Handling Strange Interview QuestionsWritten by Scott Brown
In this week's job searching tip, we address an inquiry from a subscriber about an interviewer asking strange questions. As we discuss in this tip, persuading an interviewer to hire you often requires taking initiative to find out what their root concerns really are, even if their questions seem strange or even illegal on surface.QUESTION FROM A SUBSCRIBER: In an interview I was asked about what year I graduated. Is this considered illegal since it probes someone's age indirectly? Also, this may not specifically be a legal/illegal question: I was asked what my GPA was in school, which was 17 years ago. I asked why it would be important to position, but then answered it. The interviewer may or may have not been interested in determining my age, but question seemed pretty uesless. Recommendations on how to handle obtuse questions like this one? - J.O. Dear J.O., Yes I agree question is unusual and quite possibly illegal. Of course reporting illegal questions to government authorities or threatening to sue potential employers probably isn't best job searching strategy. But I'm not a lawyer so you shouldn't use what I have to say as a substitute for legal advice. You can also review EEOC's guidelines regarding discriminatory practices on their web site at this address: http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeo/overview_practices.html Some recruiters are unaware of employment laws and may not know that it is illegal to discriminate against older candidates. Did you get feeling your age would be a benefit or a liability in terms of persuading person to hire you? I guess ideal strategy for dealing with a situation like that would be to try to do what salespeople would call "value elicitation" to determine what interviewer wants. You could say something like "I did really well in school. In addition to having a solid GPA, I was involved in several extracurricular activities. My college experience has been very helpful in shaping my philosophies about work. It's interesting to contrast my experience in real world with how I thought it would be before I graduated college. How do you feel about experience in relation to this position - are you looking for someone who has been out in workforce and has gained perspective, or is position more suited to a recent graduate?" What I did with that response was I addressed interviewer's purported concern about grades, and then went further to ask him if he's looking for someone right out of school or if he values experience. If interviewer said they were looking for a recent graduate, reason is probably that they want someone they can train and/or someone who doesn't want a lot of money. Of course you can ask more value elicitation questions to try to determine why person is looking for type of person they're looking for. The key here is to make sure your attitude is one of curiosity, not one of accusation or distrust. If you ask question with a tone indicating you think person's being unfair, you'll put them on defensive and they'll be less likely to cooperate. Your tone should be similar to how a waiter would ask "Would you like fries or a baked potato?"
| | Optimizing your Resume PresentationWritten by Scott Brown
One of unfortunate realities of job search process is often, people who are a good fit for a job get passed over because of an inadequate resume. In this age of online recruitment, hiring managers and recruiters may review a hundred or more resumes before deciding on who they want to interview. Given this high volume, they are only able to spend 30 seconds (or sometimes less) scanning a resume to determine whether candidate could be a good fit for position. When a recruiter sees your resume, they want to quickly determine which of following four categories resume belongs in: 1. Resume is not appropriate for job at all - for example, a bookkeeper applying for an accounting job. Recruiters hate it when job seekers send in resumes for positions they're completely unqualified for. Some job seekers think it doesn't hurt to send a resume even if position isn't a match. They think maybe they will be considered for other positions they're qualified for. A recruiter's attitude is often that if job seeker can't read directions and applies for wrong position, person can't be a great candidate anyway and will throw resume in garbage. 2. The person is not experienced or skilled enough to do job. For example, if job calls for someone who can work independently and resume only shows experience working as part of a team. 3. The person is too senior or too expensive. This is kind of "overqualified" scenario. If you apply for a job that pays $50,000, but recruiter thinks from looking at your resume that you could make $60,000 -- or thinks from looking at your previous positions that you had been earning $60,000 in past, they will shy away from selecting you. Recruiters don't want to place someone who will end up leaving for a better paying position after just a couple of months on job. With third party recruiters, they don't get paid their placement fee if this happens, plus it may ruin their relationship with client company. With direct employers, they will incur opportunity cost of having to get another person up to speed if you quit prematurely. 4. The person's background matches position and they would be happy to take salary being offered. This is category you want to fall in. HOW TO MAKE YOUR RESUME FIT THE POSITIONS YOU'RE APPLYING FOR Your most recent job title should be about same as position you're applying for. If you're applying for a position as a Senior Accountant, your last position should ideally have been a senior accountant. Or if your last position was slightly junior to position you're applying for, recruiter will be looking to see that you spent enough time in that position to learn skills and gain experience someone with more senior title would be expected to have. Your most recent job title should *not* be more senior than position you're applying for. If it is, you may want to consider "downgrading" it. While lying on your resume is generally a bad idea, this kind of presentation change, which does not promise that you're qualified for something you're not, may be necessary to overcome "overqualified" reaction.
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