Hi and welcome or welcome back. It's issue #35 of The MBA Hub Weekly

Read time: ~5 minutes

Before jumping into this week's newsletter, a quick update on the Notion based job search organizer. It's approaching completion and the early feedback has been really good.

I'm really confident it's going to help a lot of people with their job search and the ability to manage all the information is really going to be a game changer. I wish I'd had it when I was doing my job search out of school.

Check out this image of where I am now. It's getting better each day.

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If you're interested helping beta test the Job Search Organizer, I'm looking for one or two more folks prior to the launch. Email me if you're interested.

Now on to this week's topic...

Put Yourself In The Interviewer's Shoes

This week we're going to talk about an important but very underappreciated topic - looking at things from the hiring manager's perspective.

Getting Out Of Your Own Head

Naturally, everyone is focused on their own interests and desires. It's no one's fault, we're kind of built that way.

This can really hurt us in a job search process. It can be as simple as excessively focusing on one aspect of our background that is not very relevant to the hiring company, all the way to scaring (from a hiring perspective) an interviewer because of something we've said.

What If You Were The Hiring Manager?

Resume

Longer term readers will know my view on resumes - they have to be good enough to get you to the interview stage, but can only get you so far when it comes to getting a job.

That being said, you still do need a resume that can get you to the interview stage.

So let's start there

Imagine you're the hiring manager. You'll be going through tens and sometimes hundreds of resumes for a given (highly sought after) job. Some of the aspects you might consider are:

Readability: Is the resume easy to read? Is it a wall of text that makes it hard to find what's important? Do exact words from the job posting where they describe their ideal candidate appear in the past experience section of your resume (hint: that's a good idea)?

Suitability: Does the resume convey a logical route to the current role? Is this a resume that suggests the candidate is applying for every job in sight or is targeted to that company or industry?

Interest: Does it look like the candidate is really interested in this job or any job? Most hiring managers recognize that people need a job to put food on the table and pay debts but if someone is really interested in a certain job, they'll likely stay longer and probably do a better job than if it's just for a paycheck.

Capacity: Does it look like the candidate is capable of succeeding in the job? Does their background look like they're equipped to be able to do a great job.

Interesting: Does the resume suggest that the candidate is an interesting person or boring and one dimensional? Most jobs have a meaningful team aspect to them and sometimes work travel (think airport test - would it be horrible or kind of fun to be stuck in an airport with this candidate).

Some will feel this is unfair. Sorry. This is entirely in your hands. Find things you find interesting and pursue them. People who are interested in things and have basic social skills are usually interesting enough to pass this test.

Risk: This is a tricky one. You're essentially asking if you pass this person along to the next step are you going to look like an idiot. This is not a huge deal during this stage and matters more at the interview stage where the question is not do you look foolish but rather, "if we hire this person, what is the risk that they jump to a different job quickly or they completely don't work out."

These are some specific questions to consider but

Do informational interviews to find out what are the characteristics that help people succeed in the role and be sure those come through on your resume.

You can also reduce risk for the person doing the resume screen by having someone internal forward your resume with a good recommendation.

When it comes to being interesting, I wrote about it recently. It's easy and fun - so check it out here if you missed it.

Finally, if your resume doesn't scream interest in your field of interest, 2 thoughts.

1. Ask yourself if you're really that interested. You don't want to get into a job only to discover that you were never really that interested and were only interested in the money or prestige.
2. Consider this stuff as early as possible in your time in school so you can throw yourself into some clubs, activities, writing about the topic etc. These are only some of the things you can do...email or DM me if you're having trouble figuring this on out.

Now, maybe you don't agree with the criteria I listed above.

Fair enough.

Pick whatever framework you think makes sense and imagine you are the hiring manager. Then evaluate your resume against those criteria. That's the main point of this exercise.

Interviews

Same story as the resume - think about this from the perspective of the interviewers. You might be evaluating someone on:

Dress and deportment: Are they on time? Do they look sloppy or neat and tidy? Note this isn't about expensive clothes or fancy make up. It's about clean shoes and work appropriate clothes.

A huge one for many people is how you treat the receptionist and other staff. Make sure to be polite to everyone you meet.

This category is also where first impressions are made. Did the candidate smile and look engaging or terrified to be there? Did they have a firm handshake and look you in the eye? You may believe these things have no relation to your ability to do the job but this is the reality of the world.

Genuine Interest: This is where it's easier to discern genuine interest - at the interview stage.

There are lots of people for example who want to go into investment banking for the money. They may not even know what the job involves, but they do want those sweet, sweet Benjamins.

But, the work is incredibly demanding. If you know what you're getting into or are excited about the work itself (even if you are looking for a high paying job to pay off debt) that's one thing. Someone coming in blind is going to have a harder time sticking with it.

Think about how they might distinguish between candidates who know what they're getting into - and are more likely to succeed - and those who don't know what's coming.

Capacity: How might you assess if a candidate is capable of doing the job well? Can they answer detailed questions about how to do different aspects of it? Do they know what are the Three Critical Characteristics that will enable them to be successful in the role? Have they demonstrated in the past that they possess them?

Interesting: You might get stuck in an airport with this candidate. Would a 2 hour delay feel like 10 minutes or 30 hours? Do they have things in their life that they are deeply interested in or are they one dimensional?

Risk: This one is a critical and tricky one once again. What is the risk that the candidate is going to hop from this job to another? What is the risk that they are going to fail miserably in the job? Here it's not about looking foolish for making a bad hire. There's negative productivity impacts to having someone in a role where they're performing poorly both from lost work from them and from the broader team.

Even worse, you may have to end their employment at the firm which is both costly and feels awful (for everyone involved).

And then, you're back where you started, going through the hiring process all over again.

So Where Does That Leave You?

Thinking about things from the hiring manager/interviewer's perspective is going to lead you to make certain choices, from

• putting the effort in to shine your shoes before the interview
• to using effective study techniques (and effort) to get high grades
• to making choices that can help you demonstrate an interest in the job
• and many more that are specific to your situation

Closing Thoughts

It's really easy to just blow off this idea but I promise you, for many candidates, thinking about things from the hiring manager/interviewer's perspective can make the difference between getting the job or not.

Think about it as early as possible since the more time you have, the more you can strengthen and develop your candidate profile.

How Can I Help You?

• If you want higher grades - check out my FREE email course 7 Days to Higher Grades...Without the Grind​

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• I have a very small number of coaching slots open at the moment. This is focused on 1 of 3 areas in particular - getting higher grades, job search and interview success and career progression. Please email me if you're ready for that.

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• I'm always looking for topics to write about that people are interested in/struggling with in these areas so feel free to email me or connect on Twitter if there's a topic you'd like me to explore.

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Growing this newsletter

As you might imagine I'm hoping to grow this newsletter. If you know anyone who'd benefit from it, please forward them THIS LINK.

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That's it for this week...don't be shy to reply if you have any questions.