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April 15, 2025 32 mins

Feel like you never have enough time to prep for an interview?

Ever been contacted by an employer who wanted to talk right away? And you deferred?

BIG mistake.

You never want the employer waiting on you.

I don’t care about the double standard.

If someone is interested in you, strike when the iron is hot!

If you ever feel rushed to prepare for an interview, one thing is certain…

You did not approach your job search the correct or efficient way.

You should never need more than an hour to prepare for an interview.

Today, I’m going to tell you why and give you the steps so you will never feel rushed again.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my three books related to interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today I want to talk with you about that situation where you need to job interview prep in a hurry
all right so what's today all about you know that problem you have whenever somebody wants to talk
to you right away they want to interview you right away and you worry that you don't have enough time
to get to get ready for the interview uh sometimes they want to talk that day that afternoon the next

(00:26):
hour the next morning whatever it is to that I have to say why on Earth would we ever be worried
or Panic about a situation we desired to create add to which and I will tell you that anyone who
wants to talk with you in that short amount of time anybody they love your background they talk

(00:51):
their way they want to talk to you because they want you so no one and I mean no one would ever
do that unless they were greatly interested in speaking with you whether that was because you
applied online with through the applicant trashing system for their job or maybe you sent them a boss
hunting message or maybe somebody called you totally cold and I know that in the past I've

(01:12):
told you that if you pick up the phone or if you get an email and you're surprised you want to get
off the phone as quickly as possible because you don't want to talk to somebody unless you are in
the right frame of mind know who they are know why they're reaching out and all that good stuff
but somebody who contacts you about an interview and wants you to prepare quick or wants you to
be ready quickly this is something we want so I doesn't that just right there make you feel

(01:36):
a whole lot better about the situation it's true it's true think about what's actually happening so
why do we get nervous the reason we get nervous is because on this channel we play chest not
Checkers your job search is chestn Checkers it's bad strategy bad planning and you weren't in the
right place or frame of mind to conduct something that you wanted so we need to fix that that's what

(02:02):
today's going to be about yes I'm going to tell you the areas I would focus on to prepare in
a hurry for a job interview but I'm not going to break this down like I'd spend two minutes on this
and three minutes on that that's ridiculous you deserve more than that it's like when I go to the
doctor and I tell him yeah I got this pain running down my legs there's nothing wrong with your leg
it's in your back the problem is elsewhere and for you it's likely in the way in which you you've

(02:25):
sequenced or are conducting your job search if you're even actually conducting one so we're
going to fix that for you today and before we get into the here's how I want to start it off with
a little story because I want I want you to get in the right frame of mind I want you to draw an
analogy from my life and how this applies to you and why I would not worry in the least all right

(02:45):
so the story starts with I've basically spent I don't know seconds not hours not days preparing
for this talk I've literally spent almost no time and why would the story start like that
because this is how I want you to think about your job search I have spent I don't know how

(03:06):
many seconds I have spent thinking about this talk today that's going to be 30 minutes or 60
minutes and then I'm going to take a bunch of your questions the grand total of the amount of time
that I've spent preparing for this talk is the amount of time it took me to scratch these cards
that's it this was my entire prep for this session today it literally took me longer to set up all

(03:30):
the technology and to get my screen in order with all the things I want to show you than it did for
me to actually prep for this everything that's coming out of my mouth is coming out of my mouth
for the very first time I haven't even heard me talk this talk I have practiced nothing this story
I'm telling you right now never been practiced so we're going to do it together but why would I even
tell you any of this because I want you to think for a second about me and maybe you just found me

(03:57):
or maybe you've been following me for a long time but it took me years to master the content domain
of the things that I that I teach you and how to put a lesson together with sequencing it creating
a right outline that includes what the talking points the steps I want you to follow the bombs I

(04:18):
want to drop the key messages I want to drive home I need to do it in a motivating and challenging
manner so that you understand what to do next and I need to keep that entire outline in my head as
I go through this talk with an ability to focus and never lose track of anything that I'm doing
so that my neurons are firing with a velocity that is great so how long did it take me to master what

(04:45):
I do and all the skills it takes to do this week in and week out for me to show up for you every
Thursday and you're thinking coach don't you love me you won't even prepare for the talks
you give me every Thursday no I love you so much that I show up every Thursday and I worked so hard
so that I could keep showing up every Thursday so that it only takes me seconds to prepare a

(05:07):
talk that I can give you that hopefully makes your life better so why am I telling you that because
isn't there something that you do that you're that awesome at can I get a show of hands you know your
stuff why would you need an hour to prepare for an interview to explain to somebody what you do

(05:29):
how you're going to change their life am I right have you ever thought about that now but
let's let's let's be specific here because we're talking about your job search and while you may be
a master of your trade like I am of mine and all the skills that it takes you are not a master at
job searching so I need to teach you so that you can compress the amount of time that it takes you

(05:54):
to position yourself in a great Direction with the right strategy so that you're deliberate so that
in seconds you can be ready to talk to somebody but there are sequences and steps that you need
to go through that I can literally hand walk you through so that when you get to the go line when
you're at start and then it becomes hand toand combat where somebody might want to talk to you

(06:16):
five minutes from now you're ready and that's what this talk is going to be about so I want
you to think about that what are you worried for so that's the first thing and whether you want to
prep for 5 minutes or an hour and rarely do you have have to do that but I never ever want you to
turn away somebody who wants to talk to you soon because why cuz the Iron's hot baby we don't want

(06:41):
to let it cool down am I right can I get an amen on a Thursday or a Tuesday or whenever the hell
you're watching this right you with me who's with me who's charged give me a hey let me know you're
here all right so let's run through it eh all right first thing is if you're ever

(07:05):
in a situation where you're not ready to talk to somebody within minutes there's something broken
in your job searching chain so let's fix all that first shall we okay so first thing that
I wrote on my cards that I spent I don't know maybe 125 seconds writing actually it might be
a little longer cuz I made some mistakes and I had to clean them up meaning I made like a

(07:28):
handy hand typo mistakes all right first thing is I want you to think of your job search in a
static perspective and a dynamic perspective okay so there's a bunch of stuff you do upfront that I
want you to do and I want it all complete and you don't get an A until it's all done because

(07:50):
if in any way shape or form you send a message out into this world to create the situation you
desire which somebody to want to talk to you and you're not ready you didn't do all your homework
so we're going to talk about the homework stuff first that you get to do in the comfort of your
own home just like mine just like mine where you get to blueprint it nobody bothers you all right

(08:12):
so number one and number two I was trying to be very economical with my cards do you have
your direction in order meaning I know where I'm going I know what I offer I know the kinds
of things that I want you might not know exactly what the company looks like but are you generally

(08:32):
in marketing and you're going after software of services companies or are you generally in
marketing and you're going after pharmaceutical companies or something like that or in healthcare
or Health Care Systems or or pharmacies or whatever you have some kind of general direction
okay let's get that in order and the second thing is you've got your requirements and I call this a

(08:57):
number of things so if I say requirements the things that I require as an employee in order
to create the figurative and literal environment that I operate in every single day I'm not talking
about the home office or the corporate office I'm talking about everything related to what you need

(09:18):
the kind of boss you need the kind of people you want to work with what the cultural environment
looks like everything we're going to be real self-aware up front I call it your needs I call it
your happiness factors I call it your requirements and they're all equal so step numbers one and two
if this is not done you are not in a good position to talk to anybody because even if your dream your

(09:42):
demigoddess of a company strolls up you wouldn't know it because you are not you are ill equipped
to evaluate it and this takes more than an hour okay so that's number one if you're wondering
well what the hay does that look like I'm going to show you cuz I'm all about show and tell now
I have as an executive recruiter interviewed more than 20,000 people literally like spoken to them

(10:09):
the first o over 12,000 I very diligently was tracking the things that were important to them
and I'm not saying the things that are important to all those people need to be important to you
I'm saying that if you're looking for multiple choice and you want a Kickstarter of the kind of
things people generally care about because what it's easier to react than it is to create write

(10:36):
that down right it's easier to react than it is to create which is why a lot of this is really hard
so if I sat if you sat in front of me and I said from a blank sheet of paper can you please just
write out a list of 25 things that you need and be as detailed as possible you would hate me I know
that cuz those 12,000 people hated me because they would get fatigued after they said three or three

(10:58):
or four things they'd say oh I want a good company I want a good job I want a good boss and I want a
good payday yay okay that's great that narrows it down to like nothing and then so let's keep going
so the more narrow you go the better off you are because you know specifically how you thrive so
what I did was I collected all of the things that those people told me and I categorized it into 18

(11:20):
or so different groupings that then can be broken down into further groups and the people that are
in my job search coaching program get this Excel spreadsheet and the thing I want to share with
you folks in the public domain is that generally people cared about appreciation they cared about
the atmosphere they cared about autonomy now what you're seeing here or not seeing here you
might notice you might notice in as you look down here that there are a lot of rows that are missing

(11:45):
that's because I've hidden them in the spreadsheet because I break these down in much greater detail
what what do I mean by that well appreciation you need to be specific has anybody heard of the five
love languages like Gary Chapman right some people like acts of service some people want
quality time some employees want you to show me the money some employees just want a pat on the

(12:09):
back some employees would rather have the corner office some employees want all of it so how do
you specifically want to be appreciated because if you get into an environment where everybody
looks really handsome and pretty and you get there and they're monsters and they they don't ever say
great job but they always say what the hey you doing that's not what I asked for can't what's

(12:32):
the matter with you I thought you knew how to do this right if you keep operating in that mode and
you didn't investigate it or know yourself to know that you need to make sure that there's
commendations of a certain nature but everybody's different so the lines you're not seeing are some
some nomenclature I put in there for the people in the program so that they can at least get started

(12:52):
on picking and choosing so what I want you to do is I want you to create a list I don't care if
you use a spreadsheet I don't care if you use a system I don't care if you use anti aai I don't
care if you use the back of a napkin I don't care if you're write on notepads like I do it makes no
difference make a damn list please that's one and two okay so then the other thing I want you to do

(13:15):
by the way that that has like 80 86 rows in there broken down for those people in case you want to
get in that program but number two or wait where number three four 5 6 hang on second just want to
make sure I got everything okay the other thing I want to tell you about your requirements is you

(13:37):
need to make sure that in the requirements area you have in alignment with your criteria questions
for the employer why do you want to do this first so you could thoughtfully think about the areas
you need to investigate and then you're going to identify questions that help you understand

(14:03):
whether they are appreciative of their employees what might those questions be how do you show
appreciation for your employees that's a stinky question but it's a question for illustrative
purposes the last person who got promoted what did you do what happens in the promotion process

(14:25):
how is that person recognized were they given a pay raise can you just explain to me what that
process looks like how frequent frequently you do it what's required in order for somebody to
get promoted and so on and so forth okay now why do you want to do this up front every time you
identify a need you know how you all come to the shows and you ask me hey coach Andy what are some

(14:47):
good questions I should ask in an interview and I say how the heck should I know what do you want in
a company what do you want in a job every question you ask in an in an interview when you ask it of
the interviewer is aimed at El listing two major pieces of information is it a good company and is
it a good company for me right if I go to Apple and I'm trying to investigate their financial

(15:12):
stability I know Apple's going to stick around I know they're stable okay that's great and Apple's
a good company but is it a good company for me I don't know will they let you work from from home
or not do they need somebody with your kind of experience do they offer structure or is it more
of a green field where you need to be able to operate in in chaos or free form I don't know

(15:38):
you got to ask the questions all of that's done up front so now when you get when you get done
with one and two these requirements have questions that you're going to be asking in an interview and
we're going to bookend the question asking but I wanted to make a comment up front that you need
to have questions that align to the things that are important to you and then you can determine

(16:04):
the level of priority of that need and the higher the priority of the need the more Paramount you
asking the questions in an interviewing process not in an interview in an interviewing process you
get the entire process to ask your questions you don't need to ask every all 87 questions in one

(16:24):
interview I don't care if you ask no questions in an interview if you run out of time the goal is to
sell yourself but ultimately at the end of the day the goal is to make a thoughtful career decision
about working for an organization or choosing a career path or something of that nature and that
requires what information and he or she who has more information makes a more educated decision

(16:45):
and the fewer blind spots you have the greater the likelihood that you're going to make a sound
decision okay so you want to get your questions in order I'm not sending a boss hunting message
or applying online for any job until I have all that in order so that when I'm asked to come to
the interview I'm ready with my questions I don't even need to I don't even need to think

(17:06):
about questions I need to ask them I already got it all done number three and four who loves this
so far come on we're only 17 in all right target companies and their goals and problems why is this
important well I want to know who I'm targeting I want to know those types of organiz

(17:29):
ations uh for which I would be a good match if I'm a project manager and I've implemented CRM
systems for healthcare companies I'm going to be targeting CRM positions for healthcare companies
for pharmaceutical companies for health systems for anything of that ilk and what are the goals
well if I'm a project manager of it they probably want to implement it Solutions that's one goal uh

(17:54):
on time and on budget so I need to be proficient at managing projects they might have different
solutions or or evolutions of Technologies they need to go through maybe they're moving from a
very archaic manual process to a system process maybe they need to implement a software solution
that is packaged you're buying it off the shelf and you're implementing it maybe they need to

(18:17):
add an AI layer to it who knows but you need to understand what their goals and problems are and
I have taught you in like I don't know a thousand videos about how to figure that out this needs to
be in order and and why do why does the goals and the problems need to be in order why do
you need to know the goals and the problems we haven't even gotten a write in your resume right
does anybody think I'm doing this backwards right we haven't I haven't written a resume

(18:41):
yet why because I don't know who I'm targeting and I don't know what their goals and problems
are until I sit down and I identify them because why I want to align everything I do in my resume
to the targets based on their goals you see I underlined that three times in red not your skills
not your history not your I don't care what you've been through it's all about them you don't care

(19:07):
how much time I spend in my office thinking about you you don't care how much time it took me to
shoot videos for you to put them in a system you don't care about that what are you buying you're
buying a faster job search you're buying a better job search you're buying a better career choice
you're buying more pay right so I need to show you my resume when it comes to all of that stuff not

(19:33):
how I sit at home and make videos with my docin you follow me okay so you're at step number five
which is really kind of Step number six because you're you're putting questions in there then
what messages emails cover letters networking messages what do I mean here well when you are

(19:58):
going to start searching I would not be building these things on the Fly I would be tailoring them
on the Fly does that make sense so when I want to start job searching that we have not hit the start
line yet we're in the Blueprinting phase you are all the architects of your life be the architect

(20:20):
of your job search so what do I mean well I want to get all of my my speed Rack in order so I'm
not thinking about any of that nonsense okay so what do I mean well when I'm thinking about
networking this is what I'm talking about feel free to use my list but only the people in my
program can use my templates all right so these are some job search networking templates that

(20:45):
I think you need to have in your speed rack the reach out to a stranger who's likely not
the boss boss hunting I give these away free or maybe you're connected first degree o hang tight
maybe you're connected first degree dang hang on maybe you're connected first degree to somebody

(21:10):
who knows somebody at your target connection works at my target company hey a a buddy I used to work
with you get the idea and then what I would say is there also some boss hunting related templates I
would create I mentioned I give you these sample boss hunting messages which you can download free

(21:34):
from my website or from my YouTube channel but then there's going to be some interaction I'm
not spending any time on the Fly creating these I'm using a speed rack I've already created or if
I'm not fortunate enough to have these in hand then what I'm doing is each time I'm iterating
through my search I'm making a template of my response so that when I get that objection again

(22:01):
like I Andy I boss hunted yay just like you said and the boss got back to me and said he wants me
to put the resume my resume into the applicant trashing system what do I do I've already told
you you put it in and here's what you send that person back and here's what you ask them and so
on and so forth if I've already given you that if you are not using these tools of mine then

(22:22):
when you write your response back you need to package it because every boss every third or
fourth boss that you target is going to say that to you so you want to have that in order I mean
you could do this on your own or you could take my stuff but either which way have it ready we
still are only in the prep phase we haven't gotten to the goal goal line yet to the goal

(22:49):
line next power stories okay remember this number item number whatever this was the three and four
when you have your goals and your problems these are the things that they want you to solve the
person who articulates their fit and value in relation to their goals and their problems is

(23:12):
the person who's going to get hired okay now for all of you so that we we we can Benchmark this
group you all you all have what a job searching problem but your goal is either to find a new
job meaning just switch companies I still want to be an accountant here or there or I want to

(23:35):
change careers that's a different problem or I want to find a new job that's my goal but I
need to move countries that's a different Suite of problems and so what I'm doing is I'm thinking in
advance about you my Target customer my person in my community the people I serve and in your
case the target organizations well what are their goals what are their problems you know what these

(23:59):
are and I've taught you in many other lessons how to figure this out if you don't already know but
if you don't already know that's a little bit scary because that means you really don't know
what you're doing in your job so what you're trying to do is once you have this in order you
are going to figure out I call them power stories power stories is coach Andy speak for your bread

(24:19):
and butter story that you know you're going to tell in every interview because why because this
provides them the information that they need in order to know know that I will help them achieve
their goals by overcoming their problems and the more specific your attainment of the goal and the
more specific the problems they have which you've already solved the infinitely greater likelihood

(24:43):
that you're going to get hired okay now when somebody at live office hours or in the email or
wherever or my linkon inbox asks me hey coach Andy this is my situation how does your program help me
they get a power story immediately so to speak for somebody that looks just like them that helps them

(25:08):
understand how their life is going to transform I already know what the story is I don't rehearse it
I don't I don't have to rehearse it why because I lived it with that person or people that look
just like that person so what you're doing is going back to that example I I alluded to
a few minutes back the it project manager who's implemented CRM systems for healthcare companies

(25:31):
or pharmaceutical companies or whatever it might be that power story that maps to what that Future
Organization needs that thing's already baked cooked baked and sitting there waiting to be
told and I still haven't sent out a message yet does this this is Blueprinting your search this

(25:52):
is strategy this is what the war is won before it's ever fought you with me so guess what we
get to go now okay now we're ready you with me we're ready go send a message go apply online go
do whatever it is you want to do because why because you're in order cuz your network who

(26:17):
would love to help you cannot help you unless your story is crystal clear on where you want to go the
interviewer who wants to hire you cannot do that unless you give them the information they need
to make a solid decision you already have all of that now now you get into hand toand combat

(26:38):
so right now you've already got your direction in order you got your requirements and you got these
questions you know your target companies and your their goals and their problems you got your resume
that's aligned to their goals and their problems you've got your messages that are aligned to their

(27:01):
goals and their problems you got your power stories that tell them how they're going to
achieve their goals by overcoming the problems that you already know how to solve and now you're
going to go now you're worried about how to prep in an hour per the title of the discussion okay
all right so now keep in mind if I've targeted that company or I've applied online I've spent

(27:21):
at least five minutes looking at their website and looking at their people right okay so first I do
I review the company I review the interviewers assuming I know who they are and if I have a job
description I'm glancing at that now the fact of the matter is if you applied online you had all
you had you had a and you had C you already know that and you already know your power story that

(27:47):
aligns that is the main bread and butter thing that you need for the interview so
now I'm spending a few minutes just looking at this to make sure that it's in order I'm not I
don't need to rehearse it a lot there shouldn't be a lot of rehearsing next thing is I'm going to

(28:07):
make sure though that I'm going to review my power story and I call them branches and let me explain
what this is when I say a power story going back to my crmit project management example if I know
I'm going to tell you in an interview no matter what you ask me I'm going to tell you that story

(28:28):
no one can stop me from telling that story if you want to ask me about my greatest strength I'm
going to tell you about a project I ran that looks just like what you need if you're going to tell me
about how I overcome a great a how I overcome a great challenge or challenges I'm going to tell
you that story if you ask me anything I'm telling you that story and then sometimes what they do is

(28:49):
they say what challenges did you encounter that's a branch you can go deeper they say what's your
leadership style you revert back to the story but you peel off a branch or you peel off a leaf or
whatever it is off the tree so that you're then going deeper into an additional aspect that's
outside the 3 to four minute story that you told about how you ran this project and so all I know

(29:12):
is that after I reviewed all of this stuff and I got these stories in order I don't need to relive
and prep and prep and prep something that I did that I've already refreshed my memory on because I
absolutely knew I was going to need that because it's the best thing I have to sell me that matches

(29:34):
me with what they need why am I spending a lot of time preparing that I don't rehearse any of
that stuff I have a structure in my head that says you got to walk them through this stuff all right
then what hang on I'm losing my I'm losing my cards here because I got so many all right then
I would get my questions from my requirements now three questions I absolutely would ask the

(30:01):
right people the hiring official the management team is I'm just giving you a little extra here
what does success look like what problems do you anticipate we're going to encounter in in advance
of achieving that success what are we going to have to overcome and when we do overcome them

(30:22):
what would that value to you be what would that mean in terms of dollars cents political Capital
Goodwill relationships cache brand recognition tell me tell me tell me and why do you want all
this stuff because it's chess not Checkers and I need that so that I can show you how I'm going to

(30:46):
help you achieve that success how I've already overcome those problems you told me I'm going
to encounter and now I'm planting the value in my counter offer our doent to make sure that I put
that back on the table that when I say to them you told me this was going to mean $2 million
and infinite political capital and it was going to make it easier for us to sell future projects

(31:10):
and blah blah blah they're going to get that back in their face when I got to make a counter offer
and if I don't have that information my counter offer is a lot weaker so when I'm prepping I'm
just make there you go you don't even need to prep that stuff I gave you the questions okay
let's talk about got some videos where you can you can watch more detail but the main thrust here is

(31:35):
you're doing a whole lot of work up front so that when you get in the game you only have to spend
minutes prepping you don't need a lot of time all right one thing to watch how to start your job
search in the right place going to help you with your requirements thinking through your direction
and your path the job interview formula guarantees to get you hire I go through my car technique this

(32:01):
is a beauty that outlines exactly why I want you to use the car technique to tell interview stories
you can overlay this on your power stories and practice then this one three powerful questions
to ask in a job interview uh spoiler alert the three powerful questions are what success looks
like what are the problems and what's the value but I go into more detail in that video if that's

(32:25):
something that you're interested in so now the only question is do you understand why you don't
need a lot of time to prepare for an interview do you understand how I can prep for these talks in
three minutes can I get an amen on a Thursday or a Tuesday if you like this video make sure to hit
the like button share it because people need help make sure you subscribe to the station if you're

(32:49):
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