PMI May 6 2016

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Evan Donaldson – Talentry, LLC
Why do companies hire?
How do companies hire?
Who do companies hire?
A Summary for
hiring managers,
people looking for
a new
opportunity, or
those looking for
advancement.

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Why do companies hire?
• Why do companies hire?
– Because they have a problem!
• How many kinds of problems are there?
– ONE!
• What kind of problem is this?
– A BUSINESS Problem!

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What are these business problems?
1. Make Money
2. Save Money
3. Get new clients/consumers
4. Keep current clients/consumers
happy (buying)

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What does this look like in a specific
context for the Company?
Companies
• Initiating new projects (implementations, alliances,
new contracts, new markets, roll-outs, upgrades,
build-outs, etc.)
• Looking for senior or specialized personnel
• Growing, expanding, opening new facilities, moving
• Adding new skill areas (e.g. PC to Virtual Desktop,
etc.)
• Offering new products/services to clients
• Looking to outsource or use Prof. Services
• Looking to save money, reduce products/service,
hiring freezes (!)

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What does this look like in a specific
context for the Candidate?
Successful candidates will :
• Save them money
• Win them customers
• Decrease their time to
market
• Allow other strategic
initiatives to move
forward
• Achieve innovation
• Differentiate/brand
themselves
• Remove annoyances
• Streamline processes
• Automate processes
• Provide specialized skills
• Optimize current clients

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What do companies do when they
have problems/needs?
So far, I have only been able to come up with 5 strategies that companies use to solve problems:
1. Nothing. Either they solve the problem with internal resources; or they defer
because they lack the time, the money, the champion, the plan, or some
combination.
2. They hire internal resources (“permanent” or “direct hire” personnel) to solve long-
term problems.
3. They hire a consultant, or a contractor. An individual to solve the problem and then
leave.
4. They hire a professional services company to internally develop a solution.
5. They outsource the solution in return for a finished product or total solution.
Often, companies will shift and rotate among these options trying to find the “perfect
solution.”

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HOW do companies hire?
Top Grading in Hiring: “Who” by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
How do “A” hiring managers find their stars?
They ask:
– What were you hired to accomplish?
– How did your performance compare to the
previous year’s performance?
– How did your performance compare to the plan?
– How did your performance compare to that of your
peers?
– What are your biggest accomplishments in this area
in your career?
– What are your insights into your biggest mistakes
and lessons learned in this area?

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What does the person interviewing
want?
• The FIVE universal motivators:
(Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs )
• Physiological Needs
• Safety Needs
• Needs of Love, Affection and
Belongingness
• Needs for Esteem
• Needs for Self-Actualization
Appeals to these needs will be effective - People need to be
MOTIVATED in order to take ACTION

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In a business context:
• Achievement
• Social Affiliation
• Power
• Ego Gratification
• Survival

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What are they looking for?
General Principles:
The best decisions regarding candidates will come from a
combination of “mechanical” ratings and a “gut feeling.” This
combination of sound analysis and seasoned judgment is needed.
Interview questions can be viewed as a series of prompts
designed to spark applicant anecdotes relevant to the job related
criteria.
Interviewing is both a duty and a privilege. Interviewers are
acting as “agents of the organization” and have legal
responsibilities to ensure a fair process.

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Behavioral Based Interviewing
 The best predictor of future performance is past performance.
• Focus on actual past performance (Avoid “What if” questions)
• Ask questions designed to obtain behavioral examples
• Use probes to elicit enhanced information about details (who what, when,
where, why)
 This is why they use BEHAVIORAL-BASED Interviewing
• You want to hire candidates for what they actually did, not what they think
that they can do or want to do (why?)
• It is more difficult to embellish when recalling specific examples
• A good interviewer can always direct this to the point where canned or
prepared responses will be useless.
• MOST managers do a poor job of this, accepting hypotheticals.

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Behavior Based Interviewing
• “Describe your most disappointing and frustrating experience in gaining the
support of others for an idea or proposal.”
• “Tell me about a time when you had to work hard in order to fully
understand what another person was saying to you.”
• “Describe the last time you did something at school/work that went well
beyond expectations.”
• “Give me an example of a time in which you felt you were able to motivate
your co-workers in school/work.”
• “Tell me about a time when you dealt effectively with conflict.”
• “Describe the most significant written document, report or presentation
that you have completed.”
Beware the “here is what I would do….” or even, “here is what I do.…” answer!

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Probing questions work for both
interviewer and interviewee
Probing for Elaboration
• Can you tell me more about….
• What exactly did you do….what was your role?
• I’d like to hear a few more details….
Probing for Understanding
• So, it sounds like you (restate)
• I am still not clear about…..
• Help me understand…
• Why did you do it that way?
• When you say “X”, what do you mean specifically….
Probing for Examples
• Can you give a detailed example?
• What were the steps you took? Why?
• What exactly were your own responsibilities?
• What additional examples can you give….
Probing for Results
• What resulted from…..
• How did you measure your results?
• How were your stellar outcomes
different
from typical work?
• What accomplishment are you most
proud of?
• What did you learn from…..

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PAR/STAR Model
Asking Behavior-Based Questions
Situation
Please describe the situation in which your example takes place.
“Management decree was to move our system uptime from 96% to 99.9%.”
Task
What task were you working on?
“I was responsible for setting up replication.”
Action
What action(s) did you or others take?
“I re-provisioned storage creating a synchronous replication environment.”
(Probing question opportunity: Why wasn’t there a replication environment in the first
place? Why did you select synchronous vs. asynchronous replication?”)
Result
What was the result of the action?
“We were able to actually move our uptime to 99.99% .” (Probing question opportunity:
How was this measured? Over how long?)

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WHO do companies hire
People they:
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________

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How do you communicate this?
1. Resume
2. Interview
– Content
– Attitude
– Presentation
3. References

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Resumes
• MUST contain MSA / PAR (or STAR) examples
• MUST have proper spelling / be grammatically
correct
• MUST be fairly easy to read (This doesn’t
mean short!)

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Interviewing
1. Plan, research, plan, and then research
and plan some more…
2. Effective candidates listen!
1. Active listening = effective communication
2. Consultative listening/questioning
3. “= find the clues for the SO WHAT???!!!”
3. The unspoken
concern/question/problem..?
4. What is the goal of an interview?
5. The best question of all: ?

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Interviewing
• If you get to the end of an
interview and don’t ALL
know whether or not it is
likely a good fit for you,
you probably could have
done better! This indicates
poor or incongruous
communication!

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Interviewing – Attitude and
Presentation important too!
• Dress for success
• Pay attention
• Don’t interrupt – do write
things down so you don’t forget
• Don’t go on for days – do land the plane /
summarize and ask if elaboration needed
• Don’t be cocky – do be confident
• Don’t be over-eager – do be eager

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Interviewing success:
• Make sure you do have some common
questions prepared in advance.
• Do not evade questions.
• Definitely have some good questions prepared
for them in advance (“Level II Questions”)
• Be positive about everyone and everything
• Do ask for the job (if it is a good fit!)
• Do qualify answers (“from what we have
discussed so far….)

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Interviewing success – both sides of
the interview table:
• “Me and you vs. problem.” NOT “Me vs. you.”
This is creating mutuality of purpose
• “Begin with the end in mind” – the best way to
use consultative listening
• Address conflict squarely
• Both need to prepare (read resume, explore
company)
• Listen

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Good luck!
• Questions?

PMI May 6 2016

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