Welcome!
Vaccination. You read every day that many corporate and government employers are requiring employees to be vaccinated. Whether you aren’t vaccinated or simply don’t want to disclose this fact to a future employer, what do you do?
Always tell the truth since if you do your homework, you will never feel uncomfortable.
Let’s talk about interview preparation in general since it will answer the vaccination question also.
Research before interviewing
“Will you do your own homework, Marv!” (Movie Wall Street)
When speaking with a potential employer, if you aren’t properly prepared, don’t even waste your time. At a minimum, prior to your interview, you want to speak with several employees to learn about the company:
- Work ethic
- Culture
- Compensation structure
- Growth areas
- Management turnover
- If the company’s press messages match their experiences
As Sun Tzu said, “Every battle is won before it’s ever fought” (The Art of War). Preparation will dramatically influence or determine the outcome. If you properly research the items above and are highly qualified, chances are you will get the job.
When I was at Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch, I always asked candidates how my firm was different from Morgan Stanley, Goldman, and JP Morgan. 99% of the time, the interviewee did not know.
I don’t care how smart they were or from which college they hailed, no job offer! Why would I want to work with someone unprepared for daily work, much less an interview?
Business is hard enough, but lazy co-workers can take you from aspirin to a codeine addiction quickly
How about the vaccination question?
Let’s add vaccination to the list above. If you aren’t vaccinated or don’t want to disclose, you can speak with current employees and ask them about their company vaccination policy.
Even if the company has not decided yet, by asking about the culture, you can guess with relative accuracy.
Don’t interview with a company that does not share your values. If you do and get the job, you’ll probably leave anyway. Unless of course, you need the money (Yea, it’s about the money, Seinfeld, “The Pothole” episode)
How do I contact employees if I don’t know anyone at the company?
Unless you are interviewing with a company of fewer than 500 employees, the odds that you share commonalities with a few employees is high. Your greatest commonalities are:
- Same university
- Same former employer
- 1st or 2nd connected on LinkedIn
- Same LinkedIn groups
Reach out and connect by LinkedIn to request a call. For more information on how, check out Fashionable late, a podcast on which I was fortunate enough to be a guest.
Bottom Line
Speak with multiple employees of the company with whom you are interviewing and ask the right questions. If you don’t prepare, don’t even waste your time.
Book a Call with Mike