Is it better to have a great interview or honest interview? This question I think I can debate from either side. When you are done with the tips below, tell me what you think.
Tip 1 – Don’t try so hard to have a good interview.
Over the course of my career, I have interviewed thousands of people. I can tell you definitively, the best interviews I have ever had, have been with someone who was being authentic and genuine. An interview is just a conversation. That’s it! When I’m interviewing someone, I want them to treat me like I’m their closest friend. I want this for two reasons:
- The interview is more real, easy going and fun because we can both show our personalities.
- I get the opportunity to see who this person really is, which allows me to answer the most important question. Will this person be happy working here?
Good recruiters care more about the retention of new hires, and less about the activity of hiring someone. Recruiters are social people, we like to walk around the office and enjoy talking with our coworkers. If we do our job well, we will have a lot of coworkers who enjoy talking to us because we were honest with them when they got hired. They were honest with us, about what they were looking for prior to joining the company. As a result, we have a strong mutual respect built with or coworkers. If people don’t want to make eye contact with us as we walk bye, we may not be doing our job very well.
In general though, I can’t ensure a company is a strong match for you, if you just tell me the things I want to hear.
Tip 2 – Answer questions honestly.
Why would a recruiter ask a question like, “What type of management style do you prefer?” or “What is your biggest pet peeve at work?” or “Are you a morning person, or a night owl?”
The answer is pretty simple, because one way is in alignment with the hiring manger and one way is not.
For example, if the hiring manager for the role I am recruiting prefers his people to be in the office by 0700, and gives little to no direction on projects for his team expecting them to figure it out, I need to find a candidate that can work well and be happy in that type of environment.
If I ask you, “Do you prefer to come to the office early or stay late?”
You might be tempted to say something like, “I have worked in both types of environments and both work well for me as I like the quietness of the morning and I can get a lot done, but I also like staying late and letting the traffic calm down before leaving the office. So I’m really good either way.”
If this a true answer, then it is a GREAT answer, because you are open and you don’t disqualify yourself from what I’m looking for. That being said, if you know that you have two small kids that need to get to school and you are the one that waits for the bus with them, then don’t tell me you are ok coming in early or staying late, because when you get hired, you are going to be miserable trying to get the kids ready and be in the office at the time your boss expects you to be there. It is much better to give the honest answer, to set the expectations up front with the manager on day one, heck prior to day one. If you are the right person, he will just need to change his thought process on the “correct” schedule.
If you know you are someone who likes to get constant feedback, don’t tell me you are open to any management style, because when I hire you into a department where there is little feedback and direction, you are going to constantly be feeling like you are not appreciated or have a clear understanding of the role you play in the organization and specific projects you are a part of.
Bottom line, if it is not true, don’t give a middle of the road answer. Pick the side that most honestly reflects your preference and your first weeks and months in your new role will be as relaxed as possible. It will be hard enough to learn the new job, and company. You don’t need to add, trying to hide your true “self” to the list.
Tip 3 – Be concerned if you love to be interviewed.
There are two types of people in this world; those who love to interview and those who loath it. Which one are you? It might not be good to love being interviewed, because you might just bore your audience. You might talk too much and say things you shouldn’t say.
Now, before I go any further, let me tell you this. I LOVE TO BE INTERVIEWED. I think for me, it’s simply because I interview others all day every day. It’s just nice once in a while to talk about me. With that though, I need to always be aware that when I’m interviewing for a job I want, I watch for social cues from the interviewer. Am I boring them? Have I started to ramble? Have I started answering a question that was not asked? If while you are talking you notice that any of the above questions can be answered in the affirmative, then stop talking. Don’t stop in an awkward way, but figure out how to wrap up the thought ASAP. I might even say something afterwards like, “Sorry I went off on a tangent there.”
Tip 4 – Be concerned if you don’t like to be interviewed.
If you don’t like to interview, you may have the opposite concern. You may have a tendency to not sell yourself enough. You might not like to expand on a question when you are asked. This makes for a tedious experience for both you and the interviewer.
My hiring managers have not hired people before that were the best candidate on paper, because they did not come across as “transparent” during the interview. The candidate might have just been nervous, but that nervousness has a tendency to remove the candidate’s personality and as a result, the hiring manager said, “no thank you.” No one wants to work with someone that doesn’t have a personality.
The only way to get better at this is to practice. The more your hear yourself talk outload the more comfortable you will be with getting asked questions. It is a really good idea to try to expand a little bit more than usual on the first couple of questions to help you get more comfortable with this crucial step in the hiring process.
Tip 5 – Practice interviewing out loud.
We have all done it. We have all had a conversation with ourselves out loud. You might not do it as much as an adult, but when I pick up my kids at daycare, I often see children there talking to themselves as the play or do different activities.
When you are preparing for an interview, get used to talking out loud. This might seem silly, but if you have the perfect answer to an interview question in your head, I promise you, it will sound differently when you say it out loud for the first time. I don’t know why this is, but I do know for 99% of us, it’s true. When I have helped people by doing mock interviews with them, I often hear them say, “That sounded differently in my head.” I think it’s because you skip words when you think about an answer, but you can’t skip the words out loud, so you need to practice talking out loud.
When I am engaging in a public speaking event, this is also true for me. Practicing my speech out loud is part of the way I prepare. I often use my car rides to and from work to polish my speeches. You should use your commutes to refine the answers to interview questions. Here are some questions you should be able to answer in a confident, interesting way in a timeframe of 30-60 seconds:
- Tell me about yourself?
- Why are you looking for a new opportunity?
- Why are you interested in our company?
- Why do you think you are a fit for this role?
While you are driving turn off the radio, and work on these answers. You should be able to speak intelligently and articulately. You should not stumble through the answer. If you can answer these questions well, you will be better off for all questions, because elements of the answers you are crafting will be elements of future questions you are going to receive by a recruiter.
So what’s your answer to the first question that started this all? Is it better to have a great interview or honest interview? Don’t pick a middle of the road answer like, “both!”
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