987: How to Ace Your Next Job Interview with Sam Owens

Pete Mockaitis
Sam, welcome.

Sam Owens
Thanks for having me, Pete.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, tell us, in your career experience, what is perhaps the most pervasive misconception or mistake you see as people are doing job hunting, interviewing things?

Sam Owens
For job interviews, specifically, the most pervasive thing I see is that people somehow don’t see the need to practice their job interviews. They think, “Well, I either have it or I don’t,” or, “I’m either I’m a good conversationalist, so I’ll be fine,” or, “I’m not good at this stuff or whatever.” For whatever reason, they don’t think they need to practice, even though they’ll practice their golf swing two hours a day, or something like that, and that’s for just a hobby. They won’t practice job interviews, which is their livelihood for the next several years. So, that’s by far, the most pervasive thing I see is a failure to practice.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, so let’s talk about that mindset in terms of, like, “I got it or I don’t.” I suppose folks might think, “Well, hey, my experiences are my experiences. I could tell you about a time I failed, or I worked on a team, or I achieved a cool thing, blah, blah, blah. I know that. I know those experiences. I feel ready to tell you about them.” So, what are they failing to practice, and how does that show up when the interviewer is observing it?

Sam Owens
Okay, so I have to tell you about a movie I love, and maybe you’ve seen it, “Hitch,” with Will Smith and Kevin James. Okay, so there’s that scene, right, where Will Smith says, “Hey, all right, now about your dancing.” And Kevin James says, “Don’t worry about that, I got this one. It’s fine.” And Will Smith is like, “No, I’m sorry, I have to be thorough here. I need to see you dance.” And then, of course, he turns on music, and Kevin James, turns out, is just doing the funniest, most horrible dancing ever and Will Smith winds up slapping him saying, “Don’t ever do that again.”

So, I think in job interviews, things sound a lot differently in our minds than when we actually spit them out. It’s one thing to understand, “Yeah, I have relevant experience,” it’s another thing to clearly articulate when someone asks you, “Tell me about a time when you had to manage a difficult co-worker.” To tell a compelling, cohesive, concise story that really hits the mark requires practice.

It’s not that you don’t have the experiences, it’s not that you can’t recall the experiences, it’s just that the ability to convey that in two to four minutes in a really compelling way requires practice. Why wouldn’t it? You know, it’s not an easy thing to do.

Pete Mockaitis
Certainly. So, we are the Kevin Jameses in that we assume, “I know dancing.” It’s like, “I know my experiences, so we’re fine.” And it’s like, “No, no, not quite.”

Sam Owens
Either we’re the Kevin Jameses who think, “I got this,” or, here’s another problem, is we are the people that think, “Well, I don’t know, I’m not even sure if I want this job. It might not be worth all the preparation. We’ll see,” and so we kind of self-sabotage in some ways too. And what happens there is you wind up actually wanting the job, and then you don’t get the job because you came off as wishy-washy in the interview.

So, I tell my clients, “Be wishy-washy after you have a job offer in writing in your hands. That’s a great time to be wishy-washy and to be flippant and whatever. Until you have that job offer, be all in, be prepared, be ready to go.”

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, that’s good. Well, maybe let’s zoom out a little bit. In your book, I Hate Job Interviews: Stop Stressing. Start Performing. Get the Job You Want, you lay out a whole process and some steps. Could you maybe zoom out for us and give us an overview of what are those steps?

Sam Owens
Yes, the whole book is based around a checklist that I use when I work with my clients to help them get jobs, and it starts with the preparation phase. And I recommend, and sometimes this gives people heartburn, I recommend 10 hours of preparation per interview. The first three hours is spent researching the company, talking to people familiar with the company, crafting what I call your power stories.

Then the next phase is formulating your answers, formulating, anticipating how you’re going to answer them. And then the final phase, I’d say about four hours, is practicing out loud, partially with yourself and then with someone else to be successful. So, the book really walks through what that preparation looks like, how to prepare more efficiently. And then it goes through a series of question types, not specific questions, but question types, like the introductory question or a behavioral question or a case question.

It talks about how you can take your power stories and craft them so that you can answer all of these question types so that, by the time you get to the interview, you’re really ready for anything someone can throw at you. Nothing will throw you off and you feel fully prepared. So, that’s kind of the basis of the book.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Well, and so then I’m curious, I mean, the name of the book is “I hate interviews,” I Hate Job Interviews, so we’re going to talk mostly about job interviews. But before we do, I got to ask, any top tips for getting the interview in the first place?

Sam Owens
Sure. One of the pieces of advice in this book, a chapter I focus on is called “Getting Inside Information.” It’s a little bit different from what you’d expect, but as part of a job interview preparation, I actually start out by telling the story of a Wall Street inside trader who was in prison. His name is Ivan Boesky. He’s one of the first big insider trader scandals. I tell the readers to be a little bit more like him, which is a little strange.

Pete Mockaitis
A role model for us all.

Sam Owens
That’s right. He’s a good role model. And I say that because inside information, getting inside information is illegal and bad in the financial world. But, actually, it’s legal, ethical, and oftentimes encouraged, if you do it right, in the job interview world. So, as part of someone’s preparation, the first thing that someone’s going to want to do is a lot of times open their laptop and read about the company or get on their phone and read about it.

That’s okay to do a little bit, but what they really should do is put away the phone, put down the laptop, and start talking to people, anyone who is familiar with the company, someone that works with the company, and just asking for a 15-minute informational interview, “Hey, I’m applying to this company. Just want to pick your brain a little bit and have an informational interview.”

And the beauty of an informational interview is it will give you the opportunity, number one, to get inside information. I’ve gotten amazing information by calling people and saying, “Hey, I’m interviewing with your company, and just wondering if you could tell me a little bit about the company.” And then just sitting back and listening. Oh, wow, I didn’t hear just about the company. I heard about here’s who you’re interviewing with. I didn’t ask, but here are some things I would think about. And it was invaluable to me in preparing for those interviews.

So, the same principle applies when you’re trying to get an interview. If you’re interested in, let’s say, Microsoft, the first thing I would do is get on LinkedIn and try to find anyone who knows anybody that has anything to do with that company, and start calling people, picking their brains, asking them, “Hey, who else should I talk to?”

Assuming those interviews go well, you can say, “Hey, I’ve already applied to this job. What do you think? Would you be willing to pass along my resume? If you would, it would be such a huge benefit to me and I’d really appreciate it.” And so, by talking to people and by running in those circles, you’re going to get a much higher interview hit rate than if you are just trying to hit keyword, buzzwords, whatever on Monster.com or on the company website. You really need to talk to people familiar with the company.

Pete Mockaitis
Absolutely. Okay. Well, so what I like in your book, your first step associated with doing well in these interviews is to start by convincing our harshest critic, which is often ourselves. So, how do we do that?

Sam Owens
That’s right. People say, “How do I become confident in an interview?” And it comes down to convincing ourselves that we really are. We really have to know deep in our bones that we are a great candidate for this job. And this kind of starts with dispelling some of the myths we’ve talked about already, like, “Oh, I don’t know if I…” some bad, I call it mental trash. Take out your mental trash.

Some of these things that we think, “Oh, if I don’t get the job, it’s because I wasn’t qualified.” Well, that’s not true. You got the interview already. You are qualified. You just didn’t interview as well as someone else did. So, that’s one thing to dispel. “Oh, job interviewing is only for extroverts. I’m an introvert, so I’m just not going to do well.” Well, that’s not true. Job interviewing is for those who prepare.

So, there’s all these kinds of negative thoughts that are not helpful that can kind of surface as we’re preparing, got to get rid of those first. And the next piece is, that 10 hours of preparation. If you are prepared, confidence will come through preparation.

Some people are naturally confident without preparation, and that winds up coming off as arrogance in an interview. That’s kind of a disaster, you know, being confident without being prepared. And so, preparation is the key, whether you’re overconfident, whether you’re not confident enough, to make sure you have the right level of confidence when you walk into the interview.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. Well, let’s really get into it then. Okay, I got the call, “Hooray! I have an interview coming up.” I got 10 hours on my schedule to do what Sam’s telling me to do. First step, what am I doing at hour one?

Sam Owens
Hour one is you’re going to be doing informational interviews and/or researching the company. So, this is basic research, understanding, reading the job description. The job description is your instruction manual, and many people don’t go deep into it. So, for example, in the job description you can easily detect, okay, what skills they are looking for. It could be strategic thinking. It could be analytical ability.

So, you’re spending that hour, I should say the first hour, you’re really spending it studying the job description, studying the company and writing down what skills they are looking for because, later in the preparation process, you’re going to be translating those skills into responses. You’re going to be anticipating question types in writing stories that demonstrate how you have mastered those skills. So that’s hour one, a little bit of reading.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. And what’s in hour two?

Sam Owens
After you’ve done this, now it’s time to have some informational interviews, which means you get on LinkedIn, or you talk to your brother-in-law, or you do whatever you need to do to speak with people who are familiar with the company. You give them a call, you ask for 15 minutes, you’re very grateful, you’re very gracious, but you ask them questions about the company, and mostly you sit back and you listen.

That is another input for you that you’re writing down to help you craft and hone and frame the stories to make sure the stories you tell are on point with the skills that they’re looking for. So, that’s kind of your first, I’d say, three hours. That reading points, probably about an hour and then these informational interviews, you’re probably going to want to spend about two hours doing that.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Sam Owens
Feeling good so far?

Pete Mockaitis
Yup. I might ask, any pro-tips when you make the request, things to say, things not to say when you’re asking for these gracious 15-minute favors of time?

Sam Owens
You want to establish any sort of personal connection. So, it’s one thing to go on LinkedIn and to say, “Hey, Steve, Sarah said it’d be okay that we talked. Wondering if we could set something up.” It’s another thing to say, “Steve, you and I have two things in common. First, we’re huge Texas fans. I lived there from 1999 to 2005, and I see you work there today. How’s Dallas? It’s awesome. Second, we share a common friend, Sarah, she’s amazing. She mentioned you might be willing to talk to me, I’d be so grateful to do it.”

So, anything you can do to establish a personal connection with the person who you’re reaching out to is going to increase your hit rate and response rate dramatically.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. So, we’ve had these conversations, we’ve got some inside information. I’m wondering, are there any super awesome questions that give us a lot of valuable insights that you recommend are among the top things you want to ask during our 15-minute windows?

Sam Owens
I think the more information you can give them about your situation, the more they’ll know how to help you. So, “Hey, I’m applying for a job in marketing. I’ve already applied. I have an interview coming up. I’m just wondering, as I prepare, what the great marketing candidates look like. What are they like? Do you have any advice for me in the job interview process? Can you tell me a little bit about the culture at your company?”

And what I found is you don’t have to ask too many questions because once they know that you’re a candidate, that you’re interested, they’re going to say, “Okay, I got it. Let me help you just understand what you’re looking at here. Here’s my perspective.” So, I found that many times in a 15-minute conversation, number one, it usually turns into 30 minutes.

And, number two, I’d probably do 20% of the talking, and the person telling me and helping me is doing the rest of the talking, and that’s exactly how you want it to be. It’s a beautiful thing when that happens. So, I think some starter questions like that work really well, but I think just being able to listen attentively, maybe ask a couple follow-up questions, be engaged in the conversation is going to help a lot.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. So, we’ve had these conversations, we’ve gotten the good inside info, now what?

Sam Owens
Now it’s time to craft your power stories. And the reason I say you craft your stories is that you could be asked thousands of different interview job questions, and there’s no way that you can anticipate all of these questions. There’s just no way. You don’t have the time or the ability to anticipate how many questions that you’ll be asked.

However, there are only a handful of question types that you’ll be asked, and only a handful of skills that they are trying to assess. So, you want to craft power stories. If you see that they want to assess a skill in analytical ability, for example, you’ll think back in your experiences, and you’ll say, “Oh, I remember that time I had to build that inventory model for work. What was that like? What was I asked to do? And why did I do such an amazing job?”

And so, those are the types of things you want to say, “All right, I got five skills that I know they’re going to assess. So, I’m going to have two stories associated with each of those skills, and those are going to be my foundation.” Once I have that foundation, now I can start to look at all the different question types I’ll be asked, scenario questions, introductory, behavioral questions, questions about me, and I’ll be able to kind of use that as a foundation to start crafting those answers.

So that’s the next step. You want to get, you want to start to craft those power stories, and then start to anticipate, “Okay, here’s how I’d answer a behavioral question with this story. Here’s how I’d answer a you,” I call a you question, but a question about you with this story, when someone says, “What’s your leadership style?” or whatever.

And once you have that foundation, you’re going to be a lot more confident as you’re answering questions because then you can think like a politician, and anytime someone asks you a question type, you can kind of say, “All right, I got a story for that and I’m going to tell them kind of what I want to tell them a little bit,” and position my power story just a little bit to fit that question type.

Pete Mockaitis
Sam, I love this that I’ve done this, and it’s so funny, it almost feels like cheating. But I’ll tell you though, in practice, because the range of interview questions is somewhat narrow, it doesn’t look nearly as off-putting as when politicians do it. It’s like, “We weren’t talking about climate change or the border or the economy. Where is this coming from, right? Here it is.”

If we are worried that the interviewer will say, “No, no, no. That’s not what I asked. How dare you try to hijack my interview with your stuff?” Tell me, does that ever happen? And should we fear this? And why or why not?

Sam Owens
No, thinking like a politician is a provocative thought, but, really, you’re right, it’s a narrow scope. What I mean is, if someone asks you, “Can you tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership?” Or if someone asks you, “Tell me about how you get along with others,” there’s a good chance you can use the same story for both of those questions, right?

And so, what we’re saying is you want your best stuff. You want to prepare your hits, right? If you’re going to go see a concert, you’re going to go see U2 play a concert, you don’t want the new album. You want the hits. So, it’s like your power stories are your best stuff. And then, when they ask you, “Tell me how smart are you?” or “Tell me about times you manage a complicated project?” or “How do you think you are as a leader?” there’s a good chance, actually, you could take your best story and position it appropriately to fit the question that you’re asked.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. And just to make sure we’re on the same page, my greatest hits, I assume that means a smashing victory in which I exceeded expectations, created a big result, delighted my boss or clients or colleagues. This is what makes a hit a hit. Is that fair to say?

Sam Owens
That’s what a hit is. It’s like a Disney movie or any sort of movie. There’s a hero who is put into a kind of a difficult situation, spends most of the movie doing amazing things to solve the problem, and then in the end, everything works out amazingly well. That’s kind of the narrative that you weave in pretty much all of these stories.

Pete Mockaitis
I love it. I like you make it really simple. So, there we have identified the intersection then with what is within our real, genuine, legitimate experience, “Hey, I really did do that, and it really was awesome,” aligned with the skills they’re after, aligned with the kinds of question types they’re going to likely put our way. So, that’s when I’ve got things, the stars are aligning. Could you maybe give us some particulars as to what the story sounds like, how long should it be, maybe a demo?

Sam Owens
Sure. Let’s take a behavioral-based question, which is the bulk of many interviews, and this is the type of question where they ask you “Tell me about a time when…” They’re looking for a specific time, not generality. So, if they say, “Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership,” a weak answer would be, “Well, I think leadership is really important, and I’ve gotten really good feedback that I’m a good leader, and I have an open-door policy.” That’s not what they’re asking. They’re asking for a specific time.

And the reason they do that is because they believe that if you demonstrate, specifically, that you’ve done a skill in the past, you’re highly likely to demonstrate that same skill in the future. And so, the way you think about this is, you may have heard this model, the SPAR model, STAR model. I call it the SPAR model, Situation, Problem, Action, Result.

You give probably 10% of the answer to just describe the situation. So, let’s see, “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult co-worker.” Okay. You know, the situation setup might sound something like, “Two years ago, I was working for a food manufacturing firm, and I was assigned as a new person on a critical marketing project. This project was going to be the biggest campaign we had, and there was a team of 10 of us that were really going to try to grow sales for this new cereal that we were launching.”

Okay, great. So that’s your setup. Doesn’t have to be very long. It’s kind of like I say with this answer set up. It’s kind of like think about hot dogs. No one wants the back story of how it’s made. Everyone just wants to get to the meat, so think about it like a hot dog, quick setup. Now you have a problem. So, you introduce a problem, and you don’t want to make this boring. You want to make this kind of like a movie, like I said, a little tense, maybe a little drama, so that they actually want to listen to you.

So, now you say, “And the most senior person on the team didn’t like that I was put on the team because he felt like I was too junior, and so he started excluding me from meetings, and he started making comments, somewhat inappropriate comments in meetings, and this became a real challenge. And I realized if I was going to be successful, I needed to build a successful relationship with this coworker.” So, there’s your problem. So, I just did a quick situation-problem. That’s like 20%, 30% of your answer. Now the bulk of your answer.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, if I may, I’m loving this so much because I’ve heard STAR. I’ve heard SPAR fewer times, but you’re right. To talk about the problem sets up a conflict like a movie that’s engaging a story I need to hear resolved, I’m engaged. As opposed to a task is less juicy, enriching to our human nature and desire to have story.

Sam Owens
That’s right. Exactly. Your goal is to not have the interviewer tune out when you’re telling the story. So, creating a little drama always helps. So now you get to the actions where you spend the bulk, 70% of your answer. I like to do this sequentially because I think it helps keep things organized. So, talking, I say the rule of threes, one, two, three, “Okay, so here’s what I first did to manage and to kind of build this relationship. I took him to lunch, first thing, and got to know him personally so that we could establish a personal connection.”

“And in doing that, I learned a lot about him, about his family, about his background, his experience. I almost kind of looked at it and approached it like he could be my mentor. And he liked that. I think that was helpful to build our relationship because he did. I found he did have a lot of valuable experience that I can learn from.”

“The second thing I did was made a commitment to him, to talk to him and report every week on the progress that I had made on the project, because he was kind of the self-described leader of the project, and so I was more than happy to report on all the work I had done and let him give input, to kind of have this be more like a mentoring relationship. And in doing that, he really wound up engaging with me and gave me pointers. The first couple weeks were a little challenging because he was somewhat critical of my work but, eventually, he really started to come around.”

“And then the third thing I did was, after my final presentation of the work I did, I showed him and asked for his feedback on this, which really created this collaborative environment.” So, that’s the action, and you can insert other things in there, but that’s the idea. You are kind of sequentially walking through specific things that you did to solve the problem.

And then, finally, you get to the result, where I say, “And as a result of that, he actually became my biggest advocate. And when we presented this project to the executive team, he called me out specifically for the work that I had done uniquely on this project. And so, that was an example to me of really striving to build a personal relationship, leveraging someone as a mentor, and being more transparent with my work to foster that kind of collaborative relationship.”

Pete Mockaitis
Beautiful.

Sam Owens
Thank you. That’s how I’d think about answering those types of questions with a story like that, a behavioral question.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. So, we’ve identified some great power stories, we structured them with a SPAR approach, and now we just rehearse saying them out loud?

Sam Owens
That’s right. Now it’s time to practice. Now, there’s other questions that you can practice. So, you have these power stories, but there’s also other ways that these questions can be asked that you need to modify. So, for example, there’s a category of questions I call “you questions” where someone says “What kind of leader are you?” That’s a little bit of a different type of question, and it would be strange if you immediately launched into a SPAR story if someone asked that.

But one of models I use there is SEE, statement, explanation, example. So, when someone says, “What kind of leader are you?” you can say, “I think I could describe my leadership style as results-oriented and high accountability.” So, that’s your brief statement. Then you explain a little bit what you mean, “What I mean by that is I’ve been known to really collaborate and make sure I get input from all my team members, and make sure that I have that relationship to where I can hold them accountable.”

Now you go to the example, you could say, “For example,” and then that example could be a real truncated version of the story I just told, or another story that says, “For example, in my last role, I really had to take a leadership position with this coworker, and here’s what I did,” and it’s a shorter version, but you’re still weaving that in. And so, I think being able to, yes, the answer is yes, you got to practice, but you got to be ready with the different models that I lay out depending on the question type you’re asked.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. And then when we practice, any pro tips, do it with friends, do it with a video camera on your phone? Or how do we think about practicing optimally?

Sam Owens
My last job interview that I had, I practiced for a couple hours on my commute back and forth with the job I had at the time. I just practiced out loud.

Pete Mockaitis
Alone in the car is great.

Sam Owens
Which can be very valuable. Yeah, I like doing that. And then practice either with a coach. Coach is ideal, but if you don’t want to pay the money or if you don’t know any coaches, then just practice with a friend or someone who you think would be the best that will at least give you genuine and honest feedback. And when you practice, my pro tip is to simulate the actual experience.

Don’t stop in the middle, ask to start over, don’t say, “Oh, how is that?” Time it, do a 45-minute interview, and then afterwards, ask for all the feedback, because that gives you a sense of, “Okay, here’s how much endurance I’m going to have to have.” It’s going to force you to try to get yourself out of sticky situations that you might put yourself into.

Simulating the real deal is going to give you an opportunity, if I can just be totally blunt, to say, make some really dumb mistakes and say stupid things, and then realize, “Ooh, that was painful.” Like, only then do you realize, “That was painful. I don’t want to experience that pain again, so I’m going to fix that problem.” So, that’s what the practice does for you, is it allows you to say stupid things, or say things in the wrong way and then fix them for the real thing.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. And then on the day of, we’ve done our 10 hours, any pro tips for the day of? Breakfast, caffeine, showing up early, dress, anything we should think about on this day?

Sam Owens
Yeah, nothing crazy. Look, well, dress is a funny one because “How should I dress for an interview?” I have a rule of thumb, which is “Dress not to impress.” What I mean by that is don’t make dress the subject. You don’t want any interviewer to make a yes or no decision based on the way you were dressed.

So, what that means is, if you show up in a tux to a really casual place, it’s going to be like, “Hmm, that was weird. Yeah, I mean, he did a good interview. She did a nice interview, but it was just…let me tell you what this person wore.” At the same time, you don’t want to show up with sweat shorts at the place.

So, the best way to dress is to call the HR person, ask what the daily dress code is, and then just dress a little nicer than that, “Hey, we’re business casual” “Okay, good. I’ll wear slacks and a button-up. Or maybe I’ll wear a tie, I don’t know.” But a little bit nicer just so that it’s not even an issue, it’s not a focus. If I’m going to get rejected from a job, it better be because I’m not qualified, not because I dress the wrong way. That’s an easy one to get right.

The day of, yeah, caffeine, whatever you need to do, I would just say do not be late to the interview, and respect the person’s time at the end. When they ask you, “What questions do you have for me?” and you got two minutes, just do a time check for them. Maybe they have more time, but if they don’t, just respect that time. So, those are probably some basic nuts and bolts on the day of.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. Well, there we got it. Now, Sam, let’s say we do get the offer. Woo-hoo! Any top tips for negotiation or how we work that?

Sam Owens
The best time to negotiate your compensation is when you have an offer in writing. So, if they ask you what your salary requirements are in the interview, just know that you are not in the leveraged position when they ask you that. You’re in the leveraged position after you know that they want to give you an offer.

So, that poses an interesting question, “Well, what do I say?” Well, you have different options. You can punt and say, “Hey, I’ve just been really focused on whether or not this is a fit. I’m sure we’ll be able to work out the salary piece later.” Or, you could say, “Well, based on my research, I believe the salary range is between this and this.” But you really don’t have the opportunity to really play hardball until you have an offer in writing. So, that’s rule number one.

Rule number two. Any agreements, promises, or statements not in writing should not be taken seriously. So, I remember I had a job where I wanted, I was asking about, “What does my future promotion look like?” And the recruiting manager made me all sorts of promises, which immediately, after I took the job, were forgotten and didn’t matter. I don’t blame that person. I blame myself. I mean, really, if there’s no commitments in writing, they shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Okay, number three. It’s best to be paid what you are worth, not a lot more or a lot less. If you’re paid a lot more than your worth, eventually that catches up to you. If you’re paid a lot less, you’re not happy with that, and that eventually catches up to the employer. Number four. Compensation is about salary and so much more than salary. So, sometimes they won’t budge on salary but there’s all sorts of other stuff that you could talk about: bonus, benefits, vacation, all that stuff. So, think holistically when you think about the negotiation process.

Number five. Companies are much more willing to negotiate if they believe you will accept the offer. So, you don’t do yourself any favors when you say, “I don’t know. What are you willing to do for me?” It’s much better to go in good faith and say, “Hey, I actually want this. I’m excited about it. Here are some things that will help me make this work.” six. Don’t underestimate the power of likability. Interviewing firm but kindly is to your advantage.

Number seven. You likely won’t burn bridges by negotiating hard. Sometimes they want you to think, or you think, “Oh, man, if I negotiate too hard, then maybe when I start, they’re going to be mad at me or something.” Never the case. Once, it’s all done, it’s water under the bridge and you can start with a clean slate.

Number eight. Knowledge is power. Do your research, talk to people, try to understand what the salary ranges are. Number ten. Your current salary can be helpful in negotiating or it can be a liability. It’s up to you. Now, in my career, I’m happy with my salary. Someone calls me, “What are you looking to make?” I say, “Well, here’s what I’m making today. If you want me to move, I need to make at least 10% more than that.”

If you’re starting out and you’re not thrilled about your salary, and this job has a lot more, then you don’t need to bring it up, and you use the other negotiation tactics. So, that was a lot I just threw at you but that’s my 10 laws of negotiating tactics.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s handy. I like the part about negotiating hard in terms of just to remember to negotiate, period. I think in the United States, we’re not as accustomed to like, “Oh, this is the price. Okay.” It’s like, “Oh, this is the offer. Okay.” I had a guest who said that they are just able to automatically give up to 10% more anytime anybody bothers to ask, just straight up as policy. It’s like, “Wow, that’s easy. Remember to ask.”

Sam Owens
Yeah, I think so. It’s pretty rare that an employer is like, “Nope, don’t even ask. This is it.” Everything is kind of negotiable, right? And even if you don’t get what you want, at least you know that you didn’t leave anything on the table that you could have had. There’s a peace of mind that comes with that as well.

Pete Mockaitis
Yes, I have seen environments where it’s like, “Okay, look, this is standardized across hundreds of people making the same. As an associate consultant position in North America at this firm at this year, this is the package for everybody, and it just is.” It’s like, “Okay, that’s a pretty good answer. I’m glad I asked, and now I know.”

Sam Owens
Yeah, that is a good answer. Yeah, now you know, and it’s helpful when you know, because you think, “Okay, good. Now I feel…” because sometimes it’s about the money and sometimes it’s just about the perception of fairness. And so, at least you know, that when I’m sitting at lunch with the people that were hired with me, we all got the same deal. There were no exceptions, and so I’m okay with that. I can live with that.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s good. Well, Sam, tell me, anything else you want to make sure to mention before we hear about your favorite things?

Sam Owens
All right, the only thing I really want to tell people out there, because I’ve been working with people who are job seeking for a long time, is if you’re struggling right now, I just want you to know, you will find a job. It may not be on the timeline you’re looking for, and it may not be the exact job you thought you’d get, but it is going to work out. You are going to be employed again.

And I just think that’s an important thing to tell people out there, because of the people that I’ve seen, observed, who haven’t had jobs, 100% of them land on their feet, and it’s going to be like that for you too, whoever’s listening or needs to hear that. I really do believe that, I know that, and I’d just say keep your head up, keep your chin up, and keep moving forward. It’s going to work out for you.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. Now could you share a favorite quote, something you find inspiring?

Sam Owens
Winston Churchill at the brink of World War II, “Never, never, never give in.” 

Pete Mockaitis
All right. And a favorite study or experiment or bit of research?

Sam Owens
I like the Marshmallow experiment. I think that’s an interesting one.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. And a favorite book?

Sam Owens
Well, I’ll tell you a book that I really enjoyed reading lately, Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. And a favorite habit?

Sam Owens
So, my favorite habit, my recommended habit for longevity in your career and in life is daily exercise.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. And is there a Sam-original nugget of wisdom that people quote back to you often?

Sam Owens
Something that they probably quote most, they quote back to me is me saying back to them, “Why don’t you be indecisive after you have an offer? Until now, be all in.” So, I think that’s probably the nugget of wisdom when it comes to job interviewing is be all in.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. And if folks want to learn more or get in touch, where would you point them?

Sam Owens
Connect on LinkedIn. So, I’m on LinkedIn, been there for a long time. Or you go to my website, SamsCareerTalk.com. There’s actually free materials on there. If you sign up for my email, you get some free job interview guides and stuff like that, and even maybe, I’d have to check with my email guy, but you might even get some free e-Course still, e-Course videos and stuff like that if you go on it. So, my LinkedIn profile or SamsCareerTalk.com.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. And do you have a final challenge or call to action for folks looking to be awesome at their jobs?

Sam Owens
Practice, people. This is a learned skill. This hour, this next hour, and this will be my foray into being Tony Robbins or a motivational person or something like that.

The next hour that you do a job interview may be the most important hour of your career, not because it’s where you’re going to do your best work, but it’s because that may be the hour that makes all other hours possible in your career. So, don’t take it for granted. Don’t take it lightly. Put in the work. It’s worth it.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. Sam, thank you. This has been fun. I wish you much luck with interviews on both sides of that desk.

Sam Owens
Thanks, Pete. Appreciate it.