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Overview
Getting the Job - The Peak Interview
New insights into the job interview process can give you an edge to win the interview and get the job. By the time you get to the job interview, the company has determined you are qualified for the job. But so are all the other interviewees. Your experience, skills, competencies, abilities, and education will not differentiate you. Your competition is just as qualified as you are. You need an edge.
Great jazz soloists know that when they are playing a solo, they have to hit one or two peaks in the body of the solo and end with a flourish. That's because people evaluate an experience based on its peaks (good or bad) and how the experience ended. The rest of the experience is remembered, but the evaluation of the experience is based on its peaks, and how it ends. This is called the ‘Peak/End rule’.
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman is credited with describing this rule. This insight had a big impact on the scientific side of the study of Economics. So much so that Dr. Kahneman won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics, despite being a psychologist who never took any economics courses. When people assess an episodic experience, they attend to two things above all: how it felt at the peaks and whether it improved or worsened at the end. It is important to recognize that everything else isn’t forgotten, it just isn’t used in how we judge the quality of the experience. Kahneman’s work demonstrated that we make decisions, not on a rational basis that fairly evaluates the whole experience, but rather on the peaks and especially on the ending. On this basis we can actually make choices which, on a purely rational basis, don’t make sense.
The Peak Interview emphasizes all the best practices you need to skillfully deliver in the interview, but then shows you how to leverage the Peak/End phenomenon as you prepare for, and produce an outstanding interview. This insight can boost your chances of winning the job.
About the Book
Over the past few months this book has served as the basis for talks Bill has given to people in transition at community, educational, professional and church based organizations. These talks have been a work of joy. Perhaps there is no better feeling than to know you were able to help another human being.
Bill wrote this book to serve a different purpose entirely. Tailwind Discover Group delivers an extraordinary capability to help companies create new competitive advantage through finding new customer problems to solve.
Unfortunately, when people ask for case examples of what we’ve done, we run into a fundamental problem. It is hard to describe the circumstance that existed before we uncovered the new customer problem. Inevitably we must describe the problem we solve. The real work is in seeing the problem from a new perspective. Competitive advantage is found in the solutions to these discovered problems. But solutions usually look obvious in hindsight. In hindsight many of our breakthroughs look pretty mundane. We wanted to come up with something tangible that everyone could understand.
The job interview is something everyone understands. All of our potential customer have been on both sides of the interview, as candidate and as hiring manager. It is familiar ground.
The job interview is something millions of people go through every year. Every one of these people is looking for some competitive advantage over their unknown rivals. Plus, thousands of professionals make a living helping these job seekers create competitive advantage. With that many good brains thinking about competitive advantage, you’d expect to find no stone unturned. But we are good at what we do. The book is based on seeing the problem differently, and turning over two good stones that deliver real competitive advantage. Bill has received numerous email from job seekers who’ve employed the techniques in The Peak Interview successfully.
The book gives very good hints around the process we utilize to find competitive advantage. It was written as a case background for our business services. That is the original purpose of the book.
New insights into the job interview process can give you an edge to win the interview and get the job. By the time you get to the job interview, the company has determined you are qualified for the job. But so are all the other interviewees. Your experience, skills, competencies, abilities, and education will not differentiate you. Your competition is just as qualified as you are. You need an edge.
Great jazz soloists know that when they are playing a solo, they have to hit one or two peaks in the body of the solo and end with a flourish. That's because people evaluate an experience based on its peaks (good or bad) and how the experience ended. The rest of the experience is remembered, but the evaluation of the experience is based on its peaks, and how it ends. This is called the ‘Peak/End rule’.
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman is credited with describing this rule. This insight had a big impact on the scientific side of the study of Economics. So much so that Dr. Kahneman won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics, despite being a psychologist who never took any economics courses. When people assess an episodic experience, they attend to two things above all: how it felt at the peaks and whether it improved or worsened at the end. It is important to recognize that everything else isn’t forgotten, it just isn’t used in how we judge the quality of the experience. Kahneman’s work demonstrated that we make decisions, not on a rational basis that fairly evaluates the whole experience, but rather on the peaks and especially on the ending. On this basis we can actually make choices which, on a purely rational basis, don’t make sense.
The Peak Interview emphasizes all the best practices you need to skillfully deliver in the interview, but then shows you how to leverage the Peak/End phenomenon as you prepare for, and produce an outstanding interview. This insight can boost your chances of winning the job.
About the Book
Over the past few months this book has served as the basis for talks Bill has given to people in transition at community, educational, professional and church based organizations. These talks have been a work of joy. Perhaps there is no better feeling than to know you were able to help another human being.
Bill wrote this book to serve a different purpose entirely. Tailwind Discover Group delivers an extraordinary capability to help companies create new competitive advantage through finding new customer problems to solve.
Unfortunately, when people ask for case examples of what we’ve done, we run into a fundamental problem. It is hard to describe the circumstance that existed before we uncovered the new customer problem. Inevitably we must describe the problem we solve. The real work is in seeing the problem from a new perspective. Competitive advantage is found in the solutions to these discovered problems. But solutions usually look obvious in hindsight. In hindsight many of our breakthroughs look pretty mundane. We wanted to come up with something tangible that everyone could understand.
The job interview is something everyone understands. All of our potential customer have been on both sides of the interview, as candidate and as hiring manager. It is familiar ground.
The job interview is something millions of people go through every year. Every one of these people is looking for some competitive advantage over their unknown rivals. Plus, thousands of professionals make a living helping these job seekers create competitive advantage. With that many good brains thinking about competitive advantage, you’d expect to find no stone unturned. But we are good at what we do. The book is based on seeing the problem differently, and turning over two good stones that deliver real competitive advantage. Bill has received numerous email from job seekers who’ve employed the techniques in The Peak Interview successfully.
The book gives very good hints around the process we utilize to find competitive advantage. It was written as a case background for our business services. That is the original purpose of the book.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940014579131 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Peakinterview.com |
| Publication date: | 07/10/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 426 KB |
About the Author
Bill Burnett is an author and executive with over 30 years of international experience having worked with local business people in over 65 countries. He is a leader of change and innovation, and an adept problem solver. As a thought leader, he also wrote a book called Advantage: Business Competition in the New Normal. His undergraduate degree is in Philosophy. He then attended the world's top university for international business (ranked by the Financial Times) where he earned a Masters in International Business Studies. Currently, Bill is a consultant with Tailwind Discovery Group where he helps companies use their existing resources to find their next competitive advantage, bigger margins and new cash. He is the author of The Peak Interview.
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