I was giving a seminar to a group of about 20 people at the Career Transitions Center (CTC) of Chicago on interviewing. They were a delightful group, attentive and asking good questions. But when it came to attacking a powerful false assumption–you must ask for the job–I met some spirited resistance.
They said, “This is what I was told to do and by some of the coaches at the CTC!” More on that in a moment, because I’ve yet to meet a coach at the CTC who doesn’t operate at a high level. But first let’s return to this hot-air balloon for which I always have a perfect pin. I asked them, “Please tell me the exact words you use to ask for the job. Do you say, ‘Can I have the job?’ Because that is actually asking for the job. Or do you use an assumptive close, ‘When do I start?’ because that is implicitly asking for the job.”
The woman who was coached to ask for the job said, “No. I tell them, ‘I think I am a perfect fit for this opportunity and I want you to know how interested I am in pursuing this further.’ ”
To which I replied, “You just expressed interest in the opportunity. I support expressing this 100% of the time at the end of an interview. But you did not ask for the job. You may think I’m splitting hairs here, but I’ve met too many people who hear these words, ‘Ask for the job,’ and actually believe that these words mean what they say. Then, after thinking about it for hours or days, they wonder, ‘How do I ask for the job in a way that makes sense?’ ”
Someone else chimed in, “There are lots of different ways to ask for the job.”
To which I responded, “Please, tell me the exact words you would use.”
She said something like, “I’m ready to get started now.” (Her words were actually more aggressive and, alas, more forgettable.)
To which I said, “That’s way too aggressive and pushy and I wouldn’t recommend using it during an interview.”
“I’m just saying, there are many different ways to ask for the job and that is one of them,” she responded.
I replied, “There are many ways to ask for the job and none of them are good, because asking for the job makes no sense. It forces the hiring authority to tell you what you should already know. Namely, after the interviews are conducted the group of interviewers will get together and discuss who the best candidate was. When they make their decision there will not be a jobseeker in sight. So, asking for the job is a monumental, pushy waste of breath.”
How did this strange concept ever arrive on interviewing’s oft-troubled shores? I believe traditional sales ideas have infected the interviewing process. In traditional sales the first three rules are said to be, “Close, close, close.” You ask for the order. This approach works well when there is one decision maker who is considering a small purchase, or during what is called a simple sales situation. But when you make a complex sale, when there are multiple people involved in the decision (as there are in most interviews), to ask for the order is to reveal your ignorance of the sales process. When I was leading a sales team in the sale of a $4 million communication system we did not ask the purchasing team of ten people for the order after the first, second or third presentation. Nor did we ask for it after the plant tour, or the visit to a reference site, or ever. And we got the order.
Now how could the coaches at the CTC promote this notion. Based on the first woman’s response, they were telling her that to ask for the job means to express an interest in the opportunity. Okay, but here is where we part company. I believe the English language should be used to say what we mean, and if we mean “express an interest” then we should say, “Express an interest.” Otherwise, as the second contributor revealed, damaging, overly-aggressive, pushy “closing” statements may be used and they will not help your cause.