Reaching Your Interviewer on a Personal Basis

Posted on March 13, 2013 by

As a job seeker or any business professional, a great deal of your success relies on how effectively you can deal with others. There is more to interviewing than simply answering job related questions.

 

The most effective meetings occur when the two parties reach each other on a personal basis and, when done the cohesion creates a stir of positive energy in the room which is going to increase performance, heighten perceived intelligence and make the meeting enjoyable.

 

How do you do so? Some of us are born with great people skills, however if you’re anything like me, to have to work at the topic and before you work on the topic, you must come to terms as to how important it is to become better with others.

 

How to Start and the Overarching Message:

 

Want to get to the point where you connect with the hiring manager on a more human basis? While there are tons of different personality traits that exist, these rules will work with any type of person:

 

1. Nobody likes to feel that they are being sold something or told what to do, rather they want to feel that they are doing something on their own accord. The takeaway here is to not be forceful or overbearing with the interviewer. For instance, if you have another job offer at the same time, kindly inform them and let them decide the best course of action.

 

2. Think about the other person’s viewpoint. What does the employer want? If you were that individual, what would you want? Among other variables, traits such as honesty, hard working, reliable and many others should come to mind.

 

3. Think to yourself as to what benefits the employer will receive when they hire you. Will you be able to hit the ground running with little to no training? Can you take tedious work that the hiring manager has to do off his or her hands making them free or worry? Can you deliver better client relationships?

 

Before you think about what the company can do for you, show them what you can do for the firm and you will be paid back in spades.

 

4. Appeal to the interviewer’s noble motives meaning that you should explain actions you’ve taken throughout your career as full of ‘good will.’ For example, if you’re leaving your current job, you can tell the interviewer that you want to be fair to your employer so you are going to need a few weeks to start as it’s the honest action to take.

 

5. Let the interviewer talk and listen to what they say. Rather than only thinking about how you’re going to respond, take the time to hear every word, then react to what they are actually saying vs. what you perceive them to be saying. Remember to never interrupt. If you have a pertinent thought during their monologue, write it down.

 

In the End

 

All things being equal, the employer is going to hire the job seeker they can relate to more…that is even if all things are not equal and the other applicant has more extensive qualifications, you significantly even the playing field. The best thing I’ve done in a long time is read this book again as sometimes invaluable lessons are forgotten.

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9 Tough Interviewing Questions and Answers

Posted on January 17, 2013 by

For the interviewee, the headhunters at KAS Recruitment have compiled a list of tough interviewing questions and answers. While our recruiters suggest that you interview with nothing but honesty and integrity, here are some common questions and answers.

1. Q: Will You Be Looking to Take My Job?

“No. Rather I would rather learn under you and, upon being successful make you successful enough to get a promotion and, through my hard work earn my way forward in an honest manner with the organization.”

2. What If You Work Here for 5 Years and Don’t Get Promoted?

“First, I think after the first year or so, I would ask for consistent feedback so I knew where I stand. If it were an outside force such as the company not having enough money , then there is nothing to be done about it, however if it lay in my performance, I would do my very best to improve upon the job to make the contribution necessary. I’m less concerned with promotions at this point and more focused on producing.”

3. Q: What Is Your Biggest Weakness?

“Perfectionism which takes away from total performance sometimes because I find myself becoming fixated on the details and, on occasion I have to take a step back and look at the overall picture and take action accordingly.”

4. Q: Why Did You Leave Your Current Company?

“Sales representatives are too important for a company to leave the sales to just anyone hoping that it will get better, but you can’t expect things to get better by taking the same actions. “Insanity is the action of doing the same thing and expecting results.” (Albert Einstein)

There could be more collaboration and forward progress within the organization. People could be more autonomous and sometimes this prevents the competitive edge over other firms in our space.

Lately, there has been little progress within the company. The drive for progress arises from a deep human urge to explore, create, to discover, to achieve, to improve and I wish that were, but it’s been fading as of late. The level of commitment to the goal is the big difference and people have lost site of client service. Sometimes, I’ll be handling problems more than I am making new solutions.

When there are problems at a company, management can’t sweep them under the rug; in my opinion problems can’t go away until you come to terms and identify what they are. There are two main ways to deal with pessimism and that starts from the top with figuring out alternatives, instilling confidence, open collaboration and constant improvement. Pessimistic atmospheres won’t make as much money.”

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5. Q: What Are You Looking for in Your Next Job?

“Rather than focusing on a product or service or even the size of the company, I am looking to align myself with an organization that is forward-thinking, appreciates their employees, encourages collaboration and rewards for individual performance. If given that, I could thrive.”

6. Q: What Are Your Biggest Strengths?

“The traits that I typically leverage when going for a particular achievement are my intelligence, my work ethic, my ability to work in a team environment, my resiliency and the ability to overcome hurdles while doing my best to remain optimistic.”

7. Q: How Many Hours a Week Do You Plan to Work?

“I am less an hour person, rather I feel it’s best to go on results. So, if it takes 40 hours to accomplish my goals, that’s great. If it takes 70, than that’s part of the job. Hours without execution mean little.”

8. Q: Do You Consider Yourself Successful?

“I do. I don’t consider myself where I want to be, but I am content where I am right now, though will not be content if I am at the same place tomorrow. Relatively, I think about my successes and learn from my failures.”

9. Q: Tell Me About Yourself?

There are a few answers to this question, however our recruiters have listed a few for you to look over on your next interview:

“I would describe myself as passionate, hard working, optimistic, team oriented and as someone who wants to be a success in life.”

“Someone who is resilient and can work under pressure.”

“Someone who likes to learn – can understand their target market and grow both professionally and personally.”

 

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Interviewing for Sales and Marketing Jobs – 14 Tips Part 1

Posted on January 15, 2013 by

When the KAS Placement recruiters help job applicants prepare for a successful interview in a sales or marketing job, our headhunters have a few tidbits of advice which do prove useful for those looking to find a job. Here are 14 of some of the most important interviewing tips out there.

 

1. If you get the sales or marketing job, how can you benefit the company? Prior to going into the interview, figure out the ways in which you can assist the company in achieving their corporate goals. Write these down. Always remember that it’s what you can do for the company rather than what the company can do for you.

 

2. Here’s a hint as per #1: sales representatives are needed because they can drive business.  That’s what employers want and that’s why they call our sales recruiters.  While they want someone who is easy to work with and who is interested in the position and can grow, bringing on new business is the fundamentals to impressing and gaining interest from them.

 

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New York Recruiters Ken Sundheim KAS Placement

 

3. Don’t go into the less impressive aspects of your position or skill-set, it will bring down the entire value of your offering to the company. Our recruiters suggest that you focus on what you know rather than what you don’t know. Interviewing is all about selling yourself and selling yourself does not mean discussing the down aspects of your skill-set or personality traits. Always be positive.

 

Be outgoing, energetic and be happy to speak with the interviewer.  Employers want employees who can do this with their clients, therefore prove that you have the ability from the onset.

 
KAS Placement

 

a. Listen and show interest. If you don’t act interested in the sales or marketing job, don’t expect the interviewer to be interested in what you have to say. Be engaged as it’s half the battle to being “engaging.”

 

b. Don’t interrupt, rather take notes and come back to those points. From what our sales recruiters have seen, many times job applicants like to interrupt when they have something to say, though interviewers hate to be interrupted and those great points will turn to mush if they are said at the wrong time.

 

c. Interest people by taking an interest in them.  Take an interest in the interviewer as a person; people regardless of whether they are colleagues, sales prospects, headhunters, or even interviewers hiring for a job, like when people take an interest in them. While this requires little to no effort, many interviewees fail to do so.

 

d. Speak about what other people are interested in.  This goes back to the first point which is how can you benefit the company. As an interviewer, the last thing that our recruitment team suggests is that you talk too much about what you want and fail to focus enough on what the interviewer is looking for.

 

4. Make each interviewer feel important, people strive to feel important. This means that you don’t think about anything else other than where you are presently a.k.a. in the interview. When you do things such as look at your phone or doodle on a notepad you end up turning the interviewer off as they feel unimportant which is an inherent need that all people share regardless of where they stand professionally.

 

Help Others With Your Interviewing Tips

 

Have any good interviewing tips? Our recruiters and other job seekers would love to hear them. Please comment below and follow KAS on Google Plus for additional information:

About the Author

 

is the CEO of KAS Placement recruiters a sales and marketing recruitment agency specializing in the executive search of sales and marketing professionals throughout the United States.

 

Ken has been, among others featured in: WSJ, AOL Jobs, Dow Jones, Fox Business News, NYTimes, BusinessInsider, Forbes, MTV, Chicago Tribune, Monster.com, About.com Sales Careers, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Globe and Mail. For questions on this topic, you can email Ken at ken.sundheim@kasplacement.com

 

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Acing a Phone Interview

Posted on December 10, 2012 by

When interviewing with any hiring manager or recruitment agencies, speak in a warm, friendly manner. Poor interviewers come across as cold and distant. Act as if you are glad to hear from the interviewer. Whether you are speaking to a hiring manager or recruiter, the best practice is to answer the phone with a smile; it makes you put any stresses of the day behind you.

"Ken Sundheim"
When smiling, even in a bad mood, action and feeling go together so begin one and the other should follow. Most people are about as happy as they make themselves out to be. Carry your head high.

While on the phone, stop talking about what you want and try to see the other person’s perspective. Eliminate any criticism from your mind. Even though you want more out of your next job, when interviewing with anyone discuss what you like and think about the positive aspects of your current positions and expound upon them.

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When interviewing, try to use that use that interviewers’ first name throughout the conversation. People including hiring managers like to hear their name spoken. Not doing so makes them feel not as important and that hiring manager is less open to putting you through to a second interview.

Get the interviewer talking by saying something like “How interesting! Can you tell me a bit about it.” When a statement is make that calls for some sort of collaboration. Listen than talk not the other way around.

Talk about what the interviewer wants first then get the information you want. In a nutshell this person wants someone who fits their clients’ needs and can interview well. Find out what interests them. Study their interests and goals.

Give the hiring manager a compliment upon meeting them. For instance, I like your website. Then, listen to them talk about it.

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Working with New York Recruiters

Posted on November 30, 2012 by

Working With NYC Recruiters

When working with NYC recruiters, there are a few tips for the job seeker in order to be successful at the endeavor. While I suggest that you use many methods when searching for a job, utilizing the help of an executive search firm can end up in landing the job that you’re looking for.

1. Have your resume up to date, well-written and relevant to the recruiters’ needs. Have the pertinent information requested by the New York recruiter on the top and easily accessible. Don’t expect the recruiters to read every line of your resume and cover letter, rather expect them to glance at the information.

Using such things as bolding and bullet points should ensure that the recruiter sees the information that you want that staffing firm to digest.

2. Research each executive recruiting firm prior to submitting your resume and briefly touch upon why you are submitting to that staffing agency. Remember that a touch of flattery never hurt.

"headhunters, recruiters"

3. If you are applying to a particular job, make sure that you follow the instructions that the New York headhunters have laid out. Simply ignoring the requests by those recruiting individuals can get your resume tossed out altogether.

Many times, job seekers contact our New York recruiters hoping their resume is read by doing things such as not putting a subject in the email or making them appear to be a client. However, when doing so, the odds of NYC recruiters ignoring your submission gets higher and higher.

4. Don’t submit your resume too often. While you want to make sure your resume is seen by the NYC recruiters, make sure that it is seen the first time. Over submitting your resume can make you look desperate and, thus turn the executive recruiter off with regards to working with you.

5. Don’t try to stand-out too much. While you don’t want to look like every other resume submission to that recruiting firm, you don’t want to come across as someone that is
overly eccentric.

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Retained vs Contingency Recruiting Services

Posted on November 19, 2012 by

Is your firm looking to hire a staffing agency? Prior to contacting a headhunting firm, you should know how recruitment companies charge and the pros and cons of both types of recruiting fees. Whether you are a marketing job seeker or a hiring firm, the information below should prove useful.

To help you better understand the benefits and downfall of both types of executive search, the recruiters at KAS have provided the following information:

Contingency Recruiting

Contingency staffing is when a hiring company only pays the recruiters working on his or her account if they complete the staffing process successfully. While, on the surface this seems like a no-brainer, there are a few downfalls to working with recruiters in this manner.

Some of these recruiting hindrances include the recruiters’ ability to drop your account if they feel that you are not hiring quick enough which results in you either choosing to settle or having to take the time and incur the opportunity cost to locate another recruitment firm.
"recruiting, sales interview tips, sundheim kas"
Contingency recruiters are not locked into any agreement and, therefore can leave your staffing needs on the back burner – sometimes without even informing you of the change in their recruitment time.

Additionally, in a lot of cases, contingency recruiters are less knowledgeable than reclined staffing professionals which can result in your organization not being able to interview the top job seekers in your field.

Retained Recruiting

Unlike contingency staffing, retained recruiters are paid upfront for their search efforts regardless of outcome. The benefits of using a retained recruiting agency is that you are guaranteed that a recruiter from the recruitment company that you paid is going to focus on your account.

However, to ensure that the staffing project results in a hire, you have to be very careful when choosing a retained recruiter. Look for past success when recruiting your target job seekers and look for retained staffing agencies that have extensive search experience and can most likely justify their cost.

About KAS Placement

KAS Placement is an executive recruitment firm specializing the headhunting of sales and marketing job seekers throughout the United States. Started by the Chief Executive Officer, Ken Sundheim the recruiters at KAS Placement have helped hiring companies in over 100 different industries from over 30 countries.

KAS Placement has been mentioned by Monster.com, BusinessInsider, AOL, MSN, Forbes and many more. Visit our recruiting website to gain more information as to how to connect with our staffing agency.

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10 Questions to Ask on a Sales Interview

Posted on November 17, 2012 by

 

When being recruited for a sales job, in a tough economy, one of the factors that is going to separate any sales job seeker in any industry are the questions and, subsequent relevancy + perceived intelligence of those inquiries.

 

Therefore, the KAS business development recruiters believe it’s imperative that upon interviewing for a sales job, you come prepared with questions rather than “winging it” and hoping for the best. To better help you land that sales job, our sales recruiters have listed 10 solid questions to ask the other side of the table:

 

1. What is the expected quota that the sales individual whom you hire is expected to reach quarterly?

 

2. Do you have an expected overall growth pattern for this individual regarding professional growth?

 

3. What makes your clients motivated to buy the company’s product or service?

 

"sales recruiters ken sundheim"

 

4. How did you come about working here? Remember that people like when you take an interest in them.

 

5. In what ways has the company and subsequent industry evolved since you’ve been here?

 

6. Who are the main competitors that I would be selling against and what are their strong and weak points?

 

7. What is the biggest challenge I’m going to face as a sales representative in this job?

 

8. What facets do many of the sales employees like about the job?

 

9. What type of metrics besides sales numbers do you gauge your employees by?

 

10. What makes your organization a special company to do sales at?

 

About the Author

 

Ken Sundheim is the CEO of KAS Placement (recruiting firms Chicago KAS sales headhunters Boston) and is a known leader in the recruitment agency world. When it comes to sales and marketing recruiting, sources like WSJ, NYTimes, Fox Business News, AOL, MSN, Chicago Tribune, BusinessInsider, About.com, CBS MoneyWatch, MTV, San Francisco Chronicle, Monster.com and many more look to Ken Sundheim for job search advice. To stay connected with Ken and his receive his articles on a daily basis, please see the homepage of KenSundheim.com or connect via Twitter.
 
Popular Articles
 
13 Interviewing Tips That Gets Jobs
 

Frustrations During the Recruiting Process
 


 

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13 Interviewing Tips That Gets Jobs

Posted on November 2, 2012 by

1. If you’re willing to really buy in and dedicate yourself to what the company stands for – you’ll be productive, happy, appreciated and well paid.

2. Write down 3 – 5 ways that you can help the company achieve its goals.

3. When you ask questions, never phrase them in a critical manner, phrase them in a curious manner being careful not to lead the interviewer into discussing any negative aspects of their business.

4. Ask questions in a friendly tone and you’ll get what you want.

5. Never get discouraged if an interviewer begins to grill you, it means that they are good at interviewing and you’re probably going to be surrounded by intelligent people.

Companies that are ineffective are laissez-faire about hiring. If the dig, that’s fine, just give them the information they want.

"recruiting, sales interview tips, sundheim kas"

6. Everyone has their own reasons and way of doing things including interviewing. It’s never perfect, but it’s what works for them.

7. Focus on the positive aspects of the job, you can always find fault, but see where you find benefits and agreements.

8. Every employer looks for job seekers who are dedicated, hard working, effective, decisive, knowledgable and can provide ROI.

9. It’s always good to stress that you want to stay at a company for a prolonged period of time.

10. Listen really closely and determine what the employer wants via seeing things from their view.

11. Know that your chances of getting an offer are better than they are not.
12. Charles Schwab was the first person ever paid $1m a year. He attributed this success to his ability to deal w/ people. His main piece of advice was to show appreciation of people. Therefore, thanking the interviewers for their time would be very wise.

13. Look for things that you share in common with the interviewer and focus less on your differences.

If the results you are seeing are positive, why change? If you don’t like the results, why don’t you experiment?

Unless we have solid proof otherwise, we should always presume that the interviewer is sincere, honest, willing and ready to hire if the right person should cross their path.

Ken Sundheim the CEO of KAS Placement (Chicago recruitment KAS DC sales recruiters NYC) and the writer for RecruitmentNewYork.com

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Marketing Internship for Recent College Graduate

Posted on October 17, 2012 by

KAS Placement is a sales recruitment and marketing staffing agency specializing in recruiting all levels of employees ranging from executive level to more entry-level staffing projects.

Right now, KAS Placement is looking for 2 – 3 marketing interns to:

- Help promote KAS YouTube videos and come up with ideas for additional footage.

- Write marketing articles for http://gradmarketingblog.org on such facets like online marketing, social media marketing, branding, e-commerce, website development, consultative selling and more. All articles are syndicated through the KAS network and reach up to 3,000 professionals throughout corporate America.

Not only will getting published prove to be a great way to stand-out on your resume, it will also give the KAS marketing interns marketing knowledge that other recent college graduates do not have, thus making you more competitive during your marketing job search.

- Keep track of and give recommendations for KAS Placement recruiter Facebook page.

- Maintain both KAS Placement’s and Ken Sundheim’s Twitter accounts picking articles to Tweet daily.

- Draw visitors and subscribers to the KAS Placement LinkedIn page.

- Recommend KAS Placement recruiting agency LA Chicago website changes and upgrades.

- Help with KAS Placement Pinterest page.

- Deal with media inquiries as they arise.

After two months completion of the marketing internship, each intern, if all designated work is completed will not only have a recommendation from CEO Ken Sundheim, but will also have the experience on a resume personally written by our CEO.

This is a great learning experience and is a stepping stone for anyone looking to get their first internship in marketing.

To apply, please email resume and cover letter to zoe.hunter@kasplacement.com Subject: marketing internship

About our CEO and Firm

Ken Sundheim is the CEO of KAS Placement and is a known leader in the executive search world. When it comes to sales and marketing recruiting, sources like WSJ, NYTimes, Fox Business News, AOL, MSN, Chicago Tribune, BusinessInsider, About.com, CBS MoneyWatch, MTV, San Francisco Chronicle, Monster.com and many more look to Ken Sundheim for job search tips.  Ken also helps recent graduates find marketing jobs as a consulting function through KAS.

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Frustrations During the Recruiting Process

Posted on October 11, 2012 by

Tall, short, fat or skinny we all have our frustrations when searching for a job. After all, it is a stressful time where you are consistently putting yourself out there open to judgement, ridicule and, eventually praise.

Though, prior to getting that praise, we get frustrated which could lead to emotions that are very counterproductive and, as we have all experienced, counterproductive emotions lead to counterproductive actions.

So, how to we become less frustrated when searching for a job and get on a mental track that has renewed work ethic and that is conducive to us being successful?

Change It Up – If you’re consistently doing action y and it’s not yielding desired results, the best way to get back on track is to change up your strategy.

This change in strategy can be very complex to changing your resume, cover letter, email template or can be very slight to simply changing the types of jobs that you’re applying to.

Either way, take one change at a time and never make those changes when you’re overly frustrated. Step away for a bit as we do our best work when we’re calm.

Don’t Beat Up On Yourself – Getting bent out of shape, when you analyze the action has no positive results nor is it productive. Think of the glass as half-full.

Instead of beating up on yourself, tell yourself that you’re one interview closer to getting a job or one resume submission closer to landing that interview…depending on where you are of course.

Realize That Employers Don’t See What You See – Take it from the CEO of an executive recruiting firm – sometimes employers can be a bit irrational; we all have imperfections and this rule includes hiring managers.

Sometimes hiring managers don’t want to think outside of the box or sometimes they’re given such a strict mandate by their boss which results in less than 3% of applicants getting the interview.

In the End

Trust your gut and believe things will get better. If you need to take a break to regain your thoughts do so. A relaxed, clear-thinking job seeker is going to beat out a stressed and overly frustrated one.

Doing so is easier said than done, but get the discipline to begin thinking like this and the frustration and the difficult times will subside a lot faster.

Ken Sundheim is the CEO of KAS Placement corporate headhunter
solutions.

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