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Diary of a Hiring Manager

by Darlene McDaniel on December 27th, 2007

This is a great article, A Hiring Manager’s Diary Includes Valuable Lessons, found on Columbus Business First. Here is the article in its entirety, written in September 2002. I will share my thoughts later. But the lessons are still applicable to anyone in the midst of a job change. If you are in the market for a job, read this article.

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Business First of Columbus - by Janice Worthington

Dear Business First:

Tomorrow we begin our search for a new marketing manager. As vice president of marketing and sales, I found our newly departed, underperforming marketing manager’s good-bye party enjoyable, however the grueling search for his replacement finds me fills with dread.

If I could only have a word with the candidates who want to work for us, I would give them this advice:

Make sure your résumé defines who you are, what you know and what you’ve done so that I can relate your career to what we need in a marketing manager.

Use the top quarter of the first page to summarize what you would bring to my company, and list specific keywords that identify critical skills that will be meaningful to me.

Whatever you do, don’t just make a list of where you work and what you do in your jobs. Include what your employers do and where your accountability fits into each scenario.

Then, once you’ve told me what you do, follow this information with how well you’ve done it all in the form of achievements and performance highlights. Those problems you solved last year may be the very ones that I have this year, and this could be the reason I select you for an interview.

Remember, a résumé without achievements is like a report card without grades.

Please contact me. If I don’t know you exist, I can’t hire you. As a hiring manager, I know that if I were to look for a job, I would automatically attempt to place myself in front of as many prospective employers as possible.

Last year, we hired a director of sales to replace his underperforming predecessor. We had planned to conduct a search to replace that underperformer but hadn’t yet been given the opportunity when Charlie Candidate submitted a résumé and followed up with a phone call. The strength of his presentation, his compatibility in meeting our requirements and his tremendous enthusiasm presented a strong contrast to our current underperformer. There was no need to ever conduct a search. We believe we hired the best candidate who, without invitation from a classified ad or a recruiter, made his presence known.

Have your interview strategy together – know why you’re visiting me. It’s your job to make a connection with what my company needs and relay how you can meet that need. To me, an interview is a meeting, not an interrogation. So don’t simply expect to sit around providing good answers to my questions.

If you present a passive demeanor in our meeting, I will visualize you as a passive contributor. That will reflect on my hiring decision, and I won’t see a job offer in your future.

On the other hand, don’t run over me. Learn the concept of mirroring and modeling. If I am extroverted and animated, you can come out a bit more than if I am on the quiet side.

Leave your “Opportunity for Advancement and Stability” at the door. I’m trying to hire a marketing manager. We haven’t met our numbers this year, which is why we are replacing our current individual.

Our competition is a real threat, and with customer spending so tight, we fear we may never be able to recover the market share we had in the 1990s.

I am willing to award my new marketing manager with a generous sign-on bonus, a hefty salary, stock options, outstanding benefits and vacation time. Try to imagine what I will do (besides reach for my nitroglycerin and Prilosec) when you reveal your primary reason for becoming my next marketing manager is your desire for advancement and stability.

Don’t take this personally, but I don’t care.

You are a product for purchase and your hopes, dreams and desires don’t motivate me to offer you anything but best wishes and an escort to my parking lot. I wouldn’t buy a Ford to meet the salesperson’s quota either.

Give me a reason to buy.

Keep your “business cool.” I found you to be a formidable candidate, one that I envisioned on our team.

However, your follow-up bordered on harassment, and rather than impress me you appeared desperate. You submitted a strong résumé and your personal presentation reflected compatibility with our firm.

You obviously had conducted a great amount of research about my company, and I was flattered that you came in with so much insight. The thank-you note following the interview referred to specifics from our interview, rather than the generic “I believe I’d be good for your company,” that has proven more effective than Sominex.

So, after all that hard work, what motivated you to call me three times this week? And why would you ever come all the way back here, unannounced, to address any questions I might have? Your lack of moderation in follow-up sent a message that I prefer not to pass on to my clients. So you won’t be meeting any of them.

Well, that’s it for now. Perhaps my lamentations will empower your readers to conduct more powerful job searches. I certainly hope so. I really need that marketing manager yesterday.

Sincerely,

Mr. Hiring Manager

Janice Worthington is executive director of Worthington Career Services, career management firm in Columbus. Reach her at 614-890-1645 or janice@worthingtonresumes.com.

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