Hey Andy! What if you ask do you have any reservations about hiring me and the answer
is basically no i'm assuming you mean no comma great experience enjoyed meeting you and then get
rejected in some form? okay now a couple of couple of things uh jeff is referring to the video that
i just released on tuesday on my youtube channel where i talked about what the question you need
to ask at the end of the interview and let's let's level set this group here for a second
uh it's a i don't know six minute video or so that i put out on tuesday if you you really got ants in
your pants you can fast forward through the first four minutes and go right to the part where i tell
you that you should ask them do you have any reservations about hiring me now i don't want
you to do that in a 15-minute phone screen i don't want you to do that in the first you know little
interview where you've got a tech screen something like that it's something to be reserved as you get
into the process and you spend a little more time with these folks now when you ask that reservation
question the reservations comes in one of three forms they either made an assumption that was
incorrect because they didn't get um information that they needed from you because they i
they didn't ask for it you didn't tell them they made an assumption that perhaps you didn't
have the right skills or experience that they needed that's a misunderstanding in which case
if that is a reservation at the time of the close of the interview you can now clear that up
if the reservation is something that you spoke about with them and they misunderstood it
so they had a gap in information that was first or they misunderstood something you said you said you
can actually clean it up say let's say that's not what i meant well actually what i was getting at
was but the third form of a reservation is an actual reservation that's legit meaning
i have a reservation that you haven't managed a team this large before it's not to say it's
insurmountable it's just a reservation now we might be able to overcome that in in your in
your case you would want to dampen that and talk about why you would be able to handle that or make
a better argument or whatever it might me might be now if they don't have any reservations there is a
possibility that they don't have any reservations but that someone else in their process is
actually a better fit in my in my estimation if i don't have any reservations about hiring you
and i'm ready to go then the only way you would not get the job is if i decided not to fulfill the
position if i decided to delay it or if i decided to to hire somebody who i felt was stronger so
i might not have any reservations about you i just might like this other person even better
so so that's that's the that's the case now here's what i would say jeff if if that happens
and they didn't have any reservations and you felt that you really hit it off and they didn't
have any reservations then i would ask the recruiter in this case or the hiring official
you know i noticed i know you mentioned you you were pretty comfortable with me you didn't really
have any reservations is there any reason i didn't get the job and my guess is they would likely tell
you one of those three things if that's the case um if that's the case so we decided not
to hire we decided we're going to delay it or we chose somebody better you go and you
you give them the rejection response if you guys don't know what the rejection response is i have a
video on the youtube channel about how to get the job after being rejected i'm not going to go into
what the script is i give it to you in that video you tell them that you send them that and in that
email to them you're going to say okay thank you for letting me know you decided to not fulfill
this position if you change your mind i want you to know i'm i'm very interested in reconnecting
if anything else surfaces that might be suitable for me i'd be i'd love to come back because i love
your company and you guys are the bot okay second thing is okay you delayed it i want you to know
that i would be open to connecting with you at that time when you reopened this blah blah blah
third thing is i selected somebody else jeff you were great somebody else was a little bit better
in the rejection script you know you talk about your disappointment
in not getting the job say and you talk about the respect for their knowledge of their company
right they know best so i'm not going to go on a whole script but we point to these things
say i i really hope it works out with the person you chose if you are uh if anything doesn't
um you know doesn't go the way you thought i'd be open to reconnecting or if you add people to
the team i want you to know that i would be open to talking with you what good can i make of this
at this time and what is the best response so that i can plant the seed today so that i might be able
to circle back with them in 30 days to make sure everything went the way they thought it was going
to go when the likelihood of it going the way they thought it was going to go is probably 50 50.
so you are trying to fill all that in so to answer your question this jeff is a great
tack on to the video that we just released on tuesday about do you have any reservations
about hiring me and answering that at the end of the interview this is a great follow-up to
if they don't have any reservations about hiring you and they don't hire you what's the likelihood
or what likely happened and what should i do so i wish i could put that title in youtube
maybe we'll cut this up for you and dump it out on the channel as well but that's a that's a
great question awesome follow-up to to uh to what i put out on on tuesday and by the way back there
right there behind my little watchful eye and the think pink and my markers and all that other stuff
the interview intervention book on page 79 i go into some of this about the reservations question
in the closing time chapter and that book right now still as as i sit here is still only seven
dollars for the envelope and the service fees so i'll ship it to you anywhere in the world you get
that you get the ebook you get the audio book you get some other goodies and all that good stuff so
i hope that helps but grab it while it lasts uh actually and wait let's cap this off with one
little testimonial from gladwin adams who said i asked that reservation question yesterday in
an executive level interview and it was well received by the panel in fact they cited it
as a very insightful and mature to ask it is and somebody from hungary on my youtube channel said
um i think her name was julia julia if you're out there think i don't remember this stuff she said
in a polite way that that she wasn't sure that that the question that way would work in in
hungary or you know might be off-putting and to that i responded to her on the youtube channel and
said you know what i share with you guys are my recommendations and my guidelines and my templates
and my tools they are not to be implemented without thought and adaptation for your situation
and your culture so what i said to her is perhaps she could use something along the lines of that
the theme uh and soften it up if that was what she wanted to do and you could always go with
something like um you know you know based on our discussion uh do you see any gaps in my background
related to what it is you need in in the hire or something like that just whatever it is however
the one thing i do want to caution you of is i don't want you to play around with the negativity
of the of the question meaning you need to ask the reservations question so that you elicit a
negative response meaning you need to know if there's anything they're holding against you
okay so you have to pin them in the corner because that's the way you get that exposed and then you
can squash it as opposed to what do i mean what's the antonym of this well how do you see me fitting
do you see me fitting in the organization that's the opposite you went into the positive direction
there and their reaction could be well sure i can see you fitting in here stop thought
but i can also not see you fitting in here right so you're not getting what you need with what
why the question was designed the purpose of the question is to elicit any misunderstandings that
you can correct or any gaps in questioning that you can fill in or if they do have a reservation
you can dampen it as i went back to the the three different types of of of uh misunderstandings or
reservations i should say so keep that in mind i know that was a little kind of roller on there
but i do think that those are great follow-ons to to to that and i appreciate jeff's question and
julia's question on the youtube channel very good stuff very good stuff there