How (not) to get a six-figure salary job

By Neil Patrick

If you are going after the highest paying jobs around, it’s really important you do your homework and here’s why…

A little while ago I was approached by a head-hunter about a job.

At first I wasn't especially interested. It's not unusual for this to happen. But I looked into the job and it soon became clear this job was a great match for my skills and experience and I knew I’d be able to make a big contribution. It was a board level job in a plc. with a solid track record. It also had a very large salary and bonus attached.

I managed to extract from the head-hunter who the client was. Then I went to work. I mean really went to work. I got hold of every news report, annual accounts report and company statement I could find. I tracked the share price history. I used LinkedIn and other social media to discover the name and background of every senior person in the business. I researched their competitors. And their competitors’ strategies. I made notes on all the market sector reports and analysis I could find.

This research suggested to me some strategic weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the business. I was restricted of course in the information I could access, but I was certain the business was in a much weaker position than its headline results suggested. Which posed an interesting question. Should I raise these questions and risk appearing foolish or negative because I couldn’t access all the information I really needed, or should I present my analysis and queries for discussion?

Rightly or wrongly, I opted for a compromise. I compiled a list of key questions about the business, the job and the business’s strategy touching on what I thought were the key weaknesses, but not actually digging into them too hard.

The problem with this approach was that if I was offered and accepted the job, I’d be getting into a business I had serious strategic worries about. And as the newest member of the exec team, I might be at risk of alienating myself from day one if my view was in conflict with theirs. I decided to worry about that question only when and if I was ever offered the job.

Appear keen whatever reservations you may have

I told the head-hunter I was interested in the job. Very interested.

After this, I agreed to meet up with the head-hunter and we talked for a couple of hours over lunch about my background and the role in question. The meeting went well and my interest level increased. The head-hunter explained to me that it might take a while to hear anything further as he was having a dozen or so meetings like the one he’d had with me, then he’d need to go back to his client and review the candidates he’d found and decide who to invite for interview.

I waited for several weeks but kept in touch with the head-hunter once a week or so. Things did as he’d anticipated take a while to progress. The reason was that his client was the CEO and he was having big difficulties getting a slot in his diary to meet and decide who to select for interview.

Then about a month after our first meeting, the head-hunter called me. I’d been selected for interview by the CEO along with two other candidates.

Prepare, prepare, prepare

So I went back to intensive preparation. I wrote down every question I thought I might be asked, from the deceptively simple ‘tell me about yourself’, to the testily specific ‘what’s your take on the regulatory frameworks in the market’. And everything in between. I scripted the best answers I could come up with, polished them and learned them as mini-scripts so I could more or less recite them word perfectly.

But I didn't just prepare answers, I prepared almost as many questions. I wanted the interview to be as much of a discussion as I could make it. And for that, I needed good questions. This would not only take the pressure off me a little, it would show if I chose the right questions, that I had really done my homework.

All in all, I think I spent about five full days of work preparing. But at the end, I felt I was so prepared and ready, that I would put on my best possible performance. When the day came and I sat in the reception area, waiting to go into the interview, I was calm, focussed and actually looking forward to the interview and having the discussion.

I was surprised that the interview was just between the two of us. Perhaps this was a preview, before the final panel interview? I never did find out. But I did put on just about the best performance I was capable of. And at the end, I left feeling satisfied that I’d done the best job I possibly could.

Then wait, wait ,wait

As usually happens, I waited. And waited. After a couple of weeks the head-hunter contacted me and told me I was the second choice. And the first choice person had been offered the job. And accepted it. Naturally I asked what the reasons for the decision were. He said it was because the person they selected came from within the same industry and I did not.

This may or may not have been the whole truth. I will never know. Head-hunters are people too and they will usually select the reason they think will be the simplest and least hurtful to the applicant. Which of course actually isn’t the most helpful information the applicant can receive.

Why failure isn’t the end, it’s the beginning…

But here’s the interesting part of the story. A short while ago I picked up the business section of the paper and on the front page was a big headline about the firm in question. Their share price had collapsed to about 10% of the price it had been when I was interviewed. The business had not posted their annual report and accounts. The chairman said there was no realistic prospect the business could recover its revenues.

It was a tale of corporate catastrophe. My concerns about the business’s vulnerabilities had been borne out even faster than I’d imagined possible.

And I could only imagine what the daily experience of working at the business would have been like. Pure misery I suspect.

Which leads me to what we can learn from this.

1. Time spent on company research is never wasted

I still don’t know if I would have accepted the job if I’d been offered it. Before accepting, I think I’d probably have asked for a further meeting to talk in detail about the concerns I had and only then would have made the decision.

But quite apart from this aspect, the detailed preparation filled me with confidence about my capability to do well at interview. Nerves were not a problem and I actually enjoyed the experience.

2. All that glitters is not necessarily gold

It would have been easy to be blinded by the status and reward package on offer. But I actually feel I escaped a near miss rather than experienced a failure. And the fact that I spotted the vulnerabilities that subsequently came to cripple the business has boosted my confidence in my own judgement.

3. Trust your instincts and research

By carrying out all the due diligence I could before the interview, I not only felt I was very well equipped to handle the interview, if I had have been offered the job, whether I’d accepted it or not, I’d have made the decision with full knowledge of the critical facts.

4. Don’t rely on everything a head-hunter tells you

My experience proved again that you cannot rely on head-hunters to tell you the truth. I’m not saying the head-hunter was deceitful or not acting in good faith - but they are in the business of simply finding the best people for a job, not carrying out forensic evaluation of their client’s businesses. That's down to us.

5. Failures may lead directly to your next endeavour

Had I been offered and taken this job, I certainly would not have started this blog. And I certainly wouldn’t be enjoying the company of all the great people around the world it’s put me in contact with. The course of my professional life would have been totally different. I think it’s no exaggeration to say this interview failure has turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise.