Disappointments are often resulted from people’s failure to meet expectations. Or put it in another way, people’s habit of setting the wrong expectations.

An angry customer threatening to sue the company he used to love because the salesman did not tell him the important terms and conditions, or a motivated employee who decided to resign from his so-called ‘dream’ job once he realized a lot of the promises made during the interview could not be materialized.

Yes, we’ve seen and heard about all such examples. And all of them are due to (in one way or another) this reason – the failure to set the right expectations.

You can argue that it is the customer’s fault (or the interviewee’s) for not asking the proper questions. Yeap, you can definitely do that, just like what most people did. The thing is, this same group of people always end up finding themselves with a pissed off customer or an extremely demotivated employee. And the end result is not going to be the win-win situation everyone wants to achieve – for the customer, he will spread the negative comments (well, you don’t really need to care if your product is so good that everyone will still flock to your shop) and stop buying from you…..and the employee will also spread the negative comments and go look for another job. Either way, it’s definitely not good outcome for both parties in the long run.

Why do they (the customers and the employees) behave this way? Speaking from experience, it’s because we feel betrayed by the people/companies we trusted. Let’s say we buy an expensive product from you. We thought about it for a very long time and finally decided to buy it. We asked A-Y but missed out on Z. And you assumed you don’t have to tell us about Z just because we didn’t ask about it. Big mistake. If Z is important, then you should tell us about it. If you don’t, and once we found out about it, we’ll be very angry.

That’s why I always believe in setting the right expectations. It’s part of being a good salesman, consultant, interviewer, customer service officer, etc. Heck, I can even say it’s part of being successful in life!

So always always remember to set the right expectations and stop assuming people know about it just because they never ask. If you feel it’s important, then say it out. Set the right expectations before they make their decision. Remember that you should be helping them in making the right decision, and not trying to cheat them into making one.

p/s…. I understand that sometimes it’s not possible to clear all their doubts and set all the expectations right… so if you are unsure what kind of expectations to set, try to look at what are the important things that they should know. Things that they will be very pissed off if you don’t tell them about it. Things like conditions, clauses, possible contracts or bonds, etc.

p/s…. I’m writing this post because I became a victim twice in a month just because the salesman did not set the right expectations. I asked many many questions and they assumed I would know the few important points (clauses, missing software, etc) which I did not ask. Yes, I was pissed and they received a lot of lectures from me.

A job interview is a session where you meet your potential employer and have a good chat with each other. The role of the interviewer is to judge whether you are suitable for the position and for the company. Your role, on the other hand, is to be honest to yourselves and to the interviewer so that you will be able to decide whether the job suits you.

I do understand that in certain conditions, you might be quite desperate for a job. And when you are desperate, you tend to come out with lies and become dishonest. You will start saying that you know this and that, but in actual fact, you know none of them.

By doing this, you might be able to get your desired job. But at what cost? What if the interviewer realized that you are not who you said you are? Believe me, if you try to cheat your way into a job……you will end up suffering because the job might not be what you want, and you might struggle to do things that you do not know.

So it’s important for you to be honest in the job interview and also for the interviewer to be honest with you. Set the expectations right. The key elements here are your honesty, your experience and also your attitude.

Remember, there’s no point to cheat your way into a job that you are not suitable, only to change job again few months later. It’s not good for both yourselves and for the company.

By the way, if you like my articles on career, job, life and motivational, feel free to subscribe to my RSS Feed.

p/s…. I went for a job interview on Monday. I passed the technical test but it didn’t work out because the interviewer was looking for a potential technical architect and I’m not. On the other hand, I’m looking for a job with more client interaction, which they don’t have. So our expectations were pretty different. Some people said I should’ve lied and get the offer first but I chose not to do that. I prefer to be honest upfront since I don’t want people to waste their time.

One of my HR friends (she’s a recruiter) told me about an incident which happened to her few weeks ago. There was this candidate who went to her company for a job interview. The scheduled time was 1pm and the entire interview process (the test, the form filling and the interview process itself) took 2 hours 30 minutes. It ended at approximately 3.30pm.

Guess what happened next?

The interviewee, or in other words, the person who needs the job, started complaining to my friend in a not-so-polite manner. The person told my friend why didn’t she inform him earlier that the interview process was going to take so long, bla bla bla and he has this appointment he needed to attend in another far far away place at 4pm.

When my friend told me this, my first response was “Friend, just fail that guy. He’s an idiot who doesn’t know how to manage his time and he’s too unprofessional to blame others for his own mistake”.

As a job candidate, one should always allocate at least 3 hours for the entire interview process. I’ve been to an interview which took me 5 hours (the manager forgot about my existence). This is because each interview process can be quite different from one company to the other. Some companies require you to take a lot of tests, some don’t. Some companies have long-winded interviewers, and some just don’t bother that much. So it’s pretty hard to predict how long the actual interview is going to last. That’s why it’s very dangerous and risky to schedule another important appointment right after the interview. Always leave a buffer of 2 to 3 hours between the 2…. unless you can fly or teleport.

Remember that time management is very important. If you cannot even manage the schedules for your interviews and appointments, what makes you think your employer will give you the job? You are just another disorganized person to them.

Oh, and even if nothing is going right for your schedules……you should never ever blame the interviewer. That’s way too unprofessional.

I’ve been looking around for jobs nowadays and I just got the news from one of my recruiters that I failed my interview this morning. It’s really not easy to find jobs nowadays especially due to my working experience.

I came from a consulting firm and my company encourages people to be flexible and able to adapt to a situation FAST. Due to the nature of our business, we cannot really focus on specific technologies since at any given point, we will just have to take whatever that comes. That’s why in this field, we need people with very good working attitude and also people who are very flexible. In other words, a generalist.

But what proves to be our selling point, happens to be our biggest weakness when we go out for job interviews. Most companies are looking for specialists and not jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none. This is a reality that I’ve faced.

However, when you come to think of it, do you think a company should hire someone who is a generalist or only pick someone who is a specialist? Here’s a brief overview about the pros and cons of each.

Generalist

• Flexible, has good attitude and willing to learn.
• Dedicated to serve and contribute to the company no matter what has been asked from him.
• Has good technical exposure and knows what kind of technologies (or skills, if you’re not talking about IT) to use based on requirements and needs.
• Salary will not be high but easier to find a ‘normal’ job since he can just move into any role. Most companies will hire such people as junior or medium level roles.
• Is not expert in the technical side of things. Will not know the very low level kind of stuff.

Specialist

• Is expert in his field or even in a particular technology/skill/product. Can be the lead for that knowledge.
• Only certain companies can offer positions for these individuals because the skillset requirements might not match. But if there’s a position, it is usually medium to senior level.
• The salary is normally pretty high but not as easy to find a job since certain companies might not require his specialty.
• Might have good technical exposure to other technologies but his priority is to focus on his specialty. Anything too far away from that, will be ignored.
• Can be quite not-so-flexible and not willing to pick up new technologies as the project requires. This is because picking up something different will make his existing skill to become rusty. He will become a generalist if this continues.

I’m a generalist, and I’ve met some specialists who would just refuse to do anything outside their scope. If you try to force it to them, they will quit. Simple as that.

This is quite similar to the football world. If the manager asked you, a striker, to play as a midfielder……will you do that? If yes, it proves you are loyal to the club but your overall value will drop. If no, it just shows you are not flexible enough and does not want to commit to the club. They will just try to sell you off.

So pros and cons actually. It really depends on what you want and who you are.

As for me, I still prefer to be a generalist even if I’ve failed 2 interviews in a row. In my opinion, if a company really wants me, then I should be fully committed and do whatever they need me to do. It can be my biggest weakness, but it can also be my strength.

So for now…just wish me luck. LOL.

P/S….. I’m actively looking for freelance projects. Do let me know if anyone of you have any. Thanks in advance.

In every good CV, there will be a section reserved for referees, their positions and their contact details. This is a very important section and is often overlooked by the job candidates.

Why is it important? Because job interviewers will most likely call the referees for a reference check if you managed to pass the interview process. And this is where your past behavior will either help you in your job application….or ruin your chance.

And it wouldn’t help if you are only putting your friends or relatives as referees. You can put at most 1 close friend but most of the referees should be those individuals who have worked with you before. They should be the people who know how you work, and what is the attitude that you bring to a workplace. They should either be your supervisor, former supervisor or senior colleagues.

Also, by putting your supervisors/colleagues as your referees, it is very obvious that you have nothing to hide and you are willing to let the interviewer knows about your past records. If you can’t find anyone from the company or your ex-company, then finding someone (from within the same industry) who knows you well will help too. It’ll even be better if that someone holds a senior position in a reputable company.

However, one thing that you must always make sure is that these referees will say good things about you and not the other way round. You wouldn’t want to get a referee who would back stab you. Also, always remember to ask permission from the person before you actually put their contact details inside your CV.

Last but not least, be honest in your job interview. The referees are important but they are only there to prove whatever you said during the interview is correct. They are more like the supporting casts. The main cast is you.

As for me, I’m very fortunate that I have good supervisors (former and current) who are willing to help me out by becoming my referees.

p/s…… if you don’t have any good referee…maybe it’s time to perform better in your job so that you can get good testimoninals from your bosses or even ask one of them to be your referee.