Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with career transition coach and consultant Randy Block.
This week, one of the coach callers raised an interesting question that all executives are dealing with in their job search – how to handle screening calls.
This particular caller has been unemployed for about eight months, but he has been getting calls. The calls go quite well until they reach the subject of compensation. Although he is adamant that he will work for less, the screener tends to end the call quickly when they talk salary and that’s the end of it.
Randy advises his clients to handle screening calls using a specific approach:
When you receive a non-scheduled call, explain that “now is not a good time, I’m just leaving…,” and reset the call for another, mutually convenient time. Make sure you get the other party’s name, and company. Also ask about the title of the position they are calling about, and try to get as much additional detail as you can. If possible, get them to send you a job description. Now you can prepare yourself for the questions that are likely to come.
Be sure your skills match the required qualifications. Score yourself, giving yourself a “1” for qualifications that you don’t know or don’t have, and “10” for those you have mastered. Be sure to come up with examples of achievements for those areas where you excel. If your overall score averages 7 or less, you flunked. Be honest with yourself, because you won’t pass the qualifying exam if you aren’t.
Also be sure to research the company. Get an understanding of where their points of pain lie. Get a handle on their competition. Now you can talk about what value you bring, and put your experience in relevant terms that speak to your candidacy and background.
If you have a scheduled screening call, you need to be prepared to present yourself as the solution to their problem. Treat this like a face-to-face meeting. Also beware of giving away too much information. Keep your answers short and to the point or you will lose your audience. (Personal branding guru Dan Schwable recently tweeted about an article outlining how to get your foot in the door and keep it there.)
When the question of compensation comes up, Randy recommends handling it this way.
- Be up front and ask what the position pays. Most times the screener will tell you.
- If they won’t tell you and ask about the salary range again, try a response along the lines of, “I’m sure that this is a great fit for the company and salary won’t be an issue.”
- If they still want a specific answer, give them a number. You need to determine this number in advance by sitting down with your spouse, adding up the bills, and determining what you can live with. You then have a minim mum base that you can consider.
Remember that the purpose of a preliminary telephone call is to screen you out, not to qualify you. The fact you are getting calls shows that people are interested, and probably know a bit about you. Your job is to keep them interested. These days companies are looking for the perfect candidate, so you have to match their criteria.
An increasingly popular approach is consulting. Offer to come on board as a consultant so both you and the company can “kick the tires” to see if there is a mutual fit. There is less risk to the company and it’s a good way to address their points of pain and prove you are capable of doing the job.
