I try
not to unload Old War Stories. Try to
keep posts short. But I’ve been throwing
some pretty heavy interview stuff at you.
Here are a few hard-learned lessons we’ll call “Fun with Interviews.”
Most of
these stories started with some foreknowledge.
I knew the person/people/someone who’d be included in the process. Someone in my network knew someone. Some worked for them. Some interviewed with them. Some merely knew someone who know
someone.
Foreknowledge
is a double-edged sword. If you’re
smart, you arrange your presentation to the Prospect. More easily done one-on-one, but in group
shows, you must (a) learn who the REAL decision maker is (maybe not the ECD,
maybe the GCD, CD, ACD, AD, AE – could be anyone; your job to find out). If it’s a committee, well, presenting to
committee’s an entire subject.
File
everything you hear – true, untrue, rumors – in the back of your
mind. Mix with what you’ve learned
during the live process. Call for
reserves if you need them.
Once
you’ve tailored your presentation for your Prospect, hold back some work for Just in Case moments when things go South. When you need a
Hail Mary. Keep them not easily
accessible (locked files, for example).
Important
cliché here: Less is More. I could show work for hours and still not run
out of stuff I consider “bookable.” Could
- but don’t. I show as little as
possible. When I get the big “aha!” response, start tapering off, being sure
the last thing they see is just as strong as whatever wowed them most. Even if
I just show the Prospect’s favorite again, this time with more in-depth
narrative.
While the
following interviews (unless noted) were grounded in foreknowledge of some kind,
how I used/reacted to that foreknowledge varied according to Prospect, my
(shameless, I know) mood, personal needs/wants (not the same thing), even how
hot it was that day and/or if they bought me lunch.
Load up
on all the background you can. You have
but one reason to interact with a hiring Prospect: Get The Offer. Whether you’re looking, whether you want to
work there - or not.*
Some of these
past interviews lacked Prospect Centricity.
Some were in search of it. Some had
Prospect Centricity up the yin yang. One or two possibly lacked sanity, as
well.
They were all fun.
This is
important. No matter how badly I needed
the job, I ALWAYS HAD FUN WITH THE INTERVIEW.
Heresy, you say? Not al all.
If
you’re having fun, your attitude‘s great.
You can control the interview, get into your groove. You can hide how desperate for a job you
really are.
Every
project – no matter how awful it was to produce – has a funny story in it.
Every project, a moment where you shined,
even if it was to break the ice with that funny story everyone else is too
uptight to see. Just make sure those
stories have a point. One that’s headed
brilliantly in your direction.
What else have you done?
I hate focus groups. But if I have
to show work I did for a helicopter battery manufacturer, I love adding how the focus group helicopter pilots picked their teeth at the one-way mirror. Love telling how the pilots loved the brand’s
wet tee shirt calendars, hated the cheap-o batteries. (Female models in wet tees were standard until Gloria Steinem burned her bunny tail.)
Love even
more, showing the camped up wet-battery (they upped their water
proofing)-tee-shirt calendar everyone loved, but wouldn’t risk producing.
Oh the fun - and freedom - of the desperado move! The
interviewing tanked on produced work, so I dug up parody calendar comps for a wet tee shirt
wearing batteries and got the offer.
Which I did not take. (Creative Differences – I thought my produced work
was much smarter than wet-tee batteries, even if the calendar parody was 100% on
both interview and battery Prospects.)
The
interviewer and I both walked away looking forward to working together
sometime.
My
unwritten law, if it’s not fun, I don’t want to do it.
No
matter how badly I need the job - if the interview’s not fun for me, it’s not
fun for my Prospect. Remember
Marshall Pengra from the previous post?
“I hire people I like.”
All the
following war stories were fun. Some obviously happened on a bad day for
someone.
All make
me laugh. Some -- I still cringe.
Can you
tell which is which?
Never be ashamed of what you have – and haven’t
– done.
Interviewing
with the ECD and CEO of a worldwide agency’s most profitable franchise. The market is depressed, shops are closing, an
entire city - desperate for a job. Myself
included.
CEO:
This work is highly unusual. And
you don’t have a college degree? (Foreknowledge: Maybe I can intimidate
her with the degree thing, get her for less $ - so much fun making job
supplicants uncomfortable!)
KC: If you
can find someone with a college degree who can do this, hire them. (Stupid? Maybe.
Scared? Maybe – I was desperate
for a job, like everyone else in the market.
But standing up to him was more fun, more confidence building than I
imagined,)
Result: KC gigged em another $5Gs.
Prospect
Centric? Absolutely. The guy was a known bully. I already had a soft offer from the shop’s
other ECD. Was senior enough to know if
I flinched, I’d lose any equal footing I had.
(Note: This was the only time my
college degree (or lack thereof) was ever mentioned in an interview. It’s about you and your book. Not you and
your degree.)
Should
you react the same way? Not until you’re
senior enough - or they’re desperate enough - to push back. It sure was fun seeing the look on his face
when he thought he might have blown it – I knew I had specific category experience
they were desperate for. Always pays to
do your homework. Always fun to make
them pay for dissing you. Once you have The
Offer.
Let no number cross your lips.
Desperate
for a job in a national recession. Interviewing
for a CD/GCD position I was not qualified for.
After making the interview rounds, was offered a different job.
ECD: What
would it take to move you up here? But
not as CD/GCD? (Translation: This
isn’t the right spot for you, but I’d like to hire you anyway. You’re good to let go and you’d be fun to work
with.)
KC: The
recruiter said you pay GCDs $125K+. What
do you pay ACDs? (Wrong wrong
wrong. If you’ve read any of my
interviewing/salary negotiation pieces, you know to never introduce a number
first. Even if you think you know it. Even if, as in this case, you’re using it
as a non-number.)
What ECD
heard: $125k+. (Never give up the
first number. Even if it’s not one
you’re shooting for.)
Prospect
Centricity: Blew that one.
Result: End of interview.
Should
have responded with something like “What’d you have in mind,” then had fun
ratcheting it up by emphasizing position’s importance and my strengths.
Bite or Cut Bait.
Stranded
in a smaller market when regional gig closes doors. Interviewing with ECD of different franchise
of CEO with penchant for college degrees (above). Cut of same cloth. In
days of paper portfolios, he throws my samples onto couch, finding fault (small
and large) in each piece. Stops watching my reel mid-way through. Then makes an offer.
KC: If my
work’s so bad, why are you offering me a job? (Better than telling him off, but not as much
fun. Foreknowledge – he’s an
a$$hole. Personal foresight – I have
category experience he needs. He’ll call
for freelance (he did).
Prospect
Centricity? Up to your point of view.
Result: KC thanks him for his time, leaves before he
can answer. Builds freelance business
into award-winning creative boutique.
When you know better than to say less.
Interviewing
name-on-door society CD of highly regarded small local/regional shop in new
city. Great personal rapport, but clouds
of creative difference on the horizon. An
offer sensed as forthcoming.
KC
(cutting offer off at the pass): I have a rule not to work for anyone better
looking than I am. Otherwise I’d walk
through fire to work with you.
Result: Twenty-year friendship, with short period of
award-winning freelance. Name
on Door gives elderly aunt and uncle royal tour of city, with exclusive private
club lunch.
Prospect
Centric? Absolutely. Played right to his ego, without
insulting/hurting his feelings by turning down his job offer.
Fun? Interviewing with this guy was fun from the
get-go. We had such a great rapport –
but that rapport was what let me see his egocentricity, which I turned into
Prospect Centricity. Although I knew
better than to work for him myself, I sent him several juniors in my big
international agency group who had a great time, built great books.
One to grow on.
This is way too long, but this one included for all those who read my 8/21/18
post, That recruiter isn’t looking for a
new BFF.
Interviewing
for a great job for a great agency. The
Recruiter and I got on famously. Everything from shoes to Jack Russell Terriers
in common. So supportive, so certain I
was perfect for the spot, so comforting in a huge shop full of people I didn’t
know.
As I
worked my way through all the other interviews, I started noticing the
questions seemed to all point to one I didn’t want to answer. Something I had let slip to my new BFF, the Recruiter. Deflected the issue as best I could. Everyone loved my work. Loved my background.
And kept
asking about the one thing I did not want to discuss.
Prospect
Centric? Well, the Recruiter seemed to
love me. My research never indicated the
Not Answered question was relevant.
Stupid? Absolutely.
The issue wouldn’t have even come up if I hadn’t “bonded” with my new
BFF, the Recruiter.
Result: No offer.
The Recruiter and I still talk, but never became best friends. I am careful what I say to her. And every other recruiter I talk to, even
those I’ve known for years. I do not
lie. I simply do not disclose.
Don’t cry over spilled pop.
One last
Quickie: On my way to an interview, I
spilled pop down the front of my top. I
tried to rinse it out, but the wetness grew and so did the spot. With every new introduction, I said something
like, “sorry, I’m usually not a mess but
I hit bump drinking a can of soda on the way over.”
What
they said: Oh yeah! Didn’t notice until you
showed me!”
The
reality: Nine out of ten people never
notice things like that – until you point it out. Do your best to clean up. Smile.
If they ask, make a joke of it.
If someone stares at the spot but says nothing, either make a joke (if
you have a good one) or say nothing.
If
there’s time, there’s always a store
nearby. Sometimes it takes is a
scarf. Usually all it takes is Attitude.
Now get
out there and have some fun.info
*A lot more to it, possibly another post, but your job is first to
get the phone/Skype interview. Then to
get the in-person interview. Then to get
The Offer. You may not want the offer,
may not decide to take it even it’s great – up to you. But until you learn how to control who gives
you offers and who doesn’t, Job #1 is ALWAYS GET THE OFFER.
This blog post, as with everything else
published in KamikazeCreative.blogpsot.com, ©2018, Doreen
Dvorin/KamikazeCreative
