Powerful Phrases for Successful Interviews
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I will call you tomorrow at 10:00 am to arrange a time we might meet. Or, feel free to reply back with a time that it is good for you.
Sincerely,
(Your signature and phone number)
Subject: non illigitimus carborundum
Don’t let your board or investors grind you down! You need a hard-working, determined, proven (production engineer, bookkeeper, financial analyst, or salesperson) who can withstand the daily grind and the pressure you are under.
My résumé is attached. I will call you tomorrow at 3:00 PM to see when we might be able to meet. Or, feel free to respond to this e-mail with a time that would be convenient for you.
Sincerely,
(Your signature and phone number)
CITE RELEVANT RECENT EVENTS
Another approach along the same lines is to cite information you might have seen about the individual or the company you have researched or discovered, thereby implying that you would be a unique candidate for the company. A recent expansion, or the need for a turnaround, a promotion, or even bankruptcy might make you stand out from the crowd. What follows are some examples.
Subject: Your new plant in Scranton
Congratulations on your company’s recent expansion and your being named head of the new plant. I’ve been closely involved at two companies with getting new facilities successfully up and running.
There is a lot to be done when a company opens a new plant. You and your company may need my hands-on experience in this area. My résumé is attached. I will call you tomorrow morning to see when we might meet.
Sincerely,
(Your signature and phone number)
Subject: Congratulations on your promotion
I read the announcement of your promotion. From my research, I understand it is well deserved.
Often, when there are changes within a company, new blood may be needed. I have been hired in similar situations three times in my career and have helped leaders, like you, to be tremendously successful.
I will call you tomorrow to see if there’s a time we might meet, so I can share with you how I might help you and your organization reach new heights.
Sincerely,
(Your signature and phone number)
Subject: Your company’s reorganization under Chapter 11
Reorganization and Chapter 11 are difficult things to deal with. As a financial specialist, I’ve helped three companies successfully reorganize.
Your company may need my extensive experience. My résumé is attached along with press releases of the successful Chapter 11 reorganizations that I have led.
I will call you tomorrow morning to see when we might meet.
Sincerely,
(Your signature and phone number)
COVER LETTERS, IF YOU MUST
In a recent survey we conducted with hiring authorities, we found that most cover letters are read only when the hiring authority has already read your résumé and wants to know more about you.
Remember, since your résumé is going to get read in ten to thirty seconds, you can assume that your cover letter isn’t going to get much more attention and probably will get less. You are trying to sell the potential employer on the idea of granting you a face-to-face interview, not on hiring you. Even if your cover letter gives all the reasons you ought to be hired, you’re going to have to get interviewed anyway. So, it is important to sell yourself only one step at a time—in this case, your cover letter and your résumé are written to secure the interview.
Remember the principles for Web communication as stated by Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg: seamless, informal, immediate, personal, simple, minimal, and short. A cover letter, therefore, should have the following characteristics:
Be short and to the point (especially if you send it electronically).
Encourage the hiring authority to interview you.
List your accomplishments that apply to the specific job opening.
Use bullet points to attract attention.
Sign personally (with an electronic signature, if necessary).
Always have a postscript that is an “action item” (it will get read before the body of the letter does).
I can’t tell you the number of résumés I receive with a full-page cover letter that will rarely, if ever, get read. Remember, the screening or interviewing authority has, on average, sixty of these résumés and cover letters to review (even after sorting through 100 or more). You have to make an impact quickly, with specifics that say: “You need to interview me.”
Here are two sample cover letters with appropriate powerful words and phrases.
Cover Letter #1
If possible, have a personal phone conversation with the hiring authority and then send your résumé with a brief cover letter to act as a reminder. In this case, you’ve established rapport and your letter and résumé will be more likely to get read. A typical cover letter of this type should look something like this:
Dear John,
Thank you for the time we spent on the phone. Based on what we discussed, I would be an excellent candidate for the position of accounting manager.
Attached is my résumé. You stated you were looking for someone who:
• Was a CPA with ten years of experience in the insurance industry
• Has managed a staff of a least five accountants
• Has experience with properties and casualties, as well as life, accident, and health
• Has a clear track record of making difficult decisions
As you can see from my résumé:
• I’ve been a CPA and have twelve years of experience in the insurance industry.
• I have managed as many as five degreed accountants; overall, there was a staff of ten people.
• I’ve had three years of properties and casualties, as well as eight years of life, accident, and health.
• I have a clear track record of making difficult decisions, especially in the firm I worked for last; we had to close five offices and lay off thirty-five people in order to be profitable.
Sincerely,
(Your signature and phone number)
P.S.: I will call you tomorrow at 1:30 PM about meeting with you this week.
It’s that simple. Don’t make your cover letter any more complicated or longer than this sample. Use three or four short bullet points with as many quantifiable statements as possible. Then ask for an appointment.
Cover Letter #2
If you don’t have the luxury of a phone conversation beforehand, you might use the information you gathered from a job posting or just plain old common sense. Your letter might look something like this:
Dear Mr. Smith,
I understand you are searching for a general manager for your building products distributorship. Attached is my résumé. As you can see:
• I’ve grown a building-products distributorship from $10 million in sales with a 2 percent pretax profit to $100 million in sales with a 5 percent pretax profit.
• I started out on the ground floor in sales, then moved to sales management, then to general management over a period of fifteen years.
• I offer stability; I’ve had only two employers in those fifteen years.
• The owners of my previous firm will testify that they were able to successfully sell the organization because of my leadership.
Sincerely,
(Your signature and phone number)
P.S.: I will call you tomorrow at 1:30. We can make an appointment to meet.
P.S.S.: Enclosed (or attached) are the results of a psychological profile our company did on all of its managers. You can see that I scored in the upper 2 percent of all managers the consulting firm surveyed on a worldwide basis.
PERSONAL AND SPECIFIC = POWERFUL
Words and phrases that communicate personal connection are very powerful. So begin a cover letter or e-mail with statements like:
We both graduated from Stanford . . .
We wer
e both members of Sigma Chi . . .
We both worked at XYZ Corp a few years ago . . .
We both know . . .
These will encourage the recipient to read a little further.
Remember. Powerful words and phrases should be specific and as quantifiable as possible. Numbers are great because they are definite. Writing “I’m a great performer” is fine, but writing “I performed at 150 percent of quota,” or “I have received the highest marks . . . 100 out of 100 . . . in performance reviews,” really makes a big difference. Remember the adage: “Stories sell . . . numbers tell.” Only use numbers when they are high. Writing something like “performed at 50 percent of quota” is not powerful.
OTHER ATTACHMENTS TO YOUR RÉSUMÉ
Some job candidates send other attachments with their résumés that further substantiate their success. As with the résumé and cover letter, these should be relatively short and obvious. At a glance they should communicate, “My résumé and cover letter state that I am a very successful business person—here is proof of that.”
What kind of information might you attach? You might include:
A positive performance or salary review
Previously published documents of former employers ranking your performance as high
Personal psychological evaluations that show high rankings in leadership
Personality surveys that indicate you are a strong salesperson or analytical thinker
News releases of recognition and honors
Thirty-, sixty-, or ninety-day plans you have developed in the past or would implement if you got hired
Any objective document that substantiates your success—as long as it is concise and clear when viewed—will work. Often these attachments get viewed before the résumé is read.
A few of our candidates, not having this kind of objective proof of their skills, have gone online and taken self-administered psychological, intelligence, and aptitude tests. They pay for these tests and get formal results. If they perform well, they attach the results to their résumés.
I had one candidate who took two intelligence tests showing he was in the upper 2 percent of the surveyed population regarding intelligence. He also took three sales aptitude tests that proved he was in the upper 5 percent of sales performers, and a leadership survey that proved he was a strong leader. He got tons of interviews because of these attachments.
Anything that separates you from the average candidate can be attached. One of our candidates attached a link to the Amazon.com page of her published book of poetry.
Be sure to conclude each communication with the prospective employer, either an e-mail or a cover letter, with the powerful phrase:
When can we get together?
CHAPTER 3
Powerful Phrases for Opening and Closing the Initial Interview
The job interview is a staged, contrived event. It does not have anything to do with your ability to do a job. Although the job interview is supposedly a mutual evaluation of your past record and talents and a prediction of how you’re going to perform in the future, as well as your personal evaluation of the hiring organization, it is rarely any of these things.
Each party in this process is putting his or her best foot forward, and rightfully so. Candidates are responsible for selling themselves to the employer, trying to convince the employer that they are the best person for the job. The company (or the individuals representing it) is trying to find the best person to do the job while both selling the merits of the company and screening out the candidates it does not think will be capable of doing the job or fitting in.
As a job candidate, your job is to communicate the following: that you can do the job; that you are likable; that you offset any risks that you pose to the company; and that you are reasonable about the compensation. That’s it! For you as a candidate, it is no more complicated than answering those questions. That is the essence of the interviewing process. It is very simple—just not very easy.
All of your experience, achievements, and knowledge won’t matter unless you can sell yourself in the interviewing process. What this means is that, in spite of the fact that interviewing is a staged, contrived event, it is absolutely necessary that it be done, and done well. The better your ability to interview is, the better your opportunity to get a good job.
And it all starts with the first interview! Having the right words and phrases at your command during the initial interview will give you the confidence and clarity to set yourself apart from the other candidates.
SUCCESSFUL INITIAL INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE #1
You walk into the interviewer’s office or interviewing environment. You are rested, refreshed, and prepared. You sit down and lean forward a bit. After you share a few icebreakers, you pull out a legal pad and pen to take notes, you hand the hiring or interviewing authority your résumé (even if he or she already has it), and state:
Mr. or Ms. _________, I’m here to share with you why you should hire me. First of all, I am ____________________ ___________________________________________________________ (choose ten to twelve descriptive adjectives to explain your work ethic).
You’ve introduced yourself by providing a quick overview of your credentials (features). Now you transition into specifics:
Now here in my background is where these features have been benefits to the people whom I have worked for:
Give a thorough description of exactly what you did, how you did it, whom you did it for, and how successful you were—in terms a high-school senior could understand.
I am presently (or most recently have been) at ______________ (company). I have functioned for them in the capacity of ______________________________________________________.
You then emphasize how much you love the job and the company, and explain the reason you have to leave or why you left in very positive terms.
I like the company very much. I enjoy the work I do and the people I work with, but I feel that my chances for advancement have been greatly reduced by the number of new managers who have recently been brought into the company.
Continue on through your work history, again giving a thorough description of exactly what you did, how you did it, whom you did it for, and how successful you were—in terms a high-school senior could understand.
And before that, I was at ___________________ (company). There, I functioned in the capacity of _______________________________________________.
Here, too, emphasize how much you loved that job and why you had to leave it in very positive terms.
I loved working there. The job was very interesting, and I was surrounded by bright, capable people. Unfortunately, my boss left the company and his replacement brought in several of his own people. As a result, I felt it was time to move on.
Continue in this manner for at least three jobs, if you have that many. If you’ve had a series of short stints at jobs, like one year or less, you may want to go back further than three jobs.
Ask Questions and Gather Information
Now you want to start discussing the specific job at hand and how good a fit it is for you:
Tell me Mr. or Ms. _________________, how does what I have to offer stack up with what you are looking for?
With the legal pad in front of you, start taking notes on how the interviewer answers this question and begin to ask other questions of the interviewer. If you do this correctly, one question will lead to another question, which will lead to another question, which will lead to a conversation, which is exactly what you want.
During this conversation, the hiring or interviewing authority is going to tell you more about what the company is looking for in an individual. When the interviewer does this, you can weave into the conversation any important information on yourself that pertains to the company and the job.
You say communication skills are important in doing this job. At ABC Company, I had to keep channels open with my peers and with management. I was praised for my ability to communicate with
both groups.
Also expand upon the information you’ve provided about where you have been, what you have done, and how you did it.
It’s interesting that you mention the need to coordinate the work of the tech people with that of the creative team. When I was with XYZ Company, I served as a conduit between IT and Creative to make sure the work was compatible.
As the conversation/interview winds down, when you feel the time is appropriate, it’s time to use these powerful phrases (as mentioned in the Introduction):
Based on what we have discussed here, Mr. or Ms. _______________, my (background, experience, or potential) __________________ makes this a good fit for both of us.
How do I stack up with the other candidates you have interviewed?
What do I need to do to get the job?
Then be quiet and don’t say a word.
Now, the conversation may go off in a number of different directions. If you have to repeat your enthusiasm and interest in the position, you may need to push harder and repeat the fact that you are an ideal candidate for the job and you want to know what you have to do to get it.
Analysis of Interview Technique #1
Let’s analyze this technique, and then I’ll tell you why it works so well. (It’s based on a powerful persuasion method used by salespeople and speakers alike to get their point across and make sure they are remembered. That method is: “Tell ’em what you’re gonna tell ’em . . . tell ’em . . . then, tell ’em what you told ’em.”)