Interviews are crucial to the hiring process. In addition to showing your skills and qualifications, it lets you demonstrate your confidence with the hiring manager and how you carry yourself in person. If you prepare ahead of time for your interview, you’ll feel more confident when you walk into it. Particularly, the first few moments of your interview can have a decisive impact on how well the rest of it goes.
Imagine: after putting out a ton of resumes and applications, one company called you back asking you to attend a job interview. There’s just one problem: you’ve got a lot of competitors for this one position. How would you stand out?
In this week’s episode, LinkedIn professor Lakrisha Davis will help us out.
Lakrisha has been seen on ABC7 News, Forbes, Newsweek, and more. She is also a 2020 Phenomenal Women Award recipient, and she has served over 2300 job seekers.
If you want to hit the home run and grab that position that you’ve been aiming for, don’t miss this episode as Lakrisha shares easy and helpful tips to nail that job interview, how to deal with a job rejection or ghosting, as well as common mistakes that job applicants should avoid doing. With hosts, wealth manager Lee Michael Murphy and career advisor Sergio Patterson, tune in to this week’s episode of The Free Retiree Show.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to nail a job interview
- How to craft the perfect elevator pitch to make an impact
- Common mistakes during a job interview to avoid
To get the episode, show notes, and share links, please go to our podcast page. Thank you for sharing our podcast.
[00:00:00] Lee Michael Murphy: Welcome in boys and girls to another episode of the free retiree show.
I’m your host wealth manager, Lee Michael Murphy. And I’m alongside interview, coach and Silicon valley mentor, Sergio Patterson.
[00:00:12] Sergio Patterson: What is up everyone?
[00:00:14] Lee Michael Murphy: Welcome welcomed into a career advancement edition of the free retiree show for today’s topic. We’re going to be talking about nailing the interview. We’re talking about questions.
You might get your elevator pitch and to do so. We have a very special guest Lakrisha Davis. She is a LinkedIn professor who has been seen on ABC seven news Forbes, Newsweek, LinkedIn news rollout magazine. And she is a 2020 phenomenal women award recipient, and she has served over 2300 job seekers. So Serge, I’m going to paint the picture.
You’ve just made this big decision to leave that place you’ve been at. That’s been [00:01:00] driving you crazy. You’ve put out a ton of resumes and applications. You get the call. They want you to interview. They’re like, oh, Sergio, you’re the man. We want you to come in and do an interview. This coming Monday, only problem: everyone
and their mother wants that job. So what are you doing? And what are you doing to prep for this interview? Where’s your mindset?
[00:01:28] Sergio Patterson: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve been there, I mean, how many different companies I’ve been at, so this sits close to home. I guess the first thing I do is I call it Lakrisha right.
Yeah. No, but, yeah, it’s preparation, I definitely help some people on the side. get through some of , the interview process. I think it comes down to preparation, really understanding why you want to go to this company, why you’re a good fit for the role. What makes you unique and really understanding your story.
So I have that down for myself in an interview I get into, like, I have my story down. I have my, this is how I’m going to connect with these [00:02:00] interviewers to make sure I stand out. So I think for me, that’s my game plan. any interview I’m in? it’s big on connection.
[00:02:08] Lee Michael Murphy: So. Worst interview question that you bombed on and I’ll share mine.
you can go
[00:02:14] Sergio Patterson: first. This was during the day. So this was actually an interview. The interview I went through at Google back in 2015, this was during the days when Google and companies would still ask those, like how many cars are an on parked on the street in San Francisco type questions?
just like the weird questions that have nothing to do with the job, They asked me, how would you find a needle in had like the biggest haystack in the world? Something really stupid. Right? it was really bad and I was just sitting there. I was like, dude, how might there, is there a right or wrong answer?
[00:02:46] Sergio Patterson: I think what you realize is there’s no right or wrong answer, but I answered it like really? I was, I gave him a really dumb answer. I don’t know why. I answered it with,I, for some reason I thought about the machine at Chucky cheese where you could like, you go in there [00:03:00] and then the air is going on and you grab the tickets.
So I was like, I’d put, I’d somehow put the haystack in there. And then the hay would fly everywhere, but the needle would come out. That’s what came to mind and yeah, that, wasn’t very smart, but go, well, it didn’t go well, but I got the job.
[00:03:19] Lee Michael Murphy: There you go, well, I’ll show you mine. I’ll share mine. first one of my first jobs while I was in college, I was trying to get job at GNC general nutrition center and I probably had to fail questions on this one.
They asked me, oh, What weaknesses do you have? And I was like, ah, that’s a trick question. I don’t have any,
[00:03:40] Sergio Patterson: yeah. You’re not
[00:03:40] Lee Michael Murphy: getting hired, bro. Yeah. And then they asked, what do you do? when you see a customer. A piece of product. And I told them I would tackle them in the parking lot and proceed to beat the crap out of them.
so, I still got the job though. I don’t know how, but you know, high bar, high
[00:03:56] Sergio Patterson: bar,
[00:03:58] Lee Michael Murphy: that’s a rhino. I was a red flag [00:04:00] actually, I think at that time. So, but yeah, we got a great episode for everyone. So if you are someone that’s thinking, well, I might be doing an interview soon, or I know someone that’s going to be doing it.
You’re going to want to listen to this episode, we have one of the best resources that will help with, interview prep. helping you figure out what to expect when you go into your interview. so we’re going to go to a quick break, but when we are back, we’re going to stay down with Lakrisha Davis.
So stay tuned.
Welcome back into The Free Retiree Show. We’re sitting down with Lakrisha Davis. Lakrisha. How are you doing this morning?
[00:04:41] Lakrisha Davis: Thank you. We are so
[00:04:43] Lee Michael Murphy: happy to have you. You are someone that has been on our radar for a long time. We’ve been hearing about all the great work that you do.
being an expert at helping people get their career on track acing interview questions. Now you got to hear a little bit about, Sergio and myself [00:05:00] and our answers to our interviews. anything you would have done differently in those situations.
yeah, I think that my life right now, I would probably have called the police
[00:05:20] Lakrisha Davis: at that point. I’m not sure. So Lakrisha, why don’t you tell us
[00:05:25] Lee Michael Murphy: a little bit about what you do?
sure. So thank you guys for having me. I am Lakrisha known as a LinkedIn and career professor and what I have done over the past four years, I have been helping job seekers land, work, and I’ve been doing this through my resume writing agency.
[00:05:46] Lakrisha Davis: Interview coaching as well as job search coaching. Now I have shifted into helping people, lad opportunities strictly via LinkedIn. So, interviewing is one of my favorite topics to [00:06:00] discuss. So I’m very excited to chat about that too.
[00:06:05] Sergio Patterson: Yeah, I love it. I love, the term LinkedIn professor.
Did you, did people give you that name or is that something you came
[00:06:10] Lakrisha Davis: up with? Well, people gave me the name,the career professor. So now that I’m more so transitioning into focusing on LinkedIn, I figured, It’s right. and the reason why people have given me that name professor is because I’m very, detailed.
So I’d like to break things down and ways that is easy, but people to pick up. and so I kind of approach my content and my brand is very like educational. So that’s pretty much where that came from.
[00:06:41] Sergio Patterson: Got it now, before we get into kind of what you’re doing now, can you talk to us a little bit about how you broke into this?
Like when was the moment that you decided this was going to be what you do? Full-time I know you, you did some resume writing. you’ve been on Newsweek. It seems like writing has been a big part of your early part of your [00:07:00] career, but when was
[00:07:00] Lakrisha Davis: that moment? Yeah, absolutely. So my story is a little bit crazy, right?
So. Actually, hired a business coach in 2016 to help me do this side better of writing resumes and helping people with careers because at that time, I had been working in the recruiting space and, I was working actually on the agency side. So I wasn’t an in-house recruiter. I was working for a third party recruiting agency.
So essentially it is, very sales driven, essentially a sales job as well. And so, I saw a lot go on behind the scenes. With, candidates getting taunted for different things and, all that stuff going on. So I was like, Hey, if people actually knew some of the things that they were doing wrong, they could be a better candidate and be hireable.
So I actually, at the time started a meetup group, and that [00:08:00] meetup group was helping people with resume advice. Career advice, interview advice, all that stuff. And then, that’s when I decided to,turn this into like a side business, and then eventually, I’ve been doing this now full time.
so yeah, that’s pretty much my story of how I got into this. It stemmed from just, seeing stuff go on. And when I was at the recruiter,
[00:08:24] Sergio Patterson: Yeah. Makes sense. So
[00:08:26] Lee Michael Murphy: Lakrisha, I’ve seen a lot of your content online and you’re really big on the elevator pitch now for some of us that aren’t aware of that, like, what is it and why is it important?
—
[00:08:38] Lakrisha Davis: Yeah. Your elevator pitch is essentially a 30 to 60-second pitch. That describe who you are, what you can do and what your goal is, and that short timeframe. So the way you look at it is you should be able to tell people all of those details [00:09:00] about you in a short window from you going from. So the first floor of the elevator to the sixth floor or something like that.
So that’s why it’s called the elevator pitch, but it’s very important because one, when you are networking, you need an elevator pitch, but even more important for me, is when you are on your interviews, one of the first questions that they ask you is tell me about yourself. And a lot of people,they don’t really know how to structure that answer.
they’re pretty much, being, long-winded pulling a lot of different things out of the sky and hoping something sticks, but essentially that is your elevator. That’s the perfect opportunity to be very clear, concise, and organized in that response and the people that have a good elevator pitch handy, they always went over the interviewer within the first few minutes of the interview, because that is the time that’s the timeframe.
—
[00:09:57] Lakrisha Davis: The first five minutes of the interview, you [00:10:00] really need to set tone. very strong and very well because, if you lose them at the very beginning, they’re pretty much not going to be really, they already made up their mind about you. So anything else you’d say is pretty much okay. Sure. Let’s just get this thing over with.
[00:10:16] Lee Michael Murphy: Can you give us an example of what an elevator pitch might sound like
[00:10:21] Lakrisha Davis: or look like? Yeah, absolutely. So, an elevator pitch, what I do is with my clients, I teach them how to frame their pitch around, four different questions. So I’m going to break down those four questions for you and then give you the elevator pitch.
—
[00:10:39] Lakrisha Davis: So the first question is, who you are, the second is what you can do. The third is why you are the best fit for this role. and the fourth what is your goal? So for me, number one, what can you do? Who are you and Lakrisha Davis. I am a resume writer in career [00:11:00] coach with, a background in HR recruiting, of four years or something like that.
Right. so the, who you are is essentially like your name, your title, your education, the industries you’ve worked in the number of years of experience. the second question is. what you can do. So that needs to be laser-focused on the job description at hand. And what I want to do is you can position this answer you’re going to be calling out specific fields that you have.
So one scenario would be I help fortune 500 companies. reduce their hiring cycle, went through interviews through innovative, recruiting strategies or something like that. Or it could be, I specialize in,recruiting top talent, coming up with DEI initiatives and retention strategies or something like that.
. And then the third question is why you are the best. So this is usually some type of soft skill or unique value [00:12:00] proposition that you offer. So for me, if I was interviewing for a career coaching position, what makes me a great fit for this role is I understand both sides of the desk.
I’ve worked as a recruiter for a number of years that I also have experienced working with thousands of job seekers, to come up with, strategies that would happen. And then the four questions. what do you want? What do you, what is your goal? And that is to leverage my years in the career coaching business ,as a private business and leverage those skills and bring it to an organization to make an impact.
And this would be assuming I was looking to go back into the workforce or something like that. So that is how you put together the elevator pitch.
[00:12:42] Sergio Patterson: Hey Lakrisha. That was great. I appreciate you breaking that down. I talk to people about when I’m helping on the interview kind of prep side of things is, in that first couple of minutes, like in that who you are section, I mean, how important do you think it is to actually get personal, and actually share like who you are and [00:13:00] be authentic, something that’s unique and not just about, oh, I’m good at writing resumes.
what’s your opinion on that? for folks that are in the interview process, I’m of the camp that I think you should be authentic and kind of stand out, but would love your thoughts.
[00:13:17] Lakrisha Davis: No, I think you bring up a great point and so. That I just provided is, pretty much a starting point.
But when I work with my clients, we actually do focus on how can we craft it in such a way that is more personable. It tells a little bit more. Who you are and why you enjoy doing this work. And so we had a wordsmith those things and with the things that the employer is actually looking for here, as far as what you can do and the value you bring to the table.
So that is very important. So that’s just like a starter template, but definitely as you’re brainstorming those four questions, you do want to, think about. [00:14:00] especially in that who you are, that’s where we like to take advantage of shedding a little bit of light more into who we are personally and make that connection.
that is that first question who you are, just really figuring out a way to, sprinkle in there who you actually are besides your title and years of experience and all of that. A great point. Okay.
[00:14:24] Lee Michael Murphy: So Lakrisha, what are some of the top questions you think that, if you’re going in for the job, like you really just gotta like have these down, and what do you think is the most common one that people mess up on?
[00:14:38] Lakrisha Davis: Yeah, so I would say the most common would be. Well, we just talked about the, tell me about yourself. Question. A lot of people mess up on that. And then the other one is, I would say the behavioral interview questions. And that one is tricky because,we can talk about interview prep [00:15:00] all day long and we can do the best we can on our end.
But if there’s no way to tell exactly, well, let me take that back. I won’t say that there’s no way I’m going to get into that in a second, but, it’s difficult to actually. no, exactly the questions that you’re going to be asked when you come into this interview. Right. And so that’s why I always recommend for people that if you have an interview calling up, use LinkedIn to find somebody who worked at the company, and having an asset for an informational interview and see if you can get some entail.
Right. and also you have those bites. people have reporting questions that they’ve been asked on the interviews. that’s a great start, but what’s even better. Is that informational interview and actually talking with someone
[00:15:48] Sergio Patterson: Yeah, that makes sense. I, yeah, I agree. I think behavioral questions and I mean, for the listeners who may not know what exactly what those are. those are the type of questions that are going to be like, tell me about a time when you’ve done something.
[00:16:00] They’re really just trying to understand how you’ve reacted in certain situations. Like, I don’t know if you have anything else to add on behavioral questions. Lakrisha but that’s, if you’re interviewing for a tech in a Silicon valley or for a tech role, it’s going to be pretty much all behavioral
[00:16:14] Lakrisha Davis: questions.
Absolutely. and then we, if you want, we can go into like strategies on, answering those questions because we have the different methods out there. We have the star method and, the pard method. And then I think there’s car out there too. So those are some really good framework to structure your responses for.
Yeah, I would love that.
[00:16:41] Sergio Patterson: Yeah. I think it’d be good. I think a lot of people focus on star let’s it’d be good to get your thoughts on
[00:16:46] Lakrisha Davis: that. Yeah.
So the star method situation, task action result, right? It is the method that when you are. getting stuff like, say for instance, you’re working with a [00:17:00] third party recruiter or someone’s coaching you, most people are going to tell you to do the star method for your behavioral questions.
—
for me, I like to cheat a little bit, on that it’s easier. my clients, we liked the par method and it allows you to give them everything that they need, but it’s easier to, for you to actually like conceptualize. With the star method. I find that a lot of job seekers,
they understand the situation part. Right. But then they get confused about the difference between task and action. And then you have result, which is self explanatory. So. Different things that you need to prepare.
[00:17:41] Lakrisha Davis: So for us, we like to use the part method, which is problem action, results, easy peasy.
—
and so some advice that I would have for you guys out there listening is make sure that even though it’s a situational type questions and [00:18:00] they’re asking you to describe a scenario where you will have to provide some level of detail, even still understand that you do have to be concise.
[00:18:10] Lakrisha Davis: And to the point with that is because nobody likes their head popped off. The last thing that you want to do is like talk for five minutes. It’s just, yeah. That doesn’t work. So even with situational questions, make sure that you’re clear and to the point. Right. So, problem actually, So problem would be, for me, a client came to me wanting to change careers, without any experience and a new industry, right.
The action was that we assessed her skills. we. Outlined different career paths that she could go into. and we put together, a resume and all that stuff that will allow her to showcase their skills and the value she could add for that role. And then the result was she was able to get a position in the field.
[00:19:00] Without taking a pay cut. Right. So that’s just an example that is applicable to me. But I wanted to mention that because I want you guys to make sure that you have your transition as well. Make sure it’s very clear between what is the problem? What is the action? And then what is the results, make sure that you’re actually honing in on what that result is because people they give this whole backstory.
all this stuff, that was the problem and what they did and all of that. And then the result, which is the last thing. And, but the most important thing then minimize that, or don’t really say they’re not really clear with that. So make sure that you have your tracks and make sure that you really like speak to the result.
[00:19:41] Lakrisha Davis: Part of it don’t get lazy at the end.
[00:19:44] Sergio Patterson: Yeah. I think candidates need to realize like the interviewer is also a human, right. And like, Spewing off like, like a robot for like 10 minutes, you’ve already lost. They’re like our attention spans [00:20:00] aren’t that? You know what I mean? I’ve interviewed people and sometimes it’s tough cause they’re just rambling and you kind of forget, even if they’re saying like amazing stuff, you’ve easily forgettable.
Cause you’re zoned out.
So Lakrisha,
[00:20:11] Lee Michael Murphy: thanks for that information. That was really helpful. one of the common ones that I know a lot of people are concerned about is why you left your last job and maybe why you’ve been at multiple jobs. I think that’s a challenging one, especially in Silicon valley where people tend to, move around quite frequently.
what’s your thoughts on how people handle that question?
[00:20:33] Lakrisha Davis: Yeah. Yeah. so my thought is that, no one wants to hop around. No one wants to do this job speaking thing every other year, what have you? It was it boiled down to, people simply making their rounds too. They, until they get to what they gain is the right fit for them.
You know what I mean? So, That, that [00:21:00] transparency could be appreciated in the interview and just being transparent and not just, trying to hide it or skip over the question and see it for, be ambiguous about it, but just, let them know that, I’m, I’m thankful that you’ve asked because a lot of, interviewers, they would say.
A gap on your resume or, a few jobs on your resume at face value. So I’m thankful for the opportunity to be able to give you some context. But,I, I would not hope to, hop around or, have to search for. another job I’m actually looking for something that is the right long-term fit for me.
and maybe you can go into, a reason as to why the last position that you were in was not a good fit with. bashing the company or anything like that. It could be as simple as, the hours or, the scope of work that wasn’t a good day, and now this scope of work is, what you’re really excited about.
it could be something as simple as [00:22:00] that, but you do want to be transparent because we’re all human at the end of the day. And that person that’s sitting on the other side of the. I’m sure that’s not their first and last job in the world either, So, just be transparent. and another thing you can do is if you don’t feel comfortable with that level of transparency, what you can do is just try to flip the coin and.
the job you’re interviewing for, and really focus in on that with your response. So, something like, great question. I enjoy the organization that I’m working for, but when I saw the opportunity to work at this company as a project manager,, I jumped at the opportunity.
[00:22:39] Lakrisha Davis: To work for this company that, you know, and you can talk about the amazing things that you really love about that brand and wanting to get it in that brand. And you wanted to jump on that opportunity.
[00:22:51] Lee Michael Murphy: That’s a great answer. but going on to the transparency thing. So this is, another interesting question.
So if you were canned at your last job, there was a bad [00:23:00] ending. Would he recommend you tell people or not tell people in those sorts of situations?
[00:23:07] Lakrisha Davis: Yeah,
[00:23:09] Lee Michael Murphy: you were just shaking hands. Like they terminated, you don’t tell them
you were caught stealing snacks in the break room and
[00:23:21] Sergio Patterson: oh God, I would have been fired a long time ago,
[00:23:27] Lee Michael Murphy: but what if it was like for, cause like there was a reason that, you got fired, like, do you address it or do you.
[00:23:35] Lakrisha Davis: That’s a good question. So, well, hopefully this person wouldn’t have worked at the organization for like a long time, like a long time that the bulk of their experience where they have to put it on their resume and they have to like, That’s very experienced, right? Those are the situations that are kind of tough where you’ve been at an organization for a long time.
It’s the bulk of your experience [00:24:00] and you got fired for something that’s like terrible or what happened. So, you don’t want to like lie, but you don’t want to be transparent. It’s one of those, like, don’t ask, don’t tell situations, right?
You just gotta, like, it just, it wasn’t a fit, and, just, say that it wasn’t a fit or that it didn’t work out. You know what I mean? But, let them find it. So those additional lo the company, they’re not going to be able to bash you and sell the new, well, the employer that’s doing the reference checks like exactly why you got fired.
They’ll be able to ask them question as to whether this person is rehireable or not. That’s typically the questions that they can ask. They can’t say, Hey, well, what happened? Or what is it, why does this person get fired? Or, where they fired or what did they quit? they usually ask that, is this person [00:25:00] rehireable and, if they say no, then, typically the employer that doing the reference checks will know something might’ve went wrong.
but it doesn’t always mean that it was something that was catastrophic. You know what I mean? So just,be positive about it. I enjoy working at the organization. You know this number of years, I’ve learned a lot. What have you,maybe you’re relocated as a result and, Hey, you can blame it on that.
[00:25:25] Lakrisha Davis: You can just don’t give them all of the details though. Just chalk it up to it, not being a bitch, or if you haven’t been at the organization for that long, you’ve been there under six months. it’s not worth putting on your resume in some cases, too.
[00:25:40] Sergio Patterson: Yeah, I agree with you. I think you don’t have to give them that many details and the way I’ve kind of like the way I think about it is when you’re, when you get that question, like, why are you leaving or what happened to make it more about the excitement of coming to this new opportunity for this new company and being passionate about [00:26:00] their mission, their brand?
when I left,I left Facebook, a lot of it, I was honest and a lot of my interviews. I was no longer behind the mission there. And I was very authentic. Every one of my interviews on the flip side, I really believe in what LinkedIn is doing. And that came across in every single one of my interviews.
[00:26:18] Sergio Patterson: So I think you can kind of spin it. You can spin it, when you’re in those processes, like, and you don’t have to bash these other companies, you just have to spin them around.
[00:26:27] Lakrisha Davis: Yeah, absolutely. I would, agree. I would agree with that. And I’ve been transparent in the interviews too.
I mean, that’s the last position I worked in. I actually really connected with the interviewer on,what I was transparent about. I told her that, I was working at my company for a long time and I loved it. I never thought that I would leave until management changed and new management, wasn’t a good fit for me.
And she resonated with that because she was like, Hey, that’s exactly my story as well. So, sometimes being transparent is not a bad [00:27:00] day.
[00:27:00] Lee Michael Murphy: I liked that. That was a great answer. what about if you did the interview and you haven’t heard anything back,
do you reach back out
or let’s say that they say, oh, sorry.
the role has been filled. We’re going to pass on you at that time.
[00:27:15] Lee Michael Murphy: How do you handle those situations being ghosted and then the rejection.
—
[00:27:20] Lakrisha Davis: Yeah, absolutely. So a couple of questions in there. So number one is, if you haven’t heard back, definitely follow up, as a best practice at the end of every single interview, before you close it out, like ask them what are the next steps in the process?
What way can I expect to hear back? And some people would say, oh, that’s desperate. Or what have you. I don’t believe in that. I believe in, the fact that you have other opportunities that you may need to be considering as well. You can’t be waiting for everybody. You want to know when to follow up and all that good stuff.
So definitely ask that question. so if they say, Hey, we’ll be [00:28:00] reaching back out to people next Thursday. And then here it is next Friday, or the following Monday, you haven’t heard back. There’s nothing wrong. with Sending a note to follow up. and then as far as being ghosted, it’s a tricky thing.
I struggle with providing the right quote unquote right. Advice for that, because it really is hurtful. Right. And so, my advice is to try not to take it personally. but it’s difficult to do that when you’ve invested time into something. So my advice is to, just understand that sometimes rejection is protection and you don’t want a company that will be ghosting you or has that business practice, anyway, just keep searching.
[00:28:45] Lakrisha Davis: And just understand that the right opportunity for you won’t miss you and try not to take it personally. and that’s know, that’s what I would recommend. It’s easier said than done though.
[00:28:57] Sergio Patterson: Lakrisha, you mentioned some like best [00:29:00] practices.
—
[00:29:00] Sergio Patterson: Are there any. Tips or best practices you have for each stage of the interview process.
So when we think about the phone screen to that hiring manager then onsite, that’s probably a lot to get into, but like, if you have any like quick tips,
[00:29:13] Lakrisha Davis: for listeners, yeah. I can give off a quick cheat sheet. So, one is. the question of, to tell me about yourself, that’s your elevator pitch? why are you looking to work for this company?
or what do you know about the company don’t make is surface level. they don’t need to hear that they started in 1959 and whatever country or whatever, like make that answer, authentic to why do you want to work for that brand? What gets you excited about. and if they ask you, what do you know about the company?
[00:29:45] Lakrisha Davis: Make sure that you understand the company as a whole, you understand what’s happening with the company currently and the news and the press and all of that stuff what’s going on. And also you understand whatever vertical or, business line or product or [00:30:00] whatever it is, make sure you understand that as well.
and then the situational questions. try to get some information I’ll interview, do some online research to see what are some key questions that would likely be asked for this role at that company, and make sure that you have a good at least seven to 10,situational answers in your back pocket so that you’re able to pull from those depending on the questions that come your way.
make sure you have some really good questions that you’re going to be asking at the end of the interview. Don’t make it about questions that you feel like the wittiest or impress the interviewer the most, that you can have to make it about what it is that you really want to know about the opportunity, as far as what you’re getting yourself into.
[00:30:41] Lakrisha Davis: So ask yourself, write down the real, like, what do you really want to know about what you’re getting yourself into? What questions do you really have and figure out a way. Make the questions not come across as brutal, to ask those questions, and then make sure you understand who you’re meeting with because the initial [00:31:00] meeting is with, usually a recruiter.
so if you’re meeting with the recruiter, you probably won’t have to prepare for the situational question really hard for that one, because it’s going to be like a screening meeting. they want to know what you want to get paid. Make sure you understand how you’re going to overcome that objection as well.
you have to get comfortable with talking about it so comfortable, but you got to get comfortable. We should
[00:31:25] Sergio Patterson: probably, if you’re okay with that, can we spend some like a minute there or so like, can we spend some time on like the compensation discussion? Cause I think that’s tricky even for me like mid my career.
I think those conversations are tough to have, any thoughts there on, on compensation.
[00:31:42] Lakrisha Davis: Yeah, absolutely. So, kind of thought, what do I start?
I guess I would start with, understanding, where you’re at with B. So, whether you are in a situation where, you want to get [00:32:00] paid or, and you have this like number that’s kind of like your overarching goal. but you’ll be willing to pay less. Then you have to make sure that when you are entering those sessions, you make it clear that, you’re going to set, the goal high, but, be willing to negotiate and.
in case they say, no, that number is too high or what have you, what are you going to say after that? What are you going to counter with? or understanding number two, if you’re person number two, if you have like a bottom line number, right? That means that I am not going to go to any organization that is not paying me less than this dollar period.
then you know that, you gotta do, you have to leave with that number and be. Transparent about that. So, the money conversation is going to come up quite typically on the, initial screening, what is it that you want to get paid over that you want to make sure that you have done some research?
I would recommend even doing that before you apply for a role, try to get to the research to [00:33:00] see what are the salary trends for the company. Can they afford what,potentially looking to go in. and when they asked you that question, make sure based on your research, based on your personal salary results, letting them know that I’m looking to get paid somewhere in the range between 80 to a hundred K or a hundred, K’s 120, right.
[00:33:21] Lakrisha Davis: I like to provide right. Because I don’t like to just give one, one number. I like to provide ranges, because depending on the opportunity you can negotiate at the top of the, yeah. You could
[00:33:33] Sergio Patterson: ask the range, it gives you flexibility and you can, if you give a specific number, you could lose out on thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars.
And companies are like, not going to look it up.
[00:33:44] Lakrisha Davis: Right, whatever your highest number is. So if you said you want to get paid 80 K if that’s your goal,
[00:33:56] Sergio Patterson: I like that
[00:33:57] Lakrisha Davis: Never accept the first offer. if it’s exactly [00:34:00] what you want, then if you want to accept that, go ahead. But there’s nothing wrong with saying, Hey, I’m really excited about the opportunity, et cetera, et cetera. I wanted to ask if the salary is negotiable or not, it’s a very comfortable way to enter that conversation versus saying, Hey, no, thanks for the offer, but I want to get paid 120 days.
You know what I mean? You’re asking. Whether or not, the salary is negotiable. And they’re going to tell you yes or no. And if it is yes, be prepared for how you’re going to counter. If it’s no, then they don’t want you bad enough or that the budget isn’t there and make your decision
[00:34:35] Sergio Patterson: and you can negotiate other things like stock if they have stock or whatever.
Right. It’s not just
[00:34:43] Lakrisha Davis: absolutely. Yep. Keep that in mind too. I’m glad you brought that up.
[00:34:48] Lee Michael Murphy: Thanks for the phenomenal advice today. how can people get ahold of
[00:34:51] Lakrisha Davis: you? Yeah. Yeah. You’re a big deal on LinkedIn.
Probably.
[00:34:59] Sergio Patterson: I [00:35:00] was going to, I know we’re wrapping up. I was just going to quickly ask you had a post about, kind of like how to, can you just talk to us about like the power of. LinkedIn. Cause it seems like you’re leveraging it really well. And like you have this post where I was cracking up, it was like, do LinkedIn, right.
Change your life.
[00:35:17] Lakrisha Davis: And
[00:35:18] Sergio Patterson: some of these Xs, I was like, shit, we do a lot of this stuff. So I don’t know, like, what are your thoughts there as you think? Cause I know you have this eight week LinkedIn accelerator course.
talk to us a little bit about that and like what people can be doing differently to build their
[00:35:31] Lakrisha Davis: brand. Absolutely. So yeah, LinkedIn is great for businesses and also job seekers as well. there are a lot of influences that you look around and see, and they built their entire brands up, getting jobs without applying on LinkedIn, creating content and, jobs, a great company.
So keep that in mind, but I focus on, business owners, entrepreneurs. I helped them [00:36:00] establish their brands on LinkedIn. And so definitely a lot of people approach it wrong. And that’s why I started my accelerator left out to LinkedIn because what I see is a lot of people, they, they see a lot of people getting amazing traction on LinkedIn.
And they’re like, why is that not happening to me? But it’s because they’re doing some of the wrong things. And so they get on there. Their feelings are hurt when their posts don’t do well. They feel left out. They feel like, well, why don’t I have that day? build my presence on LinkedIn and that’s not the case.
It’s usually because they’re doing the wrong thing. And, that’s a discussion. That’s a whole different discussion. there’s a lot that goes into that, but some of the main things would be, you know what I called out on that post that you were talking about, and it is number one, your voice, right?
A lot of people approach LinkedIn as this thing where they’re. I can’t talk like a person, I have to [00:37:00] talk like I’m writing a paper or, an article or something like that. And it’s actually the exact opposite. If you look around and see the people that are doing well on LinkedIn, it’s usually because they’re ruffling some feathers on LinkedIn.
They’re usually that disruptor where they’re like not being, they’re not approaching their LinkedIn brand in a timid way. they’re just saying like, Hey, this is what I think. This is what I have for you, and people find authenticity on LinkedIn refreshing. number two is you gotta focus on,what is the best way for you to show up that gets you excited and allows you to deliver your best content?
Is it video? Is it writing, so for me, it’s writing, I love writing. And so, if you are, that person is looking to like, have that be your primary, like outlet, make sure you’re continuing to cultivate your writing skills. make sure that you are being like you’re serving good content, quick wins for your audience.
Not these general, how to [00:38:00] said this is how you write a resume. Like. And break it down into an easy way for them to understand that allows them to walk away with something that is actionable versus like all of this stuff that nobody wants to do, because it’s just too much, it’s confusing, the same stuff that’s on Google, be specific, and give them quick wins and serve it and bite by.
Don’t be too long. if you’re going to do video content, it has to be entertaining. So for LinkedIn, I tell people you have to do three, one of three things in your content, or all one is educate really well. Number two is entertain or three is empowered, right? It’s on all three of them. I like to educate.
my main thing is empowering because I really love like motivational type of stuff. So I post that stuff a lot. I do educate as well. And then sometimes you’ll see a Pixar video here and there. That is a little bit entertaining.
[00:38:57] Sergio Patterson: So yeah, I’m watching one right now. it’s entertaining. [00:39:00] You’re hating on people who tag a bunch of people in.
And random posts. It’s amazing. I love it.
[00:39:09] Lakrisha Davis: So yeah, it’s lots of stuff that, that, go on wrong there, but, and then fine. a couple of people that are doing really well on LinkedIn. To like you admire their content and stuff like that. And, build relationship with them, ask them for, a quick meeting, talk about, some tips and things like that because you don’t want to be tagging random people on your post, but you do want to try to take advantage of the LinkedIn ripple effect, meaning that people.
Large audiences that are doing well on LinkedIn. Like have them, if you have a relationship with them, if they engage your posts, it’ll help you out, with your visibility too, but you don’t want it to be just like random people that, cause it’s using, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
[00:39:54] Sergio Patterson: And I thank you for that. I brought this up, cause I think it does tie into this whole, how to prep for [00:40:00] an interview because like, if you have a really solid brand on LinkedIn companies are also going to see that. So I think everything you just said does tie back to the candidates and as they prep, like get on LinkedIn, have a presence, build your brand.
Cause like you never know, who’s looking.
[00:40:16] Lakrisha Davis: Yes, absolutely. Because those people are just different. You don’t see a lot of job seekers, like creating content on the dead or even like, and I’m not trying to say it in a way that’s like saying that it’s bad because some people they do want to go to work and do their job.
Go home and their business get paid, and I’ll do what they have to do with their family. But the people that have that entrepreneurial spirit where they’re like, Working at my job is enough. I want to impart different things on the world. I want to share my voice. I want the impact and all of that.
Those are the people that people are really looking to hire, especially in those [00:41:00] companies like Microsoft and Google and all of that stuff. It makes them, it’s just different. They’re just different.
One thing that, I just stumbled upon on Instagram. this one girl she posted don’t beat the algorithm, rhythm, beat your fear. And I was like, that is like so perfect because that’s the, despite the quote of the year for me,
[00:41:22] Lee Michael Murphy: That’s a good quote.
That’s
[00:41:24] Sergio Patterson: an amazing quote. We even had like probably a 30 minute talk about like the LinkedIn algorithm. Yeah. So I think that’s a really good, that’s a really good perspective.
[00:41:35] Lee Michael Murphy: Lakrisha. Thank you so much for coming on our show today. You dropped some amazing value. I know our listeners are gonna love this one.
if they want to get in touch with you, I know you said LinkedIn, but you also have a website.
[00:41:46] Lakrisha Davis: Yeah, my website is www.Lakrishadavis.com.
[00:41:52] Lee Michael Murphy: Thank you so much. You’ve been listening to the free retiree show so long for now,