Ask the question?

One of the recruitment newsletters I subscribe to is ‘Ask the Headhunter’ which is written by Nick Corcidilos (http://corcodilos.com/blog).  This week he discusses whether at interview you should explicitly ask for the job to clearly demonstrate your interest to the hiring manager.  Nick strongly believes that the answer is a resounding yes, essentially because most people aren’t entirely sure they want a job until they have heard much more about the position and company at the interview.  Therefore, at the end of the meeting you should let the interviewer know that you have made up your mind positively about the position.

I am not sure about this advice.  I appreciate that in some sales interviews it is standard for the jobseeker to ask whether the interviewer has any concerns so that they can then presumably overcome all objections whilst still in the interview.  However, can this more aggressive style really be successful in the sectors for which I recruit or will it actually put off hiring managers?   In fact, is it actually aggression at all or just that as we become adults we develop emotions such as embarrassment, pride and self-consciousness which prevent us from asking for what we want?

Maybe in our sector there are other ways of making it clear that you are interested in the position without actually directly asking for the job.  For example, summarising what the company is looking for and how you have demonstrated this during the interview can make it easy for the interviewer to see how you clearly you fit the role – or is this just over-complication?   I would be interested to hear what has/hasn’t worked for you.

As an aside, I received an amusing CV this week from somebody in their late 20’s who felt it was important to record details of their paper round fourteen years ago, including (bizarrely) the name of the newsagent which was, I think, of paramount importance....Mind you, that is not quite as ‘hilarious’ as the person who sent me a CV through the post earlier this year in an envelope filled with confetti to ensure that their application stood out.  On my knees picking up confetti for ten minutes I admired this strategy greatly which is right up there with comedy email addresses –  in 2010 I have actually received job applications from ‘x-ratedstud@’ ,‘beer-monster86@’ and ‘sweatygirl72@’.  Why?!!!