Comments on: How to Say It: I’m gonna prove it to you http://corcodilos.com/blog/876/how-to-say-it-im-gonna-prove-it-to-you The insider's edge on job search & hiring™ | Copyright © 2011 North Bridge Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:42:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Nick Corcodilos http://corcodilos.com/blog/876/how-to-say-it-im-gonna-prove-it-to-you/comment-page-1#comment-17719 Nick Corcodilos Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:24:20 +0000 http://corcodilos.com/blog/?p=876#comment-17719 @Jeff: This approach also serves as a filter for the candidate. Some managers just have a hard time talking about the work, and that can be a warning sign. Sometimes this can be a career saver. A guy I know was head of an R&D operation. Interviewed with the top guy at an even bigger company. Interview went very well. At end, the candidate asked the top guy to outline a problem or challenge he'd be asked to tackle if he were hired. The top guy took quite a while to think about this... candidate told me it was clear the boss was thinking carefully and actually liked the question. Finally, the boss turned and said, You know, I can't think of anything. They parted on very positive terms. But no offer. Candidate learned a couple of weeks later that the position he'd interviewed for was eliminated - they hired no one. He's convinced to this day that his question revealed to the top guy that there WAS no position... @Jeff: This approach also serves as a filter for the candidate. Some managers just have a hard time talking about the work, and that can be a warning sign.

Sometimes this can be a career saver. A guy I know was head of an R&D operation. Interviewed with the top guy at an even bigger company. Interview went very well. At end, the candidate asked the top guy to outline a problem or challenge he’d be asked to tackle if he were hired.

The top guy took quite a while to think about this… candidate told me it was clear the boss was thinking carefully and actually liked the question. Finally, the boss turned and said, You know, I can’t think of anything. They parted on very positive terms. But no offer. Candidate learned a couple of weeks later that the position he’d interviewed for was eliminated – they hired no one. He’s convinced to this day that his question revealed to the top guy that there WAS no position…

]]> By: Jeff http://corcodilos.com/blog/876/how-to-say-it-im-gonna-prove-it-to-you/comment-page-1#comment-17709 Jeff Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:03:11 +0000 http://corcodilos.com/blog/?p=876#comment-17709 In my previous job search I gave this method a go unfortunately to less than spectacular results. The interviewers would either brush it off and continue with their set of questions, or they couldn't come up with anything. Maybe something completely simplistic and abstract but no real problems to address. It was rather frustrating and I did not win the job in any of those interviews. I do suspect that I wasn't approaching things the right way though, so I am not writing it off entirely. Interestingly enough, though, the job that I currently have the guy who brought me in was pretty sure he wanted me right from the start. He put me to the test with a 2 week contract project and after that made me an offer. More places should work like that. They would get much better results. In my previous job search I gave this method a go unfortunately to less than spectacular results. The interviewers would either brush it off and continue with their set of questions, or they couldn’t come up with anything. Maybe something completely simplistic and abstract but no real problems to address. It was rather frustrating and I did not win the job in any of those interviews. I do suspect that I wasn’t approaching things the right way though, so I am not writing it off entirely. Interestingly enough, though, the job that I currently have the guy who brought me in was pretty sure he wanted me right from the start. He put me to the test with a 2 week contract project and after that made me an offer. More places should work like that. They would get much better results.

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