A few days ago I posted on what I figured was a fairly obvious topic – being very careful when it comes to companies who ask you for money during a job search especially when it comes to online jobs – but it seems that many people have come across this issue and wonder what to do.

A related but different question often comes up when it comes to companies paying interview expenses when it comes to flying you in for an interview for example and you wonder what you should do? I’ve seen cases where someone is promised to be reimbursed for interview expenses but fears having to outlay potentially hundreds of dollars or more for a flight, hotel, food, etc when perhaps they are low on cash or just don’t want to outlay this money up front especially if the company suggests that it could take weeks or months to pay them back.

In my experience when it comes to a company paying back interview expenses, you should trust your gut. You certainly hope and expect that a major corporation won’t rip you off when it comes to the issue of repaying interview expenses. If you are asked to pay for these expenses up front and are promised to be repaid for them the company, try to confirm it in writing including the extent to which the expenses will repaid. You also want to know up front exactly what expenses will be covered and what is considered reasonable when it comes to paying for food, taxis, etc while you are traveling. Make sure you keep all your receipts too.

One of the biggest skills you can hone in your career are your listening skills. Learning how to listen – and recognizing that this is an important skill – is something that you’ve hopefully already figured out.

Interviewing hundreds of people while working as a recruiter has shown me in more ways than one how not listening properly can hurt you in interviews and in other aspects of your career

Personally, I’ve seen where people start answering a question before I’ve finished asking it or where they immediately answer a question without taking a second or two to think about their answer before beginning to speak.

From a hiring manager’s perspective I can recall many times where they turned down a job candidate in part because they felt the person wasn’t listening properly and seemed too eager to answer a question.

Sometimes, taking a few seconds to think of your answer to a question instead of immediately blurting one out can help you in more ways than one. Not only does it make the interviewer see that you’re thinking about your answers but it also ensures you don’t cut the interviewer off if they stop speaking for a second with the intention of continuing.

I discussed this issue in more detail a few weeks ago in an earlier post if you’d like read more on the subject.

Adapting your approach is something you will need to do from time to time during your career.

If your job search isn’t going well, doing the same thing over and over again probably doesn’t make any sense since you’ll probably just get the same (poor) result.

During a job interview, you might need to change your approach if you enter the interview expecting one thing and getting something completely different.

In one case early in my career, I went to an interview expecting to be interviewed by one person and instead got interviewed by three people simultaneously in a panel-type interview.

In another, I sat in the office with the interviewer and as I waited for him to open the interview and start asking me questions, he instead simply asked “so, what do you want to know?”

Knowing what to expect but being able to change on the fly when the needs arises is a skill that can really help you during your career not only in job interviews but in meetings and any time when you have to be on your toes and respond to something you didn’t expect.

It can also help to separate you (in a good way) from other people who aren’t as capable as you in this regard.

Body language is an important part of our communication especially in a job interview setting. In recruitment we get to meet many, many people with different personalities, skills, background and of course many types of body language.

Often when I meet someone to speak with them regarding a job with a client, I notice something about their body language specifically that causes me to believe it will either be a help or a hindrance in the interview process when they’re in front of the interviewer for real.

I recall one such case where I was interviewing a software developer and he wouldn’t look me in the eye at all, for any reason. The moment I’d look at him he’d suddenly look away and down at the ground. It was really odd and a bit unnerving.

Typically, in our culture we often assume that when people avoids looking you in the eyes it’s because they’re lying or are being untruthful. So in this instance, it got me thinking and wondering why he wouldn’t look me in the eye and wondering if he was going to do the same thing in an interview with a client of mine?

The last thing a recruiter wants to do is put someone in front of a client when they think the person will perform poorly or will embarrass them or their recruitment company. In this instance, the guy was a pretty smart person but was quite quirky and I wasn’t sure if he was the type of person who would go over well in the interview with my client or not.

In the end he canceled the interview with my client and at the time I figured it was probably a good thing.

But what sorts of things do you do in interviews – perhaps when you’re under stress – that might unnerve the people you’re interviewing with?

Clarifying objections is a big part of sales and is a big part of the job interview process too. Understanding objections and properly handling them will get you closer to the sale and closer to the job, too.

Clarifying objections in a job interview means ensuring that the hiring manager has no objections against hiring you, aren’t concerned with your ability to do job, and have no further questions regarding whether or not they should hire you.

I always think the last question you should ask in an interview is “do you have any concerns with my ability to do the job” or “is there anything I can clarify for you” or something similar, just so you give the interviewer the opportunity to revisit any of your answers to ensure that you nip any objections in the bud before you leave the interview.

Many times as a recruiter I’ve had conversations with a hiring manager following an interview with one of my candidates where the hiring manager will mention a concern that they have with the person they just interviewed – perhaps it’s a concern with their experience, skills or other issue – and I think “if only the person had asked the interviewer if they had any concerns with their ability to do the job, perhaps they’d have had a chance to convince the interviewer that their fears with the job searcher were unfounded.

I once had a job searcher lose out on a job opportunity because the first thing he did when entering the interviewer’s office was sit down in the chair and let out a sigh.

He was a candidate in his mid 40s so he wasn’t old by any stretch but since the company in question typically hired “dynamic” (their word) people, a guy who sat in a chair and sighed didn’t fit the dynamic mould. Tired maybe but not dynamic.

I’m not saying he would have gotten the job had he not sighed but he didn’t go any further in the job interview process because of it.

And that was before the interview had officially started.

Showing enthusiasm and energy during the interview (within reason of course) is one great thing you can do to project a positive image and energy.

In the case of the job searcher who sighed, the hiring manager was hesitant to even consider him for a job in the first place as he didn’t have an university degree (the company liked their staff to have one) but because of his industry experience they were willing to interview him albeit with some reservations.

In the end they found an excuse to not hire him and although it wasn’t the lack of a university degree directly it’s pretty clear to me that they were looking for a reason not to hire him because of his lack of degree and they found one.

When I told him the reason, he couldn’t even remember doing it either.

Punctuality is one of the things that can help to separate you from other people searching for an interviewing for the same jobs you do.

I once read a quote that said if you’re not 15 minutes early you’re late. Certainly if a pro athlete showed up 15 minutes before a game or if you showed up to open a restaurant 15 minutes before opening time, that’s probably going to be a problem since preparation is part of the deal in jobs like this.

In an interview environment walking into an office 15 minutes early (or more) for an interview won’t win you any brownie points. In fact you might lose some.

Showing up 10 minutes before an interview is probably the most I’d suggest. Showing up to the front desk of an office and announcing you’re here for an interview more than 10 minutes early tends to mean you can’t tell time and don’t value the person’s time who you’re interviewing with.

Afterall they might be interviewing someone else and are now getting called by the front desk 15 minutes early.

If you arrive that early just wait in your car until a few minutes before the scheduled time and then make your entrance.

I’ve had people arrive 30 minutes early for an appointment and expect me to see them right away. If they’re driving in from out of town (which is rare for me) and they misjudge the driving time, that’s one thing but when they live in the city and simply arrive that early, that’s just not right.

Punctuality is one thing but showing up too early makes it look like you just don’t care.

In many of the sales books I’ve been reading recently one of the common themes in several of them relates to hot buttons. Specifically these are the things important to your customer and are things that they want addressed. For example, if your customer wants to increase their sales and you’re selling training, you’d focus your presentation on their hot button which is increased sales and show them how taking your training would upskill their salespeople, making them more productive which would lead to increased sales.

The same goes with job interviews where the hiring manager often has a hot button(s) in terms of finding the ideal person for the job. Maybe it’s a specific university degree.

Perhaps it’s experience with a specific technology or application.

Maybe it’s finding someone who is currently working with one of their competitors.

The point is that hiring managers often have hot buttons that cause their ears to prick up when they hear them and it’s your job to figure out what those hot buttons are and how you can push them.

If you’re working with a recruiter for a specific job they should be able to tell you what those hot buttons are. If not, you’re probably going to want to ask them why they don’t know because this is one of the best ways that a recruiter can help you compared to someone who applied for the same job off a website or other job ad and who doesn’t know anything other than what they’ve read on the job description.

I can recall numerous times as a recruiter when working on a specific job that the hiring manger would tell them one or two things about the job that they really considered important. My job was to then find candidates who could do the job but who also fulfilled those hot buttons and to make sure that they knew about the hot buttons so they could push them during the interview and separate themselves from other people interviewing for the same job.

Often the job description will indicate what those hot buttons might be. This is especially helpful if you’re not working with a recruiter and have applied to the job directly or are working with a recruiter who doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing and doesn’t offer you much help. Skills or experience listed as “must have,” mandatory or minimum education levels or specific degrees, even so-called “nice to have” skills can be hot buttons. Sometimes it might be a piece of technology or a specific type of experience.

Learn to figure out how to read job descriptions and figure out which required skills and experience can often mean the difference between you getting the job and someone else getting it.

I read an article today talking about how to approach the second and third interview stage and how to do well in it. The article mentioned how the second and third interviews often take place at lunchtime in a lunch setting i.e. the company invites you out for lunch to discuss the job in a more informal setting (lunch) but where you can still discuss the job in a professional manner.

In my experience, this might be the case for executive positions – in which case they’ll probably take you out for dinner – but I can’t recall the last time I had a candidate go on a lunch interview to be honest. I went on a lunch interview myself with the owners of a company I was interviewing with but in my experience, lunch interviews are few and far between.

The article itself gave the usual standard advice about approaching a lunch interview – don’t drink alcohol even if the interviewer(s) does, don’t order a big meal, don’t be late, dress appropriately, keep it professional – basically the usual stuff. There wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary listed.

But some posters had responded to the article and some were quite surprised about the lunch interview suggestion as like me, they had little to no experience with them! I’ve helped people get $130K+ senior executive jobs and I don’t think they got so much as a free coffee during the interview stage let alone a free lunch.

So in that regard, be aware of the lunch interview and the suggestions for doing well in one – essentially remember that you’re there to get the job not just a free lunch – and remember to think ahead about how you’re going to approach it. Most importantly remember that the key word in the term “lunch interview” is “interview” and not “lunch.”

Getting interview feedback (good and bad) is one of the best ways to improve yourself to ensure you get the job the next time.

Having said that, these days companies are so scared of being sued, they are often afraid to give honest feedback that can help you so you’re often left with the “we found someone else who better matched the job” feedback or something like that.

In other cases, the hiring manager is simply too lazy to help you out (or the recruiter if you’re dealing with one) to give you some constructive advice.

When I was first looking for a recruitment job, I experienced both sides of the coin: getting feedback (negative, mind you) and no feedback.

Negative feedback: During an interview with one of the first recruitment firms I met with, I first met with the husband of the founder of the company. He bragged about his mansion and racehorses so he kind of put me off a bit. Apparently he thought I was interesting enough though and asked me to then meet with one of his colleagues. After meeting with her, the braggart came back in and told me that while his female colleague thought I had skills, I talked too much and came across as being a bit chatty. In hindsight it was true and I knew it. I had found the company online and on a whim went to interview with them even after I had verbally agreed to take a job with another company (and I did still join them) but went to this interview anyways just to see how it would go. In hindsight, I was so relaxed – knowing that I already had a job offer elsewhere – that I was a bit too casual and informal I think. Keep that in mind when interviewing…being relaxed is good, but not so much that it hurts you as it did in this case.

No feedback: Another recruitment firm I interviewed with invited me in twice to meet with them. The first time was with the co-owner and the second time was again with the co-owner and two of his staff. Following the second interview I received a voice mail to let me know they’d hired someone else but gave no reason where I’d failed or at least why I wasn’t as desirable as the person they hired. So I called the co-owner up and left him a message, asking him for some honest feedback as to how I could improve my candidacy and what I could have done better.

I never got any feedback.

In this case, I don’t know what I did “wrong” if anything that resulted in me not getting the job. I don’t know who they hired either so I couldn’t compare myself to that person. In this instance, I didn’t learn anything about how I could have done better because no such feedback was offered.