The Working World

Gigonomics: Screen Gems

This was a big hectic week with a full slate of interviews. After weeks of resume launching, the tide turned and I was on the hot seat for hours of questions by company executives who seemed more intent on finding ways to disqualify me than reasons to bring me on board. I chalk that up to the fact that the job market is thick with fish, and any cast of the net is going to bring in some big ones, so hiring managers are especially choosy these days. Perhaps even a bit smug.

I don’t blame them in the least. When I was a corporate gatekeeper, I knew as a hiring manager that I must take advantage of the present available talent glut and work hard to winnow the field to the precious few who 1) exceeded the job requirements and 2) were grateful enough so that they would work beyond all human capacity, gain measurable efficiencies for the company, and justify the hiring manager’s decision. This makes the interview game precarious and nerve-wracking, as hiring managers now have a plethora of candidates and one wrong move, one fumbled name pronunciation or ill-timed attempt at humor on the part of the interviewee (now me) may be grounds for swift disqualification.

Hiring managers have a plethora of candidates and one wrong move, one fumbled name pronunciation or ill-timed attempt at humor on the part of the interviewee may be grounds for swift disqualification.

Fortunately, the recession does seem to offer a slight advantage for interviewees. That’s because the nature of interviewing itself is affected. With limited HR budgets, hiring firms may be reluctant to fly in candidates for face-to-face interviews, opting instead for a series of intensive phone conversations. The same is likely true for local candidates when HR offices, overwhelmed by well-qualified applicants, use initial phone screenings to narrow the prospects.

But phone screenings can actually work to your benefit. It allows you to prepare answers well in advance and have them available on your computer screen during the interview. You can anticipate the standard questions—tell me about yourself, why do you want this job, why were you let go—and have your cogent, thoughtful answers all typed up and ready. With a little study of your targeted company, you can pick out some key corporate branding phrases and work them into your responses so that you sound like a natural company wonk. Add a nice list of back-at-you questions, and you won’t be caught thumbing through your memory banks for the right thing to say.

The preparation isn’t too different from how you’d gather yourself for a face-to-face, but there’s no doubt that having scrollable responses can take the heat off an initial encounter and give you the confidence to make it to the next round, as long as you don’t sound like you’re reading off a computer screen. This method also permits nuanced customization for each company that you interview and allows you to have live practice for a possible future face-to-face.

While this little trick is helpful, especially if you happen to encounter a spate of interviews in a short amount of time (like I did this past week), it does bring up a bit of a moral dilemma. No, not that it’s some form of “cheating.” Good grief, all power to the interviewee! And yes, I have a sort of Bergmann-esque way of finding moral dilemmas in innocuous events. But I had to ask myself, If I’m customizing my responses, doesn’t that imply that I don’t know what I’m looking for?

Or to put it another way, what if I did no preparation whatsoever? What if I went into an interview simply raw and natural, and let the chips fall? Perhaps my chances narrow, but if someone were to hire me because of my unvarnished professional persona, my spontaneous answers, my extemporaneous honesty, wouldn’t that be the company I’d love to work for?

I’m sure many of us wrestle with some form of that question, as we look to re-imagine ourselves in the face of seismic shifts to our economy. If you do, I don’t have an answer, or even a suggestion. But you have my full and honest support, no matter what you decide.

–

John Riha spent more than 20 years in magazine publishing including stints as managing editor of Traditional Home and executive editor of Better Homes and Gardens before being laid off in January. He now produces multi-media content, video, and, yup, is thinking about cranking out that novel. You know the one.

Tags: employers, Gigonomics, interviewing, job-hunting