Billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin et al, posted this week—he has over 2.6 million followers on Linkedin—about hiring new personnel and how “personality and attitude” are crucial to finding the right person. His post triggered some thoughts about my own experiences with job interviews.
First, Branson doesn’t look like a CEO—long hair, wears leather and has a big smile. I sense he would be fun to talk to and I guess that’s why he’s a CEO and I’m not. But I do have longish hair, although not as much as he does. I’ll work on the smile. Yeah, that is key, the pearly whites.
Secondly, Branson aside, here’s why I’ve aced some job interviews.
- I didn’t want the job in the first place, so I was super relaxed as in, “you wanna go for beers?”
- The interviewer started with a negative such as “the job’s been filled” and, therefore, “you wanna go for beers?”
Finally, I would do very well in any job interview today because I don’t need a job. I remember all those times when I was short on funds and eager (not quite desperate) for that “perfect” position—so much pressure and so much disappointment.
Mr. Branson is spot on. He’s relaxed, doesn’t need the dough, and so he has enough room upstairs to focus on what works—and through his experiences he knows what works. Nice. Now, how do you get to this point when you’re 20-something, have college debt and a resume full of intern jobs? I’ll get back to you on this. Mr. Branson, drop me a line!
67Steffen.com 
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