Jim O’Hagan from O’Hagan Career Coaching emphasizes this mindset: “Every hiring manager, is under dramatic pressure to hire the right person. They need to trust that when you’re assigned something, you’ll take it on and get it done, but also be willing to raise your hand when necessary. It’s not just about your resume; it’s about trust, feel, and making a genuine personal connection.”

With that in mind, this guide will give you insights into what hiring managers are really thinking when they’re considering you for a consulting position and how you can position yourself effectively.

1. “I’m Evaluating Your Fit for Our Current Needs”

What They’re Thinking: Hiring managers are focused on finding someone who can quickly integrate and deliver results. They’re assessing whether your skills and experience align directly with the project’s specific goals.

What You Should Do: Emphasize your ability to hit the ground running. Highlight previous consulting projects where you quickly adapted to a new environment and delivered successful outcomes.

2. “I’m Interested in Your Problem-Solving Approach”

What They’re Thinking: As a consultant, you’re expected to bring solutions to the table. The hiring manager wants to understand how you approach problem-solving and how you’ll handle challenges that arise during the project.

What You Should Do: Share examples of how you’ve solved complex problems in previous roles. Walk them through your thought process and how you’ve applied your expertise to deliver value to your clients.

3. “I’m Assessing Your Ability to Work Independently”

What They’re Thinking: Consultants often work with minimal supervision, so they’re gauging your ability to manage your time, stay organized, and deliver results independently.

What You Should Do: Demonstrate your self-sufficiency by discussing how you’ve managed projects from start to finish on your own. Highlight your time management skills and how you’ve successfully met deadlines without constant oversight.

4. “I’m Curious About Your Flexibility”

What They’re Thinking: Consulting roles often require flexibility—whether it’s adjusting to new client demands, working across different departments, or adapting to evolving project scopes.

What You Should Do: Showcase your adaptability by sharing experiences where you’ve successfully navigated changes in project direction or scope. Highlight your willingness to take on new challenges as they arise.

5. “I’m Considering How You Fit with Our Team (Even Temporarily)”

What They’re Thinking: Even though you’re a consultant, your ability to mesh well with the existing team is important. They want to know if you’ll work harmoniously with full-time employees, even if it’s just for the duration of the project.

What You Should Do: Talk about your experience working with different teams, especially in temporary or project-based roles. Emphasize your ability to build rapport quickly and collaborate effectively with various stakeholders.

Conclusion: As a consultant, understanding the specific concerns and expectations of hiring managers can help you stand out in the interview process. By addressing these key points, you’ll position yourself as the ideal candidate for the consulting role.

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Logistical Fit

We’ve spent the last several months looking at how to prepare for a final interview based on Michael Pietrack’s “Game Plan to Win.” Pietrack believes that there are four core areas that hiring managers assess when conducting a final interview – Motivational Fit, Functional Fit, Cultural Fit, and Logistical Fit. We’ve covered the first three areas in previous blog posts.

Today we’re looking at the fourth component – Logistical Fit.

Logistical fit boils down to three basic questions –  what are you currently earning? What are you looking to earn? When can you start? They seem pretty simple and straightforward, but let’s break each of these down and look at what you need to know about these questions before your interview.

What are you currently earning?

In some states this question is legally not allowed to be asked. Always check your state laws surrounding this question before you go into your interview.

What are you currently earning is a simple fact-based question. There are no tricks or anything hidden here, just remember not to leave any of your compensation out. You’ll want to share your entire salary package – how much do you earn with your base salary, any bonuses and or commissions, vacation time, and what your benefits package includes.

What are you looking to earn?

What are you looking to earn is a trickier question to address and one that you have to be careful how you answer. You don’t want to put out a number that’s too high because you may lose your chance at getting hired completely if you ask for way more than they are planning to pay, but you also don’t want to shortchange yourself and give a figure lower than your worth. Pietrack recommends not giving a number for this answer. Instead, it’s best to give a more subjective response. You know that specific details will be ironed out, if and when you get an offer. An example of a good response to this question is “I’m flexible on my salary requirements and prefer to focus on being a good fit for the job.” Another good answer is “My salary expectations are in line with my experience and qualifications.”

Be prepared for the hiring manager to push for an answer on this question. We recommend that you practice how you will respond to this question in advance, so you don’t find yourself stumbling over an answer and end up accidentally throwing a figure out there. You do want to keep your recruiter in the loop as far as knowing what your absolute highest and lowest salary expectations are.

When can you start?

When you can start is generally the third question that is considered in logistical fit. The standard practice in the industry is to provide your current employer with two-weeks notice. If you have vacation time that you need to use or you will lose it, factor this in and let them know in the interview so that they can be prepared and have an accurate start date in mind. For most employers, flexibility concerning your start date is typically not an issue, especially if you’re up front about it.

Being prepared for these three questions and having answers already in place will ensure that you pass the logistical fit portion of the hiring managers assessment. Combine these with the other three areas that hiring managers look at – motivational, functional, and cultural – and you’re well on your way to being the candidate that stands head and shoulders above the rest.

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We’ve been talking about Micheal Pietrack’s “Game Plan to Win” and the four areas that all employers look at to assess candidates in the final interview. We’ve covered motivational fit and functional fit in the last two blog posts. Today’s post will focus on the third, and most comprehensive area that employer’s look at – cultural fit.

What is cultural fit?
Cultural fit is best summed up by describing how well you fit in with the team and the environment. Do they make a connection with you and feel like you can move right into the role with ease? According to Peitrack, there are seven qualities that fit into the category of cultural fit. When employers are gauging whether or not you fit in, they have different areas that they’re looking at. It will be one or more of these following seven qualities – intelligence, passion for achievement, problem-solving ability, decisiveness, adaptability, teamwork, and resiliency.

Let’s break these down and look at how to prepare best so that you naturally cover all seven during your interview.

Intelligence
Intelligence in this situation is not book smarts or your training and education. It’s simply the intelligence you show in conversation. How quickly and adeptly can you answer the questions they ask? How prepared are you for this interview? These are traits that are attractive to all employers, so be sure that you go into the interview prepared to answer difficult questions without pause.

Passion for achievement
Passion for achievement shows drive, persistence, and the willingness to go above and beyond. You can share your work ethic and give a specific example of a time that you went beyond your job description to get something done for the benefit of the company.

Problem-solving
When presented with a problem in the workplace are you able to resolve the issue on your own and make a quick decision when necessary? Employers want to be sure that you are a problem solver and that you are not afraid to resolve an issue on your own. Share with the hiring team examples of times where you were able to resolve problems that were brought to your attention quickly.

Decisiveness
Decisiveness shows the ability to make a decision and stop problems from growing. An indecisive leader can lead a company into bigger crises by not making tough decisions fast enough in the process. Were there times that you were able to make a tough decision, that saved the company from a bigger crisis, provided a financial savings to the company, or handled an upset customer that was going to cause legal or financial issues for the company potentially?

Adaptability
The ability and willingness to adapt to change is a very important trait to demonstrate to potential employers, in this climate where company buyouts and employee transitions happen daily. Whether it’s moving your manager into a different role and replacing them with someone else or changing under new ownership, you will face change at many points throughout your career. Your new employer needs to be certain that you won’t move on to another job because you’re not comfortable with changes that may come down the road. An easy way to demonstrate this is to share times that you may have had to help move your team through a new policy change or other big changes within the organization. Show your willingness to be flexible.

Teamwork
One of the most important qualities to show regardless of who you will be working for is teamwork. You can almost guarantee that this is a trait that all employers will ask about in some way, so be sure to have several examples prepared that demonstrate your ability and your willingness to work with others on your team. Share experiences that demonstrate your ability to compromise with others, as well as examples of times that you may have been instrumental in resolving conflict on your team. This can also be shown by your ability to be diplomatic in the interview and demonstrate empathy for others. If you can demonstrate that you can understand other people’s viewpoints, the interviewing team will feel secure that you will work well within a team environment.

Resiliency
Resiliency is best described as the ability to bounce back from disappointment or frustrations, or the resolve to continue forward regardless of the tough times you may be experiencing. This can best be indicated by sharing a frustrating experience you encountered, possibly something that was unfairly handled in your workplace.

Keep in mind when you go to your final interview and look at the many facets of cultural fit, most of the interviewers will not be expecting you to hit all 7 of these traits, but you won’t know which one of the seven they are most interested in. If you can convey a story that checks off each one of these seven traits, then you have clearly shown them that you are a cultural fit for their company. Practice coming up with a 1-2 minute story to share that will demonstrate this without using those words and definitions.

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What is functional fit?

What is functional fit? Functional fit describes your unique qualifications and work experience related to this particular job. Pietrack shares that Functional Fit is further comprised of 4 parts – functional experience, credentialing, technical experience, and locality. When a candidate meets all four of these areas, he refers to this as a “4-out-of-4” fit. That’s what you want to strive for.

The four parts of functional fit

Let’s break these down a bit. Functional experience is the hands-on experience you have doing the job that the interviewer is hiring for. Someone with experience will be productive much faster than someone that the company has to train or teach a new skillset to. If you have awards or other accomplishments doing that job, then even better. This means you’re at the top of the field.

Credentialing is your education or certifications that would be required to do this job. Important in any industry, but especially so in the IT industry. Are you Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), or Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)? All of these are important to point out to the company you’re interviewing with, as well as any other certifications. These certifications send a strong message of your capability to do the job. They show commitment on your part and that’s something any hiring manager likes to see.

Technical experience describes any experience that you have working with the software and technical components of the job. From an employer’s perspective, this is another area that you can begin immediately to provide results for them if you’ve got experience working with their software platform or specific hardware.

Locality simply means that you live in commuting distance to the office that they want you to be working out of or you’re willing to relocate to the area. Typically, you’re not going to make it to a final interview if you haven’t met this criterion already.

Regardless of the industry, all employers prefer to have all four of these criteria match when hiring. In the IT industry, it’s especially true with the technical component and the credentialing.

When interviewing during the final interview, it’s important that you convey that you possess all four of these criteria to them, whether you do this at the beginning of the interview or presenting an overview of your qualifications at the end.

What if you don’t meet all four?

If you know going into the interview that you only meet three out of the four of these functional fit areas, it’s important that you show – not just tell – the hiring manager that you learn quickly. Offer up examples of times that you have had to jump in and learn a software program on your own. Do not just use the phrase “I’m a quick learner,” but give them tangible evidence that you have been challenged in this type of situation and have risen to the occasion. Remember here that your competition could very well be a four out of four on functional fit. According to Mike Pietrack, if you can leave the interviewer thinking “this person could come up to speed quickly” you’ve elevated yourself to meet four of the four.

Why you?

The question that functional fit answers is “why you?” What about you in particular – your work experience makes you the candidate that stands above the other highly-qualified candidates. Your job going into the final interview is to be able to fully address this question and leave the interviewer with no doubt that you are the right person for the job.

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So what’s next? Do you go into this interview like you did all the others? Of course, not. You’ll definitely use those skills and maybe even dive deeper into some of the questions and answers you’ve been through, but the final interview has a decidedly different tone and purpose. At this point in the interview process the hiring manager is no longer sorting and weeding out the bad from the good, but they have narrowed the field down to usually one to three people, and the determination on who they hire will be made with this interview. They know you have the skills necessary for the job, so there’s no need to rehash those details at this point unless you’re specifically asked.

That being said, how do you prepare for the final interview? We’re going to be taking the next four blogs to talk about exactly that. There are several elements to that final interview that you need to be keenly aware of as you prepare for it.

Before you embark on these next four steps that we will be discussing, always make sure to talk to your recruiter and find out what they know about the company and what they’re looking for that can help you in this final step. Once that has been done, then you’re ready to begin.

It’s All About Fit

Michael Pietrack, Owner, and Co-Founder of TMAC Direct, a pharmaceutical search firm, emphasizes that a hiring manager at this point is looking at four different things – they want to see motivational fit, functional fit, cultural fit, and logistical fit. These four elements provide a good template for you to refer to when going into the final interview process. Today we’re going to focus on motivational fit. What does it mean and how do you present to the hiring manager that you are wholly motivated to be a part of their team?

Motivational fit can best be summed up as the “why” for this job. Why do you want this particular job at this particular time and why are you the best fit for the company? Why should they hire you as opposed to the other candidate?

To answer this question, the hiring manager will dig a bit deeper into your job history. They will want to hear from you about the previous jobs you had, such as what motivated you to leave that job and move into the next position on your resume? Did you move laterally or into different departments in that previous job and, if so, why? A good hiring manager knows that whatever motivated you to move in the past will likely motivate you to move in the future.

The hiring manager will also be curious to know what research you may have done on the company. What is it specifically about this company or this position that makes you feel that moving right now is the best thing for both the company and for you?

Another way to show a hiring manager that you’re a motivational fit is to have in mind and ready to share a plan of action for your first 30-90 days. What are your goals within the job? Laying out these plans allows the hiring manager to see you in the position and envision your contributions to the team. It also clearly shows them that you are motivated and ready to make the move to be part of their company. This is also a good place to clarify what your day-to-day responsibilities are in this role. Again, this is just one more step that shows the hiring manager how serious you are about the position available and that you are actively considering what you can bring to their business.

So the first step to preparing for that final interview is to hone down your why and be prepared to explain your motivation for wanting this job. Go back and look at your resume with fresh eyes and be ready to address your past employment moves and why you made them. Be sincere. Don’t try to answer with what you think the hiring manager will want to hear unless this is truly what motivates you.

In our next blog post, we’re going to look at the second fit that hiring managers look for in the final interview: functional fit. For functional fit, the hiring manager is looking at your unique qualifications, credentials, and experience and determining how they apply to the position they need to fill. More details on how you can prepare for this in our next post!

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The thank you note is essentially a follow-up and a way to remind the hiring manager who you are, what your key qualifications are, what you can contribute to the organization and how you will improve their bottom line. It is not a magic bullet to landing the job, but it will definitely increase your odds and possibly give you an edge over other applicants.

But are all thank you notes created equal? Not at all. Written poorly, a thank you note can actually have the opposite effect.

In my recent conversations with hiring managers, many have shared that they are noticing that candidates are sending thank you notes that are not personalized to their situation at all. Whether it’s a form note or a generic thank you, it’s not considered an authentic acknowledgment of the interview.

Sending a thank you note that is anything less than sincere, tells the recipient that you’re sending it out of obligation. It can cause them to wonder if you understood the key points they emphasized in the interview and if you will be the type of employee that they want in their company. They can begin making wrong assumptions about you and your qualifications, and this could actually end up hurting your chances of getting hired.

A thank you doesn’t have to be – and shouldn’t be – long or elaborate. But it should tell the person reading it that you truly enjoyed the opportunity to speak with them, give one last, short pitch for yourself, what contributions you can make and reiterate that you want to be a part of the company. It’s also an ideal time to address and put to rest any concerns that may have been raised by the interviewer when you met.

You should write a thank you note within 24 hours of your interview. If you met with several people, you should consider writing a separate and personalized note to each person that interviewed you. It can seem cumbersome, and it may be time-consuming, but you should factor this into your “interview time” that you carve out on your calendar. These are important steps that will go a long way toward getting you into the job of your dreams. Double check your note before you send it to ensure that there are no typos or grammatical errors. Place yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager. What did they indicate they are looking for in a new employee? Read your note from their perspective and make sure that it’s something they would want to hear.

One question many candidates have is whether or not you should consider adding a personal note referencing any personal conversation you may have had with the interviewer. It can be a nice way to build more rapport with the interviewer and set yourself apart from others.

As you plan for your next interview, keep these points in mind. Plan time in your calendar to sit down and write out a well thought out thank you note after your interview, while everything is still fresh in your mind. At the very least it will be appreciated by the recipients and may be just the extra touch you need to get an offer.

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It’s important to prepare carefully for a job interview. This includes wearing appropriate attire, as well as being polite, respectful and knowledgeable while conversing with your interviewer. However, even the most prepared candidate can lower their chances of a successful meeting if their body language is blatantly anxious or otherwise off-putting. Interview jitters are normal, but they don’t have to be a part of the way you present yourself. Here are some tips to communicate comfortably and effectively with your body language.

1. Start the interview with a confident handshake.

The handshake will likely be the only moment of physical contact during your interview; therefore, it’s essential that it’s a firm and confident move, as handshakes play an important role in first impressions. As you shake your interviewer’s hand, make eye contact, greet them with a nod and smile.

2. Sit all the way back in your seat.

No slouching! Sitting with your hips aligned with the back of your seat will encourage upright positioning, making you appear more attentive and confident. It will help you feel more confident, too! If you’re offered a choice in seating, opt for a straight-backed chair; it’s easier to sit gracefully this way, as opposed to sitting in a comfy, cushioned couch.

3. Use your hands.

Do you talk with your hands? If so, continue! Keeping your palms open-faced suggests honesty and openness, and touching your fingertips together gives an appearance of authority. However, try not to give into nervous tics such as nail biting and knuckle cracking – these give off an air of anxiety and will not help your interviewer feel at ease when speaking with you.

4. Show off your personality with a smile.

When appropriate, nod, smile and laugh – show your emotions (professionally). This will help you show your personality, as well as your interest in what your interviewer is saying. Focus on keeping your smile soft and voice polite, even and at an appropriate volume. If your voice is too soft, you’ll seem timid. If it is too loud, you’ll seem imposing.

5. Mirror your interviewer.

If your interviewer is modeling positive body language, subtly mirror it. Using their body language as a point of reference for your own can help you establish an unspoken common ground with them. Try not to be too bold and overly mimicking with this though – you don’t want to alarm them.

Overall, do your best to keep your focus on the conversation. Maintaining confident posture and positive, receptive body language will help your interviewer feel at ease with you – this is something they will remember!

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