Sometimes you as a job candidate are faced with questions around sensitive issues that are in reality, potential objections to hiring you. Use this approach to handle the situation.
Stay afloat
When dealing with touchy matters, think iceberg. You want to stand on top of the iceberg. You want to escape any risk of going under! If challenged, you want to surrender as little information as possible—just little slices off the top! The recipe to making the iceberg method work is an upbeat, non-defensive and non-evasive pitch.
Garrett’s case:
My client Garret found himself in just such a circumstance. As he shared with me, here’s how it went:
Interviewer: Garret, are you unemployed now? (First slice)
Garrett: Yes, I am. I left Martin & Sands in August.
Interviewer: Why were you terminated? (Second slice)
Garrett: My position as Director of Marketing was eliminated in a post-acquisition corporate reorganization.
Interviewer: Why were you let go? (Third slice)
Garrett: In today’s economy, good jobs in cutback situations are hard to find. I actually was offered a position with Martin & Sands, but since I want to move forward, rather than laterally, I chose to seek a new challenge outside the company.
All Garrett’s answers were concise and positive, with no recriminations. No drifting!
You want to know what???
Sometimes the questions to tread lightly around are those that really make no sense. A recruiter friend of mine had a client (employer) that would ask every interviewee, “How many gas stations are in [name of town]?” It bugged my recruiter friend so much that she started giving the candidates a heads up on this question. The next interviewee told my recruiter friend that when she was asked the question, she replied, “336”. When asked by the hiring manager how she knew, she said she was given the answer by my recruiter friend. So, what do you think happened next? The next candidate, one hour later, was asked “How many McDonalds are there in [name of town]?
The point: the interviewer was trying to find out—quite coarsely, how the person’s thought process works. Is he / she able to logically work through an unexpected problem? The hiring manager had no interest whatsoever in the actual answer—just the process.
Practice to stay buoyant
Just about every applicant gets a difficult, hard to read question. Or one that’s easy to read and just plain uncomfortable. Anticipating and practicing your responses to the tough stuff could mean you get the job over someone with a comparable background. I challenge you to go a step further. Embrace this territory of questioning. It could be the tip of the iceberg to landing your next great gig!
Photo: NatalieLucier
