Peter Guber, who at the time was an MBA student at NYU, got the job offer of a lifetime: Columbia Pictures offered him a starting salary at more than double his other offers, they would pay for his family to move out to California, they would provide a one-year living allowance, they would pay off his student loans in full, and to top it off, they said if he was unhappy living in California they would arrange for him to move back to New York at their cost.

Guber has come a long way from that initial job offer from Columbia. By the age of thirty he was already running the studio, later on in his career he served as the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, he has produced iconic hits such as Batman and Flashdance, and today he is the CEO of Mandalay Entertainment as well as the co-owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

Not only do these accomplishments make my jaw drop, but they also pique my curiosity and make me wonder how did he do it? A lot of the underlying principles to Guber’s success can be absorbed by dissecting his method to securing that initial, mouth-watering job offer from Columbia Pictures. So of course, as I sat down with Guber to interview him for my book, I couldn’t wait to ask him how he made it happen.

The following three rules, if applied with the right combination of fearlessness, tenacity, and authenticity, can literally change the entire course of your career. Based on his experience interviewing and securing that job offer from Columbia Pictures, here is Peter Guber’s remarkable and uncommon interview advice:

###

1. We, not me

One of the strongest points championed by career advisers is that a job interview is a platform to shine the spotlight on your accomplishments. Well Peter Guber judo-flipped that idea on its head.

During the final round interview with Leo Jaffe, the Chairman of Columbia Pictures, Peter ended up asking more questions during the interview than answering them. At the start of the interview, Guber asked Jaffe, “So, how did you to get to where you are”? After forty-five minutes of back and forth on that topic, Jaffe was stunned and said, “Wait a minute, I don’t know anything about you”! Yet Guber continued asking the right questions and the conversation continued.

“Never go into an interview as a monologue—it’s a dialogue,” Guber emphasized. “Engage the person that you are talking to in a way so that they own the space too. Even when you are technically the one being interviewed, you have to be interested rather than interesting. You and the interviewer are in the boat together.  If not about me, it’s about we.”

Peter recalls that after that final interview with the Leo Jaffe, Jaffe literally said to Guber that, “I have never been interviewed by somebody before”! According to Peter, throughout the entire job interview, he might have said only twenty words!

2. Be seductive

“When somebody is enthusiastic about a job opportunity—but gives off the feeling that this is not the only one they have on the table—they become more seductive in the employer’s eyes,” Guber explained. “You become more desirable because it shows that you’re making a conscious and thoughtful decision for the right reasons.” He elaborated that it is the same dynamic as the situation when “the boy is interested in the girl and the girl isn’t really interested in him.” The girl becomes more appealing. “And if you don’t think that works in business—you’re wrong—it does”!

When interviewing with Columbia Pictures, Guber knew he had other options on the table and his confidence reflected that fact. Before you go to your next interview, remember that an astute employer can smell a desperate candidate a mile away. Remind yourself that the world is full of possibilities and that your life doesn’t depend on any single offer.

3. Demonstrate, but don’t remonstrate

The underlying key to this alchemy of skills is the ability to, as Guber said, “demonstrate it without demonstrating it—and without remonstrating it”! In simpler terms: there is such a thing as over doing it. Overacting doesn’t work in movies, and it certainly won’t work in job interviews. Guber deepened the thought and said that, “What people want, what they really want, is authenticity. With authenticity that shines through, you can make mistakes and you can change your mind.  If you are authentic, the employer feels that you are giving them an experience of who you really are.”

###

After hearing Guber’s maverick-esque interview advice, I excitedly (and naively) said to him, “This is going to rock business professors and career advisers—this seems like the exact opposite of what they teach.”

“No, it’s not that,” he confidently reputed. He explained that business school isn’t necessarily teaching you the wrong way of doing things, but they simply teach you another skill set. Peter Guber profoundly said that he has learned in his life that the true “elegance” of success is being able to learn that skill and then being able to move and function outside of it.

--

"Alex Banayan is one of the top pupils of relationship mastery. He is a former intern of Ferrazzi Greenlight and is now an author, as well as a student at USC's Marshall School of Business. Alex is using the lessons he's learned about relationships to make his ambitious and optimistic vision into a reality. You can read more about Alex on his blog or you can connect with him on his facebook page.” 

Send a trackback!