Ishmael asked,
… I see people with no experience get jobs at the top agencies whereas I am struggling. For example, recently I got denied a job due to the fact that I wore a suit and the agency didn’t like that. Do you have an advice as to how I should approach interviews and present myself? “
The process of interviewing for a position is nothing short of a sales career with the most valuable product in the world to you : yourself.
In this 30 minute video, I’ll walk you through how to apply Stephen Covey’s Trust Matrix (from his book Speed of Trust) to your career search, hitting on these key points:
Getting the job is about building a relationship and establishing trust
- The hiring manager is afraid of making a bad decision
- Like any purchase, we want to establish that the product is a good fit
Proving Trust
Character
- Integrity
- Caring
- Empathy
- Transparency
- Visible truth
- Courage
- Willingness to be bold
- Caring
- Intent
- Honesty
- Disclosing weaknesses truthfully
- Fairness
- Demonstrating equality and diversity of thought
- Authenticity
- Alignment with company values
- Honesty
Competence
- Capabilities
- Skills
- Certifications
- Knowledge
- Appropriate use of industry language
- Experience
- Examples
- Skills
- Results
- Record
- Past results
- Credibility
- Endorsements and recommendations
- Performance
- Record
Account for biases
- Social media profiles show appearances
- Conscious or not, it’s business Tinder
Good luck to you, Ishmael, and to everyone looking to land that next marketing job.
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Essentially paying attention during an interview and asking a hiring manager about their issues means in a way treating them like a client (agency or freelance), you need to understand their problem and show that you can solve it during a discussion. That was a good connection to make while I was watching.