It's easy to give away so much good advice on a job interview that your hiring manager decides they don't need to hire you.
They can simply implement the tremendous ideas you shared with them.
How can you avoid giving away too much free advice at a job interview? Here's how.
Your goal is not to prove you're smart and capable by answering interview questions or telling your hiring manager how to solve their problems.
Your goal is to ask questions about the manager's Business Pain.
Asking questions about your manager's Business Pain accomplishes a lot!
1. Your questions about your hiring manager's Business Pain make it clear that you understand the subject matter and that you've researched the organization carefully.
2. Your expertise, judgment and insight show more clearly through your Business Pain questions than they ever could if you were answering traditional interview questions!
3. Your Business Pain questions and your hiring manager's answers will gradually fill you in on what your possible next employer is dealing with — the pain that is keeping them from reaching their goals. Everybody likes to talk themselves. Your hiring manager will be happy to talk about what's keeping him or her up at night if you approach the subject politely.
4. As you and your manager discuss their Business Pain, your manager will slip into brainstorming mode with you naturally. That's what you want! If they don't, ask yourself whether this manager is someone you want to spend countless working hours with.
Your goal on interview with a hiring manager is to get that manager's brain working.
Like all of us, hiring managers spend much of their work day on auto-pilot. You have to get your interviewer out of auto-pilot mode in order to have a productive interview — one that your manager will remember!
You will get clear on your hiring manager's Business Pain — and then you will tell a Dragon-Slaying Story about a time when you solved a similar kind of pain before.
You will not solve this hiring manager's specific pain in the interview, however!
Here's how the process works.
Manager: So, what did you do at Angry Chocolates, exactly?
You: My title was Senior Buyer/Planner. I was responsible for buying the ingredients and raw materials for Angry's melting chocolates and edible nail polish lines, and I ran inventory and production planning for those two product lines. Since they were our biggest product lines I was always hopping. That job had a lot to do with supply chain management, staying close with vendors and watching for shifts in inventory requirements, because the mix of products we were selling was always changing.
Manager: So, what would you say was your greatest accomplishment in that job?
You (realizing that your manager does not know how to get off the interview script on their own): I'd say that would be re-engineering the purchasing process to take a week off the schedule — that has a huge impact when you're dealing with perishable products like chocolate. Say, can I ask you a question about your Purchasing Manager job? Just so I keep my remarks relevant.
Manager: Sure!
You: Great. I know your company is growing pretty fast, twenty-two or twenty-five percent a year - correct?
Manager: Yes. It's very exciting -- kind of crazy at times, too.
You: For sure. And you obviously have suppliers and you work with a third-party assembly vendor, but the recruiter mentioned that you want to take a more hands-on approach to managing your supply chain and the assembly process, to speed it up and cut costs — is that accurate?
Manager: Very well said! Yes, that's the principal driver behind the decision to create this new job. I've been doing our purchasing myself with the help of my assistant, but we are both very busy with other things. I have all of Operations to worry about, including customer support, shipping and receiving, returns, logistics and facilities. Even for a $12 million dollar company that's a lot of hats to wear.
You: You said it! So I'm wondering, as you look at your current relationships with raw materials vendors on the one hand and your third-party assembly house on the other hand, what do you want to see change? What would your idea supply chain look like?
Manager: It's a matter of visibility. Right now we place orders and we have some blanket vendor agreements in place with the understanding that our needs could always change, but we need to get more strategic. In some cases we could upgrade from a current vendor. We haven't had the time. Our vendors work directly with our assembly vendor but the strategy piece is missing and I believe it's hurting us.
You: How would you say the lack of supply chain strategy is hurting the company now?
Manager: Every aspect of our supplier relationships would be stronger, from pricing to delivery schedules to more formal communications, if we had strategic agreements in place, especially with our biggest vendors. The folks at the assembly shop want me to come over and meet with them once a month and I want to, but it's literally impossible. I need someone who can take that off my shoulders.
You: What will improve for the business when your new person is up and running? What results will you see?
Manager: I'll know our strategy with each vendor and with our assembly partner, and I'll get reports from our purchasing manager that show me what's happening with every vendor, every week. We'll see the clear connection between our revenue growth strategy and our supply chain organization. We'll save a lot of money and we'll all sleep better, too. So -- how would you solve the problem?
You: You're talking about a strategy, and I completely agree that that is where you should focus your energy now, to support your next stage of growth. The supply chain strategy is going to follow directly from your plans for the business. So, I'd start by interviewing you and then the entire executive team to hear what all of you are thinking about 2018 and beyond. The big picture is the key in creating a strategy, especially when you're looking at long-term relationships with vendors.
Manager: For sure — but I mean, what are your recommendations for us as you sit here today?
You: My recommendations are all in the realm of stopping and looking from altitude at your operations — digging in to see what's working right now and what isn't. I want to find out what you're doing in the area of vendor quality assurance. I want to read your contracts and see if they are robust enough for where your company is headed. I want to understand your revenue goals going forward before I think about creating a strategic plan with your assembly partner — do you see what I mean? It's fact-finding, and that is hard to do in a growing organization when you don't have a minute to catch your breath. It's an initiative, rather than set of tips or approaches. It will take a few months to complete, but the benefits will be evident starting very quickly.
Manager: I see what you mean. You want to get up out of the weeds and look at our operation as a whole.
You: That's the key. No one can say what your optimal supply chain looks like right now because we don't have the information — past, present and future — that would tell us. Can I tell you a story about the last time I re-engineering a supply chain, over at Angry Chocolates?
End of Script
The Angry Chocolates story will suck in your next boss even more than your thoughtful, relevant questions did. You are going to tell a story that explains how you solved someone else's problem — not his.
You can't solve this hiring manager's problem sitting in your interview chair — it wouldn't be responsible of you even to advance possible solutions.
You don't have the information you need to do that.
You can smile and say "I would love to tell you what your magic bullet looks like, but you have the advantage over me right now — I'm avid to learn more!"
When you deflect your manager's requests for free consulting advice, don't get testy or send the message in your tone or body language "No free consulting for you!"
Everybody wants advice. Don't be upset with your hiring manager for wanting your advice. Be happy they want some of your wisdom!
Keep reminding them that they are smart and they also surround themselves with smart people. In one visit to their facility you could not and would not presume to tell all those smart people how to run their business!
As the old saying goes, "Leave them wanting more!"
Keep your cool, keep your counsel and don't give your magic away for free.