016 Jayne Mattson on Asking Courageous Interview Questions

Career Tips & Trends with Tom McDonough & Deborah Burkholder

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Organizations have three main objectives when assessing applicants

• do you have skills and abilities to do the work
• your desire or motivation to do the work
• your fit with the culture

This third element, cultural fit, is often hard to define and it’s a two way street. So how do we determine if a role or organizations is a good fit for us.

Today Jayne Mattson joins us to talk about how we can determine fit by asking courageous questions.

Jayne M. Mattson is a Senior Vice President/Certified Master Career Consultant for Keystone Associates, a New England career management firm. Accomplished facilitator, and coach, Jayne inspires individuals to achieve their highest career potential.

A strong believer of giving back, Jayne volunteers her time with youth and non-profit organizations. She is also a motivational speaker within Higher Education and other organizations.

Jayne is a frequent writer/contributor to Monster, Career Builder, Mashable.com and other career sites, as well as print publications including The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.”

Jayne holds a Master’s Degree of Management from Leslie University and a Bachelors Degree in Human Resources from Northeastern University.

We’d love to hear from you in terms of your actionable takeaways from this episode.

Leave a comment or send us an email.

Listen to the full interview by clicking player above.

Here are some exurps from todays interview…

From the show

Today’s job market as we all know is very challenging for many job seekers and at times they may feel that they want to get a job and that can be any job, however, it is so important to remember when they are looking for a job that it is the right job. And what I mean is that it is a job that uses the skills that you excel in the most, that is a company that will give you the satisfaction of doing something that you really enjoy and you love and more importantly that you are working for a company that meets your values.

When you have a company that meets your values and holds your interests you are typically satisfied. But when you are not looking to see if there is a match, you are already going into a job steps behind because it is not going to be a good fit so I am a firm believer in helping the job seeker assess what they got by doing a search and then during the interview process a lot of it is just validating what they are looking for.

… let me share a quick story about when I started here at Keystone 13 years ago. I wanted to work for a company that supported my values and some of my values were and still are working for a company that rewards recognition, a manager that I can work for that will give feedback, and a place where I can be open and honest and perhaps even ask a question that maybe someone else didn’t ask, and lastly working for a company that is fun. Because I really believe you need to have fun in the workplace.

So when I came to interview here for a job I asked a question and the question wasn’t “can you describe your managerial style?” I asked “how open are you to feedback from other people who work for you about something, perhaps, that you did?” I remember asking that question and the person I was asking the question of looked at me like Hmmmmm and what she said was “interesting. No one has ever asked me that question before.”

I am a very open and honest person who needs to be able to go to someone and say “there is something that has really been bothering me.” That was a courageous question for me to ask because years later the person I was working for said “you know Jayne, I can’t believe you asked me that question.” And I said “well, the answer was extremely important to me. Because if the answer was something different then this company may not have been a really good fit for me.” So throughout my whole career I have been known to ask the courageous questions and people have often said “I can’t believe you asked it.” But it is really about having the confidence to ask the questions but more importantly knowing what makes you satisfied before you ask it. So it served me well throughout my career here at my job at Keystone and in my world of work at a former company as well.

What I tell them when we start to work together is to not rush out into the market too soon because you need to do the assessment of what really brings you satisfaction. Think back on some of the positions that you held and I want you to think of a time when you were in your glory and you were doing something that you loved and the money was coming in and think back on the times when you were the happiest and try to emulate that whether it was the culture or the boss you worked for or whether it was the company or whether it was the assignments but you really need to go back and help yourself do that. I work with people and really encourage them to do that.

It’s two way. It is designed to show behaviors and to dig a little deeper and the reason I call them courageous questions is people are they are afraid of asking at this level. They are afraid that people are going to think they are too pushy or they aren’t going to answer the question and companies want to know that you are the right fit for them therefore it is about asking really good though provoking questions and understanding what you want before you go in for the interview. So you are absolutely right, it is a two way street.

It is after you go through all the interview phases. There is the prescreening, there is the second round and in some cases a third or fourth round. These questions are for when you are in the middle of the interview and you are a good qualified candidate so it could be on a first round although probably not on a screening interview because the person who is doing the screening probably wouldn’t know this level of questioning and in reality you want to be questioning your direct boss, your peers and, ideally if you have the chance to, interview with your boss’ boss ask them as well because we know when we go to interview with your boss they may have one opinion but if the people all around them don’t have similar philosophies or strategies then you could be working in an isolated incidence so these questions are intended really as you go along to find the fit, to ask them in the middle of it because you had a lot of information already to draw upon.

As you know the main way to gather information is through informational interviews and if you have a company that you are targeting, and hopefully those who are looking for interviews are targeting companies, the trick is to get in before the interview and ask the questions because you know you get to ask sometimes even braver questions because you are asking in a more relaxed, honest way about what it is like to really work for this organization and you want people to be honest and in a formal interview everyone is on their best behavior and in a more informal way they may be more apt to tell you a lot more about it.

Listen to the full interview by clicking player above.

We’d love to hear from you in terms of your actionable takeaways from this episode. Leave a comment or send us an email.

Contact Jayne Mattson

Email Jayne Mattson at Keystone Associates

RESOURCES

Recent Articles by Jayne on Mashable.com:
13 Questions to Ask During Your Next Interview
How to Structure Your Daily Job Search to Help Land Your Next Job
Inside the Recruiter’s Head: What He’s Really Asking You During the Interview

Books mentioned during the interview:

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Listen to the full interview by clicking player above.