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Written by: Mike O'Neal
Former Vice President, Account Director
Leo Burnett Company
Currently Adjunct Professor of Advertising
Grand Valley State University
When my oldest daughter was a junior in high school, I tackled the college selection process with all the zeal that my left brain could muster. I read books, magazines, and every last pamphlet in the local library. I made lists. Boy, did I make lists—large universities, small colleges, liberal arts schools, in state, out of state—you name it and I had it ranked. I could cross-reference every school in five states by tuition and Monday night’s cafeteria entrée.
When the Blessed Week arrived for campus visits, my bags were packed and the camcorder was loaded. We left Monday morning and visited five schools, a nice cross-section according to my criteria. I led the charge like Braveheart, taping every last vine of ivy and dispensing advice like college hadn’t changed in 30 years.
My wife dropped out on Wednesday and returned home; couldn’t take it anymore. By Friday—school number five—my daughter simply refused to get out of the car. I just figured that she was embarrassed by my inability to change lanes while taping residence halls out the back window.
It wasn’t until much later that I learned she had quietly made her selection along the way, not according to my spreadsheets, but by some personal litmus test that I missed completely. When I pressed, her explanation wasn’t remotely rational: I liked it there. I felt like I fit in. That was it. No more, no less. A life-changing decision made on the basis of what? Tuition? Student/teacher ratios? Choice of degree programs? Where her friends were going? Proximity to the local beer depot? She couldn’t say because it came from her heart. I felt like Spock, perplexed at having wasted untold hours alphabetizing the names of guidance counselors, not to mention a week of vacation.
Now, what does all of this have to do with you? You barely remember the Blessed Week. You’re about to graduate, ready to get the heck out of that school where you fit in, and make your mark on the world. Bring on those campus recruiters!
Well, in many ways, the interviewers that you’ll be meeting are like I was. They’ll be armed with forms to be completed at the conclusion of each interview. You won’t see them, of course, but you and all the other jobseekers will be scored, ranked, and discussed according to a variety of criteria that the interviewers consider crucial to success at their companies.
But think about this for a minute. Where do those criteria come from? Who decides what’s crucial for success at each company? Who draws up the battle plans for the interviewers? Well, certainly not the employees who are struggling along with one foot on a banana peel. It’s the people who are already successful there; they’re looking for people who can perpetuate that success… people just like themselves. There are exceptions, of course. Maybe management has issued a change edict, or is looking for a specialist to tackle an unusual assignment. But as a rule, you’ll find that opposites don’t attract when interviewing.
Let’s say you’re a sharp M.B.A. who’s looking for a career as a financial analyst. You’ve managed to score interviews with tycoon Donald Trump and billionaire investor Warren Buffett. You wow them both with your credentials and knowledgeable discussion of cash flow, but you walk away from each with very different, even conflicting feelings. It’s probably because Donald Trump is a polished, shrewd, savvy New Yorker who puts a premium on a candidate’s ability to maneuver with street-smart confidence in the walnut paneled boardrooms of investment bankers, while Warren Buffett is a self-effacing, awe shucks Mid-Westerner who prefers to share his folksy wisdom over a steak in Omaha.
Both are wildly successful investors who have created and operate in very different corporate cultures. Each of their companies has different values, soul, or “DNA.” Much like my daughter, both you and they would sense whether there was shared chemistry during the interview--whether you’re like them--or would be more comfortable and productive working elsewhere.
Now I don’t mean to imply that forms full of measurable criteria don’t provide a disciplined way to categorize jobseekers. They do, just as my college screening process was a useful exercise to separate the university wheat from the chaff. But values are difficult to articulate and rarely are included in a rational discussion concerning job offers. They are matters of the heart, often felt rather than verbalized. I spent many hours interviewing jobseekers on campus as well as in the office. Over time, I developed a sixth sense for whether a candidate shared our corporate values and generally weighted my hiring recommendation to reflect that common ground. I suspect that most senior managers and interviewers employ the same intuitive approach, wittingly or not.
As you’re researching companies, ask yourself what kind of person would be successful there. Smart? Of course; that’s on every interviewer’s list of criteria. A clear communicator? That goes without saying. But how about caring and compassionate? Aggressive and entrepreneurial? Inquisitive and intellectual? Frugal and parsimonious? You get the point: What you stand for may be more important than your skills, accomplishments, and school credentials when interviewers are assessing your fit with their organizations.
Where can you get the kind of information you need to prepare for your interviews? Read every trade publication that you can, especially those that feature interviews with successful managers of your target companies. Read their mission statements with empathy and understanding. Study the annual reports; not just the numbers, but the challenges and opportunities. Talk to your professors or friends who work there. Visit the store, hospital, or bank that you’re investigating. (I’ve known candidates to sit in malls, lobbies, and parking lots to observe employees just going to work!) And, by all means, absorb every word of the material that companies provide to campus placement centers. The clues are there if you’re sensitive.
Once you’ve made some reasoned judgments as to the corporate culture of your target companies, be sure to have examples that illustrate the values that you bring to the table. Experienced interviewers will be listening closely to how you showed leadership, why you interned at a museum, the attitude you had working late-night retail, and so on. To be convincing, your answers will need to illustrate not only what you accomplished, but the character that guided your decisions. And be prepared to turn on a dime. I once interviewed with a talented filmmaker who was protesting our country’s involvement in a war by simulating the flow of blood down her office window! It immediately signaled that a liberal, outspoken, change agent was about to interview me.
Finally, recognize that interviewing is akin to dating. When Mr. or Ms. Right comes along, you’ll know it, just as my daughter knew when she found the college that fit her best. Be yourself. You can’t fake character and it would be a mistake to try. If the fit between you and a potential employer isn’t right, keep looking. Who wants to get up everyday at 5:00 a.m. and feel like a trip to divorce court would be more pleasant than another miserable day at work?
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This article is © 2004-2005 by Michael O'Neal and may not be reposted without written permission from the author and may not be reprinted for profit.