Week 16 - How to hand in your CV to a shop

As you can probably tell, it's been a busy week. Our approach for this next task comes from the teachings of the all wise Neil Strauss and his book The Game. 

We swapped the stuffy workshop room for a local shopping centre. First, one candidate picks out a shop where they want to work. Then we send everyone else into the shop in 2's and 3's to loiter near the counter. A minute after, the candidate approaches the counter alone and makes conversation with a member of staff, attempting to see the store manager to ask about vacancies and hand in their CV. 


I did the first approach and let them pick which shop I'd go into.


Handing in a CV to Polarn O. Pyret (kids clothes)
Peter: Hi, how you doing?


Acting Manager: Very good. You?


Peter: I'm great! I was hoping I could talk to the store manager. 


Acting Manager: She won't be in until tomorrow. 


Peter: Ah bummer. I was just out shopping today and I really wanted to talk to her about working here...


Acting Manager: ...well I'm acting manager today.


Peter: Great! So you're the person I need to speak to. Are you guys hiring at the moment?


Acting Manager: We have a recruitment freeze at the moment, but it should be over soon. Do you want to hand in your CV?


Peter: I do, but I don't want it to end up in the middle of a massive pile of CVs. I'll give it to you if you swear you'll get whoevers in charge of recruitment to see it. 


Acting Manager: (smiling) I swear I will! We don't even normally take CVs, but I'll make an exception for you since you're so nice and polite and friendly.


Peter: Great! I love getting special treatment (hands over CV). Hope I hear from you soon! Bye and my names Peter by the way. 


Acting Manager: See you. Take care Peter!


She seemed genuine, so hopefully I wasn't deceived by her line about not usually taking CVs. 


After that, it was approach after approach for our Y2J candidates, with immediate feedback outside the shop afterwards. 

Bobby checking for vacancies in Nandos

Fokrul checking for vacancies in republic, with Anhar and Bobby strategically placed  to listen in and give feedback

Ruman checking for vacancies in Paperchase

Foot Asylum
In Foot Asylum...


1) Ruman goes in, hands in his CV and is told they will be recruiting next week.


2) Fokrul goes in, hand in his CV and is also told they will be recruiting next week. 



3) Bobby goes in...

Bobby: "I hear you're recruiting next week"



Store Manager: "How did you hear that?"



Bobby: "2 little birdies told me!"


She hands in her CV and leaves. 


Best approach I saw all day!

We debriefed at the end of the task and found that everyone was really pumped up after all these approaches. They had gone out of their comfort zones and found that it wasn't as bad as they imagined. 


They had simply built it up in their own heads. 


All have made a good start on their way to their 100 job applications. 

Sports Direct

The job interviews go so well on Monday that the deputy manager passes the next three on to the manager. 

On Wednesday the manager is so impressed, he passes it onto to the Area manager to interview them all next week. 

The deputy manager asked to hire one of our candidates on the day. Anhar quietly calmed her down and reminded her she has three more to see. 

Money 4 Life Winners
Our winners by a whopping margin (509 likes vs 216) was Bobby, Rahima and Rajina's group: 
If Money doesn't grow on Trees why do Banks have Branches?

http://www.facebook.com/pages/If-Money-Doesnt-Grow-On-Trees-Then-Why-Do-Banks-Have-Branches/291912810874406

They very graciously agreed to treat the whole group to an outing rather than spend the whole £400 prize on themselves. Should be such a fun day!

Week 16 - 3 Steps to working at Wagamama

Step 1

I approach any random worker and say...


Peter: Hi. Is Sarah still the store manager here?

Random worker 1: (puzzled) No, the store manager is called Boris.

Peter: Oh, ok. Thanks.

Step 2
Ten minutes I come back and talk to a different worker...

Peter: Hi, I'm here to see Boris. He's not expecting me, but I was passing by and was wondering if he had a minute to spare.

Random worker 2: Just a moment (goes and checks)... Boris is busy at the moment, can you come back in ten minutes?

Peter: Yes, that will be fine

Step 3
Ten minutes later...

Peter: Hi, I'm here to see Boris. He's expecting me. 

Random worker 3: Just a moment please

Boris walks over

Boris: Hi, how can I help you?

Peter: Hi Boris, my name's Peter. I was given your name by the store manager at the Canary Wharf branch. I know you're busy so I'm not going to take up much of your time, but I just wanted to hand deliver my CV to you so you could put a face to it and know that I'm not some lazy job seeker handing out a million CVs to anywhere that will take them. This is the only place I've come in today and I'd love it if you'd consider me for any vacancies you have. Are there any at the moment?

Boris scans my CV, skeptically.

Boris: You should know that we don't usually hire university students

Peter: I understand and I wouldn't usually get a job during university, but I would love to work if it means I can work at Wagamama. I love this restaurant and I'm such a big fan.

Boris: I can see you're enthusiastic, but your time schedule means it would be part time. The main problem is that training part-timers takes twice as long as normal

Peter: That's fine with me, I learn twice as fast as normal. Plus I eat here all the time so I already know most of your menu. I've seen how your employees work and I know I could do just as amazing a job as they do.

Boris: Okay Peter. I'll give you a call later this week so you can come in to show me what you've got on a day when we're less busy.

Peter: Great! (shakes hand) I'll see you soon!


Later that week I was called back and invited to an on the job trial session in store. Of course, not every approach went as well as this. We were constantly told things like:

• "We're not recruiting at the moment"
• "The store manager is not here / busy / doesn't see customers"
• "Leave your CV and we'll get back to you"
• "It's all done online"

The trick is getting around these autopilot responses whenever you can, which are designed to weed out the lazy job seekers. These are basically road blocks stopping you from getting to the destination of working at the store. The only way to keep thinking of ways to get around those road blocks. 

Week 15 - Interviews at John Lewis & Sports Direct

This week we watched them go off all by themselves to their John Lewis interviews.

The human equivalent of sending our kids to "the dropoff".

They are as prepared as they can be.

We used our free time off from leading the workshop to test out our 'CV handing out' session the following week.

I'd insisted we dumb down our CVs in an attempt to prove that we can find work relying solely on our attitude and personality instead of our skills and experience. 

As far as anyone who sees my CV is concerned, I am currently in my first year of university with 2 weeks work experience and currently doing volunteer work at a local youth charity called Leaders In Community!

After finding the clothes stores incredibly busy we decided to head for the food court. We agreed to only give out our CVs where we deemed we had a 70% chance or more of getting a call back. We based this on our own judgement of how much the store staff liked us.

Some good approaches including me getting tips from the girl behind the counter on how she got the job and getting a meeting with Wagamama store manager in 3 steps.

*For more information on the Wagamama aproach see "Week 16 - 3 Steps to working at Wagamama"

Anhar also had his moments: 

Store staff: "All our recruitment is done online. You'll have to register through our website"

Anhar: "But I'm right here in front of you now. I'm saving you time and money by cutting out the steps in between!"

And then again at Sports Direct, he'd gone in looking for a job and 15 minutes later, he'd come out with job interviews lined up the following week for our candidates to fill 3 vacancies.

This guy is a serious professional.

Week 14 - Guest Speakers Momtaz Ajid (CEO) & Kobitha Sultana (Office Manager)

This week we have special guest speakers, Momtaz Ajid (CEO of Leaders In Community) and Kobitha Sultana (Office Manager at We Are Peas).

Kobitha Sultana

Title: Office Manager

Company: We Are Peas

Age: 19




Kobitha started off by talking about her journey into employment.

At the age of 17 she had dropped out of college, against her parents wishes, and started her first apprenticeship in Business Administration.

She later participated in 2 other apprenticeships and numerous training courses, working in temporary reception and administrative roles whenever she could find the work.

After a year and a half she finally secured a permanent position as an administrator at We Are Peas and currently works as its Office Manager.

All at the tender age of 19.

Our young candidates found Kobitha's journey refreshing to hear as many, despite parental pressures, were considering not going to University. Partly due to the recent and massive rise in university fees.

She made it sound easy, but had actually sent out over 100 CVs before securing her first apprenticeship.

And her motivation had all come from herself. No one had pushed her to apply everyday, or go out to shops handing in her CVs.

I took this as an opportunity to ask how many CVs our young people had handed out since they had started the program. The answer was around 40 total, between all ten of them.

Their target is now 100 CVs each before the end of the program.

Momtaz Ajid

Company: Leaders In Community (LiC)

Title: CEO & Founder

Age: 28





Momtaz spoke on the importance of volunteering.

It's an opportunity to do something you love and gain working experience.

A chance to show a company your potential, possibly leading onto a paid job.

LiC employs 7 members of staff, and almost every single one started as a volunteer.

Momtaz herself was also a volunteer at another company before creating Leaders In Community

Dressing Professionally
This week was especially useful for the girls who got to talk about how to dress professionally as a woman (Anhar and I had been distracting them with shiny objects whenever they asked us).

For the boys, was quite simple... wear a suit.

The boys made the poor choice of choosing a pink pen to jot down ideas on good interview appearance

For the girls, it was slightly more complicated with issues to worry about such as:

• Make up application
• Shortness of skirt
• Hair styles

Some ideas from the girls on good appearance for females going to an interview

*Special thanks to Momtaz and Kobitha for giving up their time to come out and speak to the group.

Week 13 - Interview Preparation, Top 4 Y2J Trade Secrets

Interview Preparation
As our candidates are still quite young, we likened preparing for an interview to preparing for an exam:

• Know where it is and plan to get there in plenty of time
• Revise on the questions that you think will be asked
• Do some mock questions as practice

Add to the above that you need to:

• Be dressed business smart
• Revise on the company and role that you're applying to

Stress levels at both an exam and interview can be equally high.

Our candidates admit that they have not been as prepared as they would have liked in exams, so we'll be working to shape up their forward planning skills for future interviews.

A lot of the essential planning stages were covered in week 10, including:

• Preparing clothes and appearance
• Planning the journey
• Revising the Job Description and Personal Specification
• Researching the company

Below are our Top 4 Youth Into Jobs trade secrets that they won't teach you at regular employment workshops:

1. Talk to people before your interview

Chat with the receptionist, security guards, cleaners. Ask how long they've worked there, what it's like, etc. Anything to keep your mind off your own nerves. 

Otherwise, you're giving yourself too much time to sit there stressing out about what you'll be asked you and are guaranteed to be a nervous wreck by the time your name is called. 

Small talk also warms up your talking muscles, meaning you'll be a lot more relaxed and comfortable in your interview.

2. Drink water

You know that glass of water they offer you?

Take it.

I don't care whether you're thirsty or not.

Accepting that glass of water shows you are comfortable being there.

It allows you some extra time to think if you time a sip correctly after a question is asked.

And of course, it gives you a chance to drink something if your voice gets a bit croaky from all the talking you'll be doing


3. Go to the bathroom when you get there
Whether you drove or took public transport, likelihood is you had to walk through the elements to get to the interview.

So whether you immediately need the bathroom or not, going there when you arrive gives you a chance to fix up your  appearance. Hair, face, clothes, etc.

Use the toilet if you can, you don't want it to creep up on you when you go into the interview.

4. Ask good questions
Anyone who's ever given a presentation, speech or led an interview knows it's customary to ask if there are any questions at the end.

This can often lead to what we call "tumble weed moments" or "one minute silences", leaving you wondering whether anyone was even listening.

But sometimes, you get someone who will ask a really insightful question.

It could be a member of the audience asking about a part of your presentation that you wanted to talk about but was forced to cut out due to shortages of time.

It could be an interviewee pointing out a potential problem (and possibly solution) that you yourself have already been having within the job that they are applying for.

These people don't come along often, but they are the special few who stand out.
The ones you go and make conversation with at the buffet table afterwards.
The ones you will remember due to the fact that they were truly listening and "getting it".

Money 4 Life (Update) 
The teams have now created their FB pages under the following names:

Team 1 - Money Matters

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Money-Matters/256399841109230

Team 2 - If Money Doesn't grow on Trees then why do Banks have Branches?

http://www.facebook.com/pages/If-Money-Doesnt-Grow-On-Trees-Then-Why-Do-Banks-Have-Branches/291912810874406

Within the first week both teams had already smashed the target of 50 likes, although the "If money doesn't grow on trees..." or dinosaur team only very closely scraped through the criteria ("tsk tsk"). 

The winner will be announced in 2 weeks times on Wednesday 21 March 2012.

Week 12 - Personal Development, Money 4 Life & Subway

"When life kicks you in the ass, at least you're moving forwards"

Personal Development Day
Personal Development Day allowed us to give them feedback on how everyone has progressed over the last 12 weeks. Anhar, my fellow trainer, also likes to use it as an opportunity to motivate people using one of 3 methods:

1. Criticise them - Tell them how much they have to improve on and how far they have to go
2. Relate to them - Tell them about when you've been in a similar situation as them
3. Praise them - Tell them how amazing they are doing

Different approaches were used on different people, depending on which we thought would work with them. On the whole, their attitudes have improved dramatically and interview performance is up but in order to keep them moving forwards, some needed to be kicked up the ass.

Money 4 Life
The group are taking part in a project funded by Money 4 Life, whereby they have to teach others on the importance of budgeting and saving using the magic of Facebook pages.

To increase their competitiveness they are being split into two teams with a budget of £50 for each team. The Facebook pages must be related to money management and after 2 weeks, the team with the most "likes" wins.

The winning team will get to go out on a trip worth up to £300. The losing team will get nothing (a lot of thought went into this decision).

The level of hard work, sneakiness and undercover espionage on this day was unrivaled throughout the whole program.

Team 1 immediately get to researching about popular
Facebook pages and what makes them work

Team 2 follow onto the computers shortly after seeing
Team 1 do it

Subway

Midway through the Money 4 Life project, Anhar enters the room talking loudly and causing everyone to stop their work...

"...you want to know if they'll be interested? I can find out for you right now"

(he holds up the phone to the room)

"Anybody want to work at Subway?"

The room erupts with noise as everybody tries to signal their interest in working at Subway. 

Anhar makes a sideways zipping gesture to silence them and exits the room.

He later re-enters informing them about 2 part time positions available, but they have to be ready to be interviewed in two days time.

They all rush to phone around, canceling plans and rescheduling appointments to be available.

The ones that can't are instantly out of the running and learn a valuable lesson: this is how fast the recruitment industry works, and you need to be equally flexible and fast reacting to give yourself the best chance of being hired. 

Week 11 - Mock Interviews & Mid Term Review

"The only way to get better at anything is to practice"

Peter

Being able to see the interview from the point of view of the interviewer is a good way of improving your performance at interviews.

From my experience, performing actual interviews will have you cringing at some of the things people will say, and just praying for them to mention some of the key points to score higher.

When the roles are then flipped and I am being interviewed, I can then answer questions while keeping in mind the kinds of things I would need to hear if I was the one interviewing. 

For our mock interviews, we split the group into 3 interview panels, one representing Marks & Spencers, one representing JD Sports and one representing Asda.

The panels took turns interviewing someone from another team before we would announce "SWITCH", and they would shift around to interview somebody new.

At the end, each team picked the person they would hire using the tried and tested X Factor method of moving photos of each candidate around and criticising each one whilst still providing reasons why they are a strong candidate.

The participants anxiously await their panel interviews

At the end a clear winner was announced from Marks and Spencers and Asda, both hiring Bobby, with the JD Sports panel hiring Shahina. Bobby later accepted positions at both companies to help support her starving family.

The exercise gave everyone a chance to see what it's like from the side of the interviewer. We'll be testing how this has changed their interview performance in our 1-1 interviews in week 14.

Fokrul keeps his cool under the pressure of being interviewed

*Video coming soon

Week 10 - Why People Fail Interviews

"The best interviews are when the candidate doesn't know he/she is being interviewed"

Peter

Interviews are like auditions.

Except in an audition, you are given a helpful snippet of how the person will actually perform if you hire them. Whereas in an interview, you only get to hear the person talk about how well they will perform a job if you hire them. 

So many people who are very capable of performing a job, are incapable of talking about how they will perform the job. They put all their efforts into performing a job, e.g. selling phones, but never practice how they will talk it up in an interview to display their capabilities. 

We've been teaching our Y2J candidates how to structure their answers and make it easy for the interviewer to see how capable they are. When answering interview questions, remember to:

PEE in your CAR

PEE stands for Point, Evidence, Explain and CAR stands for, Circumstance, Action Result. 

Every answer you give can follow this structure, so for example, when asked a questions about customer service for the role of sales assistant at John Lewis:

Point - I believe good customer is about exceeding customer expectations

Example - While doing my work experience at Asda...
     Circumstance - ...I noticed an elderly lady struggling to reach a jar of mayonnaise on 
     the top shelf

     Action - I rushed over and got it for her. I also offered to help her carry her bags to 

     the car

     Result - The lady was really glad to have some help and couldn't stop thanking me

Explain - I am naturally giving person and find it genuinely rewarding to exceed someone's expectations

Answering questions using this structure makes it really easy for the interviewer to see your strengths. A John Lewis interviewer hearing this answer could then assume you would go equally far for John Lewis customers as you did for Asda customers. 

Ruman answers some tough mock interview questions for a fake panel of interviewers

Some tips our candidates came up with about preparing for an interview include:

Before the Interview

• Know the Role - examine the person specification, job description and your CV/application form
• Know the Company - have some key facts about what makes it different from others
• Practice your answers with a friend (a Google search will usually show you what kind of questions are asked about the role by the company)
• Plan your journey - find out how to get there and how long it will take
• Dress smartly
• Trim your nails and hair (especially facial hair)
• Bathe the night before
• Don't smoke

During the Interview

• Look positive
• Speak clearly and confidently 
• Show positive body language (only 7% of communication is verbal)
• Answer the question asked - take you time and answer the question relevantly to the role
• Sell yourself
• Turn off your mobile
• Don't be late!
• Don't swear or use slang
• Don't slouch
• Don't criticise former employers or colleagues

After the Interview

• Ask questions - prepare some relevant questions to ask at the end e.g. when will I be informed if I'm successful? Where is the job based? But don't ask about salary
• Call them back - if they haven't informed you when they said they would, give them a call and ask

*A top tip is to remember that it is not the end of the world if you don't get the job. SERIOUSLY keep this in mind and it will help you to be more natural and calm at the interview, rather than a trembling, nervous wreck!