Final Round Interviews with Hiring Manager's VP or Director - YouTube

Question for you. Do you have a second interview  coming up with the hiring manager’s manager or  

possibly even higher up than that if a  small company? It could be a CEO. If so,  

definitely stay tuned for this video as this is  what I'm going to cover today. So, if you are new  

here to my channel, my name is Bill Benoist. I'm  a certified professional career coach in Silicon  

Valley, primarily work with individuals in mid  to late career professionals. That is, and this  

is a very common occurrence is interviewing with  the next level up. It's a second interview, and  

there's a couple of ways that I want you to  think about preparing for this interview.  

So, number one, and I've talked  about this in previous videos,  

your resume is what validated your competence,  right? They get on the phone with you,  

they do a phone screen, they're still validating  your competence, but when it actually goes for  

the interview, it's becoming a little bit more  about compatibility than it is about competence.

They're still going to ask you so,me questions  regarding the competence of the position,  

but it really becomes more about compatibility.  And that is never more so, true than  

when you were interviewing at a higher  level. I mean, think about this. If you're  

interviewing as a project manager, as a software  engineer, as a financial analyst, whatever it is,  

and you're interviewing with a CEO, do you  think they're going to really understand  

your job that much? And it's often true, even  with just one level up from the hiring manager,  

because although they may be that overall  department manager, they don't really understand  

the nitty gritty and they kind of understand  that you will know more than they do about it.  

So, there's really not a lot you can prepare for  as far as like technical or operational questions,  

but there are ways that you can prepare for  this interview and that is understanding the  

compatibility and really getting engaged  with that person that's interviewing you.

So, I want you to think about this in two  different lights. There are two different kinds of  

individuals that will be interviewing you at this  level. One would be what I would say, somebody  

who likes to be the center of attention and the  other person who doesn't like to be the center of  

attention. So, what do I mean by this well center  of attention? It means that they really enjoy  

talking not necessarily about themselves, but they  enjoy being the conversationalist. And if this is  

the case, what you want to be doing is never  number one, never interrupt them, but listen,  

and ask questions that they will have an enjoyable  time answering for you. So, it could be about  

the business. It could be about their position,  they enjoy talking, but then there's going to be  

others that really, they want to listen. Okay.  They don't want to be the center of attention.

And this is where you can share with  them some really good stories out there  

of what you've done before. Let's say you  were in customer service, maybe some juicy  

stories about, you know, a difficult  customer that you had, or a really  

in fact, I scratch that. I don't want you to talk  about difficult customers. Think about one of the  

best customers that you ever worked with because  they like to hear positive things, not negative  

things out there. Um, you know, project manager,  you know, an example of something that really  

went well, you know, you don't have to get into  the details of such, but they're going to be  

interested in just hearing the story. If it's an  engaging story. So, you can kind of judge right.  

When you go in there, if this person is going to  be one who likes to be the center of attention  

again, you're going to ask them engaging questions  about the business, about the company, which means  

that you want to study and learn as much as you  can, not only about the company, but make sure you  

take a look at their LinkedIn profile and learn  as much as you can about them at LinkedIn as well.

You know, Hey, I see that you, uh, went  to Harvard for an MBA. That that was a  

fascinating school to go to boy. If this person is  someone who likes to be the center of attention,  

they're really going to enjoy answering that  question. It's a process of getting engaged, okay?  

Member your resume, validated your competence, the  phone screen validated your competence. You had  

the interview with the manager becomes a little  bit more about compatibility, but also, they'll  

ask you a few questions about your competence, but  now at this higher level really becomes more about  

compatibility than anything else. So, either this  person is going to be wanting to talk or they're  

going to want to listen. And if there's somebody  that likes to listen and you don't talk a lot,  

it's probably not going to go your way. So,  you want to make sure that you have some  

good stories prepared, you know, in advance  because they may ask you a couple of questions.  

They're not going to be really deep questions,  but they could be behavioral type of questions.  

And they're going to be really engaged with the  answer that you give them. So, I hope this video  

was informative and useful for you. If you  haven't already subscribed to this channel,  

make sure that you do so, as I do upload new crew  tips and strategies every Tuesday, and I'd hate  

for you to miss anything. Thanks for stopping  by. And I look forward to seeing you next week.