3 Things You’re Getting Wrong About Interviews

Are you making any of these 3 interview mistakes? They could be costing you a job offer!

 

Never let your schooling interfere with your education.  
– Mark Twain

 

Jeff’s uncle called me and asked if I would have a conversation with him.

 

He is a very bright engineer, recent graduate, with great school credentials. He was getting tons of interviews and interest. But he was getting zero offers.

 

I spent a Sunday afternoon coaching Jeff to get ready for an interview he had the next day. It was a company he really wanted to work for. He didn’t want to leave disappointed one more time.

 

And the day would be grueling. He had 5 one-on-one interviews – each an hour long. In between all that there was a lunch with a few of the team members.

 

To be successful in this interview, I knew he would need to change up his strategy completely.

 

While working with him, I saw beliefs about the interview I see in many new grad job seekers.

 

Here are the big three:

 

1. He saw the interview as a one-way discussion wherein the employer asks questions and evaluates him.

 

2. He didn’t bring his knowledge, ideas and skill set into play in the interview.

 

3. He viewed his role in the interview as passive, i.e. waiting to be spoken to before speaking.

In our session we worked on dispelling all three of those notions, and working on new strategies instead.  Maybe they will help you, too.

 

3 Things You’re Getting Wrong About Interviews

 

1. You Don’t address the pain point of the employer.

 

The interview is not just about what you bring (in Jeff’s case, it was great software design and programmer skills). It is about how you are going to use those skills to solve the employer’s business problems.

 

In addition to making sure he had good basics about his skills messages, we went a step further. We researched the employer, the industry, and the competitors. We read the recent press releases and news articles. It didn’t take that long at all.

 

We quickly saw competitive issues brewing. A major player was planning to make a move into that market. As well, the company was implementing a new business model that was getting them great PR, but wasn’t executing perfectly at that point.

 

Jeff came up with some ideas about how he could weave his questions and insight, into the conversation about those points. That way, he was not only bringing his best side, he was showing them how he could help address those pain points.

 

I suggested Jeff act like he was already part of the team, and position his questions differently:

 

“How could I help solve that problem with the competitor?”

 

“Since I’m really strong at coding in this language, I’m thinking I could do (this kind of work) in addressing the issues with the new business model. Tell me more about what the team is already doing to fix that.”

 

When you’re addressing the pain point of the employer, you’re behaving like you already work there. And that’s part of the reason they’ll want to hire you.

Which brings me to my second strategy:

 

2. You don’t act like a trusted advisor.

 

Sure you’re in an interview to make sure you fit the requirements the employer needs.

 

But you’re also there to demonstrate how you can help the organization. One way you can do that is to act as if you were an outside consultant helping them analyze their business.

 

I suggested Jeff go beyond the basic questions he was asking. They were very tactical things like, “Are most of the projects in this language or that?” Yawn.

 

Instead, I encouraged him to provoke discussion by asking about the competitive issue and presenting solutions.

 

“What is your plan integrating the new business model with a better performance standard? Do you have a clear sense for what’s causing the issues?”

“Do you have a plan for when Competition encroaches into this space? Have you thought about taking this action or that action?”

“Have you done a cause and effect on the software issues? If the most pressing issue in the timeline is X, what if we did Y to counteract that?”

 

All of sudden, he was no longer an interviewee. He was a trusted advisor.

 

He was asking questions, and sharing ideas. And, because he met with 5 separate groups, he had the opportunity to ask different questions of each group and get a well-rounded perspective – and share different ideas – on the issues.

 

Instead of an “interview” the conversation became an organic discussion of the issues at hand and how – together – they would solve them.

 

Which brings me to my last point.

 

3. You aren’t having a conversation.

 

Remember how we talked about waiting to be asked before speaking? Forget that.

 

Reframe the interview into a conversation. A conversation between you, and the employer. And in the course of that conversation, you show them what to expect from you in real life, when you work on their team.

 

Here are three tips to do that:

 

a. Don’t wait until the end of the interview to ask questions. [Tweet this!] Jeff interjected questions about competition and being an asset on the team, during the course of the interviews. By doing so he was better able to share his ideas.

 

b. Interject your ideas about how you will help the team. This is a time to demonstrate what you’ll bring. Why not also share your ideas about where you can help solve the business problem, and how you will perform when you do? Show them what they’ll get if they hire you.

 

c. Build relationships. This is a time to (believe it or not) relax and act “as if” you already belong on that team. Relationships are critical in today’s work environment and you’ll be showing the team what to expect if they work with you.

 

Before we ended our session that Sunday, I told Jeff to just have a conversation, bring his ideas, and speak with them as if he were consulting on how to make the organization better.

 

And now, the rest of the story.

 

Jeff called excited the next day. He said every conversation went really well. He said, “Lea, I did exactly what we discussed. I turned it into a conversation. I couldn’t believe what a difference it made. And in every one of my interviews, the people didn’t want to leave at the end of the hour.”

 

Needless to say, he got the offer and the job of his dreams. And he’s loving his work there.

 

All because he was willing to shake off an old mindset that wasn’t working, and embrace some new ideas. At the end of the day, he had a great conversation!

 

Your action for this week: Tweet me a comment @LeaMcLeod (or leave one below) and let me know what you’ll do differently in your next interview!