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How to Get a Job By Asking For it!
By JLP | September 5, 2006
There’s a good article over on CareerJournal titled How to Get a Job by Asking for it (free). The author’s nine tips (with my commentary):
1. Prepare for the interview.
This should be a no-brainer. You can’t just waltz in and expect to get the job.
2. Learn about the interviewer.
If you have a connection inside the company who knows the interviewer, give them a call and take them to lunch. Try to find out as much as you can about the interviewer. If you don’t have a connection, you might be able to Google their name. You could find out where they live and go through their trash. I’M JUST JOKING. DON’T REALLY DO THAT ONE!
3. Use “consultative selling.”
Simply ask the right questions. It will show that you actually have the ability to think.
4. Motivate yourself.
You have to want it!
5. Know when to close.
Don’t talk yourself out of a job. When the interviewer asks a question and you give an answer, ask if your response would help the company.
6. Try these closes.
The author suggest these closing techniques:
The choice close. This technique is useful when you are setting up an appointment for an interview. Ask, “Is 9:30 a.m. or 2 p.m. better for you?” This presupposes the interviewer will see you. Just asking, “May I come in to see you?” may result in a “no” answer.
Third-party endorsements. When explaining an accomplishment that will help the prospective employer, mention the employer you did it for. “At XYZ company, I…” This gives you credibility and adds the strength of that employer’s name to the story. Then ask, “Will this help you solve your problem here, too?”
Assumptive close. This is one of the best closes. You simply talk and act as if you’re already working for the interviewer’s organization. Use “we” and “us” in your conversation. Describe the situations in which you can see yourself working and accomplishing goals. Become part of the team even before you’ve been hired. Identify with the interviewer and the organization.
Personally, I would only be comfortable using the third-party endorsement. The other two are just too forward in my book.
7. Overcome objections.
There’s going to be objections like “you’re inexperienced” or “you’re over qualified.” For the last one, I like the author’s suggestion for a response:
“You feel I’m overqualified. That’s possibly true.” Then turn the weakness into a strength: “However, that means I’ll start being productive for you that much faster. As I’ve mentioned, I solved this problem at XYZ company.”
8. Sum up and ask for the job.
It can’t hurt to ask.
9. Confirm the close.
Sum up the meeting and the terms of the job. ALWAYS follow-up the interview with a WRITTEN thank-you note.
Oh, and here’s some advice for AFTER you get the job:
Pretty Good Advice for Those Starting Their Careers
10 Attitudes of Successful Workers
8 Ways to Identify Your Special Talents
A Look at Some of the Highest Paying Jobs for College Graduates
Topics: Personal Growth | 6 Comments »
September 5th, 2006 at 11:36 am
I always ask for the job (if I want it).
No use selling myself if I’m not going to ask for the sale.
I also use us and we during the interview.
Makes me part of the team.
Sales is a required skill everywhere.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:39 am
GREAT article and good points, JLP. I have used the assumptive close and it works very well so long as you build a rapport with the interviewer.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
If you’ve gone through the interview and decide that what the company is a place you want to work you’d be shooting yourself in the foot if you didn’t ask for the job.
I asked for the job I’m in right now.
September 5th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
I am amazed at the number of people who do not take the time to do even the most basic of research on the company that they are applying to. IMHO, the better informed you are, the easier it is to go for that assumptive close.
September 5th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Good stuff here. These techniques mirror the many years of formal sales and negotiation training I have received in my career. My only caution is that some of these techniques can come across as very contrived in the hands of a novice. There’s nothing I hate worst than a phony-sounding textbook salesman or for that matter, an interviewee who sounds like they are giving me a line of BS they picked up in some books. Rookies tend to use this stuff in a heavy-handed way as though it were a script.
To be effective, these techniques have to be practiced and perfected, which is why it helps to first try them out in interviews or situations where you are too worried about the outcome. Even try to get your friends to do mock interviews for you.
When I was in my first training program, we had to pass a test called the “irate customer call”. You never knew which of your mock customer calls was going to be the irate call, so they tried to catch you by surprise. The instructors really enjoyed getting into this role play complete with screaming, yelling, histrionics, insults, threats, etc. This was most instructive because it got the adrenaline going, which had the effect of completely blocking your ability to think about it too much and forced you to rely on whatever training you had managed to absorb into your subconscious.
I guess my long-winded point is that under the stress of an interview, you have to have developed your delivery to the point where it is instinctive and natural. For the best results, think of these techniques as tools in a toolbox – to be used only when warranted, when the timing feels natural, and when you feel comfortable putting it in your own words.
September 11th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
Good post…I like what Miguel stresses…I don’t like when talk comes off like it’s not real…and as good as your advice is, if people don’t answer as themselves, it’s all a waste…I’d say being yourself is more important than having the right answers all the time.