Welcome to Classy Career Girl’s Love Your Work and Life Podcast. I am your host Anna Runyan. Today is really special because I get to introduce you to someone very important on Team CCG. One of the things I have realized over the last year of running my business is that I alone can’t keep up with all the career coaching needs , so I have invited my friend and career expert, Becky Carlson, to join me as a Love Your Career Formula Certified Career Coach.

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You’ll see immediately why I picked her to join me in my company as a Career Coach in this podcast today because of all of the knowledge she has from the past 15 years of recruiting. I’ll introduce her more in a minute but if you have any type of interview coming up or are considering starting to job search, learn the behind the scenes secrets from a recruiter herself today. Let’s dive in.

Becky Carlson is a Job Search Success Coach and will give you the tools to give her clients the tools she needs to get hired. She has 15 years of being a Corporate Recruiter and has interviewed thousands of candidates and really knows what it takes to get hired and negotiate the best salary. She now shares her secrets with her clients and she’s going to share her secrets with us today.

Four Crucial Things a Recruiter Looks For During an Interview

1. Can the person do the job?

The number one thing I’m looking for is can this person do the job? Do they have the skills right now to do the job or could they learn them? This is where you come in as the candidate and tell me that information. I will ask questions that you really need to come prepared with information so that I don’t have to keep probing and probing and probing. The more information you can give me right upfront about your skills.

2. Why does this person want to work here?

The second area I’m always looking at is why does this person want to work here? So this is your passion, you can tell me why you want to work here. Why you’re excited to be working at this company? Why did you apply for this position?

3. Will this person fit with our culture?

The third area I’m looking at is this person is a good culture fit? So this comes through in every question that I ask and every answer that I get. I want to determine if this person is a good cultural fit.

4. What sets the candidate apart?

The fourth area is really the most important. This is what sets the candidate apart from their other applicants. This comes in your preparation for that phone interview. Sit down and really think about what sets you apart from other candidates.

I know you can’t see the other candidates but it’s really what sets you apart in your industry. What sets you apart as the manager. What sets you apart in your thinking. I actually ask these questions to many candidates when I’m on the phone with them. I will plainly say what do you think it is that sets you apart from other managers or your peers. Being prepared with that question can help you quite a bit.

What the recruiter is really thinking…

I do also want to let you know that recruiters want you to be successful in phone interviews.

I really want every candidate that I speak to on the phone to be successful and I want them to be the ones that I’m going to hire, so coming into the interview knowing that the recruiter wants you to be successful takes off me some of the nerves that you might have had.  Just know that they want you to be successful, and they want you to come prepared and give them the answers that they’re looking for.

(Make it easy on them, ok?!)

3 Ways to Prepare For a Phone Interview

1. Get physically ready.

If you are working I suggest that you block out 30 minutes before your interview so you have about 15 minutes to get to the location you are going to do the interview in. That will give you a little bit of time to get to your car or quiet space.

I know that there could be some people feeling guilty about walking away from their current job or walking away from their office and doing that phone interview, but there’s a reason why you’re potentially looking for a new job and you want to leave the past behind.

If you want to go to your car, make sure that it’s quiet. Make sure that you have some water with you, your resume, the job descriptions. Get in the mindset of thinking about your future, thinking about your future employer and thinking about what you want in your next job. That will get you ready to get on the call with a recruiter.

I can tell you that I can tell if somebody is in that mindset or isn’t ready for the call. The energy just comes right over to my end and I realize that they are not ready, not giving their best presentation and there’s nothing I can do about it at that point. We’re on the call and they’re going to have to get in in the mindset.

2. Know What Compensation You Want

Write down your compensation.  If you’re on an interview with me, you have to give me some information on compensation. You don’t have to give me the exact number but I need a range or I need the number you won’t go below. This is something where I see people get in trouble because they aren’t prepared and just throw a number out.

Once the information is out there, it’s out there and you can’t take it back. Have your numbers prepared and ready to go will just alleviate the pressure when that question comes up.  What range are you targeting, that information needs to be written down.

3. Know the Skills  You Want the Recruiter to Know You Have

Write down and know what skills you want the recruiter to know about you when they jump off the call. You’re going to have 30 minutes approximately and you want to make sure that they know what they need to know about you.

What About the Actual Interview?

Now, the actual interview where sometimes I like to call it is a conversation.  Really is a conversation between you and your potential future manager.  You really want to have just the conversation with them and you should be prepared to talk about 80% of the time during that call. The reason being is that this recruiter and the hiring manager need to get the information from you and you need to be prepared to be able to give it.