Should I rat on a job candidate?

On March 21, 2022
Should I rat on a job candidate?

Question

I find myself in the position of having to decide whether I should rat on a job candidate. My boss is about to interview someone who applied for a job in our group. I will not be involved. He is a former colleague from my previous employer, where he was a problem employee. He and I had a major falling out because I questioned a bad decision he made and then tried to cover up. It was very costly to the company. It was awkward but I had to “testify.” He got a “black eye” as a result, but the company didn’t know the half of what he had done. I have never told anyone here about it and the former colleague may or may not know that I work here. (Obviously, I didn’t say goodbye to him).

I have a very good relationship with my new boss but am afraid to tell her about this because I fear it may color her impression of me. Should I approach my boss about it? How?

Nick’s Reply

You have two responsibilities to your employer in this matter:

  • To do your job properly for the benefit of the company.
  • To do what you can to promote and protect your department’s and your company’s success.

You didn’t tell me the details of what transpired at your old company, and I don’t want to know them. I have to trust that your position in all this is above reproach. If it is, then I believe you must find the right way to notify your boss because if this person is hired, he will likely affect not only your ability to do your job, but everyone’s.

You need not rat on a job candidate

I suggest you tell your boss you are aware so-and-so may be considered for a job, then add, “May I make a suggestion?”

Stop there until you get the go-ahead to say more. If your boss declines your input, leave it alone. You aren’t in charge, and you’ll have to deal with whatever happens. If your boss clears the path, say, “If you do a careful reference check on this person, I won’t need to put myself in an awkward position by offering information that might seem self-serving.”

Note that you’re not disclosing what happened at the old company. You’re not ratting anyone out. You are making a suggestion to your boss about the hiring process. This may seem like I’m splitting hairs, but I believe it keeps you safe.

If your boss takes this at face value, let it go at that. Say no more.

Let another reference speak

If your boss encourages you to say more, make sure you’re in a private setting, whether on the phone, via Zoom or in person.

“Look, I don’t like to disparage anyone, and I know you can form your own opinion. I worked with him at my last company, and I wish that I hadn’t. I’d just as soon you got the story from someone else at the other company. The last thing I want is for you to think that I go around bad-mouthing people.”

You don’t have to rat on a job candidate. It’s better to let another reference outside your company provide the details simply because they won’t have the same vested interest you do. (You could suggest your boss learn a bit about how reference checking can be a competitive edge.)

If you don’t give your boss at least this much of a heads-up, it could hurt her and the company, and it could put you in the position of having to work with this person again. You’re not nixing the hire. (You don’t have that kind of power.) You’re encouraging your boss to look extra closely at the candidate. In my opinion, this meets your two obligations I mentioned above.

A circumspect reference

Your new boss may give you the okay to spill the whole story. Be careful not to compromise your own integrity as you tell it. Keep it brief and objective. In essence, you are providing a reference, so apply the same circumspection you would if a different employer contacted you for a reference on this candidate. Stick to the facts. Let your boss draw the conclusions, and encourage her to check with other references.

This is unfortunate, but I think you have to address it. I don’t think you’re ratting anyone out. This is business information. If you were your boss, wouldn’t you want to know? I believe my suggested approach demonstrates that, even if this matter is personal to you, you’re doing your best to handle it professionally.

If your boss hires this person anyway, you will probably have some other decisions to make. I hope for the best.

Is this “ratting on a job candidate?” What would you do? Is it possible for the reader to protect the boss’s (and company’s) interests without personal risk? Also, what would you do if you were the boss in this case?

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The 4 Questions™: Get a job with a mini-business plan

On March 14, 2022
The 4 Questions™: Get a job with a mini-business plan

How to Get A Job Workshop

In the previous installment of this special How to Get A Job series we discussed how to get the inside track on the job you want. This requires connecting with the hiring manager’s circle of friends — people who can educate you and introduce you for a substantive, 10-15 minute talk with the manager. Now you need a mini-business plan using The 4 Questions™. — Nick

Make a mini-business plan: The 4 Questions™

So, what do you do in that brief talk with the manager? (This also works in a regular job interview, if you can take control.)

Outline your business plan for the job

The 4 Questions

Your objective must be to show the hiring manager you are worth interviewing at length. You much show (hint?) that you have a plan to do the job. It really is a mini-business plan. Your contacts to this point should have prepared you to demonstrate you’re there to talk more about the work than about yourself. Your brief talk must reveal that you can answer YES to what I call The 4 Questions™. You must leave the manager wanting more.

Please note that in the next section I’m giving you way more suggestions than would ever fit into a 15-minute talk! In fact, this should be more than enough to also structure a complete job interview later. (Some of the suggestions are realistic only for a full interview.) Choose what you think will work best for you — for the preliminary brief chat or the interview — then bend and shape it to suit your needs.

The 4 Questions™

In my experience, unless someone works out at least partial answers to The 4 Questions in advance, they have no business in a chat or in a job interview with a hiring manager. At least this much is necessary to make you stand out and to make you worth talking with.

1. Do I understand what the work is?
You should be prepared to discuss one or two problems and challenges the manager (or company) is facing. This is what you’ve gleaned from your new contacts! Consider it the minimum ante for your encounter. Even if your understanding is not very deep, you can diplomatically ask the manager what they’d expect a new hire to tackle, fix, improve, make better or otherwise bring to the team.

Another way to address this is to start a dialogue about what are the deliverables the manager expects. In other words, if you were hired, what would you plan to get done in the 1st month on the job, the 3rd month, the 6th 12th, 18th month, and at 2 years?

2. Can I do the work?
Your discussions with the people that got you into this brief talk should have prepared you for this question. Before your talk with the manager, you should have examined your enormous quiver of skills and abilities — but do not overwhelm the manager with your entire quiver! From these, you must thoughtfully select just a few specific “arrows” and demonstrate how you would use them to do the work the manager needs done. (Do not go on about all your “arrows!”) Briefly discuss these and ask the manager for feedback.

3. Can I do the work the way the company wants it done?
This is a matter of work ethic and style. Again, your preparatory discussions should have told you a lot about the company’s and manager’s approach to work. You should be able to say something about how you will fit into the culture (whatever that word really means!). There’s nothing wrong with asking the manager what qualities other successful employees share, and how they work together as a team. (A friend of mine asks Question 3 this way: Can you park your bike pointing the way everyone else does?)

4. Can I do the work profitably?
“Profit” can mean many things: More money, higher customer satisfaction, lower costs, higher revenues, more efficiency, and so on. What we’re really getting at is, will you deliver more than you cost? Can you estimate the added value you can bring to the job?

There is of course no way to state a “correct” number, simply because you don’t have all the information you need to make this estimate!  (Few managers could do this for their own jobs!) The secret to Question 4 is that it lends itself to a discussion. Ask the manager how the job contributes — or could contribute — directly to the department’s or company’s profits or success. Job candidates I’ve coached have wowed managers who have never encountered an applicant who so clearly shows they’ve thought hard about the bottom line — as much as they’re thinking about getting a job! Addressing this question is not about having a “right” answer. It’s about being able to “show your work” and defend your approach and conclusions. It’s about you and the manager rolling up your sleeves to figure this out.

The 4 Questions™ break the script

Perhaps the most fatal flaw about job interviews is that they’re devoid of back-and-forth about the work. I find that when a candidate helps a manager talk about the work that needs to be done, job interviews are dramatically more productive. As we discussed in the last column, we’re breaking the hiring script and creating an edge. The candidate that is prepared to talk shop stands apart.

If you suspect that answering The 4 Questions™ is also a good script for a full job interview, you’re absolutely right. In fact, some of what I suggest in the four questions above works better in a job interview than in the brief chat with the manager. Turn your job interview into a demonstration! I call this doing the job to win the job.

Never do this presumptuously. Ask the hiring manager (Never attempt this with HR!) for permission to present a mini-business plan for how you would approach the job if you were hired. Then pull out a tablet or ask the manager’s permission to go up to the whiteboard to draw an outline.

Your mini-business plan for the job interview

Lay out your plan. Keep it brief! I think it’s far better to actually sketch this out than to merely talk about it. Clearly, this is based on The 4 Questions, too.

  1. You understand the job. In just 3 or 4 bullet points, briefly outline your understanding of the work to be done: What are the outcomes (goals or deliverables) the manager wants? Coax the manager to help you get it right!
  2. You know how to do the work… List the tasks necessary to achieve the desired outcomes. This is your map, or plan, for doing the job. Then back it up. Explain how you’ll apply 3 or 4 of your specific skills appropriately. (Work this out well in advance!)
  3. …the way the manager wants it done. Query the manager about how the team’s style and culture contributes to (or interferes with!) getting the work done. This is a discussion that can give you insight on how to handle the rest of your interview!
  4. You can do the job profitably. This is the fun and risky part! Draw a line beneath your presentation so far, and write a number in dollars — your estimate of what you think you can contribute to the bottom line. (You must do your estimate in advance.) The number almost doesn’t matter! Explaining how you arrived at it, and the ensuing discussion, is what matters! It shows a smart manager that you’re not there just for a paycheck. You’re thinking about the company’s bigger picture, and you have at least attempted to tackle the bottom line.

I poll managers about how they’d respond to a job candidate who showed up with a mini-business plan like this. The answer is always the same: “Are you kidding? I’d be shocked and stunned and ready to talk!”

This works only if you choose targets carefully!

Remember our discussion about why there aren’t 400 jobs out there for you? There is no way you could perform like this for 400, or 100, or even 10 jobs! You must choose your target employers, managers and jobs with care. As you work out what you want to say to a manager, whether for a short get-to-know-you chat or for a real job interview, I think you will grasp why I say If you can’t pull this off, you have no business meeting with a busy manager!

What makes you a truly worthy job candidate? How would you apply The 4 Questions™ to get in the door and stand out in an interview? What is the minimum ante — or preparation — to warrant a meeting with a hiring manager? Does it seem to you that most job interviews fail to yield offers because the candidate isn’t ready “to do the job in the interview?” (Ah, that’s a loaded question!)

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How to Get A Job: Get the inside track

On March 7, 2022
How to Get A Job: Get the inside track

How to Get A Job Workshop

In the first installments of this special How to Get A Job series we discussed the pitfalls of resumes, how to get the right job by pursuing fewer jobs, and how to turn people you don’t know into personal contacts that get you in the door. In last week’s Comments section, readers “filled in the blanks,” discussing how to turn new contacts into meetings with managers that might want to hire you. So, then what? Get the inside track before your next interview! — Nick

How to Get A Job: Get the inside track

get the inside track

You may have heard me say this before. Never give your resume to a manager that you haven’t already had substantive contact with. If you do, you cannot stand out when it counts — before the manager starts interviewing your competition.

You may also have heard me say this. If you lost out on the last job to someone that had the inside track, next time be the candidate on the inside track!

So, you’ve put to work the ideas we’ve already discussed in this series. You’ve been referred to a hiring manager (or other influential insider) by someone who recognizes that you may be able to bring value to the operation. This personal introduction is worth far more than any job application or “professionally written resume.” A manager is far more likely to act on a referral from a trusted source than on an unknown applicant.

Then what?

In psychology, a job interview is what we call a cognitive script. The questions and answers — even the behavior and how people dress — are preordained. (If you could be any animal, what animal would you be? What’s your greatest weakness? Where do you see yourself in five years? I call these the Top Ten Stupid Interview Questions.)

Now what do you do? You break the script and stand out.

Break the script

Almost every job-interview story line follows a conventional script. The process, the questions, the sweaty palms, the tricks, the clever comebacks — it’s all a kind of acting. Everyone acts a part.

This makes every job applicant like every other. The sameness is baked into the interview script everyone uses.

This is why, after a day of interviews, the hiring manager can’t distinguish Candidate 1 from Candidate 8.  You can’t get hired because you don’t stand out. You’re like an extra in a B movie whose ending you already know.

To get anywhere, you must stand out.

Get the inside track

The best thing you can do to stand out as more than just another job candidate is to break the script. Get the manager out of the same-old Q&A story. (What’s your greatest strength? Why are manhole covers round?) Do something your competition wouldn’t dare. Turn your conversation into something else — a discussion about the work. And start this new script before you even get a job interview!

Please get this straight. What we’re about to discuss is not what to say in a job interview. You must talk to the manager before you apply for the job.

This is what to say to a hiring manager even before they have seen your resume. How you handle this discussion can determine whether you earn a job interview as the candidate with the inside track.

How to Say It

Readers often tell me they understand what I’m recommending they should do, but they don’t know how to actually say it. So let’s run through some of your options, in “how to say it” format.

Now that a new contact has referred you to a manager you need to talk with, call (don’t e-mail or text) the manager. These suggestions may be used as alternatives to one another, or they may be woven together any way you wish to suit your style and approach. This is all about introducing yourself to the manager without a resume.

How to Say It #1

“I’ve been talking with so-and-so and so-and-so [people the manager knows] and they’ve pointed out to me that your operation is growing. They thought I might be helpful to you. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that two key problems or challenges that you are facing may be these…[briefly describe].”

If you approach a manager with an arrogant or presumptuous tone, they will blow you off. If you approach by saying, “So-and-so suggested that I give you a call,” that opens up the door. Always ask permission to continue.

How to Say It #2

“Thanks to some advice from so-and-so, I’ve been trying to study your business and I’d like to ask if you could give me a little more insight into where your business is going and where you might need some help.”

If you feel awkward and don’t want to come off as presumptuous, turn the discussion away from sounding like a pitch for a job.

How to Say It #3

“I have an interest in your industry. I’m not sending out resumes because I’m not applying for jobs, but people regard your company is a shining light in its industry. I’d like to learn more about [marketing, engineering, etc.] in your company, perhaps about your own department’s needs and about what you do before I apply for a job.”

If you’ve done your homework and spoken with insiders, you have three or four names to drop. Most managers will not ignore personal referrals, even if they don’t have an open job right now. More important, those people that referred you also tutored you in the manager’s business just enough that you’ve been able to formulate some good questions for a productive conversation.

Here’s a potent way to show the manager that you’re the one taking a risk.

How to Say It #4

“I don’t like applying for any job until I have learned enough to be able to go into the interview and demonstrate, hands down, how I can specifically contribute to the bottom line. If I can’t flesh out a plan, I wouldn’t expect any manager to interview me. I’m trying to develop that kind of understanding.”

Don’t ask for a meeting yet. Don’t hog the call. Be brief. Do not recite your resume or credentials! Let the manager talk. Whatever the manager might share with you, ask for a meeting shorter than any job interview; short enough that the manager may actually squeeze you in.

How to Say It #5

“Would you have fifteen minutes for me to stop by so I can get a little more insight about your operation, and about the work you hire people to do? I know you’re busy. I’ll be gone after fifteen minutes.”

Not many managers get phone calls like that. You’re clearly not asking for a job interview.

If you really want to be bold, try this.

How to Say It #6

“Look, I know you might think that I’m coming to you from out of left field, and if I seem like a know-it-all, please pardon me. So-and-so and so-and-so were kind enough to educate me about your company’s business. I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to get a sense of how I might be able to contribute something to your operation. I’ve put together a very brief business plan I’d like to show you.”

(In the next edition, we’ll discuss how to create this “business plan for a job” that you can use both in your preliminary talk with the hiring manager and in your job interview.)

There’s another version of this you might like better. Can you see the powerful spin on it?

How to Say It #7

“It’s a fifteen-minute presentation. If you’ve got fifteen minutes for me, I’d like to come by your office. If after five minutes you don’t like what I have to say, stop me and I’ll leave, no questions asked. I’m not here to waste your time, I’m here because so-and-so suggested I speak with you — and because I think I can help you. But in any case, I won’t take more than fifteen minutes of your time. Promise.”

If you cobble together an approach from these suggestions, and a manager blows you off, it’s probably not a place you want to work. That’s not sour grapes. A manager who has time only for scripted interviews with people unknown isn’t a good business person.

Talk with the hiring manager before you apply for a job

To establish yourself as worthy of a manager’s interest, you must completely bypass the conventional recruiting and interview script. You must stand out from all other candidates. You must earn the inside edge by earning referrals and tutoring from people the manager knows and trusts.

There is no resume. There is no interview. The opportunity before you is driven by who knows you. Someone the manager knows. It’s driven by talking shop outside the job hunting and hiring script we all know and hate.

This is the substantive contact you need, and you should create it well before any job interview. This is your new script for talking about an opportunity, and these are some suggestions for how to say it.

How would you re-cast my suggested “how to say its” for your own use? Does this give you any other ideas about how to gain an edge over your competition, and how to position yourself? Does it make sense that, to stand out, you must do something “stand-0ut” before you apply for a job or go to a job interview?

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