Question for you. Do you have a second interview
coming up with the hiring manager's manager or possibly even higher up than that small company?
Could be a CEO. If so, definitely stay tuned for this video as this is what I'm going to cover
today. So, if you are new here to my channel, my name is Bill Benoist, I'm a certified
professional career coach in Silicon Valley. I primarily work with individuals in mid
to late career. Professionals, that is. And this is a very common occurrence, is interviewing with
the next level up. This is the second interview and there's a couple of ways that I want you
to think about preparing for this interview. So, number one, and I've talked about this in
previous videos, your resume is what validated your competence, right? They get on the
phone with you, they do a phone screen, they're still validating your competence,
but when it actually goes for the interview, it's becoming a little bit more about
compatibility than it is about competence. They're still going to ask you some questions, you
know, regarding the competence of the position, but it really becomes more about
compatibility. And that is never more so true than when you are interviewing
at a higher level. I mean, think about this, if you're interviewing as a project manager,
as a software engineer, as a financial analyst, whatever it is, and you're interviewing with
a CEO, do you think they're going to really understand your job that much? And it's often
true even with just one level up from the hiring manager because although they may be the overall
department manager, they don't really understand the nitty gritty and they're going to understand
that you will know more than they do about it. So, there's really not a lot you can prepare
for as far as like technical or operational questions. But there are ways that you can prepare
for this interview and that is understanding the compatibility and really getting engaged
with that person that's interviewing you. So, I want you to think about this in two
different lights. There's two different kinds of individuals that will be interviewing you
at this level. One would be what I would say, somebody who likes to be the center of attention
and the other person who doesn't like to be the center of attention. So, what do I mean by this
center of attention? It means that they really enjoy talking, not necessarily about themselves,
but they enjoy being the conversationalist. And, and if this is the case, what you want to be
doing is never, number one, never interrupt them, but listen and ask questions that they will
have an enjoyable time answering for you. So it could be about the business, it could
be about their position. They enjoy talking, but then there's going to be others
that really, they want listen, okay? They don't want to be the center of attention.
And this is where you can share with them some really good stories out there of what you've done
before. Let's say you were in customer service, maybe some juicy stories about, you know, a
difficult customer that you had or a really, in fact, I scratch that. I don't want you to
talk about difficult customers. Think about one of the best customers that you ever worked
with because they like to hear positive things, not negative things out there. Um, you know,
project manager, you know, an example of something that really went well. You know, you don't have to
get into the details of such, but they're going to be interested in just hearing this story if it's
an engaging story. So, you can kind of judge right when you go in there. If this person is going to
be one who likes to be the center of attention, again, you're going to ask them engaging questions
about the business, about the company, which means that you want to study and learn as much as you
can, not only about the company, but make sure you take a look at their LinkedIn profile and learn
as much as you can about them at LinkedIn as well. You know, hey, I see that you went to Harvard for
an MBA. I bet that was a fascinating school to go to. Boy, if this person is someone who likes to
be the center of attention, they're really going to enjoy answering that question. It's a process
of getting engaged. Okay? Remember your resume, validated your confidence. The phone
screen validated your confidence. You had the interview with the manager, becomes a
little bit more about compatibility, but also, they'll ask you a few questions about your
confidence. But now at this higher level really becomes more about compatibility than
anything else. So, either this person is going to be wanting to talk or they're going to want
to listen. And if they're somebody that likes to listen and you don't talk a lot, it's probably
not going to go your way. So, you want to make sure that you have some good stories prepared,
you know, in advance because they may ask you a couple of questions. They're not going to
be really deep questions, but they could be behavioral type questions and they're going to be
really engaged with the answer that you give them. So, I hope this video was informative and useful
for you. If you haven't already subscribed to this channel, make sure that you do so as I do
upload new crew tips and strategies every Tuesday and I'd hate for you to miss anything. Thanks for
stopping by and I look forward to seeing you next.
