Until one particular engineer appeared. He was older than the others, he didn't speak, and, curiously, he carried just a handful of worn-out old tools.
After walking around the emperor's ship for almost an hour, tapping various pipes and listening to their echoes, he pulled out a hammer.
Seconds later, the ship burst into life again.
The emperor was beaming.
True to his word, he asked the engineer to name his price. The engineer, scribbled on a sheet of paper, and handed it to the emperor.
His smile turned into a frown, and then a scowl. For the paper stated:
Fee for work carried out - $10,000
"Explain yourself, engineer, before I have you beheaded!", he said.
The engineer gestured for the paper, took it back, made some amendments, and handed it back to the emperor again. This time, the emperor smiled, shook the engineer's hand and thanked him for his assistance.
What did the engineer write onto the paper?
Fee for work carried out -- $1
Fee for knowing how to fix your ship -- $9,999
* * *
It's a cheesy story, and many folks have heard some version of this. But there's a serious and empowering message behind it:
Experience is valuable.
After all, you can take a graduate who's fresh out of college and teach them how to do stuff, but you can't teach a new dog old tricks. If a hiring manager wants to enhance their team with an effective professional who can walk in and start solving difficult problems right away, they need experience.
Savvy hiring managers value experience, but sometimes they're a bit like the emperor in the story above and you need to present it in the right way.
This is what Interview Success Formula is about.
It's a method for crawling into the mind of a job's hiring manager, working out what traits, strengths, talents, etc. he/she values the most, and then framing your experience and presenting it in a way that makes you super-attractive.
The Emperor and the Engineer
Stop me if you've heard this story before...
One day, the emperor's favorite steamship ground to a halt, so he sent his messengers across the land to search for talented engineers who could get it working again. "He who fixes it", he said, "shall name his own price."
Engineers came, tried their hardest, and left frustrated and confused.
The emperor grew more and more desperate.
Alan Carniol
Alan is the creator of Interview Success Formula, a training program that has helped more than 80,000 job seekers to ace their interviews and land the jobs they deserve. Interviewers love asking curveball questions to weed out job seekers. But the truth is, most of these questions are asking about a few key areas. Learn more about how to outsmart tough interviewers by watching this video.