2nd Place Sucks!
Land faster with More $

Hey, Mike Sudermann here founder and CEO of Ascent Select Talent Capital. This page has been designed for you. You’re actively looking or whether you’re looking to make it discreet move you can simply upload your resume you can answer a few questions and then upload it click enter will receive your information it will be held strictly confidential you will never convey your information to anybody or any company without your written and or verbal permission. You can also schedule a call with me by clicking the schedule call button will take you to my calendar and you can select a day and time that best for you.

I also want to encourage you to continue watching this video it’s going to go just a tad longer going to talk to you about a program that we are offering right now it’s called bullet proof interview strategies. I have been coaching candidates for almost 2 decades, thousands and thousands of candidates and I have many success stories and I’m going to share a few of those with you but I also want to share with you a couple really great tips, one how to answer the salary question and the other one which is why should we hire you? I’ll get into those in a minute. The bulletproof interview strategy course we have is a series of videos we are updating it regularly and adding new content all the time currently it’s 12 videos you can easily top out at 15 or 20, the course we provide will have additional career advice videos as well added into the system. Here’s the deal the bottom line is if you’re tired of coming in second place on an interview you know second place in the Olympics is great you get a sore metal might even get a commercial or two out of the deal. Second place in a job interview leaves you without a job quite frankly. We want you to be successful we want you to land quickly we want you to be able to position yourself not only as #1 must hire but position yourself so you’re receiving absolutely the best compensation and just because a company tells you the range for the role is 120 to 130, that’s not always accurate it might be 120 to 150. There might be a sign on bonus, I mean I’ve worked with hundreds almost thousands of hiring managers who always have room in the budget for an exceptional candidate. In fact yesterday I was meeting with the client the salary range was OK, but I said, look if I come in and we find somebody who’s 10 grand more than what you’ve given us for the range should we present them to you and he said absolutely and that’s 10,000 more plus whatever they’re making in the books so ultimately that person might be at 20 to 30,000 more than the range was that was originally discussed. It all happens basically in the interview process. People hire people not paper! So, the paper is the resume. It’s going to get you into the interview but you need to secure offers and the key here is plural offers I don’t want you having to take a position because you only receive a single bobber you want to receive multiple offers and so you can select the best one that works for you and your couple additional pieces here. I know that besides coming in second place you might get low ball offers or you might be on kind of the radical of the interviews and you never really figured out where things are even hold for interviews with positions we’ve been on hold and you’re just struggling to land. We want you to land quickly absolutely the best compensation position and it all again revolves around bullet proof theory strategies.

I’m reminded of my friend Patrick that we presented to the client a few years ago after he was on paper probably the least qualified of the three candidates. Our client they wouldn’t meet with an interview all three candidates we presented. It already interviewed 2 that on paper were absolutely outstanding and they were really impressed really excited too one of the first two candidates and offer and then again Patrick on paper was probably the runt if you will. But here’s the deal, Patrick checked his ego is that’s a hard thing to do if already successful in your career you’ve already had 10-15 years maybe 20 or even 30 you’ve interviewed successfully and you’ve had great career. Great jobs. My question to you is how many hundreds of thousands of dollars have you left on the table? Have you potentially left an extra million or maybe several $1,000,000 in your savings account if you would have had bulletproof interviews strategies lots are yes happy is a prime example check with the ego at the door. He went through my interview coaching strategies. I want to set this up. The other two top candidates declined the interview strategy teaching said my offer they declined no I’m good I’ve done this 100 times I’m good I don’t need any help really Tiger Woods is a you know obviously phenomenal golfer he’s made hundreds of millions of dollars but even he has a pudding coach and a hitting coach and a nutritionist and probably 20 or 30 other coaches anyone in any sort of professional sports professional sport has the coach to tweet out certain aspects of the games they play or game to play. You are a professional, you’re a professional finance person marketing sales IT HR operations supply chain logistics, you name it you’re a professional so tweak it out make adjustments and you’ll make substantially more money. Long story short, Patrick got the job, over the two that were on paper substantially better. He checked his ego at the door he executed exactly how I told him to execute. He went from a director to a senior VP position and made over 75% increase in compensation. In an hour and a half conversation. I’m reminded of friend Heather. She worked for a company in Memphis and still does a packaging company won’t mention the name. For 10 years she was passed up on promotional opportunities 10 years she got sick of it but wanted to give it one more try. She reached out to me. I coached her on bulletproof interview strategies, guess what, she got the job not only did she get the job she received a 44% increase in base salary which when you do the math on that and then there’s a bonus it was a hug huge increase in comp. So, not only did she get the job, she got a giant bump in comp and I remember about a week after she received the job we already talked a couple of times, and she called to tell me that she her husband had just put a down payment on their dream home. Why, she’s making an extra hundred grand a year and then some. Then there is Cindy. Cindy had worked for the same company for over 20 years. She was downsized laid off whatever you want to call it and she was in a lurch. She needed a lot help. Coached her on the bulletproof interview strategies she ended up hiring me for some hourly coaching and she knocked it out of the park. Within weeks of coming on board she had multiple offers she landed the senior leadership position; got the comp package she wanted etcetera and she’s doing great and there’s a load of other examples that we can share if you want more we’re happy to provide. The bottom line is we’ve got to check your ego at the door, and you have to execute on very specific strategies during the interview process. Everything is fair game everything you know, in love and war, everything is an even battlefield. Once you get into the interview process how you got there it doesn’t really matter the interview does. I want to talk very quickly about the two or two really key components in the interview process one is, how to answer the salary question and the other one is, why should we hire you? Let’s talk about why should we hire you. When you go through the interview with somebody says “hey Joe why should we hire you for this position?” 97% of your competitors are going to say, well the job description says you’re looking for somebody with 10 to 15 years of experience in finance with an MBA prefer a CPA in the multi-unit widget manufacturing industry, and I’ve done all that so I would be a good hire for you.

Bonk! Wrong answer, that is not how you do it. What you’re going to do is you’re going to tell “hey Joe appreciate you asking that question you know during the course of our conversation today you’ve indicated to me you’re looking for these specific accomplishments to be achieved within the 1st 90 to 180 of the position. I have done all of that and then some, I’ve seen good the bad and the ugly. I know what works and I know it doesn’t work. I can do this for you I can hit the ground running. I will add value immediately to your organization additionally Joe you mentioned that you need this person to do ABC DEFG and I have done all of those and I can certainly do that for you. I can knock this out of the park and I’m excited about it I know you want the person to be working with you guys in the chair in the next three to four weeks I could be there in three weeks. Tell me where the coffee pot is and where you want me to work,

I will be there. I can do this for you, and I will knock it out of the park.

That in a nutshell is how you answer why should we hire you.

Your competition in a position is pretty much exactly like you. If somebody’s looking for 15 years of experience and an MBA and whatever it is, Finance, supply chain, logistics, whatever your functional niche is, the basics of what they’re looking for. Everybody has that. Separate yourself from the competition. Serve it back to the person, this is what you want, and this is what I bring. Make it easy for the hiring manager to make the decision. I call it eliminating the fear a hiring manager, eliminating the fear of making a bad hire, that’s what you’re trying to do in an interview. Now how do you answer the salary question? Most of you know that you never provide a number. While I agree with that, I’m going to suggest you provide the number but it’s a little more strategic than that. Let’s say that your current salary is $130,000 a year plus bonus. Here’s how you answer the question. Joe, hey, appreciate you asking the question I know it’s always the white elephant in the room let me tell you where I currently am. I am currently north of 130 (now just as a side note I say more than 130 just to set it up to say you got a base salary at 130 you might have bonus in there you might have some other particulars, maybe gas card and some other things right, so you just say hey Joe, I am north of 130. However, what’s most important for me and my family at this point in time of my career is, making a long term fit or joining company for being long term fit. Now again side note, your definition of long term and the company’s definition of long term could be totally different it’s irrelevant companies and hiring managers want to hire somebody who wants to stay with the company long term very important. So you say, Joe appreciate you asking the question, I’m north of 130 however what’s most important for me and my family at this point in time is joining the company where I can stay long term and secondly joining a company that appreciates the value I’m going to bring the organization and lastly I want to work with the company that’s in growth mode, that is ideal. So, again, north of 130, I’m looking for a position where my experience is valued and appreciated, I’m looking for a long term fit and want to work with a company that’s in growth mode and with that said Joe I’m sure you will make me a fair offer. That’s how you say or how you answer the salary question. Very plain and simple. So, I hope that helps you. I encourage you to sign up for the bulletproof interview strategy course. It’s currently 12 videos it could be 15 within the next couple two or three weeks and we’ll add additional videos as bonuses as you proceed through the course you can also sign up for our hourly ala carte coaching or career advising if you’d like that as well. We appreciate you watching, sign up for our course get on my calendar if you have any additional questions and again thanks a bunch and have a great day.