Most companies will expect you to meet with their Human Resources department very early in the interview process. As a former HR professional, here are some tips that may help you make it to the next round of interviews.
- Never badmouth anything or anyone. This applies to your former employer, coworkers, or Osama bin Laden. We’re trying to screen out whiners and troublemakers. I don’t care if your last supervisor was a tyrant. Be kind and magnanimous about everything and everyone.
- Make sure your appearance is in order. We’ve covered this. Fair or not, you are judged based you based on how you look. Check your fly and make sure your eyebrows are smooth.
- Don’t smoke on the day of the interview. We can smell it. We don’t like it. There is an unconscious bias against smokers, and let’s face it, you have a reputation for being lazy. Smokers are more expensive to insure, too. Why would we want you on the payroll? Help me help you. Don’t smoke.
- Don’t be too aggressive and tell us how awesome you are. You’re here, aren’t you? A little humility, and some self-deprecating comments, will go along way with Human Resources professionals. Trust me.
- Don’t tell us your life story. We hate it when you confuse Human Resources with your mother, your therapist, or your best friend.
- Don’t expect us to have a timeline for the interview process. We have no idea how long it will take to fill the position. Ideally, we want to fill the opening tomorrow so we can get back to online shopping. Realistically, it will probably take a few months. Blame George Bush.
- Be prepared to talk about your strengths and weaknesses. Don’t ever tell us that you struggle to delegate. You care too much. You take on too much responsibility. An interview is a conversation, not a bad eHarmony profile. Show some self-awareness.
- When you take us through your resume, don’t gloss over the mistakes. We like it when you stop and tell us about an experience that taught you something. It shows character. Address your flaws outright and tell us how you learned something.
- Compliment us. Seriously. We are human beings, too. Scan our offices and look for awards, photos, or something noteworthy. Make a connection. This is what salespeople do, and it works. We will remember your praise.
- Make it easy for us to hire you. When you give us examples during the interview process, frame those examples in a way that relates to the job description, the issues in the industry, or the company’s mission. Be relevant and you will be remembered.
It doesn’t take a box of donuts or a pick-up line from a movie to charm the pants off your local HR professional. Be honest, tell a story, and try to relax. There’s no magic formula to acing your interview, but there are plenty of ways to put your foot in your mouth and sabotage your chances for success.
No pressure, but don’t blow it.
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Love #6! I’m currently conducting phone interviews for 10 entry level engineering positions. Every candidate has asked me when I anticipate on filling the positions. I would love to have people interview ASAP, but I know that it will probably take 2-3 weeks to start getting things scheduled. Meanwhile, my Amazon Wishlist is being neglected and my cat could really use one of those 5′ tall cat condo things!
@Angela Of course I wish there was another answer for #6.
Personally I prefer to have phone interviews with the HR weedout interviews. They usually seem to go quicker which can cut down on the number of chances the HR person can find a fault with you. Also they can help avoid getting eliminated on l superficial items like appearance.
@Sales I love sticking HR with the phone interviews but I would always, always, always end up meeting candidates IRL (as a generalist, especially) because I’m part of the team and my talent management insight is invaluable, duh.
Is there an HR professional out there that still asks the questions, “What are your strenghts and weaknesses? I thought we were finished with that one!
@Cathy You’d be surprised. I hear that this is STILL asked all of the time, so I dropped my elitist advice (“forget about this question — it’s so 1997″) and tell people to be prepared to answer it.
I agree that #6 is a great one, but as HR pros, we also have the responsibility to keep people informed on the progress of the job selection. Just a quick e-mail every week to 10 days would be plenty and not to big a hassle. Might keep the interviewee phone calls to a minimum.
@John Do we have the responsibility or does the hiring manager? Hm. I am torn on this one.
Re: #9 – I agree but I wouldn’t even wait until I got into the office to make that connection.
Most HR folks will (like hiring managers) show up in a Google search – I’d be checking LinkedIn or Google before a meeting to see if I can find out some basics.
Easy enough to find out if someone went to the same college – or (ahem) donates time and money to the same animal welfare organizations!
@Patrick Word. That is such a good idea on charity.
I’ve been saying “The manager wants to hire you, so she can get on to real work” for a while, but I’m going to steal “Make it easy for us to hire you” as an addendum to that.
@andy Someone just told me, “Greatness borrows and Genius steals.” Awesome.
Great list! I am so surprised at the number of people who still badmouth their former employer in an interview. Lately I have noticed a lot of interviewees coming in with wrinkled clothing – like appearance does not matter. I also am amazed at candidates that do not have any questions for us. Even if they asked all their questions – “everyone has answered all my questions”. Ask the question again – or ask about our experience at the company. Our likes/dislikes, something.
Thanks again for the list, love it!
@Chris thank you and i’m with you on wrinkled clothing!
Quick – respond to this: Tell me about your worst day at work.
If you launch into a story about crashing 3 cars on the same day when you were a valet, or cussing out your boss because you were in a bad mood, you’re not prepared. This is the modern version of tell me about your weaknesses.
Conversely, tell me about your biggest accomplishment at your last job. If you don’t have at least 3 great stories – beginning,middle, end – in which you *succinctly* describe a problem, the solution you implemented and the outcome, you’re not prepared.
Your answers shouldn’t be canned, but they should be thoughtful. Don’t get caught like a dear in the proverbial headlights.
Awesome series of posts Laurie!
I attend a couple of career networking meetings and it is suggested that we ask that question of #6 so that we as candidates have a timeline. Since we are all aware of the economic struggles of the unemployed, we the potential candidate, would like to stay abreast of an opportunity that we are really interested in without being a pest to the hiring personnel. So the question to HR: Should we as candidates not ask this question of an expected timeline for the interview process?
@Pat You can ask the question — but be prepared for a non-answer. That’s all.
Great advice! Thank You!
@marissa Thanks!
Mastery is great but let me help you get past HR to the hiring manager.
Numbers like 20%, 25%, 33%, 50%, 100% etc. are not real – admit it, you made them up. They are WAGs – wild ass guesses; if you have a bit more information about what you did, perhaps you can come up with SWAGs – sophisticated wild ass guesses. Most of you simply make Rectal Linear Assumptions – you pull these numbers out of your ass. Like I wrote – just admit it, okay?
But if you want to get past HR with numbers that will make them go WOW, here’s how to do it…
1. Don’t Valley Girl you’re career – “Like, oh my God, I didn’t know you could measure these thingies, like what do you call them, accomplish-thingies?” Think about measuring your successes the moment you dive into the problem. Have a general idea of what the baseline metrics are – the current state – as well as the desired outcome (perhaps asking your boss what desired outcome would make them happy).
2. Track these results in a “book” – use the same schedule as you use when weighing yourself (hourly, daily, weekly)
3. At the end of the project or when the problem is solved, write down the resulting metrics and calculate the “improvement.”
4. If the numbers are still hard to come by, use this tool (it’s called backcasting): When thinking about how you improved “something”, pick a number that is so low that a lower number will only occur 1 out of 10 times (as in “I improved ABC but the lowest possible improvement would have to be X”); then think of a number that is so high that a higher number will only occur 1 out of 10 times (as in “I improved ABC but the highest possible improvement would have to be Y”). Then use the average: (X+Y)/2.
5. If the number comes out to one of the numbers I mentioned earlier – or if the best you can do is make a Rectal Linear Assumption, make up a number that includes one decimal place. So if your numbers is 25%, use 24.7% or 25.3% – they simply appear “more real” than 25%.
Heh-heh…
Heh-heh…
So when you discuss these with HR, you have to sound confident – which you will because if you follow Levy’s Laws, you will have thought about measurement from the start. It simply sounds so much more – truthful – when you say, “I improved client retention by 24.7% over the previous 12 month period” than it does to say, “Well, like, I kinda think we kept about, oh, 25% of our clients.”
Sound confident, use decimals, get to speak with the hiring manager.
@Levy It’s almost like you should be blogging this awesome advice, yo.
Oh SH*T!!! The dreaded HR interview!!!!! Instead of Six Sigma practices employed, each HR Professional must pass rigorious Gestapo interrogation courses in “Breaking of the Candidates Will and Reason’s for Living.” LOL
11. Nothing personal, but be prepared to feel like a tool after the interview, without even scratching the surface as to what skills you have that are really needed for the position. You must be able to survive corporate scrutiny and constant judgement of others LONG before your actual experience in the position is questioned. #fact.
@MattyMat Six Sigma? Is that math?
Great article! Thank you for writing it.
About #1 though…I don’t like to badmouth ANYONE. But I had one job where it was a notably and unbearably unprofessional environment. When directly asked why I only worked there a year, I feel that I must be succinct yet honest and usually say, “it was an extremely unprofessional environment that I could no longer stay in if I wanted to advance my career.” or something to that extent. My grandfather always said, “never breathe in an immoral atmosphere without intent to change it.” Along those lines, what would that say about my character if I’d stayed in a job like that. I can’t just not say anything about it. I have to be brief yet honest.
What’s the protocol for situations like that?
@Charissa No, you shouldn’t say that. You can be honest without being too revealing. You can talk about all the really great things you accomplished in that year and how it helped to slingshot you into a new role with bigger responsibilities that challenged you in a new way. Or whatever. Positivity. Be brief and change the focus.
I don’t do a whole lot of HR-only screening interviews since I’m at a smaller firm. Usually, the screening is with me and one other person from the discipline for which we’re hiring. And what really drives me crazy is when candidates mostly ignore me. Don’t assume that HR doesn’t understand your technical speak or experience, especially at a small company. Sometimes even when I ask the question, the candidates will answer to the other “expert” person in the room. Remember that the expert is also my co-worker, and they also notice when you dodge me and try to sit in their lap instead.
@H Aria I hated doing interviews with “experts” and “professionals” for that very reason. It’s like when my gramma goes to the doctor but the doctor talks to my mom. My gramma is the patient. Talk to her.
Let’s challenge the precepts here…
1. Never badmouth anything or anyone. Why not? It’s the real world and since we don’t have statutes that outlaw stupidity (I mean, look at our past few presidents – blow jobs, nu-queue-ler, no we can’t)
2. Make sure your appearance is in order. So what if the garage door is open? The tractor ain’t making its way to plow the field, if you know what I mean.
3. Don’t smoke on the day of the interview. Can’t argue here – and to be honest, the only bias I have is against smokers. I’ve seen what its done to my Mom – too bad for you.
4. Don’t be too aggressive and tell us how awesome you are. Humility may be great for HR folks but there’s a reason HR people are in HR and
not in sales or on the trading floor.
5. Don’t tell us your life story. Yet when HR turns on their employee relations hats they want this stuff. Frickin’ schizos…
6. Don’t expect us to have a timeline for the interview process. HR hates recruiting which is why they (a) don’t know recruiting and (b) don’t have the cojones to push back on lazy hiring managers.
7. Be prepared to talk about your strengths and weaknesses. All those touchy feely things are things HR people like to talk about; they feel threatened when others have the same strengths and weaknesses because, like, you’re competition.
8. When you take us through your resume, don’t gloss over the mistakes. Speaking of flaws, ask the HR people how many times it took them to pass their PHR or SPHR certification exam. lol
9. Compliment us. Fine… “You’re the best HR person I ever met; I’ll bet you really love people cuz it shows.”
10. Make it easy for us to hire you. To make it really easy, forget about the stupid job description – it has nothing to do with the job. Instead, ask the bright HR person about the specific problems you’ll be facing. Watch them hem and haw and say something like, “Those are things that the hiring manager will discuss if I believe you’re the right person for the job.” In other words, they don’t know. So if they don’t know, how can you make it easier for them to hire you?
Beats me…
Great tips. I especially loved the line “An interview is a conversation, not a bad eHarmony profile.” I enjoy how you tell the truth but keep it real rather than sugar coating things. I enjoyed the section about explaining your mistakes. I know that it is hard to admit a flaw but rather than state it flat out turn it into a learning experience. Great way to show your knowledge and keep your cool. I know I get nervous when going into an interview but thinking about strengths and weakness does help a lot. However, don’t over think it or else you’ll sound rehearsed. Thanks for the article.
-CKR Interactive Intern
http://www.ckrinteractive.com
@Laurie: Talent insights like
HR: You have 4 years in sales, 5+ years in sales compensation management, a MBA & a PHR. Do you have any classes in sales compensation?
Me: No classes. I belong to the following professional groups…. I have read books from the following thought leaders in sales compensation…. I belong to online discussion groups but no formal classes.
HR (very sad sounding): Ohhhhhh, no college classes or certification courses…
or
HR call: I wanted to let you know that one of references for Applicant X was not the most positive.
Me: Was the issue involving something illegal, highly unethical or did it pose a safety risk ?
Hr: No. Just not the most positive of references.
Me: Remember, Applicant X started nearly 2 weeks ago. I do not know what you expect me to do with this information.
Hr: I just wanted to let you just in case you wanted to take action.
Me: I am not firing anyone over a very late so-so reference.
or
I was applying for an internal opening. In the past year, the HR interviewer & I had worked on cross functional team with the person who previously had held the now open position. For the last 1/3 of the project; the person in this position was on LOA. In addition to my regular work load, I covered this person’s duties during the LOA. Additional tidbit: The 3 of us had worked on similar projects every year for the last few years
HR Interviewer (opening the interview): I never knew you had any interest in this type of work.
@sales Okay, fine, we still hate HR. That’s why I bought http://ihateHR.com — it’s a perfect domain.
Steve you better be aware of Benford’s Law when you start spouting numbers !
Laurie the gap with most text-based rules of charm is that they are written by smart, witty, socially aware persons such as yourself and not deviated dweebs such as me and Steve.
What we need is a disarming way to anounce heavy dweeb content so the rules relax a little right off the bat !
@Martin Charm and flattery will get you nowhere. Except on my good side.
The toughest part of the HR interview for me is trying to communicate what my skills and job duties were. There’s a simplistic idea of what a writer is and what that person does; same goes for editors. In addition, those of us who create content—writers, editors, copy editors, photographers and graphic artists—often work on assigned pieces of a project but it isn’t like the typical 90-day to six-month corporate project. Assignments often carry deadlines of that day or the next. There aren’t weekly meetings, reports that take longer than actual work does or emergency meetings with all members of the team when something is failing. So those PARS questions become very hard to answer because when there’s an issue it’s dealt with quickly so that deadlines can be met—not by postponing everything until everyone’s schedule lines up for another meeting full of “I wish” statements and re-drafting of the entire process.
@Bob I think that many HR professionals in the creative space understand the industry and the parameters, so it’s not like you’re dealing with a Luddite. Or are you? My HR colleagues in the entertainment and publishing industry are often creative-types-gone-corporate. It’s easier to make money in HR than as a freelance writer. Talk to them like peers.
Thought you’d like this one:
Marquis de Kitty
http://webcomicoverlook.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/ichc1.jpg
@Laurie – I don’t know what it says that Marty and I are now fully involved in thus post but I’m scared. Incidentally, Benford’s Law predicts that the first digits, from 1 through 9, of any number of any length, will occur in decreasing frequency with numbers beginning with a 1 occuring 30.1% of the time.
What this means to HR doesn’t really matter because they’re into people not numbers…
@Steve What have I told you about math? It’s not allowed around here.
I left a job after 7 years because of the unbearable environment complete with a nightmare supervisor. The only thing that kept me there for so long was the great pay and benefits. It’s a high-profile company in our area that, on the outside, probably seemed like a great place to work. I interviewed for several jobs but I would have had to take a huge pay cut if I accepted any of the position.
At the interview for my current job, my supervisor says, “so, you have everything we’re looking for but the big question is, why do you want to leave ABC company?” I paused and said “well, it’s just time for a change.” which was the truth in a nutshell. I could have said “well, there’s no room for advancement…” blah blah blah, which was also true, but that’s not why I wanted to leave. I didn’t care about that. I just wanted to wake up every morning and not feel like I was driving into the pits of hell.
And my new job is awesome, btw.
I am a new hire, probably thanks to this great blog,
. I made the error in judgement asking when a decision would be made after waiting two hours for my “appointment” with HR. She told me they had a lot of interviewing left to do including two more people. 36 hours later I got an offer…sometimes it really is up to the manager and future coworkers and not HR to make the last call. (or she had no clue?)
Thank God, cause sitting and waiting hours for an appointment with someone who had my itinerary really sucked! I was not amused with her, but I guess not mentioning it to her paid off.
Laurie you are very right, this morning i had an interview with the biggest bank in the world, position of Talent Development Manager it was a challenging one comparing i never had a training role before but am putting my hopes high since i mastered all the ten tips and am sure they will remember me enough to call me for a second interview hopefully getting the position.
thanks
On #6 Everyone asks that question and I always reply with a canned BS answer. Now I have the perfect response because, really, all I want to do is get back to ShopBop!
@Diane I must examine shopbop.
@Laurie, I do not hate HR – - I just hate how some of the people run it. I also gripes about other areas. e.g. IT, finance/accounting (especially the trolls in accounts payable). It just isn’t HR.
@Laurie Nope– not math. If you want to fix HR, this is the definition of Six Sigma:
“Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors).”
But, unfortunately, to err is human, which is HR’s dilemma.
#7 What’s your greatest weakness? What a fair question. A stranger ask you your greatest weakness boldly expecting an answer. I thought the point of a job interview was to sell yourself not “tell on” yourself. As a human being you have the right not to incriminate yourself in an effort to maintain a certain level of dignity and self-preservation. Let’s turn the tables, Mr/Ms Human Resources what’s the greatest weakness of the company you represent or maybe your greatest weakness? How eager are you to answer the question? The whole process: “applicant/potential employer “dance is one big imbalanced abuse of power.
@the real I’m with you. Imbalance of power is part of working, though. You can f–k the system and opt out, but you better be entrepreneurial and have great ideas.
I’d have two questions…Is it a good question to ask about payroll? Or is it better to wait tot the company to tell you about it?
And the second one… It helps if a candidate that has got an interview sends you a thank you email for the interview??
Thanks and thanks for this useful tips!!
As much as I hate wrinkled clothes, I’ll take them any day over underwear! The other day as I wrapped up an interview, the candidate stood up, bent over with her back toward me to pick up her things from the floor. The barely-there thong she was wearing did nothing to hide her overly exposed a**. Needless to say, she never made it to the hiring manager! Candidates – I don’t ever want to see your underwear or the body parts they are supposed to be covering!