Review interviews and salary negotiations, you will definitely need it

Introduction: This article is an interview and job hunting experience, and describes a relatively detailed interview review method. What is the significance of reviewing the interview, besides helping to sort out your thoughts and make persistent efforts? This article allows you to appreciate different interview ideas.

After the interview, we need to review the interview as a whole. Although many people think that the "investment" in the resume is tiring, after all, not everyone is good at editing documents. However, thinking and reflection is a relatively less tiring part. And its input-output ratio is also very high.

01 Basic process of review

Reviewing requires your think tank to work together, don't just go into a self-indulgent state. Invite your colleagues and bosses to review together. The basic process of reviewing is:

1. Review self-introduction
2. Review the interviewer’s questions + judge the interviewer.
3. Review the questions asked to the interviewer and the interviewer's answers, and then judge the company.
4. After the review, complete your next statement based on the interviewer’s questions and fill in your skill weaknesses.
5. If you get an offer, obtain information about the company and consider whether you want to work for it.

Before I talk about the interview review, I want to explain that the questioning process is a process of argumentation. To put it simply, you need to prove three things.

The first is that the company pays you to work for me, so what do you think is most important and what problems have you discovered? That’s the argument.

The second question is what strategy and method you used, and what you did to improve it. This tests your logical reasoning process. It is because of this question that you think of the means and strategies.

The last part is the evidence, which is the data or feedback that proves that you have solved the problem.

02 Review and self-introduction

The retrospective self-introduction is the self-introduction you usually give during an interview. Pay attention to the following points in the retrospective self-introduction:

1. Get advice from friends or experts to see if your story is clear.
2. At what point did the interviewer interrupt your self-introduction?
3. Judge whether the interviewer interrupted your self-statement because he is interested in something you said, or he feels that the previous self-statement did not make him understand what you want to express. Or you feel that he has no interest in your statement at all.

03 Review the interview questions + judge the interviewer

Reviewing the interviewer's questions is divided into four steps:

1. List the questions the interviewer asks
2. List your answers
3. Write down the type of problem you think it is
4. Clarify the intent of the question

These questions are filled in the form. First, you need to fill in the question, then fill in the type of the question. Then the intention. Finally, you need to choose an overall feeling type. Choosing A means that you think the interviewer thinks you are good, and you also think the interviewer is good. There are four options in total. Finally, let your friends and bosses make a choice based on the questions and answers. Will they choose A, B, C or D?

First, list all the questions asked by the interviewer. Many people are too nervous during the interview and even focus on the interview itself. Afterwards, they may only remember a few key questions from the interviewer, which is actually not conducive to reviewing. You may need to prepare a recording in advance. Collect the interviewer's questions afterwards.

The importance of questions lies in the fact that both the interviewer and you use questions as a channel to obtain each other's abilities and information. So if you forget the questions, it means you have forgotten the means of communication.

There are three main types of questions that interviewers ask:

The first category can be classified as argumentation questions.

The second category can be classified as skill issues.

The third category can be classified as philosophical and theological issues.

Let's start with the first category of argumentation questions . There are three types of argumentation questions. I will introduce them one by one.

1. The argument itself is problematic

The problem with the argument itself can be seen as whether the point of view is problematic from the beginning. If the point of view is problematic or flawed from the beginning, then the following proof logic and arguments will be useless.

The thesis in your resume is the project. Why do you want to do this project and this thing? It must meet at least two conditions: 1) It is the most urgent and important thing at the moment. 2) It has a high input-output ratio.

Examples:

A classmate’s resume had a project that said that because of the addition of new product content, the current structure of the App could not support it, so the entire architecture needed to be readjusted.

This is the problem with the argument. The idea of ​​adjusting the entire architecture itself is flawed and problematic. Many large companies are reluctant to make changes that require a complete overhaul. This shows that the previous product manager had problems, and so did the team. It is hard to justify the launch of a product that cannot be renewed.

My suggestion is not to mention the project of changing the entire site. It is hard to justify such changes. This is a skill in the interview. Note that I did not ask the candidates to make up content here, but only selectively explained it. I changed to a project of modifying the details page based on the conversion rate. Because I improve the product based on data, I only need to prove from multiple angles that the details page caused the low conversion rate.

2. There are problems with the logic of the argument

The point is that once you have discovered a problem, you must ensure that your strategy and the corresponding methods you come up with are logically consistent and are logically applicable to the problem.

Examples:

Another student wrote about increasing activity in his resume, and the strategy he gave was to optimize fingerprint recognition and login registration. This is not absolutely wrong, but generally speaking, users frequently visit your app because of your core business. Besides, few people log out for no reason nowadays.

This strategy and the problem discovered are absolutely logically related, or you can provide data that most users have set up fingerprint login, but the login failure rate is extremely high. This argument can also prove that your strategy is effective and has a causal relationship.

3. The argument itself is problematic

This type of problem is called insufficient evidence. In order to prove this point, you proposed strategies and arguments, but are they correct and are there any missing analytical angles?

Examples:

For example, in order to get more paying users, when you lowered the registration threshold, how much did your user conversion rate drop? Do you have a corresponding strategy? The interviewer, because he is not in the industry or is very good at seeing new angles and insights, asked you a new analytical idea or new data point: for example, have you considered the follow-up, or have you considered the overall situation? Can you have an anticipation or convince the other party from a business background?

Next, let’s talk about the second category of skill-related issues.

First, argumentation questions are relatively easy to control, and they are all about answering questions about your opinions. Then, skill questions are questions that the interviewer asks about areas that he is familiar with. This part can either reuse your previous experience or reuse the skills and theories that you are familiar with.

For example, an e-commerce product manager asks how to retain customers or how to make customers active. Or, based on his specific business scenario, how do you solve the problem in this scenario? There are two reasons why you cannot answer this kind of question well. The first is that you do not have a good grasp of the underlying theory, and the second is that you are not familiar with his business environment. It will take time to answer this question well.

The third category can be classified as philosophical and theological issues.

This is a problem that a product manager will ask some questions after reading your resume and then say, "I still want a product manager with relevant work experience." There is nothing you can do about this, just like when you are on a blind date, the other person only likes a certain type of person. You can only accept it.

To summarize, you need to fill out the review form to clarify the type and intention. The type is what kind of question it is, whether it questions your argument, your skills, or a theological question that proves that your work background does not match. Secondly, the type can be used to see his intention in asking the question.

04 Review the interviewer’s questions and answers to evaluate the company

List the questions you gave the interviewer and the interviewer's answers. My personal favorite questions:

1. The proportion of the business in the company's revenue and the growth rate of the business itself.
2. The company's overall organizational structure, my department's organizational structure, and performance system strategy.
3. Business model, how revenue is generated. I mainly examine the business model of the company.

In short, there are many questions you can ask, but you still need to ask specific questions about the specific company and the specific interviewer. I won’t repeat them here. In the end, you still need someone with strong cognitive modeling ability to analyze which company to go to together.

05 How to negotiate salary

Salary negotiation is actually a very skillful job. Generally, large companies will have a two-way quotation, that is, you propose an expected salary, and the other party will give you an expected salary in return. Small and medium-sized companies sometimes have a one-way communication, that is, if the salary you propose is not reliable, the other party may give up on you.

1. Before discussing salary, ask about the salary system first, don’t be silly and just say it directly .

This is the method that the HR lady in my previous company told me. You must first ask the other party about their salary system. The salary system of each company is different. Some companies pay performance bonuses monthly, some pay them half a year, and some pay them at the end of the year. There are also additive performance bonuses and subtractive performance bonuses.

Talking about salary without asking about the remuneration system is as unprofessional as selling products without asking about user demand.

2. Find a reference system. If you can’t find one, go to a job recruitment website.

After understanding the other party, you will understand yourself. The best way is definitely to interview many candidates and know the market situation. Years of experience and abilities are not equal. If you don’t have this opportunity, go to the recruitment website to look at the salary range given and use years of work experience as a reference.

Average salary = years of experience * scarcity of work environment * matching degree with the new company + substitutability

Think about how many of these factors you have. Then evaluate yourself. Most people are not that irreplaceable.

3. Other salary issues

1. Generally, HR will tell you that you will get 15-18 salary, but most people can only get 15 salary. The salary shown is 20K-40K, and you can basically think of it as 20K. Some large companies have mature salary systems and this is not the case.
2. If a large company gives you options, you can consider it, but you need to do market research to find out what the specific situation will be when the company exercises the options.
3. The options given by small companies are basically just for entertainment. The probability of cashing them out is very low, lower than the probability of your own entrepreneurial success.
4. When issuing an offer, communicate with HR in advance, and what will be clearly written in the contract.
5. If you have already received an offer, you can use this gimmick to stimulate the company you are going to and let them make a quick decision. But don't mention the specific benefits of the offer you received, just say that the offer is also being promoted. If the other party asks, you can say that the next step is to negotiate salary with HR. Make full use of information asymmetry.
6. When negotiating salary and stock options with a new company, you may need salary and stock options certificates from your previous company. Keep these certificates when you join the company.
7. In the long run, a person's salary and ability must match. It will be painful to get a high salary but not enough ability. If you get a low salary, as long as you have enough ability, you can increase your salary or ask the next company to increase it. In short, keep a normal mind.

Author: Arun's Growth Research Institute

Source: WeChat public account "Arun's Growth Study Club"

The article was originally published by @阿润’s Growth Research Society on Operation Party. Any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CCO protocol.