Kevin Gaither
has been in sales leadership since 1997. CEO @ InsideSalesExpert.com – Helping sales leaders avoid galactically ridiculous mistakes in all areas of building, fixing & growing their sales teams.
Worked at ZipRecruiter for 8 years, built their whole sales team from scratch.
Kevin helps friends and family search for jobs on a regular basis and has a true passion for finding people jobs.
Highlights:
- Most people are wimps, wont advocate for themselves.
- Develop questions ahead of time. Some questions could be about the interviewer themselves. Make sure you’re asking questions that help you find out if you want to work there. Coming up with thoughtful but professional questions is good.
- [Job seekers] don’t understand what serendipity means – I know someone that knows someone. You don’t know who your friends and family know. They don’t know how to ask.
- People are too sheepish/afraid to ask for help from people they know/connected with. Network is very underutilized.
Interview Prep/Interview:
“Kevin”, I asked, “What can stand out in an interview/before an interview that people don’t think about? Good or bad.”
Gaither: “I find it shocking, especially with the technology today, how poorly people prepare for the interview. 80% of people are too lazy to [prepare]. Take the job description and plug it into ChatGPT and have it pump out 30+ questions that the hiring manager might ask. You can have it answer the question with the STAR method.”
“You can find past questions I’ve asked on the internet. People are too lazy, they won’t do it. Only one person out of the thousands, literally thousands, have looked up my questions, and made flashcards about it.”
“Brevity, brevity, brevity.
The hiring manager has a series of questions to ask. One of the things that will turn the hiring manager off is if the candidate just keeps blabbing. If they don’t keep their answers concise, not good. Goes back to practice.”
“Everyone MUST ask for next steps. ‘We’ve sat here for 45 minutes, I wouldn’t want to waste your time or mine. If you were the hiring manager, would you hire me?’ Most people are wimps, wont advocate for themselves. Might as well ask for the bad news. Now you know where you stand.”
Cover Letters:
What about Cover Letters?
“Forget it. The assumption is that somebody is going to read it. Most people have no clue from the recruiter’s perspective. Every job is getting hundreds of applications. The resume alone is getting less than a minute. These applications are mostly being consumed by ATS and rated like a Fit Score. Like a scale for 1-100.
If it’s being asked for, then provide it.
On the flipside, thank you notes are greatly beneficial. A handwritten note with an actual stamp, or a handwritten email can go a long way. Who doesn’t want someone that goes the extra mile and shows they care?”
LinkedIn:
Do candidates’ LinkedIn profiles matter to you? What are some important things that should/should not be included?
“Yeah, it matters a lot to me. You don’t need to have an over-done LinkedIn, but something is better than nothing. Especially if you are in sales – you don’t have a LinkedIn profile? Maybe this person doesn’t have computer literacy?”
“If you don’t have a picture at all, ‘What’s your problem?’ It’s not hard to throw a photo up on there.”
“From the hiring manager perspective: what are you hiding? Your LinkedIn profile better match your resume. Are you just lazy? If there’s one that exists on one and not the other, [then that is not good].”
Resumes:
“I think people spend way too much time on making their resume ‘perfect’, it doesn’t need to be perfect. ATS is going to be looking for good phrases that match. Each job should get a custom resume. ChatGPT can match your resume with the job description. It will be truthful based on your background.”
Soft Skills:
What about soft skills you look for during an interview that are important?
“This all falls into the umbrella of professionalism: Brevity, respect, etc.. Not talking about ass-kissing. Those people can’t read the room.”
“One of the best ways to do this: develop questions ahead of time. Some questions could be about the interviewer themselves. Make sure you’re asking questions that help you find out if you want to work there. Coming up with thoughtful but professional questions is good. This person is not your friend. Don’t need to ask about their personal life (kids, etc.). Can start the conversation this way: I see you went to this school, etc..
When you’re in an uncomfortable environment, looking for commonalities can help ease the tension.”
Work life balance:
Jane Doe: ‘Tell me how your company supports your goal of work-life balance.’ Avoids dumb questions like ‘Where do you think this company will be in 5 years?’
Closing Thoughts:
Observations Kevin has had over the years:
“People underestimate how big their network actually is. Even if they did, they wouldn’t know how to use it. Kids aren’t taught how to use their network. ‘I want to be in the music space, but I don’t know anybody in music.'”
“They don’t understand what serendipity means – I know someone that knows someone. You don’t know who your friends and family know. They don’t know how to ask.”
‘Hey Kevin, I just graduated from college, I’m looking to get into the music space. Is there one or two people that you can think of that I should talk to?’
‘Oh yeah, there’s someone I know who is on tour with Hoobastank right now.’
‘Oh my god I didn’t know you knew that.’
“People are too sheepish/afraid to ask for help from people they know/connected with. Network is very underutilized.”
“Significant rejection does happen.”
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