Summer Ledington in Seattle. She's actually going to move back next in a little bit to Seattle and our from Seattle to Nashville. And she is redoingtailourdeson.com. It is going to be awesome. I'm so, so excited. It's really going to be a one.

It is going to be the encyclopedia when it comes to job search. So we are going to get that up very, very soon. Again, thank you for tuning in for those on Instagram. It's good to see y'all. I'm going to start doing this more. Also, again, Drew Skeleton for video work. Brandon, my buddy, Brandon Arvey, Brandon, 78. We're going to do a pretty cool Brandon is coming down this weekend. Brandon Arvey is coming down this weekend. And we are recording some straight fire content. I'm very excited to bring that to you over the next few months. But again, thank you for all that he does.

So let's go and dive into why you're actually viewing of our last few years. Because people are sick and tired of hearing me just ramble. So the interview process. So there's some key things and I'm going to go over some quick tips and some key things that I see people messed up against you or thanks for tuning in, buddy. So my thing is with interviews is first off, if you're going to interview for a company, please note the company does. Right. Like that's so common. I get it. It's so common, but people box it time and time again where they just get on the call and the client goes, hey, hey, tell me about the company.

And you're like, I don't know. I don't know. You guys just, you know, are in the finance space. It's like, good Lord, that makes you look terrible. So please, please interview. Please make sure you're doing the research on the interviewing company because that will go a long way. That's the first thing. Let's talk about the actual phone interview. First off, first off being a quiet place. That'd be great. Don't be doing the Dagon phone interview in a car. Right. You pick a time for the phone interviews. So when you pick a time and then you don't jump and you're in a car or you're around people during the phone call phone interview, how do you think that's going to look?

So being a quiet place where obviously you can speak very clearly, they can hear you clearly. I think another thing too, there's three tips when you do a phone call that I would do. One, have you resume out in front of you? Right. So many people like, I don't need to resume out in front of me. I know, I know what to do. Like, I have, I know my career off the top of my head. No, you don't. No one does. So please have you resume in front of you for talking points and also those things too. Have a pen and paper or something that Jot notes down with.

So many times during a phone interview, and I do it too, I interrupt people. Right. I'm trying to get better at it. I mean, counseling for it to try to not interrupt people as much. And I think a lot of times when you interview, you have all these great ideas like, oh, I got to talk about this. Or I got to talk about that. And then you don't write it down. And then the interview or then the company goes, hey, do y'all have any questions? And then literally you're like, oh crap, I forgot what I was going to ask. Right. Sure, you write, you write down questions, you write down specific things that pop into your head as you interview.

I think another thing that you need to do as well is, so you have the interview, you have notes, you have a place where you can Jot down notes. I think the final thing is to is I would make sure, and this kind of goes with the resume as well, like Jot down some key accomplishments that you want to get across. Right. So let's say you're interviewing for, and again, I'm in the software space, right. So let's say you're interviewing for, let's say you're interviewing for, let's say you're interviewing for a senior software engineer role that they're really wanting lead capacity, right. They're really honing it on the lead part of things.

And you know that going to the interview. So write down maybe some key accomplishments that you have done for the lead within your career. Right. So I've let it seem at nine. I've scaled teams and every stop I've been at, right. Like write that stuff down before the interview because the last thing you want to do is go into the interview. You're like, all right, so tell me about your lead experience. And you're like, I've done it before. It happens all the time. So again, I, so again, I kind of goes in with having your resume in front of you. But make sure that you jot down some key accomplishments specifically that you think you're going to be asked for the job you're interviewing for.

So another thing, so I know there's not a lot of in person interviews, right. Everything's video. Please make sure I also, I love my wife Jackie. I'm not angry. I'm not angry. No one's angry. I'm great. I'm just passionate. I need more coffee. That being said, my wife's haze me on Instagram right now. What, what, what you need to focus on is your video quality, right. If you do not know how to zoom, if you do not know how to Microsoft Teams, if you don't know how to Google meet, am I missing anything? I think that's a lot of them. If you don't know how to do those things, if you don't know how to video call at this point, you really, really need to work on that, right.

Test it with a friend. Make sure your connection's great, right. Make sure that your lighting's good. I think lighting's important, right. I'm married to a commercial photographer. I've learned that lighting's important, right. So make sure you're doing these things and make sure you understand how video calls work. Make sure your mic works. Make sure that, you know, you look decent, right. That your shirt looks good. I mean, simple things that people just watch. I also think too, I want to finish this and talking about just from a personality perspective. I think you need to be yourself more than you think you do in an interview, right.

I see so many people interview, so many people go into an interview and they're like, they get, I was like, how's the interview going? They're like, oh, you know, I clammed up. Why'd you climb up? Right. If you're trying to be somebody you're not for a company that you think you're going to want to work there for for the next three to five years, why in the world are you going to try to act not yourself? It makes zero sense. If you want to be with a company for a very long time, if you want to be with a company for a very long time, you need to be your true authentic self interview.

And by the way, for the few viewers that are still left and the people who aren't trolling me on Instagram at this point, Amanda, don't, don't please don't, you know, egg on my wife. But for those of you who are still watching, let me know if you have any thoughts about the interview process questions. Like I want to hear from you. I want to know maybe some, some, some questions you have, some issues you have in the interview. Like I want to talk about that again. I want this morning session to be a place where people can share their experiences. They can learn from others.

So again, if you have any horror stories, I would love to hear them. But again, you need to be your true authentic self. I think another thing too that I've really gotten past while people asked me all the time about about thank you letters. Hey, do you, should I send a thing? Thank you letter. No, no. I think thank you letters are over romanticized. Right. I think for me, I think what is a more powerful tools you interview, you get off the interview and you message that manager on LinkedIn. You connected that manager on LinkedIn, send them a personalized note. Hey, Mr. Mrs. Sohn. So I really enjoyed interviewing you today.

Like we love to hear, can't wait to hear next steps. Right. I think connecting on LinkedIn is incredibly important, creating a customized note. And I've talked about this before and we can talk about it again. When you don't send a personalized note in LinkedIn, your friend requests like your your follow goes away. Like if you connect with me on LinkedIn and don't send me a message, I you just go away. But if you send me a message, you auto pop it at the top of my inbox. So either have to click off of it or I'm going to respond to get that notification away. And so you know, people ask me, I had something on Twitter this weekend.

I got involved on Twitter conversation about when's the best time to send a message on LinkedIn. I think Monday through Friday and I think either I think at the end of the day, because what you're going to do is you're going to be the first person because most people get on LinkedIn in the mornings. Right. That's why I do my live show in the mornings. Most people are on LinkedIn in the mornings, not in the afternoons. Right. And so what I would do if you message the managers, if you message the managers after the interview at the end of the day, they're going to see I think first thing.

Kathy, I'm naturally enthusiastic. Do you think I should tone that tone that down during the interview? Listen, there's I need, I need to have like a guest on talk about dating, talk about dating and interviewing for companies, the exact same thing. Kathy, if you went on a date with somebody, would you tone it down? Maybe the first day, sure. Right. You can ask my wife, I didn't tone it down. I was very weird. Um, but my thing is, is I think it's incredible important to be yourself. So Kathy, no, do not tone down or do the other. Also, I love how enthusiastic you are. Clients should want to hire enthusiastic people.

That is so important to hire enthusiastic people. Um, so no, do not tone. Do not change who you are for a company that you want to be with, hopefully, for many years. They need to know your true authentic self-threatening of your process. So all that being said, that is it for today. I appreciate it. Also to yes, like a man on Instagram, don't forget to research the people. you're meeting with, your recruit should be able to tell you that. Yes, absolutely. I think that's great. You should be able, um, leverage the recruit. If you are a user recruiter, ask them who your interview went, research.

Maybe y'all have common interests on LinkedIn. I mean, that's a great point. It's also why I'm an incredible on our team. Um, you leverage the recruiter for them to educate you on who you're interviewing with, day in, day out. Um, when you interview because you will be able to learn about the interviewer, maybe find some interest that you guys are having common with and mentioned that during interview. So I think that's great. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. Again, thank you for tuning in this morning. And sorry, I'm an hour and a half way. I wanted to be with you all this morning. Instagram, thank you for those of your tuning to Instagram.

I'm excited to bring this Instagram every single day now. Um, so again, if y'all need me, shoot me an email at TaylorBakeup.com. Um, and I'll see y'all tomorrow morning. Same time. Appreciate y'all.