Interview Process ~ Free Excerpt

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Death of an Employee

1

Stop Selling Your Soul to th e

Corporat ion and Create t he Life and

Career That You’ve Always Wan ted

Joel Davis

Boundary Press

Temple Terrace, Floridawww.boundarypress.com




2

Death of an Employee. Copyright © 2009 by Joel Davis. Manufactured in the United

States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any

form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and

retrieval systems, without permission in writing by the publisher, except by a reviewer

who may quote brief passages in a review. This material may not be used in whole or inpart for presentations, training classes or seminars. Although the author and publisher

have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained

in this book, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions or

inconsistency herein. Any slights of people, places or organizations are unintentional. All

names have been changed to ensure confidentiality. Published by Boundary Press,

located at 5004 E Fowler Ave., Unit C-115, Tampa, FL 33617.

Visit our Web site www.deathofaleader.com for additional and up-to-date contactinformation.

Davis, Joel

Death of an Employee: Stop Selling Your Soul to the Corporation and Create the Life

and Career That You’ve Always Wanted

ISBN: 978-0-9791397-0-3

Edited by Judy Moore and Marjorie Bulone.

Cover Design and Book Layout by Toné Mojica.

Image consultation by Carol Hemmingsen.

Production coordinated by Toné Mojica.




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Interview Process

Before we move on, let me lower your expectations. Despite all the

motherhood and apple pie on the Web site, most companies do a terrible job of interviewing people and then getting them on board through a new-hire orientation process. According to our surveys on just the interviewand hiring process alone, just 7 percent rated it outstanding, 39 percentrated it adequate, 23 percent rated it good, 23 percent rated it terrible and 8percent rated it bad.

Continuing on our little journey, you now have a great résumé, a network

of recruiters helping you learn how the hiring game is played, you’ve

networked into the target firm, and you’ve secured an interview or series

of interviews for one week from today. Now what? Well, you need a

strategy to differentiate yourself during the interview process. Here is how

you do it!

Frame Your Mind: Don’t forget you’re a consultant (who really, really

wants this position, but you need to be in the consultant frame of mind).This will be one position on a long journey, so it’s not the end of your life

if you don’t get it. You have other firms that desperately want you. In

short, you’re confident and competent.




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Now, as a consultant, you’ve been trained to be very observant, to ask

good questions and to do solid research, analysis and thinking. The

questions come below, and the research and analysis have already been

done. So now, as you have phone conversations and, ultimately, face-to-

face interviews, you need to be very observant. “Why,” you ask? Well, toparaphrase one of my favorite cartoons, “Be very, very quiet, we are

hunting culture.” Be on the look-out for the following as you start your

journey through the interview process:

1. How do they handle terminations—for cause and not for cause? This

is the single most important factor in determining a firm’s true

culture and I will cover it in detail shortly.2. Do people answer their phone professionally?

3. What’s the lobby like? How were you greeted?

4. Are the interviews on time, or are people always running late?

5. Are the people energized or exhausted?

6. Are people smiling? Do they seem happy?

7. Do the people walk with a sense of purpose and a sense of urgency?

8. Is the office space—both inside and outside—well maintained, cleanand professional?

9. What is on the walls, in the common spaces, as well as in people’s

offices?

10. What does the break room/cafeteria look like…feel like? Are people

using it?

11. Were your interviewers prepared for you? Had they read your

résumé?

12. Were the interviewers’ desks cleaned and clear or cluttered?13. As you enter and leave the building, what did you feel?

14. Is this a place you can work in for the next “X” years? Will it

enhance or detract from your life plan and the energy required to

make it a reality?

Frame Your Questions: As a consultant, you need to take all of the

industry, market, channel and firm-specific research you did and develop alist of questions that will clearly show anyone present that you get it. In

addition to any industry, market, channel, firm questions you may come

up with, here are a few sample questions to ask during an interview that

will differentiate you from all the other candidates:




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1. I noticed in reviewing the company’s financials and press releases,

that revenue is up but profits are down. What are the main drivers of

this? How could our department and my role specifically help

improve corporate profitability?

2. Based on my research, it seems that some of the problems thecompany might be facing are “1, 2, 3.” Would you agree?

3. What are the top three opportunities ahead for the company?

4. Who are your top three competitors? How are they doing in the

marketplace from a revenue/growth perspective? Profit perspective?

5. What keeps you up at night?

6. What one thing should the company start doing? Stop doing?

7. How well aligned are the company’s objectives with ourdepartment’s objectives?

8. How well aligned are our compensation plans with the company

objectives?

9. How well aligned are the other department’s compensation plans

with ours?

10. How would you describe the culture here? Knowing what you know

now, would you join the firm?

11. If I get the position, what would be my three biggest challenges in

the first 90 days…180 days?

12. Is this a new position, or did someone else have it? Where did they

go? How many other people have had this position in the last five

years?

13. What’s the new-hire orientation and on-boarding process like?

Perhaps, if I’m hired, I could document my experiences and help

improve it?

The list of questions can and do go on and on and on. Remember, you

aren’t trying to interrogate the person interviewing you. You won’t be able

to ask all of these questions in just one interview. You need to make sure

you ask them in a conversational versus a confrontational manner. But you

do need to make sure you get answers to the most important questions.

A good way to segment these questions so they aren’t so overwhelming—and another key differentiator for you as a candidate—is to segment thequestions by the person (and their department) if you’re being interviewedby multiple people. For example, if you’re interviewing with a




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sales/marketing person, develop a list of three to six questions that arerelevant to them. Do the same for finance, HR, legal, etc. Yourinterviewers need to be approached with a different set of questions thatare unique to them. By doing this, you’ll demonstrate you are prepared,

understand how business works and can hit the ground running if they hireyou! So, what’s the point to asking all these questions?

The answer is simple. Candidates love to talk during interviews but, to me,the true sign of intelligence and preparedness in a candidate is the qualityof questions they ask! Ask smart questions, get the interviewer talking andsharing information, and you’ll build a relationship and gain some form of control over the interview. You can then guide the interview to highlight

your strengths, avoid weak areas and, if all else fails, add one more personto your network!

Frame Your Plan: If you really want to blow your interviewer away,bring a rough90-Day Plan already completed and just hold on to it. If theinterview goes exceedingly well (and maybe if you’re tanking theinterview, you can use it as a last resort), you can go ahead, pull it out andposition it as follows: “I would like to share with you a very rough 90-dayplan I put together. Clearly, I would need your input on it, coaching andrecommendations, but I wanted you to see how serious I am aboutsucceeding in the position and to give you a little snapshot on how I think and plan.”

I’ll share an example of a 90-day plan shortly. Based on our surveys, onlyabout one third of people create a 90-day plan—and it’s usually after

getting the job. In my hiring experience, I can think of only one or two people who ever came in with a 90-day plan in 20+ years. So, this can andwill be a great differentiator for you.

Frame Your Life: Ah, the piéce de resistance! Your life plan comes tothe rescue yet again! Remember, according to our surveys, nearly 70percent of people don’t have a life plan in writing (and I really don’tbelieve it’s that high because when I’ve asked people to show me one,

they all of a sudden have a pressing matter to attend to). My personalexperience is that 98 percent of people don’t have a life plan in writing. Ineither case, you’ll clearly differentiate yourself from literally everyoneelse, by having this handy, again, just in case you need it. Back to thesurveys, 80 percent of people who have plans in writing fail to integrate it




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into their time management system. I had one very impressive candidateshow me her time management system and how she was able to ensure allthe work would get done in a timely manner. Needless to say, she got the job!

After your interviews, make sure you send follow-up thank you notes viae-mail. Some people recommend hand-written cards, and that, too, is fine,but it’s hard to reinforce key messages about why they should hire you ona small thank-you card. The e-mails you send should be a sellingdocument explaining why they should hire you, why you’re excited aboutthe position, what you can bring to the table immediately and announceyour commitment to work on any weak areas the interviewer brought up

during your interview

Offer Letter Negotiation

Congratulations, baby, you got the call and they’re going to make you anoffer! Well, depending on your personal situation, you have three options:

1. Take whatever they give you and be thankful (I’ve been here, so I

know exactly how this feels).2. Negotiate on some points with the intent to sign an enhanced offer

quickly.3. Create scarcity to get the best possible offer from this firm or another

firm.

First, let’s review the elements that may be in your offer letter:

1. Start Date2. Sign-on Bonus3. Salary or Hourly Wage4. Incentive plans5. Stock Options6. Health Benefits7. 401K, Profit Sharing

8. Relocation (when applicable)9. Expense Offset—car, cell phone etc

10. Severance/Termination Package11. Offer Letter Expiration Date




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While giving you a primer on negotiating in general is beyond the scope

of this book, I do want you to realize that not everything is negotiable—

even if you’ve made them fall in love with you through the interview

process. So here’s a good game plan for you. First, listen to what they

have to say in its entirety. Don’t respond or say anything until they’recompletely through their entire offer. When they’re done, ask them to e-

mail you the offer in writing, so you can review it, talk it over with your

family, etc.

If you have to take the offer, due to hardship conditions, get it, review it

with your family, sign it and fax it back—or, better yet, if they’re local,

drive over and hand it to them!

If you’re going to negotiate for a better offer, but you still feel good about

the company and plan to move forward with them, follow the path

recommended below. At the end of this section, I’ll explain the creating

scarcity approach that happens rarely in a career, but it does happen.

Once you have your offer in writing, read it carefully. Make sure what was

said to you on the phone is in the written offer—you’d be surprised howmany times this isn’t the case. I have personally received offer letters that

had errors in them, additional clauses and fine print that dramatically

altered the offer itself, so beware!

Assuming the offer is consistent with what was discussed on the phone;

write down your wish list of what you would like the offer to be—point by

point—on the offer letter itself. Think about the value you bring and comeup with at least one to two solid reasons why each one of the items on

your wish list is reasonable, logical and valid. Think about things the

company told you—the problems they have, positive comments made by

interviewers, anything and everything you can remember that will help

you negotiate a better offer!

Next, jot down the items you can be flexible on and things that might notmean too much to you. Review the offer again—did you learn anything

during the interview process that would weaken the company’s position on

any of these points? For example, if the workload was piling up, and they

were out of compliance with some regulation, the start date would be very




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important to them—but you might not really care if the start date was that

week or another one. Again, jot this down!

If the offer is out of whack, you might also go back to the hiring manager

and soften him/her up a bit by saying how excited you were about theposition until the offer came through far below what was discussed during

the interviews. If the hiring manager has fallen in love with you (as a

candidate, of course), then he/she will go back to HR and let them know

they’re going to cost him/her a great hire because of their low-ball offer

and they need to work with him/her to figure something out quickly!

Armed with all of this information, schedule a time to discuss the offer

over the phone with the HR person or hiring manager. Thank them for the

offer and tell them that no matter what happens, you were impressed with

the people you met and the company itself. No matter what happens, you

want to stay in touch and maintain a relationship—because you never

know if you can be in a position to help them in the future—or vice versa.

Now, what I love about this approach is that it’s totally classy and

professional. You’ve taken the high road. You’ve also just communicated

that you’re not desperate and they need to get the proverbial pencil

sharpener out if they want to land such a fine catch as you!

Remember this: The one time, and I mean the only one time, you will

ever have serious, significant negotiating leverage with a company is

when you’re on the outside and they want you badly. Once you’re in,

they think—wrongly by the way—that they have you. Further, the disease

of familiarity hits you, and all of your little faults are amplified a thousandtimes and you slowly but surely become just another cog in the machine.

You will forever have to live with cost-of-living raises at or below

inflation. Your promotions are never more than five percent because “that

would blow our internal equity scales” (this is HR speak for: “We know

you are a star performer and clearly in the top ten percent of the company.

However, there are other people that have been here a long time, work

hard and don’t cause us problems. So we don’t want to upset them rightnow by giving you the raise you deserve). Come again?

While you’re on the outside, you are that shiny new untouchable toy that

the company just has to have! So work it! Go through your offer, point by




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point, calmly, explaining what you would like and the reasons why. When

you’re done, follow it up with an e-mail to the HR person and the hiring

manager. This e-mail is yet one more selling document for you, so treat it

that way.

Be prepared to give in on the points you’re prepared to give in on but,

always, always, always, get something in return. Below are some other

strategies to upgrade an offer and to counter standard HR objections.

Remember, this is only a partial list!

Start Date: If they need a quicker start date, ask for a signing bonus (or a

signing bonus increase) for the lost revenue you might have to give up

from lost incentives, options, vesting, etc.

Sign On Bonus: If they’re not offering a sign-on bonus, calculate any lost

sick time, option vesting, lost incentives, etc. Ask them to make you

whole. Obviously, if you’re not employed, this will be rather hard to do!

Salary Or Hourly Wage Issues: at the end of the day, it typically comes

down to money. But here is a little-known fact that many first-time jobseekers aren’t aware of—every position in a firm has multiple grades or

levels and there is a minimum, average and maximum pay level for each

grade or level. One way, therefore, to get the higher pay you want is to

convince them to raise the job level/grade so you can get the money you

want without blowing their internal equity scales.

Incentive Plans: Ask for a six-month guarantee at 100 percent, since

you’re entering the company and have no idea about the company’s

current momentum (or lack thereof). If you can’t get an increase in salary,

ask for a higher incentive amount or percentage.

Stock Options: This is hard to negotiate with all the new regulations

(SOX specifically), unless you’re giving up a lot at your current company.

If so, then you need to calculate what you’re giving up and ask the

prospective firm to make you whole.

Health Benefits: There’s not too much room here to negotiate, but see if

they’ll do something to help during the first 180 days as you change plans

and work back through deductibles.




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401K/Profit Sharing: Not much you can do here, unless you’re giving up

a lot at your current company. If so, then you need to calculate what you

are giving up and ask the prospective firm to make you whole.

Relocation: There’s a lot of room here to negotiate. You’ll need to do costof living comparisons, and there are a lot of sites on the Web for this.

Have your facts in hand, e.g., state taxes, property taxes, schools, housing,

gas, etc. Three I like are www.cityrating.com, www.bestplaces.net and

www.relocationessentials.com. Try to get the relocation package extended

to at least six (if not nine) months of temporary living and rental car

expenses. Make sure all relocation payments are grossed up so you pay no

taxes on them. If you have to sell your house, they need to pay the points

and any closing costs on both sides—when you sell and when you buy.

Some of the larger firms will offer to buy your house if it doesn’t sell

within one year, so try to get this if you can. Ask the firm to pay for 60

days of a relocation consultant to help you learn where things are and to

scout out where you would like to live. Make sure your family can come

out and visit you ideally twice a month, but at least once a month—and

vice versa—when you do the traveling.

Expense Offset: While this is getting rare, it does exist. Try to get a car

allowance that covers the cost of your auto, mileage, deprecation, etc.

Sometimes, you’re actually better off just doing the straight mileage route.

Most firms pay for cell phone and BlackBerry devices, so make sure that’s

part of the package as well.

Severance/Termination Package: Remember what I mentioned earlier:The one time—and I mean the only one time—you will ever have

serious, significant negotiating leverage with a company is when you

are on the outside and they want you badly. It is now, at the time of

the offer letter, that you’re also negotiating your severance package.

Kind of sick and twisted isn’t it? Anyway, find out if the firm has a

standard severance policy for your position level. Find out how it works.

Many firms will provide 90 days of severance for every year of service,but there are many ways to do this. If you are relocating, try to get the

severance package to be at least six months long, otherwise you could

literally be stuck in the middle of nowhere with such a short runway (e.g.,

90 days) that your options will be extremely limited.




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Offer Letter Expiration Date: There’s usually not a problem here, but

you need at least 48 hours if not a week to decide. Ideally, two-to-three

weeks is perfect.

Remember, not all of these items will be in your offer letter; it all dependson your experience and the position you’re applying for. At least now you

have a bigger and better picture of the process than I did when I started my

career!

Creating Scarcity

This strategy isn’t for the faint of heart. The opportunity to make yourself

scarce happens in a career when you have more than one competing offerfor your services. Clearly you’re a hot commodity, and everyone wants

you. Since there’s only one of you and many of them, you’re in essence a

scarce or rare jewel and, as such, let the offer letter bidding begin!

I wouldn’t advise you to get a competing offer and bring it back to your

current employer and demand a raise. I’ve seen people do this, and

sometimes they actually do get the raise—but literally end their career atthe company in the process. The company, put between a rock and a hard

place by you, will acquiesce to your demands, but won’t trust you any

longer and will remove you from any promotion/advancement track. I find

it ironic that it’s okay when the company puts you in between a rock and a

hard place, for example, with wage and bonus freezes, off-shoring, and

outsourcing, but it’s not okay when you do it to them.

Assuming you have multiple offer letters, it’s time to play them off againsteach other in a professional manner. The best way to do this is to follow

the approach I’ve already outlined. You’ll tell each firm what your ideal

offer looks like, point by point. If one firm says no and won’t budge on

your offer, and the other firm gives in on every point you asked for, then

your decision should be pretty easy.

What typically happens, however, is that both give and take with you ondifferent points and the money may be very close—with one firm giving

you a signing bonus and another giving you a better base salary. So if you

have two offer letters that are very close, how do you decide?




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Appendix 2 – Order Form

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Books # of Copies Price Per Copy Extended Total

Death of an Employee 19.99Death of a Manager 24.99Death of a Leader 29.99Subtotal

Shipping Charge $5 per book 20% Discount if You BuyAll 3 Books in the Series

$15 discount if youare buying all 3 books

Grand Total

Attention Corporations, Colleges, Universities, Charities!Quantity discounts are available for bulk purchases of individual books or the entire series

for educational or training purchases, fund raising, gift giving, etc. Special books, booklets

or book excerpts can be customized to fit your specific needs. Motivational presentations,

seminars, guest speaker, panel moderation, training and management consulting

engagements can also be provided at your location or off-site anywhere in the world. To

discuss these or other opportunities, please contact Joel Davis at 813-401-1329;

[email protected]. For more information, don’t forget to visit our Web site:

www.deathofaleader.com.

All mail correspondence and orders should be sent to:

Boundary Press Inc.5004 E Fowler Ave, Unit C-115Tampa, FL 33617

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Interview Process ~ Free Excerpt