Interviewing People – Tulsa Staffing Company

My name is Cory Minter and I’m president of Trinity Employment Specialists, a Tulsa staffing company and want to talk to you just a couple of minutes about some of the things that I’ve learned while interviewing people. I’ve done this for probably about the past 20-years so I’ve seen some of the very best people interviewed, and I’ve seen some of the craziest things you’ll ever, ever see in your life. In fact, I think I should probably write a book about it because some of it got really, really crazy. I don’t want to talk about the crazy and I don’t want to talk about about the exceptional interviews. I want to talk about the people that are kind of in-between that make you go, “Man, I don’t know that I trust that person 100%.” I’m going to go over three words that people use to describe themselves sometimes in an interview and that I just wouldn’t recommend. At the same time I want to give you some other alternatives on how you can represent yourself and talk about yourself. I think it’s going to help you. Let’s get started. Tulsa Staffing Company The first thing that I hear people say regularly about themselves is that they are intelligent. I hear this a lot and I got to be honest with you. When I have somebody tell me that they’re intelligent and they say it a couple of times, the very first thing that I go to is, if they have to tell me that they’re intelligent and after being intentional with it, I don’t know how intelligent they are. It just makes me question whether or not they really are. I want to give you an alternative. Rather than saying that you’re intelligent, I really think you ought to give some examples of how you improve something by thinking outside of the box. Maybe give an example of a problem that it was really difficult for the entire team to solve, but you came up with a really good answer for it. So rather than talking about your intelligence, give examples of how you used your intellect to solve problems, maybe save money, and do that in a way that most of the other people on your team weren’t able to do and it was something that your supervisor really appreciated about you. You can even say it like that, “You know one thing that I think that my supervisor really appreciated about me was, I was able to think outside of the box on a few situations that we had and it provided a much better solution. Let me give you a couple examples of that.” That’s a much better way of saying that you’re intelligent. I think it’ll be a whole lot more believable. Definitely give examples. Don’t go around telling everybody you’re intelligent. The second most watered down term that I hear a lot is, that I’m so successful. I’m a people person, I just know how to work with people really well. I think that this is almost like going and telling everybody that you are a beautiful and powerful American. It’s just … When you tell people that, it makes them stand back and it makes them question … There might be a reason why they’re overcompensating and telling you things like this. Rather than saying that you’re successful in certain areas, I really think that it’s just like the intellect part. You really need to give examples of how you’ve led your team to success. The third thing that I hear from employees interviews all the time, especially mainly on a hourly rate is that I’m reliable, and they say this over and over again. It’s just been my experience that the more somebody tells you they are reliable, that they don’t like drama, that the more that they say these things, the more it tells me they have had issues with this in the past and they’re wanting to overcompensate for it. If you want to talk about reliability, I know I’m giving you the same example for all of these, but use examples on how you’re reliable to your employer. Don’t just say the word and expect them to 100% believe that that’s what you’re talking about. I really think that by giving examples rather than just talking about the terminology, I really think that’s going to help you a lot. Pay attention to this, study on your interview, you’ll get better. I promise. Good luck with that. Tulsa Staffing Company