Page 119 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

naturally curious, ‘Tom, when you asked him that question, why
did you get up?’
He’d say, ‘Because I could see the guy was very nervous, and
I wanted to put him at his ease.’
He had the skill to read body language so well, to think to

himself that because he had clearly asked a question which had
made the candidate uncomfortable, he should make a small
gesture to defuse the situation. I have applied that sense of

presentation and thought during interviews ever since.
One of the best interviews I have ever given was when I was
approached by the head of a private equity company in America
who wanted to buy my recruitment business. Now, when you’re
selling a recruitment company, it’s a people business. The people

who run that business are the business. You are not buying
the furniture or the leases. The value of the business is in the
goodwill, and the goodwill in this instance was me.

The guy called me, and said, ‘I’ve heard so much about your
company. I really want to fly over from the States and meet you.’
As he was on his way I was thinking to myself, ‘If I present
myself and the company in a light that is not engaging, he is not
going to make me an o≠er.’

I remember waking up on the morning of the meeting
feeling really nervous. In a way I was getting myself ready for
an interview. Most people would never have thought about it in

those terms. They would have considered it a straight financial
presentation. ‘Here’s somebody who’s interested in buying the
company, so let me bring in the chief accountant and we’ll sit
down together and run through the figures.’ But I looked at it in

107 presentation