It’s nice to get called back after you interview. You can feel good about your performance. Your optimism increases as you recognize you’re that much closer to landing the job. After several callbacks, your confidence really goes up, and you start feeling like this job is yours.
It’s at this positive moment, close to the end where many job seekers make a common and fatal mistake: they focus on getting the job, instead of the offer.
Wait, you ask, isn’t that the same thing? After all, you need to get an offer, in order to get the job.
Yes, it’s true that the offer precedes the job. It’s also true that a job seeker can get multiple offers – when you’re looking for a job, you shouldn’t be talking to just one prospective employer but as many as you can. But, if you are a candidate of integrity (and you should be) you should only accept one job.
Multiple offers, but just one job, is the reason why for every interview process you enter, your goal is to get the offer, not the job. If you keep your focus on the offer, you sell yourself to the very end. You focus on getting them to fall in love and stay in love with you filling their open job. You don’t weigh the pros and cons of whether you would accept the job – thereby looking hesitant, distracted, or worse, disinterested. You stay excited and energized to the very end.
Once you close the offer, then the ball is back in your court, and you can weigh the pros and cons and do whatever deliberation you need to do. Till then, go for the offer, NOT the job.
I use my 20+ years of recruiting experience to help my clients identify and avoid the mistakes that can derail a job search. If you want someone who knows how the hiring process really works to help you sidestep the mistakes that can cost you your dream job, schedule a consultation call to discuss 1:1 coaching with me.
