Recruiting Animal

Craig Silverman on Interviewing: Part 2

Animal: Craig, this past summer I had to look for an Executive Assistant for the Executive Vice President of a large, global firm. They wanted someone who was very sharp and would stand out.

Now, I don't usually work in that field and I had a hard time finding anybody like that. Most of the people I called didn't even have a university education.

Now, your wife was the Executive Assistant to Steve Jobs. And you've hired executive assistants, yourself. How do you find good people like that?

Craig: Well, you need someone who isn't just waiting for you to land things on your desk. They know how to be proactive. So, I look for signals of that in other things they've done in their career or in other areas of their life.

Animal: You've got to give me an example.

Bare Knuckle Negotiation

For cars.

Men Are Not As Blunt As Women

Do you ever read advice for women? Usually, the author is mad at men because they were raised right while their sisters were treated unfairly.

For instance, men were, allegedly, taught to be blunt, direct and outspoken whereas little girls were taught to fade into the woodwork.

Well, it never seemed that way to me. And now I see that the Brazen Careerist agrees. According to Penelope, men are not blunt, they are wily and full of guile.

Women assume you should ask for what you want... Women are typically more comfortable with conflict than men....

Men don’t generally ask for what they want....Men negotiate more than women because women are facing conflict head-on and men are not.

It’s much easier to approach someone you are not going to instigate conflict with. So negotiations work best when you don’t assume you need to ask for exactly what you want.

Whether we're blunt or indirect, it seems we're always the bad guys in the end.