Interviews - what they're REALLY looking for.

Hey guys, welcome to episode 3. Thank you for being here. I love that I've just got this podcast running and I'm just doing it and making it happen. I think it's— there's this theme in my life right now where I just am full steam ahead. I've gone through like a bit of a lull, a sales slump, a tough time, and now I just have this I've always had this big vision of where I wanted to go, but I'm just, I'm throwing everything at everything in my business and I am starting to see things come back to me and every opportunity that is coming my way, I am jumping on it. Every piece of content that performs well, I am making the most of that. Every client that I speak to, I'm making sure that they, we, you know, they get the most out of their work with me, you know. Everything that I am doing right now is moving towards this highest version of myself and my business. I'm dedicating every day to me. I'm still on my, um, my habits of I go for a walk as soon as I wake up in the morning. I have my phone off. It's not near my bed. All these different things. There's still work that I need to be doing, but so much of where I'm starting to finally see some traction after a long time of not is because of, you know, keeping consistent, keeping showing up, and just having, you know, I talk about it a lot, but a delusional level of self-belief that I'm going to get there. And I am, and I'm making it happen. And it just feels really good that things are moving. Um, so what's happened since I last spoke to you last week? Um, I had a couple of opportunities come through. I had a PR, um, conversation— opportunity, sorry. This AI company in New York wanted me to have an interview with them around how I started Chloe AI. So I did that and that got published today and it was just so cool to see me in an article on LinkedIn and it's like, this career coach turned herself into AI and it's just cool. And then what else? I've just been invited to be a guest on a recruiter panel for a talk they're doing and I have also just had a piece of content go viral now. This might seem like something minor, but I post content every day and I haven't had a piece of viral content like this at this level. I think we're sitting at almost half a million views, um, and thousands of new followers. I haven't had that for at least 2 years. So when you're showing up consistently and something like this happens, it's just, yeah, game-changing. And I'm trying not to panic. My coach was like, don't panic, just treat this as business as usual. And, um, make sure, you know, you're making the most of all those people coming in. So for me, I'm like, okay, I've got automation set up so every new follower gets like an automatic message from me. I've got them— I was starting off with like, hey, like, book a one-on-one call with me, but that's probably a little bit too intense for just a new follower. So I'm now pushing them to— I'm doing an interview masterclass for all new followers next week. So yeah, it's just making the most of that opportunity and What's also interesting is how I'm responding to negativity. Of course, when anything goes viral, you're going to have a lot of people that love it, and then there's going to be a portion of people who want to hate on it. So in the content, I'm making a smoothie and I'm talking about how as a candidate in an interview, you can ask the hard questions that they ask you. So, and the way I've filmed it is that the interviewer asks a question, you ask a question. Now, obviously, in an interview, you wouldn't actually do that, but I just filmed it in a certain way. You would weave the questions into the conversation. But people have taken that very literally, and they're like, oh my God, you'll get kicked out of the interview room if you did that. And worst advice ever. Why would you tell someone to do that? All these things. So there's a lot of— I probably have 20% of the hundreds of comments negative, and I've had to manage that. I think when I first started on social media, those kind of comments would really impact me. But now, you know, people are like, that's the worst advice ever, don't listen to this person, blah blah blah. I just respond back with, you know, everyone's able to have an opinion. This is why I, this is why I believe it's this way. And after interviewing over 1,000 people, I'm pretty sure I'm highly credible in this space. So, you know, you just, it's just interesting how it's just not I'm not attached to that anymore. Um, people can hate on it as much as they want, but there's plenty of people that love it, and I believe in what I say. And I think that's a big thing about it. Um, you know, this self-belief, coming across as someone with authority, credibility. If you believe in what you— if you believe in what you're talking about and your content speaks to your values, then you are going to be detached from the negative comments that come in because you're like, well, 'You can have your opinion, but I firmly believe in what I say.' So it's such an important, I guess, behavior or intrinsic belief to have of yourself if you want to be putting content out there and having, you know, hundreds of thousands of people view it. You're really— you're very seen. People see you and they are not afraid to say what they think. I think the funniest comment I've had is someone that's like, Relax, Karen, we don't want you in our company and your gross smoothie anyway. I'm like, uh, my name's Chloe and the smoothie is delicious, thank you. So yeah, interesting. Um, but hey, you know, we make the most of the opportunities that come towards us. So with that in mind, um, that's— yes, that's pretty much been my week. Uh, yeah, as I said, still showing up every day, go to the gym 6 days, got my habits in place. Um, this week I'm hoping for a good money week. You know, there's lots of irons in the fire, or whatever you say. So I, I'm hoping that, um, and I'm manifesting that some, some good, um, some good money comes my way. So that's me, that's what I'm doing, and that's what's been happening. Um, so today's topic, I, considering how nuts this Reel when I thought I would start talking about interviews. Let's go, let's go to the careers part of this podcast. So in this Reel specifically, I talk about how it's really important as a candidate to ask questions that are important to you. I'm always going to say, uh, don't ask questions that you don't genuinely want to know the answer to. What's the point? Um, and an interviewer will be able to like read through that, you know, when I would interview people, if they would just ask me boring basic questions like, you know, tell me a little bit about the company culture, or I don't know, just questions that I could tell they didn't really care about. They were just asking questions because they thought they had to ask the questions. I always say, what are things you genuinely want to know the answer to? You know, what is a piece of negative feedback they've received and what have they done to improve on that? When they ask you about salary, like, what's the budget they're working with? And there is always a budget. People are like, oh, there's not going to be a budget for that. I'm like, well, there has to be a budget. It's called workforce planning. An HR team has to have a budget for a role. Like, that's just how business works. So there's always going to be a number. There will always be a budget. But I think what's really important about this interview piece— and I could talk about interviews for days— but it's so important that you are showing up to interviews as you, not as the person you think they want you to be. There's a couple of reasons for that. The first reason is if you show up as someone that you think they want you to be, sure, you might have some, you might, you know, um, get them to like you. They might like what they see, but there's going to be this element of a facade, right? And for some interviewers, they won't see it. But for interviewers like me who can read people very well, I can 100% tell if you are pretending to be someone that you're not. I can read straight through that. If you are not showing up with authenticity and as you, then I can see that and you're not going to be successful. And even if you are successful, you'll get into the role and they will see that you are not the person that they interviewed and it will not work out for you. You probably won't pass probation. So it's really important that you feel that you can show up as you, you know. And the reason that we're probably showing up as someone that we think they want to see or hear or look at is because we don't think we have enough value to offer. You know, why pretend to be someone that you're not when you have everything within you? You know, why give them answers or, um, respond to like— or do a pitch on yourself that doesn't really speak to what you believe in, what your values are, what you bring, and what you think you're really good at? You know, I think there's a lot of us feel quite, um, I don't know, like we, we don't feel secure enough in ourselves to sell ourselves. And I get a lot of people that I work with that find it very uncomfortable to pitch themselves or talk about what they've done really well. In Australia, this is something very common— tall poppy syndrome. We literally came up with that, so it doesn't surprise me when all these people come to me and they say, oh, I just can't talk about myself like that. I can't sell myself. That's really cringe. No one wants to hear that. It's literally the opposite of an interview. Like, in an interview, they want you to sell yourself. They want you to show them how good you are. They want you to rock up and say, this is my value. This is what I bring. This is what I can do. This is what I can't do. This is how I'm going to fill the gaps. And this is how I'm going to be the perfect employee, like the perfect solution to your problem that you're facing right now. So They want you to share all that so then they can go, oh, amazing. We want this person to do all of that in here. See where I'm getting at here? They want to know the real you. They want to know how you are the solution to their problem by being you and bringing in the experience that you have right now. What interviewers are also really wanting to see, I think we, we commonly think that an interview will— is like a test. Sitting in a chair, there's someone across the table from us, and they're just firing all these questions at us and expecting us— expecting some, like, robotic answers. That's quite far from the truth. The interviewer wants to be able to connect with you. They want to feel that they build a sense of rapport. They want the— they want the interview to feel more like a conversation rather than a test. And do you know why they want to feel these things? And of course, I will say, I will say there's a caveat to this. This is not for all industries. Industries like government, quite different. But for most of the roles you were going for, they want to build rapport. They want to build a connection because they want to know that you're going to be a good fit in their team. They are assessing you not only on your skills and capabilities and experience, but also how you're going to work in the team. So again, if you're showing up pretending to be someone that you're not, they're not going to get a fair assessment of that. So, when you're going into an interview, don't, please don't feel that the interviewer is wanting you to fail or stuff up your questions or get stumped by a hard question they throw at you. Like, they're wanting you to do well and they're wanting to connect with you because they want you to be the candidate that they hire. Interviewing is tiring. I've done a lot of it for years. We want you to be the candidate that is the unicorn and walks in and wows us. And we're like, "Oh my God, amazing." we don't need to do those 50 other interviews. You know, it's interesting sometimes when you put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer and just get that different perspective. We don't want you to fail. We want you to win. I think, you know, going back to what— so that's what interviewers want to experience from you. They obviously want you to articulate your value, how you're the solution to their problem, you know, They want you to listen. One of the biggest things that would be an issue for me when I was an interviewer is people wouldn't listen to the question I was asking. And what I mean by that is when you get asked a question, there's going to be two different types of questions that you're asked. One of them is going to be like a— they might refer to a specific scenario and how you would handle that, or they might ask you for a specific example of when you've done a time or when you've, when you've experienced something like this, or where you've demonstrated a certain skill. That is them asking for a specific example. Where they are not asking for an example is when they say, what is your approach to this? Uh, what is your strategy for building partnerships? Whatever it is. What people misunderstand, uh, and can, it can be quite frustrating for the interviewer because it tells them that you are not listening. We think that we need to answer every question with an example. But what the difference is here is that these questions that say, you know, what's your approach? What's your strategy? How would you handle? They are asking for— they want to know how you think. The interviewer wants to know if you were given this situation or if you have done this before, what are the steps that you put in place to complete this certain task or to manage this type of situation? How does your brain operate? What is your strategic, how does your brain think on a strategic level? That is what we're trying to get at here. We're not asking for an example. So when you give us the steps that you would take to secure a new partnership, we don't want you to then say, like this time I did it at this other organization, because we've already got what we wanted and you're just, you're elongating the answer. You're going to lose the interviewer and you're probably just filling the empty space with words. That's another big thing, right? These are, I guess, these are key things on what to do to not lose the interviewer. So the first one is make sure you are really listening to what the question is that they're asking. If you need them to clarify, ask. But if they're asking for an example, they will ask for an example. If they don't want an example, they want your approach. Make, like, make sure you have a very clear differentiation between those two things. Because it's very frustrating if candidates are not listening to what the interviewer is asking, right? The other place where you might lose an interviewer is when you are talking at them, not with them. Now, this is a really interesting one, right? I've interviewed a lot of people, and the people that sit across from me and don't speak to me like I'm a human, they speak to me like I'm a robot, and they clearly are reciting their answers. Again, I can see that. Now, I know that interviewing is hard. I know that people get really nervous and it's quite an anxiety-inducing thing. I understand that. But I'm telling you what is going to either win an interviewer over or lose them. And you sitting there talking at me, reciting things that are a script and not trying to have a conversation with me is a sure way to get me offside. What I will appreciate more and connect with you more on is if when you're giving an answer, you treat it like a conversation. So I ask you the question, and instead of just going, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, went into it and not even acknowledging, be like, yeah, absolutely, I can answer that. Yeah, sure, I can share an example. Best time I've done that would have been X, Y, and Z, or "Um, how I would approach it would be like this." And then when you finish giving your answer, this is a great opportunity for you to continue the conversation and ask them a question back. Now, this is where I got a lot of pushback on this reel because people are saying you shouldn't be asking them as many questions as they ask you. And I'm like, well, that's wrong because, you know, the interviewer wants you to be inquisitive. They want you to be curious. They want you to feel— they want you to treat the interview like a conversation. And if you are being interviewed by someone who cannot handle you asking questions, they are insecure. They are— they have a bad workplace culture. They have something to hide, and they simply are not treating you like an equal to them. And that's someone that's just on a power trip. So be conscious of that. And I— and look, There's so many nuances here and variables to think about. I know people, they wanna get a job because they wanna get paid and there's a sense of urgency there and they don't care. I get that, that's your priority. That's different, fine. If you just want a job, you don't care who you're working for, you just want money, go do that, go do your thing. But I will also say, don't feel that you cannot ask for what you want or what is important. That is always something that should happen in an interview. Why feel that you need to be a doormat just to get the job? You know, why feel that you have to interview at a company that doesn't respect you to get paid? Isn't there going to be a company that you— like, if you're getting interviewed by this company, why can't you get interviewed by someone else that treats you better? Like a relationship, right? Don't let someone treat you poorly when there's someone else out there that could treat you really well, you know. And Yeah, I know there's a sense of urgency, but as I said, if you're getting an interview here, you will get an interview somewhere else. Okay. So we've kind of got into what will, I guess, lose the interviewer, why you should be asking the hard questions. And when I say the hard questions, it's like, it's important to know what you're walking into. Like, don't you want to know who their biggest competitor is and how they stay ahead of current market trends and what they're doing differently to everyone else. And if your job's going to be secure, like, you know, they might ask you, where do you see yourself in 5 years' time? And it's very fair for you to obviously answer that question and then say, you know, I guess on that, considering this is my 5-year plan for my career, I'm curious to understand where you see this role going or how you see it developing. Nothing wrong with that. You are not being difficult. You are not asking too many questions. You are asking them in a very fair way. Well, you're saying to them in a very fair way, okay, you're asking me what my 5-year plan is and you expect me to stay in this company, but I also want to know what's the security of this job. Totally fair. Totally fair to ask that question. So I think a lot of people are scared to ask questions that might come across as aggressive, but they're not aggressive. They're just making sure— you're just making sure that you're walking into a good situation, and there's nothing wrong with that. I had someone else say, oh, I— if I did that, I'd feel I was intimidating the interviewer. Good, that's a good thing. Oh my God, when I was interviewing people, if I was intimidated by the person I was interviewing, I knew we had to hire them because I knew they'd be great at what they do. You know, I've been nervous interviewing people, absolutely. Now I will say there is 100% difference between being intimidating and being arrogant. Arrogant is very different. Intimidating is someone who's just really good at what they do. They know what they're talking about, and you're not, and you're not going to be able to pull the wool over their eyes. You know, they, they know what they're looking for, and that's intimidating because they're like, wow, this person's like stepping in their power. They've got authority, they've got credibility. We want them to work for us. That's what will come across. And if an interviewer is intimidated, then they're not someone you want to work for. You know, they're insecure in what they're doing. They're not a good interviewer. And that's something as well to consider. And I'm, you know, I could go on for this, on about this for ages. I'll have to do another episode. But, you know, an interviewer, it could be the first time they're doing an interview. Sometimes interviewers are not good at their job. I've had to be trained. I've been coached on how to interview well. Like, There's plenty of, plenty of interviewers out there that don't do it well. Like I coach people on interviewing, right? It's a skill. Okay. So we've gone into that a bit. Now I want to speak to how to finish and follow up. Really important to kind of maintain a sense of control over the interview process. Now, of course, you cannot control the outcome of an interview. You can only control how you show up and how you, how you feel walking away and how, like the best outcome for an interview Obviously the pinnacle is to get hired, but the absolute best outcome is for you to walk away and feel that you couldn't have done any better. That's what I say to all my clients, obviously, like regardless of getting hired, as long as you are walking away and you are, yeah, 100% happy with what you've done, couldn't have done it differently, then that is literally all you can ask of yourself. Okay. Um, but what you're going to check with the interviewer to make sure that you're just staying in the loop. Are these couple of things. You need to ask them, what happens from here? So you know what the process looks like. You need to ask them, when should I expect to hear from you? So you can follow them up on the day if they don't get back to you. One of the jobs that I got offered and got a $50K pay rise in, they didn't call me on the day they said they would, so I followed them up. I chased them 4 times. I tried calling them 4 times. And they're like, oh yeah, yeah, we'll get back to you, we'll get back to you. And then they offered me the job. Persistence, persistence can win. You're not being pushy. They said they're going to call you, they haven't called you, so you call them. So get those dates, like know those dates of what to expect and when to hear, just so you can call them out on their own timeline. Um, and then salary, you know, we'll do a whole other episode on salary, but I think one of the most important things is you always go in with your highest number. You know your market research, you have data and facts behind that, you know your market worth. You're not just pulling a number out of thin air. You're coming to the table with a number that is backed by facts and your own experience. And you don't have to give your number away first. You can ask them, what is the budget for the role? Um, you can, you can If they push back again, you can say, well, I'm interviewing for roles at this number and put a high number. Is that in line with what you're wanting to pay? You know, there is no way that I'm going to let anyone I speak to or deal with lowball themselves. It happens too often, and too often people walk away with leaving so much money on the table, and we are not going to do that. From someone that has been grossly underpaid to working with people that missed out on getting salary increases and promotions, This is something that is so important, and especially as women, actually, we will never, you know, we tend to not ask for the higher number. But if you go in with the highest number, they may not meet you there, but they'll meet you very close. They'll meet you at a number that's very close to that. Okay, so that's interviews, part 1 of, I think, like 10, 10 podcast episodes that I could talk on interviews about. Um, but I thought it was an interesting topic to touch on considering it's kind of all over my social media at the moment with my viral content. So look, I, I welcome any comments on this, any thoughts. Uh, always do. My space is— it's open for opinions. I'm here for opinions, um, as long as you're ready and willing to hear my opinion back. Most people that I respond to that share their opinion of how they disagree with me, do not respond. I don't think I've had someone actually respond to me with a fully fledged argument, but I would welcome that. I'm here for a conversation. So thank you so much, everyone, for tuning in. You know, this podcast, I think as I go along, I'm just putting in what feels right at the time. And this is careers. This is You know, this, this all ties in, right? Like showing up for yourself, speaking to your value, asking for what you're worth. Like not putting up with, not putting up with things that are less than for you, you know. Not feeling that you need to lower yourself for other people's standards. No, you set the bar. You set the bar for the life you want to live. Great. Okay, well, thanks for tuning in. See you next week.