A commonly held myth is that the employer has the advantage in the game called "The Job Interview." In theory, he does. After all, you are the seller, and he is the buyer. You are trying to sell your product, YOU. He, as the buyer, has several options--he can hire you, or he can pick from among five or six other viable candidates.
But the truth is, if you are well prepared, you have the advantage. Why? Because, with rare exceptions, the employer doesn't know how to interview properly. He doesn't interview often enough, particularly at those higher levels where a senior executive might go many months, or even years, between interviewing candidates.
Very few managers or top level executives really know how to hire. Selecting an executive is an inexact science, and interviewing is the most difficult facet of the overall function of hiring. Most of you have interviewed job candidates. At that time, you probably realized you were "flying blind." Some managers claim to have skills enabling them to select the best candidates most of the time. This is a common delusion, as they rarely know how to interview.
It is suspected that the wrong person gets hired in three out of four hiring decisions. How does one measure another person for a job? How do you examine another human being to decide whether he or she will turn out to be a better employee than any of the ten others you have seen? What better example of the complexity of hiring than to point to the President of the United States. With the best help available, he cannot hire a Cabinet and keep over 50% of the selections for four years!
There just are not any set rules to follow. Obviously, if a candidate is uncouth, eliminate him. But, after eliminating him, and the ones with bad breath or other obvious personal weaknesses, and the ones technically insufficient, now the search is narrowed to three or four pleasant people and they are all smiling and well dressed. How does one select the best candidate among these finalists?
A Problem in Selection
Take a hypothetical case where you are scheduled to interview four candidates for a position. These four have survived preliminary screening and it is up to you to make the final decision. One of the four candidates is an alcoholic (or a child molester, or served a jail term, or has some other major weakness). What are your odds of identifying the person with the flaw? The temptation is to say the odds would be one in four. Never!
It would be one in four if you flipped a coin or drew straws. But, the person with the flaw lives with his problem. He has learned how to cover up and deceive you. Take the alcoholic to lunch as part of the interview process and offer him a drink. What is he likely to say? He will say, "No thanks, I'll pass." But one of the other applicants will say, "Great, I'll have a Martini." And you say to yourself, "Aha, he's the alcoholic."
For the interviewer, selecting the right candidate is very difficult. Most of the time, the correct choice depends on luck. As an employer, you hope against hope that the candidate you find the most agreeable, the most engaging, the most comfortable will also turn out to be the one capable of the best performance on the job. You probably will not select the best candidate, but rather the one who came to you BEST PREPARED for the interview.
It is the same problem when selecting goods or services. If you are looking for a lawyer, how do you find one? You ask your friends and they recommend five different attorneys. Which one do you pick? You interview all five and there is one that you like more than the others. Is the one you like also the best lawyer? Probably not!
You go to the supermarket to buy cereal, and you are faced with several different choices. One of the products is better than the others from a nutritional measurement. Another one might be rated more highly from another standpoint. Does the best one move the fastest off the shelves? Probably not. The top seller will be the one best advertised, best packaged, best promoted.
It bears repeating, there are two reasons why you will get hired. One reason is the employer develops the perception YOU can help THEM solve THEIR problems. The second reason for hiring is simply, they like you. This is the emotional reason, and the main reason.
Potential Problem Solvers
How do you convince the employer you are capable of solving his problems? You do this by means of your accomplishments. The prospective employer cares little about where you have been. What is important to him is what you have done.
You had 15 years experience with General Widget! So what? Who cares? It is wonderful you held on to a job for many years. But those of you who have had experience with seniority know those who get awards for five, ten, twenty years, of service are often not the best employees. The service pins often go to those who kept their noses clean, did their jobs, didn't make waves, and watched the years roll by. Their success is longevity, which is great, but is not what will impress the new employer.
Your accomplishments, what you have done, are the factors that are going to develop, in the interviewer's mind, the perception that you can help him and his company solves their problems.
You were Vice President of American Computer. Titles are impressive, but sometimes they go to the boss's nephew, and sometimes they are given out in place of increased remuneration. Some companies are generous in handing out titles. Those titles can be impressive, but often they have little meaning.
The Right Chemistry
Bosses are not looking for hostility, aggravation, unhappiness, and arguments. They want good people around them, but they also want those people to be agreeable, pleasant and fun to work with. They don't need ulcers. They want to be able to look forward to coming to work each day and interacting with pleasant associates. So, who gets the job? Not you. It goes to someone less qualified, less talented, but who remembered to smile!
So, how will you make the interviewer like you? You will smile. You will ask questions. You will smile. You will maintain control. You will smile. You will be attentive and interested. You will smile. You will ask more questions. And then, you will smile again!
Why so much emphasis on the importance of smiling? Because if you don't smile, they are not going to like you. And if they don't like you, you are not going to get the job. You may be the best candidate by far. You may have all the skills, all the experience they need, but if you sit there and frown at them, you don't get the job.
Purposes of an Interview
Now, to start on your job interview. An interview is a conversation, usually between two people. The major purpose of the interviewer is to evaluate the applicant's personality and obtain facts about his or her background, qualifications and attitudes.
The major purpose of the job applicant is TO OBTAIN A SECOND INTERVIEW. On the second or subsequent interviews, the purpose will become to receive a job offer. In a very small company, the owner may make a unilateral hiring decision, however, in the vast majority of instances, there will be more than one person involved before a job offer is made. Accordingly, just concentrate your efforts on today's interviewer and, if you are successful, you will be talking to others later.
No Time for Reversal
You are constantly meeting new people. You meet them socially and you meet them in your job related activities. You meet superiors, peers, subordinates, customers, vendors, as well as job applicants. Whatever the circumstances, it is human nature to form first impressions. So, never forget:
You Have Only One Chance to Make a Good First Impression
Sometimes you meet someone and have an absolutely neutral reaction. This is rare. Usually your first impression is either positive, or negative.
A positive reaction draws you toward the person just met. You take an initial liking to the person, and you would like to get to know him or her better. He or she appears to be fun to be with, seems to share values you admire, and seems to be intellectually stimulating.
An initial negative reaction makes you want to withdraw from the person. You hesitate to encourage further familiarity, and you are disinterested in pursuing any kind of relationship with the person just met.
In social settings, you often meet people to whom you are immediately drawn because of their appearance, beauty, wit, apparent intelligence, or any other characteristics you admire. Unfortunately, subsequent meetings sometimes reveal flaws not initially evident. On closer examination you find the person shallow, unreliable, unethical, or embracing a set of values quite different from your own. So now you tend to lose interest and don't encourage the relationship to flourish.
The opposite scenario can occur when you meet a person who at first arouses negative feelings. You don't like the person's attitude or appearance, or you don't care for an opinion the person expresses. He or she seems to be scatter-brained, coarse, insensitive, boring. Amazingly, further contact reveals that your initial assessment was hasty and incorrect. You discover the person has a heart of gold, a delightful sense of humor. He or she eventually becomes a true and valued friend.
Unfortunately, in a job interview which may last 45, 60, 90 minutes, THERE IS NO TIME FOR REVERSAL. If you start off on the wrong foot, there will not be time to correct a negative first impression. You might just as well shake the interviewer's hand and head for the exit. On the other hand, start off strong, get the interviewer to do most of the talking, and then there is less chance of your faltering. Start off right and, if you are well prepared, there is a good chance you are on your way to a successful encounter.