Are You Like Me Hired! - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Are You Like Me â€" Hired! - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career It’s probably happened to you a hundred times: you go to a major store, hoping to find that specific item you’re after, and you have to walk away disappointed. Either the item was not available or, most likely, you were looking for something uncommon or unusual that the store didn’t have. Such a scenario often occurs in interview situations: You as a candidate seemed very prepared, and when someone asks you later how the interview went, you reply positively and with confidence. After all, you have every required skill the interviewer was looking for, you have plenty of experience, and you were able to answer smartly all of the interviewer’s questions. So, why didn’t you hear back? What went wrong? The answers to those questions are repeats of answers to the shopping situationâ€"when you couldn’t find that specific item. Evidently, the interviewer, too, was looking for something specific that you did not surface and demonstrate. In this case, it’s likely the interviewer was looking for something totally unrelated to skills or experience. So, what is that something and how can the interviewer find out you have it? It’s all about compatibility, or so-called chemistry, which is a very heavily weighted element in the hirer’s decision-making process. Many call it the fit factor, and it could easily be by far the decisive issue in the entire interview. As a career coach, I work with my clients and prepare them to learn to how to “read” interviewers so they can discern that fit factor. There are many well-known, documented, and respected studies about types of people. Some of the studies find that if a candidate is unable to align with the interviewerâ€"sometimes an impossibilityâ€"then the chances of being considered for the position are minimized. That’s the reason someone else gets the job. You may have heard of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the DISC assessment, and other personality tests. I’m familiar with another, called MBS, or Management By Strengths. The MBS Survey is a self-assessment that attempts to align relationships and communications between parties. It deals with understanding the decision-making process, whether the process is based on facts or on gut feelings. For more information on the MBS test of personality type, visit www.strengths.com. In summary, in an interview situation it’s hugely to your benefit if you’re able to “read” the interviewer and adapt to the interviewer’s style, because it’s well-known that hirers like to hire people like themselves. Are You Like Me â€" Hired! - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career It’s probably happened to you a hundred times: you go to a major store, hoping to find that specific item you’re after, and you have to walk away disappointed. Either the item was not available or, most likely, you were looking for something uncommon or unusual that the store didn’t have. Such a scenario often occurs in interview situations: You as a candidate seemed very prepared, and when someone asks you later how the interview went, you reply positively and with confidence. After all, you have every required skill the interviewer was looking for, you have plenty of experience, and you were able to answer smartly all of the interviewer’s questions. So, why didn’t you hear back? What went wrong? The answers to those questions are repeats of answers to the shopping situationâ€"when you couldn’t find that specific item. Evidently, the interviewer, too, was looking for something specific that you did not surface and demonstrate. In this case, it’s likely the interviewer was looking for something totally unrelated to skills or experience. So, what is that something and how can the interviewer find out you have it? It’s all about compatibility, or so-called chemistry, which is a very heavily weighted element in the hirer’s decision-making process. Many call it the fit factor, and it could easily be by far the decisive issue in the entire interview. As a career coach, I work with my clients and prepare them to learn how to “read” interviewers so they can discern that fit factor. There are many well-known, documented, and respected studies about types of people. Some of the studies find that if a candidate is unable to align with the interviewerâ€"sometimes an impossibilityâ€"then the chances of being considered for the position are minimized. That’s the reason someone else gets the job. You may have heard of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the DISC assessment, and other personality tests. I’m familiar with another, called MBS, or Management By Strengths. The MBS Survey is a self-assessment that attempts to align relationships and communications between parties. It deals with understanding the decision-making process, whether the process is based on facts or on gut feelings. For more information on the MBS test of personality type, visit www.strengths.com. In summary, in an interview situation it’s hugely to your benefit if you’re able to “read” the interviewer and adapt to the interviewer’s style, because it’s well-known that hirers like to hire people like themselves. Author: Alex Freund  is a career and interviewing coach known as the “landing expert” for publishing his 80 page list of job-search networking groups via his web site  http://www.landingexpert.com/. He is prominent in a number of job-search networking groups; makes frequent public presentations, he does workshops on resumes and LinkedIn, teaches a career development seminar and publishes his blog focused on job seekers. Alex worked at Fortune 100 companies headquarters managing many and large departments. He has extensive experience at interviewing people for jobs and is considered an expert in preparing people for interviews. Alex    is a Cornell University grad, lived on three continents and speaks five languages.