Interviews – not the be-all, end-all of your job search

We can spout a whole lot of colloquial data here – how it’s a job seeker’s market right now, how desperate some companies are to hire qualified professionals in certain fields, how if you’re going to switch jobs, you couldn’t have picked a better time for it … and it’s all true to a large degree.

But the greater truth still remains: No one walks into an interview room and walks out as a new hire. Sure, your intention may be to get the hiring folks to like you well enough to make you an offer. Eventually. (And hopefully sooner rather than later.)

But – no offense – no hiring manager’s going to be so bowled over by you in that first interview that they say, “We can’t let you leave without you saying yes. You’ve gotta work with us. Please! Give us a chance!”

And because that’s the case, there’s a point I’d like to re-emphasize in this, the new year of career searches for executives, professionals, and managers, taken from sales training I received at the hands of a marketing mentor:

Your only goal – at the interview, or in any other stage of the hiring process – is to get the person across the table to take the next step with you.

I think about the hiring process like a pyramid. Research digs the foundation hole, and the resume lays the foundation down. Build you interview(s) on top of that, then your follow-up, your references, your salary negotiation, and finally you reach the pinnacle – you’re hired!

There’s also a motivational aphorism I like to use about cars driving at night. Your headlights only show you the immediate couple hundred feet in front of you. It’s all you can focus on. But despite this limited vision at any given moment, you can make it all the way across the country with those headlights.

In other words, handle each step in front of you, and you’ve got a much better and more realistic shot of reaching your goal, than if you try to make the giant leap all at once.

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