The Bagg Group Blog

Interruptions are a fact of everyday work life. Between incoming email, texts, phone calls and a colleague stopping by for an impromptu chat, interruptions take up 28% of a knowledge worker’s day.  That’s the finding of a study by the US research firm Basex which also reports that interruptions cost US companies $28 billion in lost hours per year. 

It’s a hefty price to pay for often unnecessary email or unsolicited reviews on last night’s episode of CSI.  But there are also times when an interruption is helpful and contributes to productivity.

A job interview is a case in point. When candidates lose focus and talk too much, the biggest favour you can do for them is to interrupt.  

Yet many hiring managers say they’re uncomfortable cutting off an interviewee in mid-stride. However, The Bagg Group recruiters encourage their clients across the GTA to do just that when necessary.

Sometimes as an interviewer, you need to be blunt to be kind.  We know this from interviewing hundreds of thousands of candidates to successfully fill more than 57,000 full-time positions, contract opportunities, and temporary placements over 40-plus years.  

We have seen time and time again how common it is for people to digress or give too much information when asked about themselves. That’s why we always coach our candidates to stay on point, and be succinct.

It’s not surprising that people get carried away, given that an interview can feel like an exam.  And how many of us have answered exam questions by telling everything we could recall on the subject, in hopes of winning extra points. 

So while talking too much in an interview is understandable, it almost always backfires.  A real chatterbox can prompt just about anyone to check out of the conversation. For that reason, the nicest thing you can do for an interviewee is to cut off rather than cut out. 

Here are some tips from the interview experts at The Bagg Group for how to turn an interruption into a positive interaction.  

1. Identify whether the information is pertinent to you.  As you listen, ask yourself, “Is this important for my decision-making?”  If it’s not, cut in.
2. It’s not advisable to waste your time and patience waiting for the interviewee to take a pause. Instead, jump in.  The candidate will not be thrown if you thank them for their answer but say you must stop them there because you’d like to ask other questions, and you need to be mindful of time.
3. It can be helpful to tell chatty interviewees to bottom line their answers. A useful technique is to include the word “briefly” in your question. This alerts interviewees that you don’t want a lot of background.  
4. If the interviewee veers off topic, it’s beneficial to interrupt by reminding them that due to time, you’d like to focus on how they can relate their experience specifically to your team’s needs.

On the bright side, more challenging than having to interrupt an interviewee is coming face-to-face with a person who hardly says a word.    

Barbara Walters, who has interviewed almost every world figure over the past 50 years, reported that one of her worst interviews was with Hollywood movie star and director Warren Beatty.  “I asked him, ‘how are you?’  There was an interminable dead silence.  Finally he said, ‘fine.’” 

Now that’s a real problem interview.

It happens to everyone.  You are mid-way through an interview, and you feel it’s going well.  You’re in control.  You answer every question with ease.  Then suddenly, out of left-field, you’re asked, “What animal would you like to be?”  or “What’s your favourite quote that most defines you as a person?”  

Huh?

You’ve been hit with an oddball question. It can happen to anyone, in any interview, according to a new book by William Poundstone, entitled Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? The author shares some of the stranger queries Google has tossed out at candidates.  These include,  “How would you weigh your head?”  and,  “You’re in a car with a helium balloon tied to the floor. When you accelerate, what happens to the balloon?”

In the US, a candidate reported that Amazon.com asked, “How would you cure world hunger?” and another job-seeker reported that the company EvaluServe asked, “Name five uses of a stapler without staple pins.”  

Recruiters at The Bagg Group confirm that their clients, the best companies in the GTA, could put you on the spot with a question you may never have imagined, or prepared for. 

But here’s one bizarre but important query that The Bagg Group recruiters want to prepare you for:  “What do you do when you don’t have a clue how to answer a strange question?”

We’ll give you some hints:

Accept that there is no such thing as a stupid question:  Interviewers don’t care about the right answer.  They use the oddball question to understand how you think, what you care about, and how you handle yourself under pressure.  The question may seem bizarre, but there’s purpose to it.

Welcome the unexpected:  The worst thing you can do is blurt out something like, “That’s a ridiculous question.” Similarly, you can hurt your chances by rolling your eyes, smirking, or challenging the interviewer with, “What’s your point?”  Instead, show that you have a natural curiousity by greeting the oddball question with interest and openess. Buy yourself some thinking time by saying, “That’s an interesting question,” or “That’s a unique question, it’s an intriguing one to tackle.”

Think outloud:  Let the interviewer know how you tackle a puzzle by saying something such as, “There are several ways I could approach this question.  Here’s one way I might try …”   

Relate to the job:  Where you can, make a link between the question and the job you are applying for.   For example, if asked as one candidate reportedly was, “If you were a superhero, what special power would you want?” you might answer something such as, “For the purposes of this job, I’d like to see through walls so I could observe how customers handle the product.”  Or in answer to the question, “How would you cure world hunger?” you might respond from the point-of-view of the position for which you are interviewing.  For example, “As a supply chain expert, I would look first at … .”  or, “As a marketer, I would… .”

When hit with a brain cramp, forget specifics and talk big picture:  Recruiters at The Bagg Group know that whether you are interviewing for a full-time position, contract work, or temporary placement, you may be asked an unusual question that you should be able to answer in a snap.  These include, “What’s your favourite movie or book?”  Or, “What famous person is your hero?”  You may well have a hero and a favourite movie, but for some reason you go blank —  nothing comes to mind. 

If that happens, don’t panic.  Instead, give up on madly searching for a specific response, and instead take a bird’s eye view.  You might say something like, “There are so many people I admire, I have been inspired by entrepreneurs, athletes, … .”  In this way, you can talk about qualities that you admire, rather than specific names.

That said, it’s a good idea to think about someone you admire, a movie that speaks to you, and an inspirational quote that motivates you.  Even if you’re never asked about these, it can still be useful to have a little inspiration in our pocket to help us through life’s unexpected moments. 

When the Stats Canada employment figures dropped like a bombshell in November, the media asked Geoff Bagg, CEO of The Bagg Group, for his advice to help job-hunters weather the bad news. 

From his experience at the helm of The Bagg Group — which has a long history of placing people in the best companies, even during recessions — Geoff was quick to point out that numbers tell only part of the story.  And while it’s disconcerting that Canada’s economy shed 54,000 positions in October, Geoff noted that we are still 226,000 jobs ahead over this time last year.  

For the job-seeker, looking for full-time work, contract work, or a part-time placement in the GTA, the advice of The Bagg Group is don’t worry about statistics.  Instead, focus on proving yourself in an interview. 

Recruiters at The Bagg Group are busy.  Companies still have positions to fill.  However, as Geoff Bagg told Dan Matheson of CTV News, hiring managers are not willing to take risks right now.  They want to know they’re hiring the right person who can step into the position — someone who demonstrates proven ability, rather than someone who demonstrates good potential.

For candidates, this means the key in an interview is to “show, not tell.”   For example, a hiring manager won’t be convinced if you simply claim, “I’m a team-player”.  Instead, you need to offer proof by giving an example of a situation in which you showed collaborative spirit. 

At The Bagg Group, recruiters urge candidates to think SIR when responding to questions.

Situation:  Tell the interviewer of a relevant Situation.

Initiative:   Say what Initiative you took to deal with that situation.

Results:  Conclude with the Results of your initiative.

Remember, don’t waste valuable interview time detailing the situation in-depth.  The interviewer is only interested in the actions you took to resolve it.  By concluding with the results, you offer additional confirmation of your capabilities and knowledge.

Knowing how to reassure a hiring manager that you aren’t a risky hire, but instead a proven asset will set you apart from the competition.  It will require more preparation time to have a SIR at the ready for as many of the skills required as possible, but it’s time well spent.  

From the company’s perspective, hiring an employee is an investment.  Hiring the wrong person costs significantly in lost money and time, and possibly  reputation.  The hiring manager is under a great deal of pressure to make sure their choice of a candidate is certain not to be an expensive misstep.

Anyone can make claims about what they can do. But not everyone can or does substantiate their claims.  Those who do so give interviewers solid reasons to feel secure about their recommendations.

In this day and age of careful spending, proof sells —and now, more than ever, is the time for job-hunters in the GTA to prove what they can do.

To see Geoff Bagg’s interview on CTV about what it takes to stand out from the crowd, click here: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCWqM6Xse2c

Picture this: An IT manager and his boss are interviewing a promising candidate.  As the manager provides some background on the IT department, his boss rolls her eyes and says, “For heaven’s sake, get to the point, nobody has all day to listen to this.”   

And with just that one sentence, a good candidate may be ready to speed out the door.   

Some might grumble that the candidate is too easily scared away.  But not so.  According to studies, research on the effects of rudeness in the workplace shows that it negatively affects those who observe it as much as those who are a target of it.  

Second-hand rudeness is not unlike second-hand smoke, it can harm everyone in the room.  And candidates interviewing for full-time positions, contract work or even temporary placements seek out healthier environments.

A few years ago, management professors at University of Florida carried out an extensive study on rudeness.  They found when employees just observed a boss browbeating a subordinate, their level of performance decreased.  The study concluded: “Simply observing discourteous behavior can erode the ability of fellow employees to think creatively, solve problems and act as team players.” 

At The Bagg Group, we have 40 years of helping clients at the best companies across the GTA interview the top talent that we refer to them.   When our clients set up interview panels, we offer these suggestions. 

Have a game plan:  Before the interview, all those in the room should be clear about who will ask which questions, and who is tasked to give what information.  Everyone should be aware of the length of time allotted for the interview. 

The reality is you may be unable to quell the rudeness of an abrasive boss or colleague.  But with a game plan, they will know what to expect and can decide when to come and go during the interview if they are impatient to be doing other things.  

Give interviewees a heads up:  Candidates want to prepare for interviews.  It is helpful to alert them ahead of time if they’ll be meeting with a number of people, and to give them the names and roles of each person.  Like any business meeting, people want to know who will be at the table before they walk through the door.  

Role model:  At The Bagg Group, we hold a long track record for great placements.  That’s because we never forget that a good fit isn’t just about getting someone with the right skills.   

The person also needs the right disposition for the relationship to be successful.  The way the members of your panel interact gives the candidate a sense of how people work with each other at your organization, and whether your company’s inter-personal dynamics are right for them.

While the Donald Trump blunt style of leadership may result in good ratings for The Apprentice, it wouldn’t do much for attracting and retaining great talent in the GTA.  

Browbeating just doesn’t help with the bottom line.  As management professor Amir Erez who co-authored the study simply says, “ Being nice to people has a lot of advantages.”

You know it’s summer when the blockbuster movies are out.  As a candidate, the next time you go to the movies to escape the heat, consider that you and Hollywood screenwriters share something in common. 

The need to pitch-and to do it well — to get a job.

Whether you are interviewing for a full-time position, contract work or a temporary placement in the GTA, or whether you are a writer in LA, you’re going to have to tell your story in a few short lines.

There is no exception.  Even the co-writers of the much anticipated Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides had to prepare a good pitch. They caught the attention of decision-makers at Walt Disney Pictures with these two lines:

Captain Jack Sparrow goes searching for the fountain of youth. He finds it, but things don’t go well for him.

For anyone making a pitch, the key to remember is that less is more. The most powerful pitches give the listener one or two facts of interest. 

A short summary makes it easy for the listener to grasp the key points, and remember and repeat these points to other influential people who weren’t at the interview.

But candidates and unsuccessful Hollywood writers often mistakenly believe they need to give a lot of back-story before getting to the point that matters.

They don’t.  The Bagg Group recruiters always remind their candidates of the following fact:  If you give too much detail, your listener will lose track of what you are saying, and become impatient for your story to end.

After 40 years of working with hiring managers at the best companies across the GTA, we know that interviewers typically groan when a candidate offers a long back-story to this standard question:  Tell me how you resolved a difficult situation or challenge ? 

It is natural to want to recount the details of the problem, but that backfires in two ways.  Firstly, you are taking up valuable interview time that would be better spent discussing your strengths and contributions to the company. Secondly, the interviewer doesn’t care.  They aren’t asking the question to learn of past headaches at other organizations.  They simply want to know how you problem-solve.

Candidates referred by The Bagg Group are coached on how to answer the question.  Here’s what we advise:

·      Resume the difficult situation or challenge in a sentence or two.  Don’t spend a lot of time setting up the situation and giving unnecessary information about who did what, and why.

·      Prepare your answer ahead of time and keep it short.  The problem was .. .  I did x, y and z to resolve it.

·      A focused answer keeps the listener’s attention focused.   If the interviewer needs more information, they will ask you a specific question.

Think like a Hollywood writer.

If you think that you can’t boil down your story about a past problem and resolution into a few to-the-point sentences, consider this: Even longest, most complex Hollywood movie was once summed up in pitch of two or three lines. And that pitch is what got decision-makers to sit up and take notice.   And it’s thanks to that pitch that the writers got the job and we get to enjoy the movie.   Pass the popcorn.

Last week in this space we offered interview tips for the Y generation. This week, we give advice to job-hunters who have a longer history in the workplace.

History is rarely without its bumps.

It could be that you are looking for a new full-time position, contract work, or temporary placement in the GTA because you were laid off from your last job.  Or perhaps, you feel frustrated in your current position, not happy with your boss or work conditions.  Or you may simply be in the market for a new opportunity. 

In any event, how you think –and more importantly talk—about your reasons for your job-hunt can have an enormous impact on your success.

If you weren’t satisfied with your past position, you are not alone. 

A new study from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois puts career-related disappointments fourth on the list of most common regrets.    (The top three reasons people kick themselves are related to romance, family squabbles and education choices.)

But Dr. Neil Roese, a marketing professor at Northwestern U, suggests disappointment is a “helpful emotion.”    He says it can be just what we need to help us better decisions in the future.

Long before this study, The Bagg Group recruiters have been helping candidates look at their past job frustrations in a whole new light.

The Bagg Group experts prepare candidates for interviews with the best employers in the GTA by asking them this key question about their past work disappointments: “What valuable lessons did you learn from the situation?” 

We have successfully placed thousands of candidates over the decades.  One reason for our much higher than average success rate is this:  We make sure our candidates know that they can’t take anger, blame and resentment into an interview.    You can talk about lessons learned, but not about hurts suffered.

Negativity doesn’t sell. 

The best news is that putting on rose-coloured glasses, if only because it’s important for when you interview, makes you happier.

Another recent study of more than 750 people conducted by San Francisco State University shows that having a positive view of your past contributes to your happiness in the present.

This study concludes that reframing, or changing, how you think about past painful experiences can increase your life satisfaction significantly.  

The candidates who stand ahead of the rest are those who talk positively, with no resentment, about where they’ve been and where they are going.  

Their positivity is contagious, the interviewer will catch it.

And positivity sells.

Ever heard of the term glossophobia?  Chances are you, or someone you know, has it.  It’s fear of public speaking, even to a party of one, and it afflicts as many as 75% of us, according to glossophobia.com.  

At The Bagg Group, we know glossophobia can make the idea of speaking to an interviewer, or a panel of interviewers, an ordeal for those looking for work.

What makes people nervous is the thought that they might be seen as foolish, or incompetent, in the eyes of others.  Even people who have been recognized many times for their talent and expertise suffer from this. 

A famous example is Barbra Streisand, who stopped doing live shows when she was at the height of her career.  She was performing at a concern in New York City’s Central Park when the jitters caused her to forget some words to her songs.  It took her 27 years before she could get herself to sing live in front of a large audience again.

When you are looking for a job in the GTA you don’t have that kind of time. If you get stricken by a case of the nerves when presenting yourself to others, consider the advice of recruiters from The Bagg Group. With a 40-plus year history of helping candidates interview successfully for jobs, we know what works.

Remember, the only one judging you is you:  Interviewers are not looking to criticize you, they only want to learn about your skill set and experience to see if these meet their specific needs.

Interviewers are on your side:   At The Bagg Group, we have extensive experience in working with hiring managers at all leading companies in the GTA.  We know that each one wishes the best for those they interview. Whether you’re seeking a full-time job, contract work, or a temporary placement, the interviewer understands your desire to be employed and is rooting for you.  Many interviewers tell us they wish they had jobs for all the candidates they see.

Make eye contact:  We all know it’s critical to look people in the eyes when we speak to establish trust.  Yet, when we feel shy, we can unthinkingly avoid eye contact and focus on the wall or carpet. But doing so won’t decrease your tension.  People feel irritated when speakers won’t look at them – they feel invisible or unimportant — and you will likely sense their annoyance. 

Harry Beckwith, an expert on public speaking writes in Psychology Today “If you look each person in the eye for a few seconds, you make each person feel respected–a feeling every person craves.  It also makes each audience member feel involved, in what feels like a conversation.”  

Making eye contact for three to four seconds helps people engage with you, and that feeling is the key to helping you relax.

Like with everything, the fear of presenting decreases the more often you do it.  That’s reason enough to go to every interview you can.  But you don’t have to feel as if you need to conquer the jitters, you just have to manage them.  And when you think of it, there have been many occasions in your life when you’ve taken action despite feeling nervous; you’ve done it before, you can do it again.

There are two things you want to avoid in a job interview:  The first is to ask about the number of sick days to which you will be entitled. The second is to show up ill at an interview.

This year, the Toronto Public Health Office has declared that the flu has hit the GTA with a vengeance.  For candidates who get struck down by the bug the day before a much-awaited interview, that presents a dilemma.

No one wants to miss an opportunity.  And often, many of us feel we can toughen it out long enough to make it through an interview.  However, it isn’t just about how you feel, it’s about the impression you are making with the hiring manager.

Walking in looking feverish, glassy-eyed, and coughing, is not going to wow anyone.  No matter how much a hiring manager in the GTA wants to find the right full-time person, contract worker, or part-time placement, they don’t want to get sick themselves when doing it. 

To determine whether your symptoms merit calling off the interview, as much to protect the health of the interviewer as well as your own, check out the Toronto Public Health office flu alert.

If you do need to reschedule, follow these tips from the experts at The Bagg Group.  We have helped candidates prepare for interviews with the best companies across the GTA for 40 years, and sadly, each one of those years has included a flu season. 

1. Give as much advance notice as possible.
2. If your interview was set up through a recruitment agency, contact your recruiter. They will get in touch with the person who was to interview you. 
3. If you are not working with a recruitment agency, send the interviewer an email, with apologies for having to cancel because of illness and ask if they might be able to schedule you in for a meeting in a day or two. 
4. Call, as well as sending the email, just in case the interviewer doesn’t see your email before your appointment.   
5. When calling, do not try to prove how ill you are by coughing through the entire message.  At The Bagg Group, recruiters have been frustrated when they were unable to even make out the caller’s name. It doesn’t matter how high your fever is, for the one-minute call you need to stay professional, and clear.
6. Leave a number and let them know you will be available by phone and you will check your email so that you can quickly confirm another appointment.

If you don’t have anything contagious, and you feel you are able to power through the interview, try to do so.  If you’ve had a sleepless night, or you are a battling a headache, don’t feel the need to reveal all.  Consider this: How impressed would you be if when you sat down, the interviewer started giving you a detailed account of their aches and pains?

When you are in an interview, you want to focus on your strengths not your setbacks…but as soon as you get out the door, feel free to make a run for the couch. 

Stay healthy!

 Here’s a question you may never have thought to ask a job candidate: “If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?”   Yet that’s what a hiring authority with Goldman Sachs asked when interviewing a candidate for an analyst position.

Or what about this question,  “What do wood and alcohol have in common?”  That one was put to a candidate for a staff writing job with Guardflex.

Those are just two of the 15 oddest questions, allegedly asked by top flight employers in the US in 2010.  The US job site Glassdoor.com sifted through 80,000 interview questions shared online by job-hunters to compile their list of stumpers.

With 40 years of interviewing candidates to successfully match people and organizations across the GTA, staffing experts at The Bagg Group don’t recommend peppering interviews with brain-teasers.  But we do suggest asking candidates some behaviour-based questions, albeit straightforward ones. 

We know that skills and experience aren’t the only factors to consider when hiring for a full-time position, contract work, or temporary placement.  The candidate also needs to have the attitude and approach that fits with the organization’s culture. 

We work with our clients across the GTA on developing attitude-based questions that make sense for the position.  The key when asking these types of queries is to put your own bias aside, and stay focused on listening for the traits that meet the needs of the team.  This can be trickier than it sounds.

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, author of Great People Decisions notes that we all have a strong natural tendency to hire people who are like us, or make us comfortable.  But he warns, to make a good hire, we need to seek a match for the team’s personality, not our own. 

An interviewer might be a lone wolf who recognizes and appreciates another lone wolf when he or she meets one. But if the position involves a lot of team-work, then it’s the collaborative type who’s the best fit. And that’s where the behaviour-based questions come in. 

“Describe what a team environment means to you?”  and “What would you do if some team members reject your idea?” are examples of queries  that provide insight into a candidate’s approach to group dynamics, according to University of California research. 

Or you could take a more unique tact and pose the question said to have been asked by an interviewer at Capital One, “Rate yourself on a scale of one to 10 on how weird you are.”  But that might not tell you much.

An interviewer with Volkswagen in Germany allegedly asked a candidate who was vying for the position of business analyst, “What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle?” 

The interviewer apparently hoped to determine how the candidate would handle any project that she inherits.  At The Bagg Group, we maintain it would prove more helpful to ask the question straight up, just to be sure the answer isn’t influenced by a sudden craving for a cheese and pepperoni slice.

By the way, as to what we’d do if we were reduced to the size of a pencil and stuck in a blender, most of us agree with an online commentator who said, “I’d take a job with a different company.”

New study shows superstitions can help reduce performance anxiety

Do you avoid crossing the path of a black cat to avoid bad luck? Or pick up a penny on the street for good luck?  Some superstitions we never outgrow, and the surprising news is that for job-hunters, that can be a good thing.

Do you take a particular pen to every interview, or perhaps you make sure to wear a favorite watch or a certain pair of socks? You’re not alone.  A lot of us have superstitions, odd irrational beliefs and habits, that we think can help our game. And according to new research, they can. 

Athletes will tell you they don’t need to science to confirm that superstitions are important.  Michael Jordan didn’t credit talent alone for making him the greatest basketball player ever.  He believed he owed a lot to the shorts that he wore when he played for his North Carolina college team. He wore those same shorts under every uniform for every game. 

Tiger Woods has said he needs to wear red during the final round of a golf tournament to play well. And Patrick Roy, hailed as the best goalie to ever play in the National Hockey League, had a pre-game ritual that he considered sacred.  He would skate out to the blue line, stare at the net and imagine it shrinking. 

These little quirks and beliefs go along way to reducing performance anxiety, says Stuart A.Vyse, psychologist and author of Believing in Magic. 

It doesn’t matter whether you want to win a game, or win a job, we all feel we could use luck on our side.  And small superstitions give us a sense that we are doing something to help things go our way.  That belief doesn’t just reduce our anxiety, it may actually improve our performance, according to a new study at the University of Cologne, in Germany.

Research found that people who were told good-luck statements such as “break a leg” or “fingers crossed” or given a ‘lucky’ charm before a test, performed better.  Writing about the study in the prestigious journal Psychological Science, researchers concluded, “Activating a superstition boosts participants’ confidence in mastering upcoming tasks, which in turn improves performance.”

So whether you are interviewing for a full-time job, contract work, or part-time placement, if you believe wearing special socks will make you feel more confident, be sure to wear them.  After successfully placing hundreds of people over the years, at The Bagg Group we know that it’s important for you to feel good about yourself to make a good impression. And that’s not a superstition, that’s a fact…and here’s another one, we’re keeping our fingers crossed for you.