You “need to reschedule again.” You are in residential real estate but want a change. You showed up 45 minutes late for our interview. These are a few of the reasons I didn’t hire you.
I have sat through hundreds of interviews. There are few things in this business as depressing as knowing from the start, that the delightful person you are chatting with, will not be hired. It is not depressing because I am an emotional guy but because I could be doing something else with my time. I know that sounds crass but like many people, I am a very busy person. I am pulled in four directions all day long, every day. If I don’t hear that “fire in the belly” spirit, I can’t hire you. I need to hear experience and intelligence. I need to see poise and hear creativity and resourcefulness. For goodness sake, don’t bore the beep out of me. I need to hear why you will be successful. And what I don’t want to hear is that you are high maintenance.
It’s tough when a naive college kid I don’t know, leaves a message asking for an interview, expecting me to call back. If that person calls me five times, perhaps, I will return a call. I need to see persistence, this is not a game, this is your life and you are entering the brokerdome. Our business is tough enough without putting someone in a position where they will fail. I cannot make you successful. You have to find it within yourself. My job is to put you in a position to succeed, provide you with all of the tools, resources, data, a well-known platform, a world-wide affiliation, a collaborative atmosphere and team you up with a mentor or productive broker, but at the end of the day, we all make choices and you are responsible for your own success. Do I believe that you will come in at 8am and leave at 7:30pm every day? I don’t know, convince me. You say that your uncle was a broker in Parsippany? Very interesting, next! Gang, trying to be successful in an interview is similar to trying to pitch someone for business. You need to show me why I should hire you.
A successful broker is someone who consistently works harder and smarter than anyone else. Someone who never gives up and is always trying to improve.
There is a certain up and downness about being a broker. Every seasoned, successful broker remembers a time when they were making a lot of money and then a year later were left wondering where their next deal would come from. It is that moment of determination though that makes you a successful broker. You should not “wonder” if you will be good, you should “demand” it of yourself. There are a few hundred successful brokers in this town. Stand up and be one. This is one of the few industries where hard work pays off. I remember a friend at another firm who told me that he’d been calling a certain company for seven years until he made a multi-hundred thousand square foot deal with them with a nice seven figure commission. Persistence pays off.
My job is to find the person with grit who will work harder than anyone else in the firm. The person with a competitive nature. Not just a survivor, but a person who can say to themselves, Yes I will!
