How to Interview Your Interviewer

Hi. My question is, how do you interview your interviewer? I was working for a small dealership as a service manager, but I wasn't really liking their ethics or other factors, I guess. So I jumped ship to a different dealership. That dealership is a complete mess, and I'm miserable. But I was kind of disappointed. So that kind of makes it worse. Just because I want to be the best service advisor that I possibly can.

So, I mean, I would say there's a couple things. Is when you're interviewing for a job.

I'd want to see the numbers and the pay plan. I would want to read their reviews online. Like, what are customers saying? Because if. If the. If the customers aren't happy, it means the systems are broken. And those broken systems are just as hard on employees as they are in customers. If you're an employee caught in a broken system, you're just as miserable. Is all the customers on Google and Yelp, right? And then I would hang out and talk to people that work there, and if they give you the cold shoulder and they're not friendly and they, you know, they. They won't share with you, then there's probably something else going on. Most companies where the systems are good and they hire good people that are friendly, you know, people will talk to you and they'll. They're just as excited to talk to you as they are to help a customer. The. The culture kind of comes through pretty, pretty clearly in. In those situations. But those would kind of be my three. What do you think?

Yeah, I love that you touched on culture, because I think that that's huge. And it. Sometimes culture is like the wind, right? So you, You. It can't be seen, but the effects can actually be felt. You know, if you ever. If you've ever walked into, like, a board meeting or a team meeting that maybe you weren't a part of the team, you could, like, cut the tension with a knife so you can feel it. So just by, you know, talking to the employees and, like, hanging out there and seeing what. What does it look like? What are the transactions like between customer and employee and between employee and employee, I think that's huge. But as far as the interview itself is concerned, I think that oftentimes when they're interviewing, people try to hide the culture that they have. If it's not one that's good. And so I usually like to go to the question of asking the person that is interviewing me when they get. When you get to that part, it's like, okay, you have any questions for us, one of the questions that I would always go to is to ask them, like, define your culture in one word on your worst day. Because sure, we all have, you know, and it's not to say you make your decision if they say something bad, but think about your own organization right now and define your culture on its worst day using one word. If I was to define my team culture on their worst day, I would say disorganized, right? So we're kind of all over the place on our worst day. But hey, I'm okay with that because that's my worst day. Imagine like the day in and day out experiences. So trying to capture that in an interview can be really tricky because again, maybe they're replacing that position because that person left because they're like, I can't deal with this anymore. So they're not going to be like, okay, hello, welcome. Our culture is awful. We can't wait to have you. Here's some interview questions that's never going to happen, right? So they're going to do their best to hide their culture, especially if it's not a good one. But if you kind of ask those types of questions that aren't typically asked around culture, specifically define your culture using one word and also asking yourself like, what kind of culture do you want and what type of questions can you ask to determine if that culture is in alignment with what it is that you're looking for as somebody trying to get hired?

Yeah, that's great. You know, I was in a. For a couple years, I was in a mastermind that Cialdini was in. Have you ever read his book Influence?

No, I haven't.

It's a great, great book. And then he has a book that he put out years ago called Pre Suasion. They're both great books. But he said when he was writing Pre Suasion, they did this experiment. I don't think it made it into the book. But this guy got job offers for, I think, five different jobs that he wasn't qualified for. And the only thing that he did is when he went in for the job interview, whether was an individual interview or a few of them were like a panel is. He said, hey, before we get started, can I ask you a question, Michelle? What is it on my resume that made you think I was qualified for this job?

Wow, that's good.

And then the people would have to sell themselves on why they called him in because he's not qualified for the job. And every time he got an offer.

That's interesting. That Is so fascinating.

Making them sell themselves on why he was even there, made them like. And also asking a question right at the beginning is a pattern interrupt. And it disrupts kind of the hierarchy and the authority in a way.

Yeah. People aren't prepared for that question. So they're actually going to be authentic in their response, which I think is important. That's what we're looking for on both ends. Whether you're their interviewee or the interviewer, we want to see who you are. Really. You know, when I go through. When I sit on interview panels, a lot of them are, you know, for executive level positions. When I'm on the interview panels, I always go in with the mindset, hey, look, guys, like, this is the best we're going to get. Right. So they're going to be on their best behavior in this interview. So when we are interviewing them, if they're all right, I don't think that we should settle. I think we should really kind of dig in and say, this is the best we're going to get because they're on their best behavior right now. So can you imagine, like, six months down the road when they start to get comfortable and what that employee looks like then?

That's one reason why I love group interviews is because in a group interview.

There is an element of you have to interact with a bunch of different people and different angles and different agendas that it's harder to come across as a happy, go lucky person when you're in a crowd or in a group.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I know this is true.

Colors show a little more.

Exactly. And I know that this is a little bit. It's kind of on the other end of the question. But I also think just as a business owner or a leader that's bringing someone new on the team, they can make or break that team. Right. So I think it's equally important. We oftentimes hire for talent or for, like, what the resume says. And. And so maybe that gentleman that you were talking about was getting hired because he just seemed like such a great cultural fit. Because for me, when I'm doing interviewing, especially for the team that I look after, I'm looking for two things. I want to make sure that they can do the job, but I'm open to coaching and developing them. That's the world I come from. So what's more important to me is like, hey, can this person hit the ground running, given the resources that we will give them, and be a good cultural fit? Meaning, do they play nice with others like will they get along with the team? Because what I don't want to happen is this one person comes in and it just kind of messes up the dynamics of the entire group kind of meshing and getting along. This one person comes in and kind of makes breaks that all up. So that's something that I think is really important to consider as well.

Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chris collins inc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video sa.