I want to talk about how I want you to drill down and evaluate an employer I'm always looking
for new and creative ways to teach you drive home different techniques that you can use to make sure
that you're joining the right organization and I know it's difficult because right everybody's on
their best behavior when we get into these job interviews both you and the employer rights like
dating everybody's trying to be on their best behavior and it's not always easy to determine
is this the right company for me do are there any red flags should I notice them uh does that
make sense those kind of things so I've got one question that I think is going to be great for you
to ask maybe a couple of follow-on questions but the beauty in this first segment here is
going to be not just on what the question is but really what kind of answers you can
get back from the employers and what they might mean to you so I wanna I wanna talk about that
and maybe a little bit of a kind of a running start I think
I I think I want to share this with you I want you to know why we're talking about this topic today
and like where the ideas come from now a lot of my ideas for our for our Thursday topics they they
come from you and you're the questions that you ask me and what you're interested in or what the
what the themes are of the month or what's going on in the job market or what the new techniques
are that employers are using but a couple of weeks back I was wrapping up the reviews of my fourth
book I I've shared a couple times in the last few months that I'm uh I'm writing my fourth book the
book is done the manuscript the official first draft of the manuscript is going to the publisher
on Tuesday and you can buy it July 9th 2024. that was not a typo out of my mouth 2024 right it's a
whole it'll be a whole year from now but I was reviewing it LastPass and I was reading my my
chapter on self-awareness I teach in this book on self-awareness it's just one of the topics of many
and I also teach on this subject in my leadership coaching program and I was I was reviewing the
chapter and I talk about internal self-awareness and external self-awareness there's two types of
self-awareness the internal is really how well do we know ourselves um everything from our desires
the environment we want to surround ourselves with our strengths what we're good at what we're not
um and and how we actually assemble Our Lives to be congruent with that knowledge with that
understanding and and then there's external uh self-awareness which is uh which is is how we we
view others interpretation of us uh kind of that little joke it's it's it's it's it's it's not what
you think of me it's what I think you think of me kind of thing kind of the little little
chuckle there but it's really how accurately are we able to assess what someone else thinks of us
and that's external self-awareness and these are different you could be strong in one and
not the other you can be strong in both or you can be strong and neither and people who are
internally self-aware they surround themselves with environments that are very conducive to
their success they they surround themselves with the right people they know themselves well they
tend to make great career choices they tend to achieve very very high goals because they
play to their strengths they know who they are what they're great at and they dial up
their their uh the the accomplishments that they want to attain in congruence with that
um conversely people who lack self-awareness they tend to make poor career choices they tend
to surround themselves in environments that generally stress them out they do things for
reasons that are not really internally driven and consequently they don't achieve really high
goals so I was reviewing this chapter it was in the middle of the week and it was just a normal
course of my process and later that day somebody called me a buddy of mine he was talking to me
about a relationship one of his his relationship his current relationship and you know I well you
know 56 year old grown men do this from time to time a little girl talk never hurt anybody we
start talking about his relationship he's asking me my advice and then now okay so we get all done
with this and I start thinking I'm reflecting at the end of the day which I normally do and
now that now that now the motor's starting to run and I start thinking back into my 20s and my 30s
and my 40s uh in my early 50s about all the people who've asked me from about relationship advice and
so I started thinking about like the relationships that worked and the relationships that didn't
the self-awareness combined with with with with this line of thinking and I'm I'm thinking about
um some of the common themes and then when people would when when I would talk to them
and I would say you know okay what do you like about him or what do you like about
her there would be the people who would be it would be more emotional it would be vague and
they they can't really put their finger on it they just he makes me feel so great you know I
get that really great energy and consequence those relationships would take tended to be up and down
and very toxic but then the other people whose relationships were fairly successful they had
an ability to articulate exactly what was very specific about why that person made them feel
a particular way right the way she articulates herself and she's very clear or effusive with
how she's feeling lets me know where I stand makes me feel good like I can trust that I
always know what she's thinking or you know I'm not really an organized person and you know I I
tend to let things slip but she's always on top of it I know it's taken care of I really trust
it I admire that about her because it's just not that's not my forte and it's really nice
to be in a relationship where somebody can make that happen it makes me feel great this kind of
stuff wait give me a show of hands you could put pound girl talk if you want in in the in the chat
but show a hands do you do you get what I'm saying right because this is what led me to what I want
to talk to you about today and how it comes to investigating employers okay so when I think about
you going into a job interview and I want you to start if you're not already doing this there's
nothing mind-blowing about the question that I'm going to give you that I want to start
asking but it has to do with self-awareness it has to do with relationships it has to it has
to do with getting into relationships that will work for you where you don't see the
Red Flags Okay so this is the question that I want you to ask and then we're gonna break down
what's going to happen as a result of you asking this here it is what do you love about working
here okay there's nothing scientific about this except what I'm about to tell you I hope will be
a bit eye-opening when you think about when you think about all the various responses you can get
now this is going to be outstanding if you have one of those day-long interviews where you get to
talk to one person after another what do you love about working here what do you love about working
here okay so here's here's what here's what happens when you ask this question so first thing
first thing is you can ask it to anybody and you can ask it to everybody and what you're looking
for is some consistent information now consistency doesn't mean everybody has to love the same thing
about the employer but all the different people might view these things differently
but the collection of this information is going to really help you determine if this is the right
employer for you so when you ask that question I want you to think about this
is their response vague or detailed okay so just like I talked about my little relationship example
I didn't bring that up for nothing right are they very specific about what they love are they slow
to respond anybody that's slow that's bad okay that's bad like as in capital b a d bad but are
they General oh it's just you know it feels great to work here they really appreciate us or it's
vague okay that's vague or are they very specific I love the way the employer does this I love the
way they do that and they start describing very specific situations that'll tell you something
because the people who are able to articulate what they love about it is gonna number one
let you know that that person is probably somebody who what actually likes working there right that's
the first thing second thing is it gives you specific examples that you can you can notate
right because just because they this particular person who's internally self-aware who actually
likes working there is giving you evidence of the fact and able to articulate it very clearly
but now you can start to determine well just because just because you love it for that reason
doesn't necessarily mean I would love it for that reason okay now wait I'm what I'm about
to tell you this in the next few of these I'm not saying one thing or another needs to relate
to you and how you would like to work there if I say to you I love working here because they
really financially reward us awesome and every more money is always better for everybody but if
that if if the way I want to be appreciated isn't just with the money or they financially reward us
and I love working here except that you need to work 80 hours a week and that's expected because
there is no work-life balance maybe you're the person whose corporate love language is
I like my free time I need to travel I need I need flexibility and freedom now this person
may genuinely love working there they may be able to articulate it but they don't have the
same love language you do if you don't know what I'm talking about with Love Languages check out
Gary Chapman the five love languages same thing applies to everything in your life there are in
his estimation five different Love Languages if you and your partner are not in sync on
The Love Languages right you ain't gonna have a healthy relationship you can go check the book
out if you'd like since we're talking about love but just this will tell you something
okay you're gonna get data then what about what about this one I love Pastor the future
are they talking about something that has happened I love working here because this is what they do
last year we did this the year before we did that they have this great annual trip that we all take
together they build camaraderie so on and so forth and it happened or what you're a craps player you
betting on the come right I hope it will happen well we're gonna race up the ranks and be number
one in the market hey in a year or two we're all gonna be rich because we're gonna go public or
we're gonna get Acquired and all the hard work's gonna pay off oh we're building a product that's
really going to change lives it hasn't changed lives yet you mean it's going to change lives
maybe you're a gambler that's okay I'm okay with all that but notice this one is specific
evidence one is Hope right who's who's tracking with me right you see the difference in the way
people provide what they love do you I love the person I want you to be and I know you can be
but if right I'm me gotta love me for who I am kind of thing all right so I want you I want
you to I want you to be be on the you know stretch your ears make sure you're on the lookout for that
do they talk in terms of General employees or specific to them do they articulate I love
working here because of something that applies to everyone or something that applies just to me
I love working here because I get the freedom and autonomy to run the entire marketing department
the way I see fit right what does everybody else get that freedom kind of thing okay so when you're
thinking about how they articulate this are they talking about the group as a whole nothing wrong
with that or are they talking about something specific to them nothing wrong with that but
you need to know that you can't just let it slide you need to say oh that's great you have autonomy
is that generally provided to everybody how's that given how is that trust granted
right kind of thing okay so I want it'll be on the lookout for that
here's another one are is it external or internal so is it for us or is it for the outside right
it I love the way we are viewed as the market leader I love the way we are the number one in
the market and that right I I care all about our brand I ca that's all that's okay too okay except
that is it outside or right it's all oh the career development model that helps us individually grow
our skills and do this that and the other that's internal right so you know personally you're going
to benefit as a it's a it's a how you look versus what you get kind of thing so you want to look at
whether they go this route or whether what they're sharing is is based on views from the outside or
whether it's internally dialed in effectively okay and and so I just I want you to just kind of think
of after you ask this question what do you love about working here what you really want to do is
you want to look to see are they vague or detailed can they actually articulate it that's going to
tell you something is it related to the past or The Future Has it happened or will it happen right
are you betting on something that you don't know do they speak collectively about employees or do
they speak specifically about themselves and is it external or internal and then as a as a
couple of little follow-ups here one of the things that you can do I love to follow up these kind of
questions with things like were you surprised by that you love this about the company did you know
that before you got here meaning did you discover that in the inner interviewing process was that
consistent if you didn't know that why didn't you know that what might I be surprised about
when I join here right I've given you that one before and some other in other talks and in my
in my interview intervention book back there all right and so you can follow up and you can follow
up at each level as well for each of those four levels that I gave you okay and then just to kind
of cap it off I think there is a there's a video that I have out there titled let me just make sure
I get this right 28 questions okay 28 questions to ask the employer in a job interview I would check
that one out and uh and I think I think that will really help you you know gauge whether or not you
know and get more information about whether that company's the right one for you or whether there
ought to be that I'd be setting off some red flags all right so I I hope you enjoyed
that one uh if you're here with me live we're we're going to be going into the next segment
and then into the Q a if you're watching this on a recording I'll see you next week