You’ve made it through the application process, and you’ve been offered an interview! Congratulations on making it this far! It’s normal to be nervous, and that’s why Brandon, Jerry, Mackenzie, and McKinley are here to discuss all things interviews—etiquette, preparation, and even the dreaded “About Me” question. Sip on some warm tea to calm your nerves, and tune in until the end for a Career Center dad joke!
00;00;09;12 - 00;00;34;28
McKinley Hatch
Welcome to the Career Cafe, a podcast to help you thrive in the professional world. Today's episode is on Navigating the Interview arena. Do's and Don'ts Online Etiquette and Mastering the About Me Question. So joining us today, we have Brandon Street, Jerry Ross, Mackenzie Jenkins and myself, the moderator, McKinley Hatch. And we're going to just jump right in about preparing or talking about preparing for an interview.
00;00;35;01 - 00;00;51;19
McKinley Hatch
So this is really important and this can make or break the interview process, preparing for and preparing for an interview. Obviously, I did not prepare for this episode. Oh my goodness. Apparently I did not. So let's talk about the importance of preparation and how you can go about that for an interview.
00;00;51;21 - 00;01;15;07
Brandon Street
I think this is the the single most important part of an interview right here. I think where most people miss the mark is preparing for the interview. And that means more than just getting my clothes out the night before. Right. Or looking in the mirror and practicing a few interview questions. What it means is, is that I have thoroughly looked through that job and to understand again, how am I a good match for this?
00;01;15;07 - 00;01;40;05
Brandon Street
I've researched that company. I understand who potentially I'm working with, how I will fit the culture, what my role will be in that company. All those are so important when when the employer's interviewing you to really answer questions effectively to help them understand how I match them. But but this piece right here is where I think most people missed the mark on interview is is before the interview and doing the research.
00;01;40;07 - 00;02;05;12
Mackenzie Jenkins
Yeah, I think you could spend a whole other podcast on this alone. I remember when I was preparing for this job, I had interviewed for a job before and I didn't really prepare as much and I just remember coming home and I was like, oh my gosh, that was terrible. But then when I was going into this one, I was like, I am going to spend hours researching the company, researching the people who work there, what their mission is.
00;02;05;14 - 00;02;22;04
Mackenzie Jenkins
I mean, all of these different things preparing what I would say to certain specific questions. And I remember after that interview, I went home and was like, I know that I did my best and whatever happens happens. But I definitely think that this is the most important part of an interview, for sure.
00;02;22;05 - 00;02;23;16
Brandon Street
By the way, she got the job.
00;02;23;18 - 00;02;28;12
Mackenzie Jenkins
Well, yes I did
00;02;28;14 - 00;02;44;19
Jerry Ross
Yeah. And I think, too, like, you know, we're going to talk about questions that you can ask, you know, at the end of the interview and other things a little bit later. But I think there's a way for you to research a company to make yourself sound more educated during the questions that you ask. You know, like one of those who are your competitors.
00;02;44;19 - 00;02;56;05
Jerry Ross
Why don't you walk in knowing who their competitors are? There's things that you can do that just by the way that you talk during the interview. The interviewee knows whether you've prepared for this or not.
00;02;56;08 - 00;03;16;11
Brandon Street
And they do. They absolutely know. You know, I when I actually interviewed for this job ten years ago, I walked into the interview and when I shook the gentleman's hand, that was that was meeting me. I already knew who he was. And I introduced my I said, Brant, it's nice to meet you. That was the first interaction we had as me shaking his hand and saying, Brant, it's nice to meet you.
00;03;16;11 - 00;03;33;01
Brandon Street
And and that seems to him, it seems very personable that I had done my research and things on that. And as I met the other teammates, I, you know, I knew who they all were. And again, what the role would be on my team. And I think it created more of a comfortable atmosphere in them knowing I was serious about this job right.
00;03;33;01 - 00;03;53;28
Jerry Ross
Interview preparation is one of my favorite appointment types with people because I've done so many years of interviewing prior to this position. It's brutally painful when you have an interviewee that's struggling to just communicate back with you. So I think the preparation stage there needs to be some portion of it spent on physically getting the words out of your mouth.
00;03;53;29 - 00;04;06;13
Jerry Ross
Find a partner, find someone you trust, find an educated industry professional, and really rehearse, rehearse and practice the questions to where you're not having to put these things together on the spot. You get the words to come out before you need them.
00;04;06;15 - 00;04;27;22
McKinley Hatch
100% agree. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you, guys. Practice wherever, right? Like this. Practice, practice, practice. I remember I was on a for this job. I mean, my husband were on a hike and I was like, in the middle of a hike, like I had practiced so much. But he could tell I was just so nervous, you know, like you, you are sometimes.
00;04;27;22 - 00;04;37;10
McKinley Hatch
But preparation can help that. And I was like, okay, we're sitting on this rock in the middle of this hike and I'm going to do an interview with you. And it was just it was so funny. And look, I guess it worked out too.
00;04;37;10 - 00;04;40;28
Brandon Street
But yeah, she was hired as well, so we're glad to have her.
00;04;41;00 - 00;05;03;26
McKinley Hatch
I am here. Thank you. Now let's like, transition into online interview etiquette. We've talked about preparing for an interview right now in the world. We live in a lot of first round interviews are held remote, you know, online, discuss, you know, proper etiquette for that.
00;05;03;28 - 00;05;33;04
Jerry Ross
Distractions. So if I had one thing to say, it's distractions. I've done a couple of these, too, where the person's giving across great information and I'm looking into the closet or bathroom that's open behind them. The clutter. The dog. The cat does something. If I gave one piece of advice in this online thing, it would be really managed being those distractions that could be and, you know, some people will really set up time putting well-placed books behind them are other things I really work on.
00;05;33;04 - 00;05;53;04
Jerry Ross
I want I want the interview process, whether it's online or in-person, to be eliminated from distractions that can happen and make sure that they're setting themselves up in a professional spot where if a lawnmower manages to be happening outside, where can you shift to what are things that you can do to make sure you have a plan, You have a backup plan in case your Internet's down.
00;05;53;04 - 00;06;06;15
Jerry Ross
Can you hot spot it to your phone? Have you walked through a stage of progression to eliminate all of those distractions and make sure your online interview is just about your ability to solve the problem that they have?
00;06;06;18 - 00;06;22;19
Brandon Street
Yeah, I think I think it's a really good point. But the principle stands for both an in-person and online interview, and that is, like you said, it's is to make sure they're focused on us and not what's going on around us. Right. And so with that said, there's some other things I'd recommend. You know, I recommend usually the camera's about eye level, right?
00;06;22;19 - 00;06;27;09
Brandon Street
So your eyes are at the top third of the camera there and they're not looking up at you or down at you.
00;06;27;09 - 00;06;29;15
Jerry Ross
And nothing worse than that up the nose shot.
00;06;29;17 - 00;06;56;01
Brandon Street
Yeah, I don't like that. And then ensuring proper light that if you have a window behind you and light coming through that it's going to cause you to shadow. Right. And to make sure you're clear and, and that the equipment is, is working well that you practice. We're using that the day before or the morning before. But again it's all about what we're talking about here is creating an atmosphere where they're listening to you and they're not distracted by anything else going on.
00;06;56;01 - 00;06;58;23
Brandon Street
Right. They can just focus on what you have to say.
00;06;58;28 - 00;07;23;11
Mackenzie Jenkins
Yeah. And I also mentioned to an online interview is still an interview. So make sure that you're dressed for an interview. I don't know if it's just the interviews I've done lately, but I've had a lot of student interviews where they're just dressed in their normal school clothes. And it definitely goes a long way when you're prepared in your profession and ready for an interview.
00;07;23;11 - 00;07;49;24
McKinley Hatch
So or something else. Or or or worse or worse I've had worse so. Well, it's avoid worst you know. Lets not go there. Yeah I have a question like genuine question about online interviews. Okay. I'm on a hiring committee right now. Right. First round we just completed last week. It drives me crazy. And maybe I'm not okay to say this.
00;07;49;25 - 00;08;00;27
McKinley Hatch
I'm curious when they use their phone on Zoom, you can tell because it's up and down. Yeah, it's the landscape or vertical instead of landscape, Right? What is our stance on that I am genuinely curious?
00;08;00;27 - 00;08;21;01
Brandon Street
That's a good question. And so there are a few things unique with phones. It's not just the fact that you should have it and what we probably want to view it in, right. And that's that landscape you're talking about. Right? But also the fact that if you're holding it, I've had people sit there, I've had I've interviewed someone for a professional job sitting in their car, and they were holding that phone.
00;08;21;02 - 00;08;34;28
Brandon Street
And, you know what happens? It bounces up and down. They're trying to set it on the the dash. It falls over and you're like, wow, this is not going great. You know what I mean? I had someone standing outside a grocery store where they're on a vacation, you know, on the phone and things it just again.
00;08;35;00 - 00;08;36;09
Mackenzie Jenkins
Had one in a restaurant.
00;08;36;09 - 00;08;52;29
Brandon Street
Really? wow. Okay. You're like, That looks really good. But but the point is, again, it comes back to again, creating an atmosphere where they can focus on you. Right. And I think, you know, I if were personally me, I wouldn't use a phone to do this. I think I'd use some, you know, equipment that I'm confident with.
00;08;52;29 - 00;08;56;03
Brandon Street
And it's not going to be moving around or falling over or anything like that.
00;08;56;05 - 00;09;14;11
Jerry Ross
My thoughts are if a phone is the only thing you have, do it. But if you have a better option, I really think there's things that we could do to prepare. If you had a computer or something that put you in a better position for that. I think the phone should be a last resort. But if that's all you have and online interviews are where they are, that's what we got.
00;09;14;14 - 00;09;20;09
Jerry Ross
If you're a local to Cedar City, reach out and we'll put you into a successful position with that online interview.
00;09;20;12 - 00;09;41;26
McKinley Hatch
Yeah, we got some awesome rooms. You can come interview in. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I was genuinely curious and because it just drives me crazy sometimes because they're little faces tiny and I can't see them and I want to see them anyway. Thank you. Something else I want to know on this was checking your sound and video beforehand, right?
00;09;41;26 - 00;10;00;23
McKinley Hatch
With a friend and everything, but making sure you're checking that I I've had this happen. When you're interviewing someone takes them like you know, the first 10 minutes trying to adjust their sound. it's coming out of this soundbar bar this. And I'm like, this is embarrassing for them. I can feel how embarrassed they are right now, like just fix it ahead of time.
00;10;00;23 - 00;10;15;28
McKinley Hatch
Make sure it's working, you know? Awesome. Let's talk about do's and don'ts during an interview, a general interview we've talked about online already. So let's talk about kind of an in-person interview, what the do's and don'ts are for those.
00;10;16;01 - 00;10;35;25
Brandon Street
So everybody talks about the the posture and those types of things that are important. They are, you know, don't get me wrong, I mean, good posture and being confident, having eye contact, using your hands, all those are important parts of body language. But I think, you know, a key thing I talk to people about, again, is the paradigm of interviewing.
00;10;35;25 - 00;10;54;00
Brandon Street
And I feel like at times people go into an interview thinking, I need to answer all of these questions exactly perfect the way they want it. But the hardship of this is we don't know what that is or they may not even have a perfect answer or, you know, answer to that question. They just want to hear what you have to say.
00;10;54;02 - 00;11;12;01
Brandon Street
And so to me, you know, I talk to people about the importance of going in and doing your homework before, like we talked about and then learning how to be conversational. The more that I feel like I'm having a back and forth conversation with you about what I'm asking the more likely am to feel comfortable with you. If I feel comfortable with you, I trust you.
00;11;12;01 - 00;11;28;18
Brandon Street
If I trust you, I'm probably going to hire you. And that's the point, is we want to make sure that we go and we don't just sometimes I feel like that thirty second. Right. I got it. I got that, got it answered. But to have that conversation and maybe even ask a back question there, if you feel that that's appropriate at the time right.
00;11;28;20 - 00;11;49;03
Jerry Ross
Yeah. And you said trust and, and I really love the interviews where you can just have a conversation and when someone has a position open, they have a problem they need solved. How can you walk into that interview under the context of I can solve your problem, and if I can't solve your problem, I'm going to educate myself to be able to better solve your problem than where you currently are.
00;11;49;05 - 00;12;08;29
Jerry Ross
And sometimes I feel like when people get frustrated or they're not sure how to answer, they start making up things. And as an interviewer, I could see it from a mile away. The eyes change, the posture changes. Things just go different when you start creating versus when you start recalling or contributing to what you can do. And it's easy to see from the other side of the table.
00;12;08;29 - 00;12;37;11
Jerry Ross
People just want honest people that can help them solve their problems. And the quicker you can just get down to a basic conversation about that, I think the better your interview is going to go. I also want to talk a little bit about energy, right. And kind of your enthusiasm for topics and your different things and making sure that when you're coming through with your thoughtful questions and talking about your interests with the company, that you've got some passion behind those statements and making sure that you're coming across at an energy level that reflects where this position should be.
00;12;37;14 - 00;12;52;11
Mackenzie Jenkins
Yeah, and I think that's like as I'm listening to you guys, that is where the preparation is so important because that's how you can have meaningful conversations and and have that energy because you know what you're talking about. So yeah,
00;12;52;13 - 00;13;01;08
McKinley Hatch
I love it. A lot of what I have seen in interviews is we ask them the question and they just ramble on.
00;13;01;11 - 00;13;23;19
McKinley Hatch
Yes, right. And we're like, okay, that kind of beat around the bush. Like, did they even answer the question? Like, they didn't know what to say and they're trying to make up something. So preparation going back to that is really huge in this case. But also knowing like, you know, just don't like it. It's just that we're like today, even like we ask them again, like we want an answer.
00;13;23;23 - 00;13;38;05
Jerry Ross
We've had one where I had 12 questions. We asked an interviewee and they actually answered three of them. A lot of words came out, a lot of conversation. But when it came down to actually answering the question, they only answered three out of 12.
00;13;38;06 - 00;13;56;03
Brandon Street
Well, and you were looking for again, you weren't looking for a perfect answer, but you were you're looking the reason you ask. So there's a reason you wanted to get certain things from them, right? And so you're wanting them to answer this. And when they don't, it can become frustrating too, right? So those listening skills preparation all come into play there where we can just, you know, answer the question that.
00;13;56;05 - 00;14;07;26
Jerry Ross
They just continued to shift to where they were comfortable, Right? Yeah. You know, they always went back to, I feel good about this. I'm going to keep talking about this when they weren't answering the questions directly that we were asking. Yeah, that's.
00;14;07;26 - 00;14;08;12
Brandon Street
A good point.
00;14;08;18 - 00;14;30;24
McKinley Hatch
This ties us right into the next section. How to go about answering the about me question. Right. Like, tell us a little bit about yourself. That is an intimidating question for a lot of people. And I don't know about you guys, but in interviews that I've been in, people will say, you know, these are my hobbies and these are the things I have this many kids and this and this.
00;14;30;24 - 00;14;33;15
McKinley Hatch
And we don't want to know that, do we?
00;14;33;17 - 00;14;52;09
Brandon Street
We don't not I mean, most of the time we told there may be occasions, you know, again, of certain things we'll talk about hobbies and that if it's an outdoors job, we love the outdoors maybe, but the point is, again, this is to me a to me a great resume has a good summary that helps them understand. This is this is already a good candidate.
00;14;52;10 - 00;15;14;25
Brandon Street
I’m gonna more about them below and the tell me about yourself question allows me to summarize who I am and why I'm a great candidate right up front to set the tone for this right to tell them the experiences that I've had, the education I have, and why that will help them. Again, some research I've done on them and who they're looking for and why I meet those those qualifications.
00;15;14;25 - 00;15;22;00
Brandon Street
And so there's an opportunity for me to tie myself to the job very closely and talk about the pertinent things that they want to know in a candidate.
00;15;22;02 - 00;15;40;02
Mackenzie Jenkins
And I think you can answer this question because I think my fear with this question is they're not going to get to know me for who I am if I'm just like, this is my this is what I do, this is what I've learned. And like, you know, the boring answers, I guess instead of saying, I have a dog and she's so cute, you know what I mean?
00;15;40;04 - 00;15;51;02
Mackenzie Jenkins
But I think that you can still have energy and be fun with this question and make it more of a conversation piece than just like listing off all of your accomplishments and stuff like that.
00;15;51;04 - 00;15;59;12
Brandon Street
I think you bring up a good point because I think you really can have that. You can still be yourself and answer the questions that they want you to answer, right?
00;15;59;14 - 00;16;22;23
Jerry Ross
I had a conversation where I was talking with someone about this speech, and my personal phrase is try to exclude mom, dad, brother, sister, dog, cat. Right? Yeah. Stick to the job classification and how you can help them solve their problem. And the response was, well, I've been a stay at home dad for six years. Well, okay, that helps them using that statement helps them understand what you've been doing for the last six years.
00;16;22;23 - 00;16;46;05
Jerry Ross
So we don't want to focus there because when you've been being that stay at home dad, you've been developing skills you can now bring into the workforce, that's reasonable because it helps them answer that question. But we don't want it to be a focus of your 90 seconds about you, you know, statement. We can be in there, but we want to make sure that you're really focusing on skills, education, experiences, achievements, things you can do to bring into the workplace to help them solve their problem.
00;16;46;12 - 00;17;05;25
Brandon Street
Not ten years ago, I was interviewing a lady and I said, Tell me about yourself. And the first things she went through was, well, I, I recently went through a divorce. And, you know, that's been very hard on me. And I have three cats. I love my cats. And and she went down this road of things that had nothing to do with a job.
00;17;05;27 - 00;17;22;08
Brandon Street
And quite frankly, everybody talked about being a little uncomfortable. You felt for her. But at the same time, you were a little uncomfortable because of the conversation that was taking place. That boy, the first thing I know about you, right, is is the personal hardships going on in your life. And that was that was a little difficult for us.
00;17;22;11 - 00;17;32;10
Brandon Street
Unfortunately, she didn't move on in the process because I think that set a tone. Right. It set a tone for how it went for her and how it went for us the rest of the interview, Right. Yeah.
00;17;32;13 - 00;17;55;14
McKinley Hatch
I think something else I want to bring up is going back to telling them about your accomplished in a fun and engaging way. That's still your personality in you know the hiring committee is looking over hundreds and hundreds of applications. By the time they get to the interviews, they don't remember what you've done. They don't remember where you've worked.
00;17;55;14 - 00;18;14;02
McKinley Hatch
They don't remember that unless they have the resume right there, which a lot of times they do. Right. But sometimes they don't. And it's a good reminder. yeah, that was okay. They did that. Or you have a stack of resumes right here and you're going back to back interviews. You know, they're not, you know, remembering exactly what you did and all of the you know.
00;18;14;05 - 00;18;24;19
Brandon Street
Well, they may not have been even the one that reviewed it, to be honest with you. If you had an applicant tracking system or another person who screens those for you might be the first first time you're seeing that and then.
00;18;24;25 - 00;18;44;14
Jerry Ross
Especially when you've got back to back. So I think we've all had back to back to back and maybe the first one runs late and all of the rest of them are just scrambled. So that about you question really helps you, you know, click through the eight resumes you got in your head. this person okay. It kind of helps you associate them to what thing that you've reviewed previously.
00;18;44;16 - 00;19;19;04
McKinley Hatch
Yeah, no, thank you guys. I want to talk about similar to the about me question, right. How you can share your accomplishments, but also tie it back to that place, right. That you want to work. Let's talk about the importance of telling or not telling, even showing employers how you can help them. Right. We see this a lot in those answers that are just, you know, going on and on and not really answering the question, tying it back to how you can help them and something you accomplished and how that you could bring it to the table here.
00;19;19;05 - 00;19;19;09
McKinley Hatch
Right.
00;19;19;11 - 00;19;43;29
Brandon Street
I think that's you know, that comes to results driven answers. I mean, tell them you show them by telling them what you've done in the past. Right? Like, if you have something relatable to what you would do there, you need to show them how you've accomplished that and been effective in doing that in a past job. I mean, that showcasing what you've done by showing what you've done before will help them understand these probably to step in and be a great asset to us here as well.
00;19;44;01 - 00;20;12;25
Mackenzie Jenkins
One thing, as I've done a lot of interviews through the professional internship program, one thing that I've noticed is a lot of people will tend to focus on the situation and spend most of the time talking about what it was and why. And so but they're never they hardly ever get to the results. And like the why this situation or why this answer actually means something to the interviewer.
00;20;12;27 - 00;20;23;12
Mackenzie Jenkins
And I would say that's the biggest thing that I see in most of the interviews, is people don't actually talk about the results and showing why, why that situation means something to me.
00;20;23;17 - 00;20;43;13
Jerry Ross
I agree with that a lot, and I love it when people get to the results and I also think sometimes, granted, your interview should be mostly upbeat, but I feel like sometimes people always want to pull out my best, something that they don't talk about. I grew from something. Yeah, and as an employer, we want people that succeed and do well and thrive in the business place.
00;20;43;13 - 00;20;54;20
Jerry Ross
But we also want people that may have messed up once or twice that have learned from that mistake and can take that decision making into the next thing learning and evolving and pushing business forward.
00;20;54;22 - 00;21;05;25
McKinley Hatch
Yeah. Thank you. Speaking of messing up, how do we tell our listeners how to handle difficult interview questions to avoid messing up? Right? How do we go about that?
00;21;05;28 - 00;21;10;20
Brandon Street
So a question like tell me what somebody who didn't like you would say about you Jerry.
00;21;11;10 - 00;21;15;24
Jerry Ross
Everyone likes me. good.
00;21;15;27 - 00;21;17;22
McKinley Hatch
That's a good answer. Maybe not the right answer.
00;21;17;22 - 00;21;37;07
Jerry Ross
Yeah, yeah. You know, this is hard. And I feel like sometimes, especially when they get stumped, they're challenging for something. Tell me about a time when you've epically failed. Right? And, you know, do you go personal? Do you go business? Do you go into one of these things? And the intention for those questions is to see how you perform under pressure, I believe.
00;21;37;07 - 00;21;45;10
Jerry Ross
And, you know, to kind of see how does this person adjust when they get a little bit nervous? What do they have? Do they get emotional? Are they going to get that emotional here in the workforce.
00;21;45;10 - 00;21;50;02
Brandon Street
Or are there any red flags? Right. That's where some red flags may come out to of an individual, right?
00;21;50;02 - 00;22;13;02
Jerry Ross
Absolutely. And, you know, all of us have done something in our life that we don't want highlighted on our interview day. Right. So what can we do to answer those questions in an educated manner that's calm, you know, some tactics that I've seen used before. When we ask a question, that stump someone is I've heard a response of would you mind repeating the question just to make sure that I'm clear on my answer.
00;22;13;02 - 00;22;24;19
Jerry Ross
And that's giving them a few seconds to put it together in their head. They heard you clearly. They're just stalling for a second to put their answer together, to repeat it back, or to say, Hey, can I just have a couple of seconds to put my response together.
00;22;24;20 - 00;22;25;20
Brandon Street
Which there's nothing wrong with that.
00;22;25;20 - 00;22;33;15
Jerry Ross
Absolutely. We would much rather have people that are going to put things together and make an educated decision rather than just who's the quickest to fly.
00;22;33;17 - 00;22;49;29
Brandon Street
Now, I would just say really quickly, I think it's important to make sure you have the growth mindset as you talk about this, be positive in this, and then we always talk about polishing at the end, right? So making sure that when you end the question, you leave it on a positive note. So you might say, yeah, I've this is a time that I, I fail, I learn to grow from this.
00;22;49;29 - 00;22;53;03
Brandon Street
But, but here's what I've learned since then, right? And how I'm going to use this in the future.
00;22;53;03 - 00;23;00;15
Mackenzie Jenkins
And make sure you actually answer those questions. And don't just say what Jerry said, because I've had that. What's your biggest weakness? I don't have any weaknesses.
00;23;00;15 - 00;23;04;26
Brandon Street
I had someone say, Chocolate wants chocolate. Yeah, I was like, Wow, okay, that is my.
00;23;04;26 - 00;23;05;19
McKinley Hatch
Biggest weakness.
00;23;05;19 - 00;23;06;20
Brandon Street
Right? Well, it's a lot of ours.
00;23;06;21 - 00;23;23;28
Mackenzie Jenkins
Bring it up. I don't want them to make that judgment. Right, Right. But yeah, just make sure that you're actually answering it because they want they want to know, right? Not just, I'm perfect cause you're not. Yeah. Awesome. Sorry. You're not perfect. You're. Did you hear? No.
00;23;23;28 - 00;23;24;09
Jerry Ross
Moment of.
00;23;24;09 - 00;23;26;25
Brandon Street
Silence.
00;23;26;28 - 00;23;42;05
McKinley Hatch
Awesome. Last thing I just wanted to mention is the importance of follow up after an interview. Right. Making sure you're either sending them a thank you email, a thank you card, whatever that is, but make sure to do that. And the time frame. What would you say, Brandon?
00;23;42;05 - 00;24;00;04
Brandon Street
Well, you know, I think it's important to ask them that as you're leaving. First of all, I will say this. I read a statistic want that said that most people never say they actually want the job in the interview, but those who say that they do are more likely to get that job. So at some point, I tried to summarize my interview by saying, you know, thank you so much for having me today.
00;24;00;04 - 00;24;17;17
Brandon Street
It's been a joy to talk with all of you. I just want you to know something about this interview today. I would really love to have this job. I'd love to work with you. All right. But then say, when can I expect to hear back from you? Right. And and then when they tell you it's okay to say if I don't hear back from you by that time, is it okay if I follow up with you?
00;24;17;18 - 00;24;25;06
Brandon Street
You know, I mean, just to kind of see what's going on, that sets a precedent. And you also know then what's appropriate for you to do right.
00;24;25;08 - 00;24;50;22
Jerry Ross
I've interacted with sales managers, too, where they've said if I'm interviewing someone for a sales position and they don't ask me for the job, they're not a sales professional, Meaning if you're a salesperson and you get people to say yes all day, I need you to get me to say yes today. So what can you do? What can you do to turn up the heat a little bit in the interview process and get them to say, If it's not me, what would keep you from saying yes to hiring me today?
00;24;50;22 - 00;24;51;11
Brandon Street
That's a sales job.
00;24;51;12 - 00;25;00;14
Jerry Ross
It's not for everyone. It's not every interview. But in sales type interviews, there are things that you can do during your research process. If it's a sales job, you need to make sure you get them to say yes.
00;25;00;17 - 00;25;23;25
McKinley Hatch
Yeah, I love it. Definitely research, you know, and make sure you're doing that follow up because it's very important and it'll make you stand out. So thanks for tuning in today to Career Cafe. I wanted to make sure to invite you all to connect with us on social media at SUU career center. That's our Instagram handles. Make sure to give us a follow and then tune in next week for our episode on The Art of follow up.
00;25;23;25 - 00;25;40;09
McKinley Hatch
We're going to dive into this further and talk about following up after interviews, but I got to end on an awesome dad joke, you guys. I got fired as a yoga instructor. and I bent over backwards for those people.
00;25;40;12 - 00;25;45;03
Jerry Ross
I can't even pull weeds without my back getting sore.
00;25;45;05 - 00;25;47;12
McKinley Hatch
Thanks for tuning in and listeners, see you next week.