The Psychic Who Answered 500,000 Ping Pong Balls

A question I ask during each interview, regardless of the position they are applying for, is a brain teaser: “How many ping pong balls can you fit in a jeepney?” I had an interviewee tell me “500,000″ without batting an eye. I asked him where he got that number and he said that’s what came to his head. I didn’t know I was hiring a psychic call center agent.

How many ping pong balls can you fit in a jeepney – You’re probably thinking, what kind of stupid irrelevant question is that?

Well, its a stupid and irrelevant question that exposes you, the interviewee, to unfamiliar territory – there is no defined answer to this question and the logistical challenges of answering the question, boggle the mind of most individuals. In short, it catches you off guard and forces you to think (or not) on your feet. Its a question you can’t prepare for and even if you’ve prepared for all the other interview questions – tell me about yourself, what is your greatest strength, what do you know about our company – this is a question you can’t prepare for and where your mental ability will be tested.

For most standard positions, if you can’t answer this question, it will not make or break your application. However, if you’re someone on the edge of passing an interview or someone who answers this with the depth and breadth I expect, then you automatically position yourself for an even more prominent position within the company. However, for positions which require analytical ability – legal, accounting, finance, logistics – I expect you to at least ask me some questions about the question to help yourself answer it.

The ping pong ball question requires you to face an unfamiliar situation and determine a plan of attack – how are you going to answer a question which you’ve never been asked and frankly, which boggles the mind. Who thinks of packing a jeepney full of ping pong tables and aren’t they going to all fall out?

So how many ping pong balls can you fit in a jeepney?

I Don’t Want To Hear I Don’t Know

The questions I ask during an interview include a few which I ask for each interview and questions which I create based on what I see on your resume. If I see that you had a B.S. in Biology, I’m going to ask you tell me what the Krebs Cycle is. If you attended a seminar which is listed on your resume on the 5 Ps of Marketing, I’m going to ask you what those 5 P’s are and to give an example for each one.

Unfortunately, for many of the questions I ask, the answer I get is I don’t know.

I don’t know is not a bad answer in itself. I understand if you don’t know – I don’t know sometimes myself. A bad answer is you saying I don’t know but not telling me what you plan to do about it. Do you want to know the answer? What am I talking about?

If I ask you what the 5 Ps of Marketing are and you don’t know, what I’d prefer you to do is tell me, you don’t know, but you’re going to write this question down, review this information and email me your answer.

I would be impressed if I saw somebody pull out their notebook and jot this question down. Okay, it could all be an act, but I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that this is the way you work. You pay attention to detail and you leave no stone unturned. I don’t know doesn’t stop you, it starts you.

Be prepared the next time you don’t know.

The 4 Page Resume

My first question that pops into my head is, “You’re 23 years old. How do you have a 4 page resume already?”

The answer is you shouldn’t. Unless you have 20 years of work experience doing a variety of different jobs, your resume should be 1 page, not 2, 3, or 4.

Your resume is you on paper – the fonts, the colors, and the information you choose to include – is a direct reflection of the person in the interview chair. But I don’t need to read about everything you’ve done ever – I don’t need to know that you were 2nd place in your high school spelling bee, or attended a random seminar 4 years ago (because I will ask you what you took away and learned from that seminar during the interview and you won’t have an answer), or read that generic objective at the top of your resume.

At the most basic level, the only thing I need to see on your resume is your name, where you went to school, your last 2-3 jobs, and maybe a random factoid about how you can play the cello. Everything else is resume fat and you need to trim it off.

Resume fat is distracting to the person reviewing your resume, doesn’t help you land interviews, and wastes paper. You want your resume to be a concise summary of who you are – the details should be filled in during the interview process. Trim the rest of the fat off.

So what is resume fat?

- Irrelevant or menial tasks that you performed at another job – photocopying, scanning, getting coffee, or the term other duties as assigned. Each job you list should have 3-5 bullet pointed listed tasks and should be listed in order of importance.

- Extracurricular activities you are no longer active in, especially the ones in school where you graduated several years ago from

- Personal characteristics, especially generic ones: Goal motivated, hardworking, always willing to learn, can work without supervision.

- Personal characteristics like religion, gender, birthdate which can have an effect on how recruiters see you beyond your accomplishments.

- More than 2 character references. If I need more, I’ll ask.

- Your mother and father’s name, their occupation and their date of birth. This isn’t relevant – I’m interviewing you, not your parents.

- Modify your resume borders and eliminate the border fat on all 4 sides of your resume – change the border to something closer to 0.50″ or 0.75″ to spread your resume out on the paper.

What you should now have is a clean, concise, and information packed 1 page resume. And for someone with only a couple years of work experience, thats about as long as it should be.

Do You Really Know Who You’re Interviewing For?

Of all the interview questions you can be prepared for, the one you should always know how to answer is: “So, what do we do?”

Its a simple question and if you can’t answer it during the interview, it means you weren’t really prepared. You didn’t research the company you were applying for and are sitting here clueless to what we do. Every company has a website and all it takes is a few minutes of browsing to at least understand what the company you’re applying to does. Even after reading the website, you still don’t know what we do, then at least you can ask me during the interview – “I read that you do this on your website – what exactly is that?”

To me, that is more impressive than “I don’t know” – which, whenever I hear someone say it – is probably the most embarassing set of words you can utter during an interview. The people who tell me “Sir, I don’t know” are ashamed and are caught red handed – and rightly so – because you just quickly showed me that I’m wasting my time interviewing you. If you don’t come into this interview prepared, how do I know you’re going to come into meetings with clients prepared? I’ve never hired anyone who couldn’t answer this question – no matter how well you interviewed or how good you looked on paper.

So save yourself from interview purgatory and research the company’s website you’re applying for. At a basic level, know what they do, the industry they are in, when they started, and some products they sell. Study for your interviews like a test and imagine this is the question where you already have the answers – only the monkeys get this one wrong. And I’m not hiring monkeys.

Resume Tip: Use A Different Email

Whenever I get a resume to review, the first thing I do after reading their resume is putting their name and email in Google to see whats online about them. Most of the time, I don’t find anything. But sometimes, you’ll find very revealing information – good and bad – that can sway my decision on whether to interview or hire someone.

So follow my advice and change your email adress in you resume. The email address in your resume should be an email address that is NOT connected to any social networking accounts like Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, or Wordpress. It should be unique and if you enter your email address in Google or any of the social networks I have listed above, there should be no search results.

Hiring managers will Google your name and email address and do a little bit of online research as they review their resume. What you don’t want them to do is find your Facebook profile or your Twitter feed – you want your first impression with the company to be a face-to-face conversation and not a photo of you getting drunk at Dencio’s on a Thursday morning after work.

So change your email to something you only use for your resume to keep your online identity hidden from the prying eyes of curious hiring managers.

The Hand Shake

I know it sounds like a simple thing – a hand shake – but your hand shake is one of the first impressions you make with anybody you meet, whether its for a job interview or any other life encounter. The way you shake hands says a lot about you without you saying a single word so having proper hand shake etiquette is something you need to have because you will literally shake thousands of hands in your lifetime.

Proper hand shake etiquette:

1) Always shake with your right hand. The right hand is the universally accepted hand to shake with. The left hand should never be used, especially with some cultures as the left hand is sometimes known as the bad, dirty, or evil hand. Shake with your right and never with your left.

2) Make eye contact. When you shake someone’s hand, make eye contact for the duration of the hand shake. I hate when people shake my hand and look away or worse yet, look down. That shows me you lack confidence to look me in the eye and say hello and if you can’t look me in the eye just to say hello, how can I trust you to do your job which requires a lot more skill than simple eye contact?

3) Smile Hand shakes typically accompany introductions and you want to smile – remember you’re making a first impression and you don’t want to leave me with the impression that you’re a sour individual.

4) Be firm, but not too strong I hate limp handshakes. It feels like I’m shaking the hands of someone who is paralyzed in their arms. Shake with conviction – be firm, but don’t use an iron grip. The same goes for the ladies – don’t be afraid to have a firm handshake.

So in summary, a good hand shake requires 4 things – use your right hand, make eye contact, smile, and be firm. Practice this with your friends, families, and colleagues and I guarantee you will impress the next person’s hand you shake.

Interview Etiquette – Conducting Yourself During an Interview

Here are some basic tips when entering the interview room and starting your interview. While some of these may not be characteristic of the jobs you’re applying for, these are all general tips which show professional courtesy during an interview:

- Shake hands and make eye contact: This is difficult for many people but during my initial impression of people, I am always impressed when someone can shake my hand and look me in the eye when they greet me.

- Don’t sit down first: This isn’t your office, its mine. Let your host sit down first and wait til he asks you to sit down. If you want, you can stand by the chair you intend to sit on, but we will always ask you to sit down and that’s when you should sit down.

- Clear the table: The only thing that should be on the table in between me and you is your resume and perhaps your portfolio (with a pen and notepad). Keep your bag, purse, phone (on silent) and everything else on the floor.

- Your hands: Keep them on your lap or clasp them in front of you on the table. Use your hands as you talk, but don’t flail them around. And make sure you keep your elbows off the table.

- Posture: Sit-up. This is possibly the worst trait I see in people when they come into the interview – they immediately begin slouching as if that is their chair and its a bad sign. Sit up and at attention, don’t get too comfortable in this interview.

- Take gum, candy and all mints out of your mouth.

And lastly, don’t forget to smile. This is an interview and I want to see your personality, not some robotic version of you. Don’t be afraid to smile and even laugh during an interview – show your personality but keep it professional. Pay attention to these small details when interviewing as the result can have a big impact on how you are judge at the end of your interview.

Interview Etiquette – Part 1

As I stated in my previous post, I’ve interviewed hundreds if not thousands of people, in the United States, the Philippines, and India and while there are cultural nuances that must be taken into account for each region, there is a set of universal etiquette that can be applied to your next face-to-face interview.

Etiquette begins with coming to the interview early. I did not say on time because you don’t want to be on time – you want to be at least 15 minutes early to any interview. Why? To give yourself sometime to relax in the lobby, use the restroom, re-check your attire, and even rehearse some of the questions you know you’re going to be asked. If you come to the interview 1 minute before it starts, you may not have even had time to catch your breath before you’re sitting in the interview room, sweating, and completely unprepared for the questions that are coming your way. In this case, it’s better to be early than to be on time.

Etiquette continues with what you wear – regardless of what position you’re interviewing for, it’s always better to be overdressed than to be underdressed. The call center environment is a little bit different in that it’s a “casual environment” – but casual doesn’t mean baggy jeans, hat, and a loose fitting t-shirt. While the clothing you wear should not be a determining factor on whether or not you get a job, it can be a make or break for your application if HR is on the fence about hiring you. If I had to choose between two candidates who did equally well in the interview and one came in professionally dressed and other in street clothes, the logical decision would be to choose the one who took the interview a little bit more seriously than the other.

The last part of interview etiquette for this part is the meeting and greeting. When the interviewee meets you, make sure to shake their hand, make eye contact and tell them its nice to meet you. I always ask people how are you and while 99% of people say I’m fine or I’m good, what really impresses me is when people ask me how I am. Most people never ever say that and every time some does ask me how I am, I remember and it already shows something about their character and personality even before I’ve had a chance to ask them the first interview question. Your first impression starts with that handshake and that hello so make it count.

This post will be continued with interview etiquette once you’ve sat down in the interview room.

Interview Advice: Answering the Question, “Tell Me About Yourself”

Interview Advice: How to Answer, “Tell Me About Yourself.”

I’ve interviewed hundreds if not thousands of people ever since I started my company 3 years ago and I always start off each interview with a simple question: “Tell Me About Yourself.” It is a question that is meant to be vague and doesn’t necessarily have a right answer. However, while there is no right answer to this interview question, there is a right way to answer this interview question.

Before I start off with teaching you the right way to answer this question, I’ll run through some examples of the wrong way to answer this question. So what shouldn’t you say when you answer this question?

First, don’t talk to me about your personal life – I don’t care about how long you’ve been married, how many kids you have, your civil status, or your religion. Keep that to yourself. These facts should have nothing to do with the job you are applying for – I’m interviewing you, not you and your wife.

Second, don’t tell me what your favorite color is or how many FX rides it takes you to get to Manila or Makati. Unless these questions are relevant to your job position, share them with your friends and not the employer you are interviewing with.

Third, don’t talk about your personality traits. I’ve heard everything from ‘I’m a jolly person’ to ‘I like to smile’ to ‘I’m a hard-worker.’ I assume that everyone who comes into my office works hard and is generally a happy person. There is no need to highlight these assumptions – if anything it makes me question why you are telling me you are happy all the time – could it all be a lie?

So what sort of answer am I looking for to the question, “Tell Me About Yourself?”

In short, I want you to summarize your resume and highlight the last 2-3 companies you’ve worked for, what you did there, and why you are sitting here in front of me right now. If you can do this in 1-2 minutes, great. If it’s longer than that, I guarantee you that the interviewer stopped paying attention long ago. Keep it concise, to the point, and all business. If I want to ask you what your favorite color is, I will ask you that. But until then, focus on the work you’ve done and why you’re in my office interviewing for this position right now.

Here’s a quick example of how I would answer the question:

“Hello, my name is Paul Rivera and I currently work at Google where I served as an AdWords Account Manager for the past 3 years. As an AdWords Account Manager, I handle these duties and manage this amount of revenue. In addition to these duties, I also do this at Google. Prior to Google, I worked at Unilever where I did this job, and that job. While my job has been very fulfilling at Google, I’m seeking a more challenging opportunity that will test the skills I’ve built up over the last few years at Google and that’s why I’m sitting in front of you now for this interview.”

You get the point. If I were to hear that from an interviewee, I’d come away very impressed because this person not only clearly knows their resume (you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t know whats on their resume) but also knows why they are interviewing for this position.

I could really be leaving Google because I was passed up for a promotion or am not happy about my compensation but that’s not what you want to focus on. You want to focus on the positive contributions you’ve made and how your skill set can contribute to the success of the company you are interviewing for.

The best way to answer this question is to practice. When I was in college, preparing for my interviews with prospective companies, I practiced answering this question to the point where I had it memorized and could recite it both in long-form (lots of details) and short-form (a quick summation).

Success in an interview, just like in life, is a result of preparation. If you’re prepared to answer this question, then I might just be prepared to hire you.