Fast Company Article - Melinda Re "Interview With A Headhunter", by Bill Breen, January 1999, pg. 155.

I Interviewed A Headhunter Too

I chose this article to review for two reasons. One, I am involved in the hiring process in Cluster 9, which includes reviewing resumes and performing interviews and thought I could hone my skills. Two, my brother has been a headhunter in the electronics industry for eight years and I've never talked to him about his work.

A headhunter writes this article. His purpose of the article is to provide tips to potential job candidates so they can turn their next interview into a "sure kill". Here are some of the tips that meant the most to me.

1. The resume is meaningless. It outlines your past. It does not demonstrate that you can do the work at this company. Create a new section called "Value Offered". In two sentences, state specifically the value that you will bring to that employer. This transforms the resume into a marketing tool.

2. Research the company and the parameters of the job prior to applying. Make sure the job is a good fit for you and that you want to work for that company. Talk to people who work there.

3. Prepare for an interview by finding out about the challenges, goals, culture and competitors of the company where you are interviewing. At the interview show that you understand the job; that you can do the job; and how the company will profit from hiring you.

4. Approach an interview with the assumption that the hiring team wants to hire you. You will have a positive attitude and it might influence them to feel good about you.

5. Think of an interview as the first day on the job, not as an interrogation. Have the attitude that you are already an employee and you are discussing a new project. You want to come across as a person who understands the job and are prepared to do it.

After reading the article and sending a copy to my brother, I had a very interesting interview with him. He detailed for me the exact duties he performs as a headhunter even going as far as sharing the documentation he collects from candidates and companies in order to make a good match. We then went through the article point by point.

He agreed with most of the information found in the article. He also believes that a resume has limited usefulness. He says it is an "introductory document". It's only purpose is to get a first interview. He advises that a resume never take longer than one minute to read. If it does, it's too long.

He disagreed with the author's advice on how to convince a company that you can do the job. The author says that during an interview, "be prepared to highlight the steps you would take to solve the employer's problems and to reach the employer's goal". My brother says this is a very dangerous strategy. It is presumptive of a candidate to assume that they know enough about a company's challenges to make these kinds of statements. That's what the interviews are for. The first interview is designed to give a candidate this information. (It was interesting for me to learn that the majority of my brother's clients go through two to five interviews before being offered a position.)

My brother stresses that you can give the interviewer that same kind of information, but phrasing is key. A good candidate responds by talking about their own experiences as it relates to what the interviewer tells about the company. Use phrases like, "a similar situation occurred at (xyz company) where I was (warehouse manager) and here is now we solved it"

My brother disagreed with the author on another point. The author advises a candidate to "interview the company" once they have received a job offer. My brother says that is a bad idea. He advises the candidates to interview the company during each contact. It reflects negatively on a candidate if they wait until an offer to start asking questions. An employer thinks, "We've been through all this and you don't know what we're about?"

I also discussed the article with a friend who uses a headhunter to help with the hiring at the company where she manages a fifty-person department. She stressed that the most important thing is to make sure the candidate and the job are a good fit early on. Employers really hate to have their time wasted.

There is some valuable information that I gained through reading this article and discussing it with others. For one, I had never thought about a resume being only about the past. In future hires, instead of focusing so much on what a candidate has done, I will develop questions/discussions about what the candidate can do in this job. And I'll be adding a "Value Offered" section to my own resume.

This project generated so much excitement in me that I'm actually looking forward to interviewing for a job just to see if I can "make the kill"!

-- Anonymous, January 08, 1999

Answers

Melinda Re,

Great job with this. The interview with your brother really contributed to your discussion. Excellent choice. We often forget how critical a brief resume and cover letter are in selling ourselves to potential employers. Your writing skills are very good.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 1999