Featured
View Count: 6765
When I was in college I remember going for an interview with the investment bank JP Morgan. I had no idea how I had gotten the interview but it was for something dealing with finance and statistical studies of Asian securities markets. I had gone to high school for awhile in Bangkok and thought it would be fun to have some sort of job involving Asia. I did an ”on campus interview” and a few weeks after submitting my resume they called and invited me to come speak with them for half a day in their offices in Chicago.
It was one of the strangest interviews I had ever had.
The interview was at 7:30 in the morning in downtown Chicago—about a 30 minute drive from where I was going to school. While I am up and about very early now, in college I was in the habit of getting up each day at around 10:30 to 11:00 am and going to sleep around 2:00 am. I did this for years and getting up at 6:30 am to make an interview was a tough road to hoe.
The night before the interview I was unable to sleep until around 3:30 am. Not only was I tired, but I also became worried that I was unable to get to sleep and tumbled around in bed worrying that I would be tired during my interview.
When I rolled out of bed at 6:30 am I was a wreck. I could scarcely think and did not enjoy my trip to downtown Chicago at all. When I got into the bank’s imposing offices on the top of a giant skyscraper, I was brought into a room and shown orientation videos about the bank. I could not help but notice that everyone I had seen in the bank so far was Asian. Most were speaking Mandarin (at least I thought so). I felt a little out of place and did not understand what was going on. In fact, I realized I probably would not fit in there.
After watching an orientation video that I did not understand (it was in English but I was so out of it I was confused), I was led to a conference room and another Asian person appeared to start interviewing me.
”It must be weird having a Chinese last name and not being Chinese, eh?” he said to me.
I had no idea what he was talking about. I was so exhausted and tired that I felt like I was on drugs. I tried to answer his question in a way that seemed non-biased. I wondered if he was probing to see if I was racist or something. I had heard that a lot of these banks ask very sophisticated questions in their interviews to uncover various personality traits and so forth.
”I think that it is perfectly fine to have an Asian last name and not be Asian. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it.”
The man frowned and seemed a little taken back.
”I did not mean to offend you,” he said. ”It’s just that it not something I have heard of a lot. I mean, what are the odds?”
I considered his statement a bit more. Since this job involved statistics I assumed that this must be some sort of statistical type of question and answered accordingly.
The interview continued for some time. At one point the man said:
”Do you play any other instrument besides piano?”
”I do not play piano,” I told him.
”Ha! You are an award winning concert pianist! How can you say that? You must mean that you are seeking perfection and have not reached your full potential.”
”No, I certainly have not reached my potential with the piano,” I answered.
The interview seemed very strange but I went along with it. What the heck is wrong with this guy? I kept asking myself.
I went into the next interview. The woman I was speaking with, also an Asian, called me ”Mr. Ling” a few times during the interview. It was among the strangest things I have ever seen. I was really spaced out. I’m not Mr. Ling … I was thinking. Why do these people keep trying to pretend I am Asian?
About 15 minutes in the interview she asked me why I chose to major in economics. I told her I was not majoring in economics. She told me my resume said I did and I asked her to show it. When I took a look at the resume I could not believe it. It was a guy who was obviously Chinese who went to my college. It was not my resume. They had the wrong resume.
For whatever reason, the rest of my interviews did not go so well when they realized that they had the wrong guy. I think the real reason they were so upset was because I had been so ”spaced out” that I did not even realize they were interviewing the wrong guy. They certainly did not look good having interviewed the wrong guy; however, I probably looked even worse. I was simply too out of it to communicate effectively.
One of the worst things you can do is go into a negotiation, job interview—or any situation where a lot is at stake—in a bad mood, tired, or out of it. It is just not a good idea. I have lost opportunities, jobs and so forth when I have not been ”up”. It is also a bad idea to negotiate when you are tired and out of it. You simply will not do well. Had I been ”up” during the interview and not down and out of it, I am pretty confident I could have gotten the job.
Jennifer Lerner, a professor of public policy and management at Harvard University, has done extensive studies on how mood influences decision making. She has found that buyers who were sad when making decisions often spent as much as 30% more than buyers whose emotions were neutral at the time. Similarly, she has found that sad buyers often sold items for around 33% less than more neutral buyers.
Several years ago I went to look at a car that was priced at around $6,000 and was worth what the seller was asking. The car was being sold by a graduate student at the University of Michigan. When I showed up to see the car, the guy had been smoking pot with a few of his friends. He was completely out of it and stoned.
I was with my fiancé at the time and she looked under the hood and started telling him she noticed some corrosion on wires (something I personally was not at all concerned about) and that due to this the car was not worth more than $2,500. She was a tough negotiator and quite savage when it comes to getting a good deal. The car she was harping about, though, was quite beautiful and I did not think that what she told him was fair at all.
She started telling the guy all these small things that were wrong with the car and walking around the car with him. The man was so stoned and out of it he could not defend himself at all. Finally he said to her: ”Ok, you can have the car for $2,500.”
I was completely shocked by the whole thing. I thought the car was worth far more … but we purchased the car for $2,500. It was a really nice car and worked quite well for some time. He ended up selling it for far less than it was worth.
I have done the same thing before. I remember selling a car once for a few hundred dollars after having a bad argument unrelated to the car. I was depressed and could have sold the car for a lot more money had I been in a better mood.
The mood you are in has a lot to do with what ends up happening to you.
A few months ago I was at a seminar. Before one of the speakers came up, I noticed that he was standing in a corner sniffing something in his hand. There was another guy standing next to him that appeared to know him.
”Jesus Christ, don’t do coke here! There’s people looking at you.”
”No, you got it all wrong … ” the speaker said. ”I am sniffing lavender to ‘get in state’. Lavender helps me get ‘up’ and I do better.”
The speaker then went on stage and proceeded to sell people on attending a seminar he was going to give and charge $3,500 for. He did a great job.
The best salespeople, executives and others know how to control their states and ”get up” when they need to. They know how to make themselves ‘on’. This is their most potent weapon in selling. It is the most potent weapon of politicians, CEOs and others who are at the top of their game. They know how to be ”on” and get themselves there.
For some strange reason, every time I have interviewed for a job on Friday I have almost always gotten the job. When I have interviewed earlier in the week I have not had nearly as much success. Why is this? I think it has something to do with the sort of mood that people are generally in on Fridays. They are more relaxed and excited about the weekend. They are more relaxed. They are in a ”better buying mood.”
If you are buying or selling anything—including yourself—nothing is more important than being on. You need to be in the game and your mood has a lot to do with how well you will end up doing in everything you do.
THE LESSON
Your mood is a major determinant of success in anything you do. You should never enter an interview or any other high-stakes situation in a negative frame of mind. You can needlessly lose many opportunities simply because you haven’t been “up”. For example, job seekers find considerably greater success when interviewing on Fridays, perhaps due to the fact that people tend to be in a better mood towards the end of the week. When people are relaxed, they are in a better “buying mood”.
About Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes is the Founder of BCG Attorney Search and a successful legal recruiter himself. Harrison is extremely committed to and passionate about the profession of legal placement. His firm BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys. BCG Attorney Search works with attorneys to dramatically improve their careers by leaving no stone unturned in a search and bringing out the very best in them. Harrison has placed the leaders of the nation’s top law firms, and countless associates who have gone on to lead the nation’s top law firms. There are very few firms Harrison has not made placements with. Harrison’s writings about attorney careers and placements attract millions of reads each year. He coaches and consults with law firms about how to dramatically improve their recruiting and retention efforts. His company LawCrossing has been ranked on the Inc. 500 twice. For more information, please visit Harrison Barnes’ bio.
About BCG Attorney Search
BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive that gets results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities that its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.
Filed Under : Featured, Finding a Job
Tagged: award winning, career advice, career blog | a harrison barnes, interview tips, jennifer lerner, job interviews, job opportunities, job search, jp morgan, legal recruiter, looking for jobs, potential employer, securities markets
Job Market
recent posts
In this article Harrison discusses the role of self-motivation and self management. Self-motivated and self managed people always perform well. In contrast people who are forced to follow massive amounts of procedures and rules can never perform. It is important that our rituals and sense of responsibility is internal, and something we learn to do naturally–not something we only do when it is imposed on us by people on the outside. The best people in every job are self- managed and responsible individuals. Also, the more self-managed people there are working for an organization, the stronger the organization generally is. Instead of creating problems in the workplace, you should seek out responsibilities, and ritualize your work routine. These responsibilities will drive you forward in your daily work, in your career, and in your life.
Your must always strive to create value for your organization, and your organization must in turn strive to add value to the world. Since value comes from teams of individuals rather than any single person, the best companies strive to maximize their staffs’ efficiency. You must also ensure that your company weeds out the employees who do not create value in favor of those who do, and that you belong to the latter group.
When you try to mask or suppress aspects of your personality, those traits will inevitably come to the fore anyway. You need to develop a comprehensive understanding of yourself, including your darker or deeply buried traits; once you know how your dark side limits and controls you, the better you will do in your life and career. Self-discovery will ultimately lead to inner peace, which in turn will enable you to more fully develop your goals.
The number one thing that makes people fail and not reach their potential is competition. If get into an area where there is not much competition and you genuinely have something to offer, you will succeed. Everyone is successful to the extent they are doing something others around them are not that provides value.
Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most important things you can do in your job search. Understand that your career is itself a commodity and you need to sell yourself, and your salesmanship will determine your career success. Creating a sense of urgency will always help you close your sale.
Companies necessarily seek to employ positive, forward-minded people. A firm’s success depends on their employees, and they seek people who will enhance them rather than merely contribute to the bottom line. People with positive natures, who contribute to a healthy social environment, prove essential to the growth and success of their employers.
You can never become too comfortable if you wish to be successful. Your success will largely depend on your ability to become dissatisfied with your current position. Successful people are never satisfied with the status quo, and constantly push beyond their comfort zone. When do you this and succeed, you set a new standard for normality in your life. Be continually dissatisfied, and always pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.
Resourcefulness can make you better at everything you do, and separates the truly extraordinary people from the general herd. Do everything within your power to be resourceful in your job search, life, and career to give yourself the best possible chance of achieving your goals, and learn how to employ the resources currently at your disposal for maximum impact.
Adopting a positive attitude will always bring you closer to success, as nobody wants to be associated with a losing side. Everyone wants to associate with and hire winners, and avoids losers. Nothing is more important than maintaining a positive attitude, as many employers hire people based primarily on attitude; with the right attitude, everything else will fall into place. You must look like you are on the winning team, even if times are tough; nobody wants to hire a loser.
You can change your life forever by harnessing the power of persistence. Think about the people in your life, and whether they empower you or hinder you in achieving your goals. You must win at all costs, and persist until you succeed.
You will greatly benefit your career by helping and promoting your company’s expansion. A common belief is that expansion is fundamentally positive, and a lack of expansion is fundamentally negative. You must be on the side of expansion rather than contraction in every area of your life. All employers seek people who will help them expand, and the more your ability to contribute to this expansion will provide you increased job security and a greater likelihood of being hired.
Focus on what you are doing, not what others around you are doing. There are people to take action towards their goals, and then there people who sit on the sidelines and comment on the first group of people. People who are mostly interested in gossip and watching others usually lack the confidence and determination to take action themselves. The most successful people go account and accomplish things rather than sit back and watch others make things happen.
Anyone can be up when things are going well, but the real challenge comes when things are not. Do not look at problems, which are inevitable for any person or business, in a negative light; think of them instead as challenges, lessons, or opportunities. There is a silver lining to be found in every problem, and finding that silver lining will enable you to grow.
It is absolutely vital to be in control of your life and career. When you fail to control your life, someone else will step in to do so and fit your life into their plans. Understand that it is in others’ interests to establish control over your life and work, and instead exert control yourself over your life and the events around you.
In this article Harrison explains how you can do better in your career by selling. The most successful people are absolute masters at sales. Selling is among the most important career skills you can have. When you know how to sell something you can do exceptionally well wherever you go. Knowing how to sell something is a key to survival, advancement, fame, and fortune. Everything we do is about making a sale. Selling yourself is about showing others the value you can bring them. So package yourself to the best of your ability, always be at your best and sell yourself. Develop your sales skills and do not be afraid to sell anything. Whatever your goal in life, becoming an effective salesman will help you achieve it.
Your résumé is an extremely important document. There are entire books written about how to craft them. I have written at least one myself. There are scores of résumé consultants, companies, and others that will work on your résumé for a fee. Hiring one of these services can be useful and can improve your résumé. Nevertheless, most résumés can improve dramatically by following the below advice.
It is extremely important that you enjoy your job. Most people find themselves in jobs that they resent, and eventually make this resentment known by appearing disinterested and distracted. Success comes from being engaged in and grateful for your work. You can define your job according to your own vision; you can either choose to engage with your work, or avoid and despise what you do. People recognize and appreciate those who are enthusiastic about their work.
Do not be a dabbler, or someone who turns away in the face of stress; the secret to long-term happiness is to instead confront and push through these stress factors. Do not be discouraged by difficulties, but find ways to persist and deal with the stress. Confronting problems head-on is the key to improvement, and will take you much further than the dabblers who fail to approach their careers with commitment.
When faced with difficult times, you must develop the ability to transcend the trouble around you instead of giving up or assuming that nothing can be done about your situation. Keep your wits about you and take charge of the situation, and you will find yourself on track for constant improvement and career success.
In this article Harrison talks about releasing the lack that you feel, in order to reach your full potential. If a sense of lack dominates your thinking, it will affect your interaction with the world and how the world sees you. There are many areas of your life where you are coming from a position of lack. Your ability to release this lack and go forward with your life can create a tremendous sense of peace and more natural accomplishments in your world. The amount of lack that people see out there is profound and it has a massive impact on their lives. According to Harrison, the most successful people in the world see the world as a place of opportunity and not lack.
Determine whether you are a global or specific person. Most people are either too general or too specific in the way they treat information, and overly detail-oriented people risk losing sight of the bigger picture. General people are more comfortable in managerial positions, while detail-oriented people prefer everything to conform to a logical sequence. Understand which sort of person you are, and seek work that best harnesses your natural inclination.
Recent immigrants exemplify the benefits of willpower, passion, and excitement in the way that they work so much harder for their goals than the people who have been here for most or all of their lives. Like most Americans, you need to rekindle the spirit of your immigrant ancestors and become hungry for what you want. The entrepreneurial spirit that brought people to America has often faded over time; adopt the fire and work ethic of new immigrants in order to achieve your goals.
You must plant seeds in the minds of others, so that they will be more likely than otherwise to think of you when a future need arises. In planting seeds, you are making people aware of what you have to offer; you must make sure that you are ever present in the minds of your potential employers. Planting seeds is the most effective way to generate top-of-mind awareness, and ensure that the right people remember you at the appropriate time.
A recommendation from a powerful person can make a huge difference in your job search; a reference from an influential person makes a tremendous difference to a prospective employer, and thus can be a major advantage for you. When an important person whom the company trusts recommends you, you instantly qualify for positions that may previously have been unattainable. Make the absolute most of your connections with the powerful people in your life, because doing so can instantaneously change your career and life.
Maintaining a routine in both life and work is important to success. Not only do you need to establish a routine, you must make that routine demanding and push yourself to the limit. Budget a certain amount of time each week for networking, applying to jobs, brushing up your interview skills, and following up with employers. Such consistent effort on a daily basis will make a huge difference to your career success.
You can better market yourself by taking a stand against something. Peoples’ personal beliefs, including the things with which they do not agree, define who they are as people. Standing against something differentiates you from the crowd; when done in the correct manner, without disrespecting others’ opinions, such a stance can help you land your dream job.
To reach the goals to which you aspire, you must compare yourself with people superior to you for motivation. Most people prefer to look at life the way they wish it to be, rather than as it truly is. Move out of your comfort zones and face reality. Don’t seek out or compare yourself with the average people around you, as doing so will only mire you in mediocrity rather than push you forward.
In this article Harrison discusses what a good hiring manager should look for. Many people who make hiring decisions really do not know what they are doing. In fact, they often make mistakes when hiring. They put too much emphasis on skills and experience. But the single most important aspect of hiring is evaluating the person’s unique outlook on the world. If the person does not have a positive outlook on the world, he/she will bring down the morale of the other workers. The person will harm the company through the negative outlook. The key to success is having the power to stick it out in jobs and finding happiness wherever you are. Hiring people who do good work and are always able to find happiness should be the number one objective of hiring managers.
Don’t ever give up, and make the most of the tools at your disposal. Take chances and invest in your best skills, and persist in the face of unfortunate events. Have faith in your considerable work and capabilities, and use them to create value for others.
Things will not always go the way that you want them to go, so you must not be discouraged by adversity in your job hunt. When you persist and consistently put forth your best effort, things are much more likely to go in your favor. Also, you must resist others’ efforts to undermine your efforts and potential; focus instead on doing everything in your power to fight on and complete the task at hand.
Having a goal or vision will propel you towards greater career success and happiness. Without a purpose, you will find yourself depressed and ultimately fail to achieve your goals. Do not subscribe to the unrealistic problem that you should never have problems, but instead regard problems as part of your overall growth strategy.
Related Posts:
Harrison Barnes:
Getting Ahead:
The Role of Jobs in Today's World:
Career Advice:
© 2025 Harrisonbarnes All Rights Reserved
Mr. Barnes, Your advice to try and schedule interviews on Fridays gives novice job seekers, and even seasoned job seekers, the idea that they can work only one day a week at landing the perfect job. Employers are looking for good, honest, ethical, qualified employees who are willing to roll up their sleeves and go to work any day of the week. You don’t mention whether you have a job, or not. I’d be surprised if you did. Perhaps you were up too late and up too early the day you wrote this article. It is not sound advice and perhaps you should lie down until the feeling passes that you are some sort of employment advice guru.
He is the CEO of this company. I liked the article. I work to get “up” before meetings and though I was the only one and that it came natural to everyone else.
This is a great article. Interviewing on Fridays, and also scheduling important client meetings on Fridays, is exactly what I have always done, and what I advise my Yale and Harvard children to do. I have been CEO, senior Wall Street Exec., etc.
I think Barnes is a genius. His recent article about the careers of Yale Law attirneys was utterly brilliant, with insights (along with a gracious andy courageous mea culpa) that I have never seen anyone else write about.
I took the Friday advice more as an encouragement to know myself and play to my own strengths whenever possible, including to schedule important events at times when I am most likely to be in top form. That might not be Friday for me, but the point of the advice is well taken.
Interviewing on Friday *may* also be a very bad idea. It leaves the candidate (typically) with a weekend to wonder about their performance which can have negative side effects.
The most interesting part of this article was the author relating a personal event wherein he, a white man, got to experience being in the minority. Maybe he got a small taste of what life is often like for minorities in the USA? It sounds like he tried to learn from being temporarily removed from his comfort zone.