Make Interviews less stressful!

For some individuals, interviews for new jobs can be a very stressful situation.  As a candidate, you need to take steps to limit the stress, as any stress you display can derail your interview.

Many candidates believe that they are not in control of the interview, that the interview is controlled by the interviewer.  While the interviewer is in the driver’s seat, the candidate is in control of helping themselves or hurting themselves during the interview process.

The interview process for most corporate positions in the current market typically follows a series of steps. For some companies there may be more / less steps, but these are the basic steps that most corporations will follow:

1. Initial telephone screen by a Human Resources recruiter (this recruiter may be an HR employee or outside agency).
2. Subsequent telephone interview by the hiring manager.
3. On Premise interview(s) with the hiring manager and other key individuals.
4. Offer / Negotiation regarding salary, bonus, benefits, starting date.

It has been widely discussed by others in articles that when employers screen a resume either manually or using resume scanning software (ATS), they are typically looking to weed out candidates based upon keyword searches and key skills.  This is also true with regard to telephone screens, telephone interviews and on premise interviews.  Within each step, the screener / interviewer is looking for “red flags” to eliminate the candidate.  It is important as a candidate to be aware of that, so you can avoid providing “red flags” throughout the process.

Now without knowing what the screeners / interviewers are looking for, it is difficult
to know what would be a “red flag”.  However there are some general things to avoid that may generate “red flags” to anyone throughout the process.  It is important to treat a telephone screen or telephone interview with the same importance and respect that you would to an on premise interview.  The telephone screens / interviews should be scheduled when you can give it your undivided attention.  Arrange to be in a quiet location where you will not be interrupted.  If you are using a cell phone, check the cell reception in that area ahead of time to avoid any technical difficulties. When answering questions, be sure to answer the question succinctly and do not ramble.  Even on these telephone screens / interviews, it is important to have questions prepared to ask.  When being questioned over the telephone, since you cannot see their body language reaction to your answers, an acceptable question can be “Are there any areas that I did not fully answer your question that I can clarify?”  Be sure to make the person on the other end of the telephone feel respected, however also remember that this process is a 2-way street.  You will want to learn more about the company, the position, the responsibilities, etc. so that both the company and you can feel good about moving forward.  As a hiring manager, I recently had a candidate remove themselves from consideration because after the telephone interview (where they  asked good questions) along with my questioning, they stated that the position was not a good fit for them.  While some managers may take offense to this (“how dare they not want to work here”), I was pleased that the candidate learned enough during the process and had enough confidence in their skills to remove themselves from consideration before we got much farther in the process.

Not much is different during the on premise interview than the telephone interview, with the obvious exceptions being your appearance, your body language, etc.  Since  you most likely will have had at least 1 or 2 telephone screenings / interviews prior to this point, you should have gotten enough information about the company and position to have more questions.  Perform your research about the company from their website, press releases, products / services offered, etc.  If you will be meeting with multiple individuals and you have been told who you will be meeting with, do your research on those individuals using LinkedIn, Google, etc. to find out specific things about the individual.  Maybe you will learn that you share a common interest.  Try to make the interview as conversational as possible.  For example, when asked a specific question about a skill you possess, answer the question succinctly with a real-life example using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method.  After answering, you may want to ask the interviewer why that skillset is important for the role and is there a specific issue where that skillset would be beneficial immediately upon joining.  It is not necessary to wait until the end of the interview to ask questions. 

Below are a few of my pet peeves when interviewing an applicant:

• Applicant simply provides YES or NO responses with no further clarification.
• Applicant gives a long-winded response that does not really answer the original question.
• Applicant simply acknowledges that they can do a particular task, but does not offer any examples of how they have done that in the past at prior employers.
• Applicant has no questions for me.
• Before having the opportunity to fully learn and understand about the company and their business practices, applicant takes an arrogant attitude and makes brash recommendations about changing business practices and offering negative commentary on company’s business practices / policies.

The best interviews I have had both as an applicant and an interviewer were the ones where a rapport was developed as a result of follow-up questions being asked.  The interview became more of a conversation as opposed to an interrogation.

Towards the end of the interview, I typically ask the applicant what they like to do for fun.  I ask this to give them the ability to talk more freely and I am also hoping to learn more about the individual.  I think I have only had 1 or 2 applicants ask me the same question back. 

Remember there is no right answer to any question during the interview, however there are many wrong answers.  If you do not fully understand the question, ask for clarification as opposed to providing an answer that has nothing to do with the question.  Be sure to share real-life examples (whenever possible) to substantiate how you have achieved the results previously. 

For anyone that resided in NYC while Ed Koch was Mayor from 1978 through 1989,you may remember that he would often during press conferences and scheduled appearances end these sessions with “How'm I doing?” . When I am an applicant, I will often ask a similar question of the hiring manager.  It gives an opportunity for the hiring manager to indicate any areas of concern that I can then try to clarify or address.

Now that I have reached the end of my article…  “How did I do?”