017 Stephen Balzac: Getting the Job – Key Interviewing Skills

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Short of getting a job offer, there is nothing more exciting for a job candidate than being invited to interview. Though there are many things outside a candidate’s control as to how the hiring decisions are made, there are skills that can improve our ability to get the job.

Our guest today, Steve Balzac, works with organizations to help get the right people in the right jobs. Steve holds degrees in computer science and engineering and a masters in industrial and organizational psychology focusing on motivation and performance.

He is widely published and just signed an agreement with Springer publisher for his next book on organizational psychology for managers.

In addition he holds a 5th degree black belt and is a formerly nationally ranked competitive epee fencer, claimed to be the fastest sport, that depends on preconscious anticipation 40 milliseconds before an opponent hits you.

The French microbiologist, Louis Pasteur said, “In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.”

Steve Balzac, aka the business sensei, joins us today to share his observations from coaching individuals and organizations for high performance to talk about key interviewing skills.

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

The biggest issue for organizations is they don’t take interviews seriously enough. A lot of people view it as a drag on their time; something to get done as quickly as possible. In part, because most of the people who will interview a candidate have never had any real training in how to interview well so they don’t trust the results. They don’t trust their process. As a result, they frequently get results they don’t like or they’re afraid to hire highly qualified people because they never take the time to really dig out the process they’re using.

I was a hiring manager many years working at a bio informatics company in Silicon Valley. The truth was, I could tell people that we have a candidate coming in and I want you to review this resume and be ready to speak to them. If the interviewers, the other members of the team, looked at that resume longer than five minutes ahead of the interview it was a miracle.

Here’s what’s really happening. People are looking for a candidate that they think they will like to work with and they believe they can figure this out in an hours’ interview. It’s sort of like marrying someone after the first date. It may work occasionally but most people don’t like to do that. One of the key things, on both sides, you have to assume that the organization has not thought this out as well as it should. The key thing for the candidate is to understand where the employees in the company are coming from and address those issues to allay their fears and seem like a good person to work with. That’s really a lot of what I work with people on and a lot of what I speak on about interviewing; how to basically connect with people so they feel like you’re going to be the right person to work with.

…you’re not getting hired by a business; you’re getting hired by a person. That person cares about what’s in it for them. The key thing is to learn how to connect with the person across the table from you so that you can show that person why you are capable of enabling him and his department to accomplish their goals.

The first thing; before you even go in to the job interview; you have to really look at yourself and understand what you really want to do. What is the job that gets you excited? What is the job that, when you wake up in the morning, you’re going yeah I can’t wait? Because if you’re not doing that job, you’re not going to be enthusiastic. But if you are doing that job, you’re going to come in with a level of genuine enthusiasm that really can’t be faked.

…don’t get caught up in the black hole of HR. I have a lot of respect for HR people. They are in a thankless job. But unfortunately, they really only get to say one thing. They have one super power. That power is the ability to say no.

We approach the interview as if the interviewer is our opponent who has to beaten down by logic. They should be overwhelmed with our brilliance. No. It’s like the Japanese baseball player who pointed to the pitcher on the other team and said that man is not my opponent. That man is the person who enables me to hit a home run. The interviewer is the person who enables you to demonstrate to the company your value to them. You have to go in with that mindset.

Confidence is ultimately how prepared we are going in to something. We gain confidence by practice and preparation and study and learning what to do and then practicing it so we can do it. It’s just like going in for a black belt exam. The reason you can do it is because you’ve practiced so much that it feels natural.

It helps to go back over your career and identify a few key accomplishments and then really flush out those stories so you can talk about them.

Keep your focus on success. Focus on your successes in your career because that always sounds good. People like success.

I find it’s always a good idea at the end to ask the interviewer if they have any concerns about your ability to do the job because if they have a concern, you want to get it out now while you can address it rather than walk out the door and have them say you know, good candidate but I’m still not convinced they can handle coming in early or they will be willing to work late or weekends; whatever it might be. Get the concerns out right away because you can address them.

Mostly what I’m seeing is a lot of very nervous people; a lot of people who are worried about their jobs; worried about what will happen if they make a mistake and everything else is just a tool to try to make them feel good. If you recognize that’s what you’re dealing with, it becomes a lot easier to enable them to feel good.

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 Stephen Balzac

Website: 7stepsahead.com

Twitter: @BusinessSensei

Steve’s about page

RESOURCES

Steve’s blog

Steve’s articles

Steve’s DVD: Full interviewing talk, as presented by Steve at Harvard Business School a couple years ago. Email Steve Directly.

Steve’s Book:

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Listen to the full interview by clicking player above.