Damage Control

Let me make it perfectly clear (remember that line?) that in interviewing, damage control is not meant to be disingenuous. One of the most valuable offerings we job search coaches provide is teaching preventive damage control or response strategies to avoid bad impressions in wide variety of issues. Lying or misrepresenting is never an option.

Also be mindful of the fact that because of garden-variety negativity or what I call employment paranoia sometimes we perceive the need to go into damage control mode when there is none. That said, here are some common damage control scenarios:

Reference Issues – For reasons ranging from September 11 through all of the issues “good guys” have had with drugs and cooking the books, employer reference checks are more valued than ever. But ironically because of potential liability problems, most companies have been instructed to do nothing more in a phone reference check than verify the employment. If your employment has been eliminated for any reason, ask for a flattering letter of reference from someone in the company or even one of your customers who liked your work. Employers are not worried about the legal fallout from discussing the positive but keep in mind that this letter does not have to be from your direct superior. Have a sense of urgency (not desperation) in your request. People have short attention spans and if you wait too long, the glow of your performance cools and the chances of your receiving a really important letter decreases. If you present a strong letter of reference in advance of being confronted with what might be an indelicate issue you will have set the tone for acceptance and approval. When buffered by the positive the bad doesn’t always seem so bad.

Short on Qualifications – Recently a strong sales candidate’s cover letter applying for a commercial product sales job began “although I come from an agricultural product environment…” basically offering up the best reason why not to make the cut. With one strategic turn of the paragraph statistically proving that this guy could sell anything, he was granted an interview and sold himself into a job offer in the midst of folks who had more product experience! Unless painfully obvious, you should never be the one to determine that you don’t qualify and you certainly should never telegraph that fact. I have yet to see the appropriate place for apology in interviewing. Most of my clients walk in to my office apologizing for something they are lacking and we immediately begin to eliminate this self-defeating behavior.

Out of Work / Spotty Job History? Before the energy crisis and aerospace implosion of the 1970′s, the acquisitions and mergers of the 1980′s and 1990′s, and the bursting of the technology bubble around Y2K, folks only became and remained unemployed because they had somehow become unemployable. They had under performed, angered the boss or been caught performing some sort of unforgivable act. Today the stigma has been diluted by universal conditions and the very numbers of people who have been struggling to get back to work. Obviously with some executives having been out of work for over a year for no other reason than an extremely tight job market, employers know to look beyond the obvious. It’s not uncommon to have seen candidates with three different employers in three years! Being prepared to explain what happened in each instance is critical. While unacceptable in resumes, I have been known to lightly bring up several short term jobs in the cover letter but only as an experience demonstrating the opportunity to gain versatility and never apologetically.

Read the whole story on: CareerBoard.com