Early this week, I received a call from someone referred by a friend of mine in Utah. He was being flown in for an interview by a firm with whom he had been in conversations for quite some time and wanted some coaching before his interview. After all, it had been a decade since he interviewed!

In circumstances like this, I try not to overload someone; in his case, he had an advantage because as a long term consultant, he was used to selling his abilities.

I asked him about a few details.

What time is your flight?

Who’s going to pick you up?

What’s your schedule that night?

In his case, he had an afternoon flight. After he landed, he was going to rent a car and drive to a restaurant to meet the person who is sponsoring his candidacy for dinner; the next day would be when the heavy interviewing would occur.

For one of my clients, they fly people out the day before, have a driver take them to a hotel to stay overnight, then interviews start in earnest the next morning (they bring people in the day before so that if flights are delayed or even cancelled, the interview schedule isn’t impacted).

Given that he was meeting someone from the employer for dinner (I thought of how rumpled I can be after a flight), he planned to change at the airport into appropriate attire for dinner, rather than travel in his suit.

I have had companies treat the driver like a surveillance member and report back any rude or obnoxious behavior. I have had job seekers abuse the ability to charge by expensing expensive liquor to their room.

Be smart about lies ahead of you.

You will be someone else’s control for a day or so. What can you do to perform at peak?

Try to get a sense of your schedule. I have a client that will interview for five or 6 hours. Can your blood sugar hold that long?

Traveling across time zones? East coast people have it easier interviewing on the West coast. They may be up early but, a 9AM interview is like interviewing at noon for them. If you reverse it, a West coast person is interviewing at 6AM and may be up at the equivalent of 4 for breakfast, appearance preparation and to get to the interview (always arrive on time).

I remember Muhammad Ali would always start and finish each round strong to create an impression with the judges. Do the same. Start and finish each meeting at peak.

Read some of earlier writings on interviewing at my blog which you can access at www.jeffaltman.com

And, remember, you are not a rock star who will expense a limo and numerous expensive bottles of champagne!

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com For information about Jeff’s personal search agent service, go to http://vippersonalsearch.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Bigorexia?

Bigorexia?

I thought I’d heard it all. There’s anorexia, starving yourself to achieve thinness. And now there’s “bigorexia,” use of weight training and steroids to satisfy the frantic compulsion to be bigger than anybody else.

Ana.mostly women get into.

Big-O (bigorexia) is mostly a “guy thing.”

Anorexia, bulimia and now, “bigorexia,” are linked in that the people who do them, do them because they suffer from feelings of inferiority and inadequacy.

Did I say all Anas feel inferior? No. Did I say all Big-O’s feel inferior? No.

Did I say losing weight is always bad? No. Or staying in shape is bad?

No!

Did I say working out in a gym is bad?

Did I? Did I?

A compulsion is a compulsion, just thatnot a physical disease. Many practioners of anorexia starve themselves to achieve the look of alleged perfection, that of a fashion model on TV. That’s okay, until you reach the point you’re starving yourself to death.

With Big-O, you take the steroid and pump iron so you can feel superior to other people.because in reality you feel inferior to other people.

Barry Bonds is a little different.

He took steroids to achieve sports records and fame and money. Bonds cheated. His record is a fraud. He should have his number ripped off his back in front of the home town crowd, and his bat broken in front of him (in the Old West they used to break your sword, strip off your medals, and throw you out of the fort).

Cheat! Cheat!

Where money and attention are involved, for those who crave them, the damage done from steroids to the liver, and bone marrow, is immaterial. So is the nasty little side effect that steroid use shrinks your male organ. So, it doesn’t make everything bigger.

“Oh look at me. I’m ze big man! I take ze steroid and I can beat you up. So I’m ze bigger man than you are.”

Technically called “muscle dysmorphia,” a Big-O-crazed guy will keep painfully pumping iron with an arm he recently broke in the gym. But ironically, strangely, he also feels shy about his muscle mass, and tends to withhold sharing his body with others (embarrassed to show it).

He mainly looks at himself in the mirrorin privacy.

Thousands of men are reportedly afflicted, and some women.

There’s a whole subculture out there of Big-O.

If Bronze Age Greece was the age of heroes, then Big-O is the age of cheats and frauds. Posers.

I look at myself in the mirror for hours, lustfully, like you would at a beautiful woman. It’s all about me. Me. Aren’t I gorgeous? Look at my deltoids. A turn on. What lats. I’m beautiful. I owe it all to Big-O, and to steroids.

Now I’m going to move to another mirror and pose atop a velvet platform. I’ll blow myself a kiss. Oooh! I’m the only man in town. The only real man.

Three blocks away a female body builder who also pops steroids, has a real low voice, and hairier-than-normal underarms, and who now secretly refers to herself as “Dominick,” is also posing in front of a mirror, saying the same thing.

“I will kiss my deltoid.”

Don’t worry, you Anas out there who want to achieve a false sense of security by feeling superior, striving for an imaginary level of perfection that can never be attained. Scientists will eventually invent a synthetic compound that can reduce you to the size of a tree branch.

And you Big-Os. Take heart. A growth hormone substance to ultimately be labeled “Colossus,” will in just ten years, allow you to stride across the globe as a fifty foot tall behemoth.

You’ll be able to look down your nose at the rest of us.

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

© Copyright 2006 by SammonSays.com