By Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to answer this question. I explained the wrong way and gave you a good way to answer it.
Job hunting and the 10,000 rule.
Now, the wrong answer is to start talking about some of the frustrations you’ve had at work. The wrong answer is to complain or criticize. Why? Because it gives the other company or recruiter a lever, a lever to leverage against you at eight points when negotiating. You’re going to find your words being repeated back to you, because one thing I know about corporate recruiters, third-party recruiters, and hiring managers is that they are all great note-takers. Correct? You’re a great note-taker, or you have a really good memory and you remember these things. When they make an offer, they give it back to you for some reason, to see if they can get you for a lower price. Whether they can get your help at a slightly different price than when they first talked to you.
So, again, no criticism. I know you won’t go out of your way to criticize your current boss or your current organization. You know this is bad for you. But the instinct is to suddenly admit something that is completely unnecessary to talk about.
I hope you can find the answer in the following way. It doesn’t matter if you’re at a very senior level; it doesn’t matter if you’re at junior or staff level. Here’s how you respond: “You know, it didn’t take me long to notice that the people who are successful are not always the smartest or the hardest working…despite these great qualities. People succeed by being alert to opportunities. Sometimes those opportunities are internal to their organization. Often, they’re external. So, I got on the call to learn more about the opportunity because what you offered me was interesting, but I didn’t know if I was ready to give it my all so, I wanted to learn more.”
What superpower would you like to have?
All you do is put it back on them and. . . I don’t want to say you’re coming off as ambivalent, but you’re presenting yourself in a neutral way rather than being an active job seeker. Companies consider active job seekers, people who are actively looking for work, to be worse potential employees than those who are “recruited.” Therefore, you always want to present yourself in as neutral a way as possible so that they see you as “hard to get.” You don’t want to present yourself as an active job seeker during the process of being “hard to get” (I’m not talking about the final action. We can talk about that another time) as well as the initial presentation, the initial conversation.
At some point, you can transition more into someone who is very interested in the job. But, for now, you’re investigating the facts, and that’s how you want to present it, which is you’re going to learn more about their opportunity, your potential there, how it’s going to benefit you, potential compensation, because they’re always going to ask you questions about your money, unless you’re in a state or jurisdiction where it’s no longer a legal issue, but you’re always presenting yourself at a place and level, getting information from them about what they’re prepared to pay to see if it meets your expectations. yes.
So, again, the way to answer is this: “When I started my career, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the people who achieve success are not always the smartest, they are not always the hardest working…although those are good qualities. People succeed by being alert to opportunities. Sometimes inside the organization, but often outside.” That’s the smoothest way to approach the problem.
An important key to success
