You can and should prepare for interviews, but the fact remains that you are interacting with another human being. You cannot control their behavior and therefore cannot fully control the outcome of your interview. However, you still have control over yourself, so you can and should manage interviews to your advantage.
As a former recruiter, I often hear this complaint from jobseekers:
Interviewers don’t ask questions that are relevant to the job
Interviewers ask about unrelated topics or personal questions.
How can a jobseeker win when employers don’t know how to interview?
You can and should prepare for interviews, but the fact remains that you are interacting with another human being. You cannot control their behavior and therefore cannot fully control the outcome of your interview. However, you still have control over yourself, so you can and should manage interviews to your advantage:
Let’s assume your interviewer doesn’t know how to interview – e.g., asks vague questions, rambles on about himself the whole time. If questions are vague, consider them open-ended and direct your answers to showcase your achievements and potential for the company. (You should have prepared specific examples just waiting for this type of opening.) If the interviewer rambles, show how well you listen. Don’t bother trying to steer the conversation to yourself. If the interviewer is self-centered, he won’t remember what you say about yourself anyway. But he will remember that you paid him a lot of attention. You want to make a connection, not teach the interviewer how to interview.
Let’s go even further and assume the interviewer is rude – e.g., asking improper questions, starting late, smelling bad, interrupting the interview to take phone calls. Show how professional you are. In any job, you will have difficult clients and co-workers. Focus on what you came to do (sell yourself, build a relationship), and ignore the rest. Your interviewer might not know a question is illegal, she might have a good reason to be late, she might smell bad because she’s sick, and she might really need to take that phone call. Assume the positive, so your attitude remains upbeat.
Is Your Job Search Flexible or Just Unfocused?
As a recruiter, I’ve seen lack of flexibility on the recruiting side with employers clinging to every last detail in their ideal spec while perfectly good candidates get overlooked. As a career coach, I see jobseekers prematurely dismissing possible targets waiting for that perfect job. It’s true that you want to be focused in your job search (otherwise you dilute your efforts and come across as scattered and possibly desperate).
5 Questions to Test If Your Resume Is Recruiter-Proof
After recruiting in search and in-house for over ten years, I have read thousands of resumes. Due to sheer volume of resumes received and all the other things that vie for the recruiter’s attention in the hiring process – scheduling, interviewing, networking, reference checks, client debriefs, and more – the resume review process is ruthlessly quick.
Why Conventional Wisdom On Work Flexibility Is Always Wrong
In a previous post, I wrote about why employment statistics are always wrong. In a similar way, conventional wisdom on work flexibility is always wrong. It is impossible to generalize something that is inherently case-by-individual case. Therefore, any boilerplate advice or conventional wisdom is bound to omit a key consideration, underweight or overemphasize other considerations, or take too long-term or short-term of a view.
