Hi folks. It's great to see you again. And if you are new to this channel, my name is Bill Benoist.
I'm a certified professional career coach here in Silicon Valley. In today's video, it’s going to be
a quick one. I want to talk about building rapport with the hiring manager during the interview. So,
we all know how important it is to set good first impressions. I mean, I've done videos on this.
I’ll put a link to one of them in the upper right-hand corner,
but once you set these good first impressions, you need to keep this up by building rapport. If
you go out on the internet and you do a search, “how to build rapport with the interviewer”,
you're gonna see pretty much the same thing, link after link after link that,
you know, Smile, sit straight up, ask good questions, you know, be interested
in what they're saying. But there's one thing that you're not gonna see out there.
It's a neat little tip. It's something I learned working with a career transition
company a few years ago. And that is if you're offered a beverage before the interview starts,
always accept it. Always say yes to the beverage. It's one of the easiest ways to build rapport with
a hiring manager. You know, I was someone over the years if I went into an interview and that hiring
manager asked, would you like some coffee or anything before we start? I would always say no.
Because I didn't want to feel like I was putting an individual out. But what I learned from this
career transition company was that it was more noticeable if you said no to the beverage, then if
you said yes to the beverage and never touched it. And I validated this many times over, you know,
this career transition company that I was working with, it was just, you know, contract work.
Whenever they needed me to meet with an executive client and these were cases where I would
meet with a person for a full day. So, I would usually meet with them from nine in the morning
until about four or five in the afternoon. Sometimes it was in San Francisco or Oakland. You
know, I reside here in Silicon Valley. Other times they actually put me on a plane, and they flew me
various places in the Western United States. And I would get there the night before. But regardless
if I got there the night before, or, you know, the first thing in the morning, I would get to
the office about maybe an hour, 45 minutes before the appointment. And I would get set up. I would
print out the resume and get a lay of the land. Find out specifically where the office was that I
was gonna be working out of at the Regis offices. Know where the restrooms were, get on the WIFI.
And, usually, you know, find out where the kitchen was and get some coffee.
And then I would go out and I would sit and wait in the lobby for the, uh, client. And
it was almost like, you know, just being the hiring manager
And introducing yourself to that client or to that applicant that walked in. Hey, Joe,
my name's Bill. It's great to meet you. Thanks for coming by. How was drive? By the way,
would you like some coffee before we began? I remember the first time that a client
declined the coffee or beverage, and I didn't even think anything about it. We just went back to the
office and for the first, usually 45 minutes to an hour, we're just getting to know each other. I
mean, you know, just, just learning about a little bit of the history of the client and you know,
what their likes and dislikes are just really kind of getting to know each other. And I remember this
one time where the client had said no to the beverage. And again, I wasn't even thinking
about this, but I picked up my coffee and I took sip out of it, and everything was going good.
He was talking and everything. But as soon as I took a sip, I recognized there was something off
and it was the weirdest feeling. And as he's talking and again, everything was going well,
but it was like, there's something off. And it dawned on me. He did not have anything to drink
in front of him. Even though this individual had said no to the beverage politely said, no,
I felt really kind of weird. Now, fast forward a couple of weeks later, same situation, I'm
at a Regis's office, uh, getting lay of the land and everything, go out, meet with a client. They
show up, I ask them if they would like, uh, some coffee or something to drink. And this
person said, yes, I think they wanted some water that day. And so, we go back to the office and we,
you know, are getting to know each other, talking about 45 minutes into it.
We take a break; he gets up to go use the restroom. I stand up and I look over
and I noticed they had never touched the beverage. Never touched it yet. I never felt anything
strange when I was drinking my, uh, coffee that day. And since that time, I, you know, I probably
worked with maybe 75 to a hundred clients over the last couple of years with that company.
And there were many times where that individual that I was working with had politely declined a
beverage, a coffee, tea, water. And I always, I, I just, I remember always kind of not thinking
about it until we were talking. And I went to, uh, take a sip of my coffee and recognized there
was that weird feeling. I mean, this career transition company was spot on when they said
it was more noticeable. If you said no to the, the beverage, then if you said yes and you never
touched it. So anyway, it's a little, uh, tip for you today. I hope you found it informative and
useful. If you haven't already subscribed to this channel, make sure that you do so hit that build
notification as they do upload new career 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, take care.