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 © 2010 by Morris Consulting

Copyright holder is licensing under the Creative Commons License, Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

Please feel free to email this E-book to anyone who should know How to Get Hired.

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Understanding the Interview Screening Process – The 4 Steps ............................................................. 1

Why You Are in the “No” Pile – Steps 1 and 2 ........................................................................................ 5

Why You are in the “No Pile” – Steps 3 and 4 ....................................................................................... 11

Understanding the Interview Process – The 4 Steps ............................................................................ 12

Why You Are in the “No” Pile – Steps 1 and 2 ...................................................................................... 14

Why You Are in the “No” Pile – Steps 3 and 4 ...................................................................................... 16

Where Next? ......................................................................................................................................... 18

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 Have you ever seen someone with the same qualifications as yourself—or fewer—wind up
getting every offer, promotion, and internship? Chances are they were part of the small
percent who had found out what really was being asked for. Information is power.

Say, I have 100 resumes and cover letters to review and I must choose 12.

How do I choose you?

Initially, I DON’T – I exclude others.

Key Insight:
You want to avoid taking unnecessary risks that will knock you out of the game early.

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 There are 4 steps to the Interview Screening Process.

What Knocks You Out:

 Missing or inconsistent information.
 No cover letter or incomplete job reference.

What Knocks You Out:

 Typos – Yikes!
 No fit / no skills.
 Poor organization / poor character.

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 Now I begin to look for positives.

Focus shifts to a relative evaluation:

 How do you look relative to your peers?
 Now you begin to matter.

Focus is almost 100% on positives:

 Who are the top 12?

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 Key Insight:
I will have spent very little time evaluating many candidates before I weed them out.

Key Insight:
Saying the wrong thing and making stupid mistakes will take you out of the running, before
you get the chance to shine.

Saying the wrong thing:

 “I eventually will go to law school, but my dad thinks I should get a real job first.”
 “I gained strong mathematical ability playing bingo.”

Not saying the right thing:

 Task vs skill-based focus.
 Lack of evidence of industry interest, character, and intellectual capacity.
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 Let’s look at Step 1 and 2 errors closely. Can you find the typos and grammatical errors?

1) (Easy)

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

A.B. Economic G.P.A. 3.2/4.0 Expected June 2012

2) (Hard)

Joe’s Company New York, NY

Private Funds and Separate Accounts Intern Summer 2007
 This department manages retirement plans for private institutional clients and
provides private funds to institutional investors
 Actively managed information database for funds in these sectors, including
fund performance, size of assets, products offered, relevant fees and
management information
 Member of the taskforce to ensure merging of information from a recently
acquired database

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 There are 4 errors. What are “this…” “these…” and “the…” referring to?

1) (Easy)

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

A.B. Economics G.P.A. 3.2/4.0 Expected June 2012

2) (Hard)

Joe’s Company New York, NY

Private Funds and Separate Accounts Intern Summer 2007
 This department manages retirement plans for private institutional clients and
provides private funds to institutional investors
 Actively managed information database for funds in these sectors, including
fund performance, size of assets, products offered, relevant fees and
management information
 Member of the taskforce to ensure merging of information from a recently
acquired database

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 Consider this classic:
XYZ Corporation Inc., Research Fellowship– Chicago, IL September 20xx–December 20xx
 Research and study the capital markets and the consultative process.
 Assist in the preparation and publishing of presentation materials for client and prospect meetings.
 Coordinate client and prospective client mailings and maintain appointment calendar.
 Arrange and initiate telephone contact with current and prospective clients.
 Prepare client portfolios and initiate contact with prospective clients.

Annoying, right? Font size should never be smaller than 11 pt.

Key Insight:
When I am going through a pile of resumes, it is usually at the end of the day and my eyes
are tired. Don’t doom your chances by putting me in a bad mood!

Key Insight:
Your cover letters and resume must be perfect. Typos and grammatical mistakes will not
be tolerated. Period.

What is the best way to proof-read?

 Have an old person who knows nothing about the job for which you are applying proof-
read your cover letters and resume.
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 Typos are only the start of step 2. I also use the following to narrow down the list.

5 mistakes you need to fix right now:

Do not take risks trying to differentiate yourself with the style of your resume.

 Business font – Times New Roman.

 Limit the number of support bullets to 3.
 Use short, concise, skill-based descriptions.
 When you have 10 solid years of experience you may consider expanding your resume
past one page.

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I do not want to hear what you hope to gain from working for my company. I only want you
to tell me what you are going to provide me that will make my team better.

 “Working at Acme Healthcare will help me gain valuable skills…”

 “I am very interested in learning about what it is like working at a laboratory…”

I do not want to hear your opinion about your skills. I want you to give me examples that
illustrate them and I will judge their significance myself.

 “I think that I will be a perfect fit for the position…”

 “Superior analytical and communication skills…”

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 If you cannot accurately describe what you did with a strong action verb, it does not belong
on your resume or cover letter.

 “Assumed full-time analyst responsibilities in several pitches and witnessed the

execution of several deals…”
 “Interacted daily with managers to ensure that information was accurately reflected…”
 “Arranged and initiated telephone contact with prospective clients…”

Evidence of appropriate risk-taking is a sign of maturity and good judgment, but taking
unnecessary risks is not. Risks on your resume and cover letter have too much down-side.

 Don’t be cute. No humor, creative prose, philosophical insights or famous quotes.

 Don’t point out your weaknesses or short-comings.

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 When step 1 and 2 conclude, 100 candidates have been reduced to 25.

Remember that I still have not looked for positives, yet 75% of you are gone.

Key Insight:
Saying the wrong thing will end your chances before you begin to matter at all.

So what allows you to make the final cut?

Step 3 and 4 errors are a result of not saying the right thing. A complete explanation,
numerous examples and more are yours to explore in Polished.

On to interviews…

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 I have 12 people to talk to, and I need to narrow the list down to 3 call-backs.

How do I choose? There are 4 steps to this process, too.

4 or 5 candidates will always go to the interview in the “likely” category:

 As a corollary, everyone else is already “not likely” in the interviewer’s mind.

This is the look and feel component:

 Step 2 is as important as what you actually do and say.

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 Notice that by the first 10 seconds, the first 2 steps of the interview are done.

Now comes the “actual” interview.

Intangibles show your personality and maturity under pressure:

 Habits like fidgeting and slouching can reveal more than your spoken responses.

Lastly, what you say begins to count:

 Who are the top 3?

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 What will put you in the “likely” or “not likely” camp?

Resume and cover letter:

 Who seems the strongest fit for the position?

Any other contact I, or my colleagues, may have had with you:

 Networking, career research.
 Interaction with HR/administrative support.
 Correspondences.
 Personal connections.

Key Insights:
“Likely” candidates have an edge going into the interview because it is human nature to
use additional evidence to reconfirm initial conclusions.

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 What knocks you out?

Being late:
 Late means I had to wait for you, 10 seconds or 10 minutes. It is all the same.

Inappropriate dress:
 Stick with a pressed shirt, tailored suit, shined shoes, and dress socks.
 No loud ties, scarves or visible tattoos; limited cologne or perfume.

Lack of confidence and maturity in your greeting:

 Firm (but not excessive) handshake, eye contact and a smile.
 Avoid slang, silly jokes, pithy comments, arrogance.
 Follow instructions and let the interviewer lead.

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 What will push you into the “No” Pile:

Distracting eye contact:

 Should not be a piercing, continuous stare or an occasional glance, but something in
between.

Slouching, reclining, rocking, tapping or fidgeting:

 Sit up straight – you want to be on the front of your chair, looking highly engaged.

Mistaking friendly for friend:

 Your interviewer may try to make you feel comfortable with some friendly gestures.
 She is not your friend – refrain from using “good-buddy-speak” with your interviewer.

It is natural to be nervous, but nerves can lead to bad habits showing through:
 Avoid: rambling, forgetting the question, talking fast, finishing the interviewer’s
sentence, rude and curt responses, bold and unsupported statements, dry mouth.

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 What will push you into the “No” Pile:
 Not knowing yourself cold.
 Not following instructions.
 Over-rehearsed answers or unrehearsed answers.

You must be able to demonstrate and articulate the following:

 Real interest
 Well-roundedness
 Intellectual capacity
 Sound judgment
 Strong character
 Strong work ethic
 Risk-taking / adaptability
 Leadership and teamwork
 Performing well under pressure
 Creativity

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 I hope you have enjoyed How to Get Hired: Staying Out of the No Pile.

Still curious about:

 How to pass steps 3 & 4 to make the resume and cover letter final cut?
 What to say during interviews to show the right step 4 tangibles?
 Many more secrets about how hiring decisions are made?

These and more are yours to explore in Polished: Adding Shine to your Resume, Cover
Letter, and Interview Skills.

Best of the luck - I look forward to learning about your future success!

R. Scott Morris
scott@PolishedU.com

www.GetHiredBlog.blogspot.com
www.PolishedU.com

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 R. Scott Morris has always been actively involved in the on-campus recruiting process. He
has reviewed thousands of resumes and cover letters and conducted over 500 interviews.

Scott has a passion for solving complex problems and helping others learn; Polished is an
expression of both these passions.

Scott lives in west suburban Chicago with his wife, Margie, and their three teenage boys.

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