Trust Your Intuition
during Interviews and
Reviews and when Hiring
Intuition is indeed a part of your life,
and you don’t want to separate your values and principles from it.
—diane brandon, intuition for beginners
If only you had someone in your ear, telling you what to say and do while you are in an interview or performing or even receiving a review, who could show the other people that you know what you’re doing. It’s too bad you don’t have that. Oh, wait—you do! It’s your intuition. Learning to trust that your intuitive instincts will guide you during important events such as interviews goes a long way toward relaxing you and making you feel comfortable enough to get the job, or even to read the other person to see if they’re worthy of hiring.
Being interviewed can be nerve-racking. It can cause a lot of stress for a multitude of reasons. If you are in desperate need of a job, the interview process can be intimidating. When you are hoping for a specific position or a job at a specific company, it can make you very nervous. There can be a great longing for the potential employer to like you and respect you. If your plan is to move across the country, finding the perfect fit by using your intuition can be critical, so you need to be sure.
Multiple Interviews
Brei is a badass lawyer. She was living in Washington, DC, and decided she wanted to look for a new job to mix things up a bit. She sent her resume to a bunch of different companies across the United States. She had a variety of interviews set up. She physically went to a few and had video interviews with a few others. She received a great offer from a company that she decided to accept, so she cancelled any remaining meetings with other firms. She was pretty confident she’d found a good fit.
Then, she realized a video interview had snuck its way in, without her realizing, for a company out in California. It was for in-house legal counsel for a biotech firm, and she figured, “What the heck. I don’t have to do anything but talk to them for a little bit,” so she kept the online appointment. Brei met with them, by computer, knowing full well she had already accepted an offer at a different firm—a good offer at that. She would be making great money and it was an easy move, so she wasn’t sure why she had decided on keeping the interview, except that it felt like something was pulling her toward this new company. They called her back and flew her out to California to have a formal interview. All the while, she knew she had already verbally accepted a different offer.
Still, not sure why she was doing it, she met with the biotech firm. Immediately, she felt a sense of community. They had a vibe that she had picked up on from the first interview and she loved it. She told the company that if they wanted her, they would have to make an offer quickly because she literally had movers lined up to get her in a new place for the other position.
They sent their proposal, which Brei decided immediately to accept. Right out of the gate it turned out to be more money with greater benefits. That was just the beginning, though. When she started her new job in San Francisco, she began realizing what else she had jumped on board for and she absolutely loved it. The culture there was phenomenal. They truly cared about their employees. They had special scheduled employee retreat days and meditation moments. They were constantly offering events and fun things for the staff and everyone from the janitors to the vice presidents were treated with respect and kindness. The basic mission of the company was to value the patient for whom they were trying to develop new treatment plans (they focus on rare medical conditions), and that shined through in every step of the way.
Brei had trusted her intuition during the interview process. She had decided to listen to her intuition and keep her interview even after she had already decided on somewhere else because it just felt like it would be a good idea. She is so happy she did. She loves her new job and recognizes that if she hadn’t used her intuitive gifts to explore her options further, she probably would not have been nearly as happy.
You utilize almost all your physical senses: sight to see how they present physically, touch during the initial handshake, listening to them with your hearing, and definitely your sense of smell to be sure they are not obnoxiously stinky! (I’m pretty sure you don’t want to taste them, but that may be a whole other career.) So now, of course you’d want to enhance those physical senses with your metaphysical senses—you will garner so much more information from them besides what they are telling you.
Reviews
Reviews are very similar to interviews—you want to impress the boss and you want to keep your job. It’s an opportunity for a promotion or to apply for a different position. When you are the one giving the review, it’s a good idea to tune in to the energy of the employee before they come in. If you need to get more out of them, it’s best to understand what motivates them. If you are the one getting the evaluation, you need to read the situation. First of all, is it going to be positive? If so, what can you try to get out of it? Do you want to just be happy with the positive feedback, or do you want to ask for a raise or some type of advancement? If the read you get is negative, what should your response be? Would it behoove you to still ask for what you want, or should you be thankful if you walk out of there with a job? Either way, your intuition can impact your review, whether you are the one giving it or getting it.
Jen was a long-time employee at a cable company, which was twenty minutes away from her home. During her review, a positive one, she was asked to step up to lead a team at a higher level. It sounded great to her until she heard where she’d be working. Apparently, the position was an hour and a half commute each way. She had some thinking to do.
Jen decided to tune in to her intuition before she agreed to take the job. There were definitely some benefits—she would make more money, for starters. She would be team leader to not just one team, but two. The only downside was that commute. Who wants to drive that far every day? Not too many people deem it worth the distance. Jen didn’t either.
For some reason, though, Jen still felt drawn to the position. She was feeling like something would change with the commute if she were to take the job. She listened to her intuition and told her boss she would gladly accept the offer, but if there was a possibility to move her home base closer to where she lived to shorten her commute, she would greatly appreciate it.
Wouldn’t you know it, after Jen trusted her intuition and took the job as team leader, they told her she would only have to wait about two months because they had just procured a new space and they were building it out. When Jen asked if she could house at least one of her teams in the new location as well, her boss responded that not only would they give her the one team there, but she could move both teams.
The benefits outweighed the potential downside. If she hadn’t tuned in to her vibes, she wouldn’t have trusted that it would work out. Jen would still be stuck in her previous position, no raise, no promotion, no new team to supervise. By having faith that her intuition was showing her the right career path, she was headed toward success and proved what an asset she is, to herself and her boss.
Hiring
When you are a boss, in any sense of the word, that means you have at least one employee. Hiring that one employee can be the single most important decision you make. It literally can make your business or break it. That’s why it’s so essential to tune in to your vibes to figure out who the potential hire really is, beyond what they are showing you physically.
You can get extremely detailed in your résumé searching, preferring to look for someone who meets the exact criteria you think you want for the position. Or you can choose to be a bit more flexible, coupled with your own intuition to determine who might be the best fit. Being perfect on paper doesn’t mean you will work well together. The quality of the person and not necessarily just their work skills should play a role in determining if they might be beneficial. That, again, is one great reason to use your intuition.
Some years ago, Carol owned a boutique. She was pretty much a solo act, but she was getting older and knew she wanted to be able to take some time off. In order to do that, she needed to hire someone to work the boutique. She took an ad out in the local paper outlining the basic job requirements and waited.
She ended up with three applicants. Carol set up interviews with all of them individually. The first one was a woman named Jane who was in her forties and had managed a store previously. She had experience dealing with the ins and outs of running a place, and she claimed to run a tight ship. She told Carol she was up to the challenge of making the boutique better, and as a matter of fact, she already had plans to rearrange some things and move a few racks of inventory around.
The second applicant was a bit younger, in her thirties. Arlene had never run a store, but she had been an office manager. She was used to being in charge and making decisions. She was nice enough and had a bit of a rough edge to her but seemed perfectly capable. On paper, she was a pretty good fit. She was eager to take over from Carol and was ready to start immediately.
The third applicant was in her late twenties, a nice young woman. Stacy had worked at a daycare for a few years and then nannied for a couple of different families. She’d had a scattering of retail experience while she was in school. She was looking to transition into a different type of job. She was excited for the opportunity to learn the business and seemed enthusiastic to meet and deal with the customers.
This boutique was Carol’s baby. She had built it from scratch into a thriving downtown business. She nurtured it into what it was and knew most of the customers by name. She was not retiring, but she did need some help, so she had to decide soon. Previously, the only employees Carol had were temporary—high school students during the holiday season. This time, she had to make a choice for a more permanent, full-time position.
Carol considered the first applicant, Jane. She already had experience and was eager to get in and begin making changes. Carol tried tuning in to her intuition about this one and essentially just felt a flat, kind of empty energy. She tried to feel the connection she might have to Carol’s customers and she couldn’t. Not that she expected to, but she figured she’d give it a go.
She moved on to number two, Arlene. Again, she had experience being in charge—she knew how to run a place and make it more efficient. When Carol tapped into the second person’s energy, she felt an edge. It almost felt hard to her. When she tried to zone in on the relationship with the boutique customers, it felt almost detached, like Arlene kind of didn’t bond with them at all.
Then it was time to consider the third person, Stacy. She had minimal experience, but right off the bat Carol loved that she worked with kids. She linked into this young woman’s energy and immediately felt a warm sensation. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but it felt good. Then, as she had with the others, she tried to imagine what the rapport would be like with the customers and saw Stacy laughing with the current and new customers, and even got an image of her talking baby talk to one customer’s kids.
Carol knew, though she was the least qualified, that the third one was a charm. She offered Stacy the position and she accepted—and even better than that, she never left. Carol had listened to her intuition and chosen the woman who felt the best and was still glad she had. Carol received numerous compliments on her employee, and she felt perfectly comfortable leaving the store and letting her run it. If she had based her decision solely on experience, she never would have picked Stacy.
Carol used her intuition to choose her employee. She didn’t have any regrets. Whether you are hiring, attending an interview, giving a review, or getting a review, paying attention to and even searching for what your metaphysical senses are telling you are key. It’s so important, not only for your business but also your personal success, to tune in to your money-making intuitive senses. Carol focused in on what was important for the future of the store. It only follows that your sales will increase. You’ve got the right people in place; the next logical action is understanding how marketing what you’re creating can take you to the next level.