Mark James: Preparing for Your Interview is the Key to Winning a Great Hire!

Today’s show is all about Preparation! Preparation is the first step in conducting an effective Interview. Both interviewer and interviewee parties need to be prepared. Just showing up without an idea of where you are going is the quickest way to lose an opportunity. An Interview without Preparation is really just PreparationH! In this episode we stressed the importance of preparation and how it needs to happen.

Show Guest:

Mark James is the Founder and President of Hire Consulting Services and the author of his new book, “Keys to the C Suite”. (Amazon.com) Mark is a Certified Personnel Consultant and has been providing executive career transition coaching and executive search consulting services for over 20 years. He is also a Certified Partner with the Predictive Index suite of behavior assessments. Mark coaches executives in career transition on a daily basis which makes him an expert in today's topic.

Episode highlights:

• Interviewee/candidate preparation
• Hiring manager preparation
• Provide a process for how each party needs to prepare

 Why is it important to prepare for an interview?

• Preparation puts you in the right MINDSET … sets the tone, eliminates surprises
• Set proper objective - get the offer/make the hire
• Being prepared = being impressive- demonstrates success

 Interviewee:

• Research the company to determine something that the company may not know themselves
• Not prepared to tell their story
• Ask for the interview schedule & format

 Hiring Manager (company):

• Research the person
• Knowing what needs to be accomplished
• Prepare your interview team

 The dangers of not preparing for the interview:

• Wasted time, frustration
• Inaccurate picture of who you really are
• Lose the person
• Increase the likelihood of making a bad decision

 How to best prepare to get hired:

• Self-assessment, presenting yourself, researching the company
• Research company
• Ask targeted questions
• Know how to showcase your accomplishments to make them relevant to the company mission
• Proactive

 Best preparation practices to attract the right talent:

• Schedule time to prepare - assuming all else has been covered
• Review assessment notes, LinkedIn profile, social channels, resume- look for commonalities, interests &  data points to cover
• Prepare interview team- provide targeted behavioral questions

Look for cultural fit, evidence of success & transferable skills:

• Performance Metrics- what needs to be accomplished
• Have a plan: Connect the dots- competitive advantage
• Give & receive feedback -in real time