Objections in Having Insufficient Experience

While following up the interview, and sometimes in the interview itself, you may encounter an objection to hiring you. The real message behind an objection is not necessarily the objection itself but the fact that either you have not convinced the interviewer that you can do the job, or you have not established the required rapport. Sometimes an objection you encounter is a reflection of your qualifications falling outside the profile considered to be normal or ideal by the company's infamous personnel department. In such instances, your task is to get the interviewer to make the extra effort to treat the profile as being only a flexible guideline. When you identify one of the four following standard objections, or any objection, your strategy for overcoming the problem is the same: turn the perceived negative into a perceived positive.

1.   "We have just started looking", Interviewers are just like shoppers.

They must do enough looking around to convince themselves they have seen enough alternatives to be able to recognize the best selection, even if the best selection was the first one considered and should have been obvious from the start. Therefore, interviewers are usually reluctant to make a hiring decision until they have interviewed enough candidates to satisfy their curiosity. Your problem is created when you are interviewed early in the company's search, because the longer the time period between your interview and the hiring decision, the lower the probability of a decision in your favor. It is human nature that the longer a person, or a company, takes to make a decision, the more difficult that decision be comes and the more reasons emerge to make a negative decision or no decision at all. As a result, you may be frustrated in your desire for a quick and positive decision on your candidacy by the company's desire to interview a satisfying large number of candidates.



Therefore, you must solve the problem by providing the interviewer with mutually beneficial reasons to decide in your favor now. An appropriate argument might be the following:

I understand your desire to conscientiously do your homework by interviewing as many candidates as possible. However, I know that interviewing also takes a significant portion of your productive time away from your primary responsibilities. If you have found someone who can do the job well, which I can, and who wants the job, which I do, I think your time and energies will be better spent by making me an offer. I personally need to make a decision on my career relatively soon as I have another offer now and a couple of other interviews scheduled, but I do prefer what I have seen of your company. So, we can resolve this today and save us both a good deal of time, effort, and grief.

2.   "We can’t afford you", Companies tend to look for average people. Pay scales are constructed around what is normal for a given level of experience in that position. Therefore, companies are uncomfortable when confronted by someone who falls outside the preconceived parameters of normality. If you are relatively well paid or more experienced than the company thinks is required for the position, then your expected salary will be higher than the company has projected. To hire you would be an abnormality requiring additional investment, effort, explanation, and risk of error. In such cases you must provide the rationale to reduce the risk and to motivate the company to make the extra effort.

A suggested line of argument might be this:

I realize that my salary level is somewhat higher than average, but my record of accomplishments also is better than average. I want to be with a company that expects better than average performance. I am sure that you and your company have those expectations and realize that above average performance and above average compensation go hand-in-hand. It's just like making an investment. You can justify an investment of 120 percent of what you planned if you can project a return of 150 percent or 200 percent of what you expected. You can't buy a Chevrolet and expect Ferrari like performance.

Let’s investigate expanding my responsibilities or absorbing another position entirely to justify my higher salary. How can we work this out?

3.   "You do not have enough experience (or education)", Companies tend to be concerned more with the quantity of a person’s experience (or education) rather than the quality. This situation is almost the reverse of the previous situation although some of your arguments will be similar. Your strategy here is to emphasize the quality of your experience and other compensating strengths:

I know that, all things being equal, you would prefer more experience (or education). However, I’m sure you realize that everything is not always equal. Some people can work for ten years and only really have one year of experience, ten times over. In my case, I have been exposed to such a wide variety of experience and responsibilities in such a short period of time that I believe I can hold my own with people much more senior than I. More than that, I am willing to work late and on weekends to learn my new job as quickly as possible. Finally, you will find no one with more enthusiasm and loyalty than I. When can I start?