Read an Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
Why Powerful Phrases Make a Difference
Interviewing, finding a job, and hiring are considered among the most important business endeavors, so it might surprise you to know that the average professional hire in America involves only four hours of -face—to—face interviewing. Though the emotional intensity for both finding a job and hiring are great, a job seeker should be aware that the time to make a successful impression on interviewing and hiring authorities is very short. In fact, hiring decisions are made more quickly than business managers and leaders like to admit. One McGill University study showed that most interviewers make up their mind to hire someone in the first four minutes of the interview!
Psychologists have proven, and my own experience confirms, that in the interviewing process, employers evaluate job candidates on the basis of a -few—-very few—-real facts, and 90 percent of the hiring decision is made emotionally. Candidates are hired because of a few little things they do or say, and the rest is emotional justification. Psychologists call this "motivated reasoning." A plethora of recent business and psychology books and articles by authors like Jonah Lehrer and Leonard Mlodinow demonstrates that most business decisions are made subliminally, with more emotion than logic. While the majority of job candidates are trying to be "competent" in the interviewing process, the successful ones focus on being liked and remembered. They use powerful words and phrases to accomplish this.
You are going to be judged quickly and emotionally as a job candidate, so if you say the right things by using the right words, you stand out and are more likely to get hired. So little real -face—to—face time is spent interviewing that hiring authorities make their decisions based on a few memorable phrases (good or bad) that a candidate uses.
Use the right phrases, and you are remembered and thought of highly; you are more likely to get hired. Use the wrong phrases, and you are forgotten when you walk out of the room; you are certain to lose the job opportunity.
THE SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION
OF POWERFUL PHRASES
I'll give you a perfect example of just what I mean about how powerful phrases can make a difference. You will learn in Chapter 3 that I recommend two very powerful phrases to be used at the end of the first interview:
1. "How do I stack up with the other candidates you have interviewed?"
2. "What do I need to do to get the job?"
Recently, one of our clients interviewed seven candidates. The only candidate that we referred used these two phrases to close the initial interview. The hiring authority remarked to the -candidate—-and later to -us—-that she was the only one of the seven candidates who actually asked how she compared to the others.
In fact, as the hiring authority passed the candidate to the second group of interviewing authorities, he told his associates, "I interviewed seven candidates and this lady was the only one who asked for the job. I -really like her." The candidate, by the way, used the same power phrases, as well as others you will learn in Chapter 7, for her -follow‑up interviews to land the job.
This was a -mid—level purchasing manager position. The candidate only spent a total of -two—and—a—half hours interviewing at the company: one hour at the initial interview and an hour—and—a—half with others in the company. The hiring and interviewing authorities did spend more time checking previous employment references and so on, but the candidate acknowledged that she became the "best" candidate because of the power phrases she used in the interviewing process.
These two powerful phrases made all the difference in the world. The vice president of procurement openly admitted that our candidate was not the most qualified applicant. But, he said she interviewed better than the others. Even the candidate herself admitted that she -didn't seem to interview especially well except for her closing phrases. She is absolutely convinced that those two small phrases won her the job.
Powerful Phrases for Successful Interviews is filled with similar phrases that will enable you to raise yourself to the top of the candidate pool, whatever the job, whatever the company, and whoever is doing the hiring. It is meant to be a quick reference to specific words and phrases to use at every stage of a successful job search. You will learn the most effective, short, simple, and expert phrases to gain an advantage in getting interviews, performing well on initial and -follow‑up interviews, handling the toughest questions to dispel any lingering doubt on the part of the hiring authority, and negotiating a strong job offer. You will have the right words to make the difference every time.
