The Career Seeker’s Guide to Interview Success
Let’s face it: applying for a job is pretty damn stressful.
As a recruiter, I can see how hard it is for some candidates to even get their foot in the door at some companies, only to find themselves in the frustrating position of doing rounds and rounds of interviews – but never getting the offer.
You have the right qualifications and you’ve got the skills, but clearly, something’s not adding up. Maybe you’re asking the wrong questions. Or maybe you’ve got all the right stuff, but the other star candidate happens to be a former colleague of someone on the interview panel. There’s a laundry list of reasons why amazing candidates don’t always get the job, but trust me: with enough research and guidance, you can break out of interview limbo and finally clinch the role of your dreams.
Wondering why you’re always the candidate, but never the hire? Here’s where you may be missing the mark and how you can get it right next time.
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
You want a job, but you might not want this job
It seems like a no-brainer. After all, if you didn’t want the job in the first place, then why did you even bother going to the interview? You could have been at home eating chips (my current fav being Kettle Brand Dill Pickle Chips) and watching Netflix in your sweatpants, but now you’re on a chilly Zoom call answering invasive questions about your work history.
Maybe you know that you want a job, but you don’t feel too strongly about this job. This can happen if you’re just applying to jobs in a scattershot fashion, sending out application after application to different companies. A lot of people find themselves in this situation, and while it’s always a good idea to show up anyway, you’re not exactly pulling a fast one. It’ll be clear from the outset just how interested you are when you get to the interview.
If you’re asking questions about the company that you could have easily Googled earlier, or not asking questions at all, you’re signalling to the interviewer that you’re not too enthusiastic about the actual role.
Interviewers want to see that prospective candidates have a strong understanding of the culture of the workplace they’re entering. Ideally, they want to hear that candidates can articulate their experience in a manner that jibes with the position. If you’re not sure about how you feel about the company or the role, a little research and some preparation will let the interviewer know that you’re at least engaged. And who knows? You might leave the room wanting this job, not just any job.
You’re having trouble selling yourself
A global study by the O.C Tanner Learning Group showed that 79% of employees quit their jobs because they don’t feel appreciated and 65% of North Americans reported not feeling recognized even once in the past year. A toxic or unappreciative work environment can make a considerable impact on a person’s self-esteem. This isn’t surprising: most of us spend more time at work than anywhere else. But for women and people of colour who often struggle with self-confidence, toxic workplaces can leave long-lasting scars.
From being mistaken for a lower-tier employee to feeling pressured to change your appearance and even policing the way you speak so you’re not seen as too aggressive, it requires a lot of emotional and mental energy to navigate an unwelcoming workplace.
It’s tiring to constantly swap personas between your ‘home self’ and your ‘work self’. When you can’t be vulnerable and honest with the people you work with, this can impact your ability to build authentic connections in the future.
As you can imagine, dealing with emotional burnout and low self-esteem thanks to a toxic workplace doesn’t exactly help when you’re interviewing for a job. Potential employers want to be able to see the confidence, ability and skill in a prospective candidate. But skill and confidence can be hard to communicate if your ego has been decimated by the job you’re trying to leave.
Luckily, there are various ways to make sure you’re exuding the right amount of confidence. For example, if you have a hard time talking yourself up, you can write a list of your strong suits before the interview so you have material to mentally refer back to. You can ask your friends what they like about you. You can practice maintaining eye contact, keeping your arms loose and holding a smile until it starts to feel like second nature. Most importantly, you can remind yourself to breathe and practice staying present and motivated. To even get to the job interview stage means that you found enough value in yourself to keep at it – don’t discount your grit and resilience.
You’re not a “culture fit”
If you’ve got the skills and relevant work history but you still feel like you can’t secure the job offer, there may be forces at work that are beyond your control. Culture is one of those vague, hard-to-nail factors that can put one candidate ahead of another even if they both have near-identical skill sets. It’s also one of the values that potential employers place at the top of their list.
According to a survey of tech entrepreneurs and IT leaders carried out by Robert Half Technology, 28% of respondents cited poor culture fit as a reason for a bad hire, and 38% of respondents said that corporate culture fit was the hardest thing to evaluate during a job interview. While there’s no surefire way to ensure a perfect culture fit, there are some things you can do to try to boost your culture compatibility throughout the application process.
Most companies leave clues online of what their workplace culture is like through their social media feeds, the language they use on their website, and the type of people they tend to hire (found easily on LinkedIn). These sources of information will bring you closer to understanding what they’re looking for in an ideal candidate. Simple ways to reflect their culture could include adopting some of their tone and style in your application materials, dressing to reflect their workplace, and name-dropping any employees you know personally (but ask the employee first!).
Hirers also tend to rely on familiar questions to suss out professional compatibility. These include:
What kind of work environments do you prefer?
What is your approach to tackling large, unexpected problems?
What types of relationships do you tend to foster with your coworkers?
Before your interview, it’s best to go over these commonly asked questions in your head before the interview so you’re not caught off-guard. Of course, if you find yourself stretching just a little too far to fit into what they’re looking for, that’ll be pretty obvious.
But on the flip side, if you do find yourself stretching too far, that’s a good indication that you may not be too happy in that work environment later on. Compatibility is a two-way street and companies where everybody thinks and acts the same way are often not places where new ideas and innovative concepts flourish.
These one-note company cultures can be even tougher to navigate for candidates from historically marginalized groups. However, more and more companies are looking for candidates that will add to their company’s culture, rather than simply fit in, so don’t beat yourself up if you’re told you’re not a match. Feeling like you belong with a company is so much more important than fitting in anyway.
You’re not letting your personality show through
Unfortunately, there is a tipping point where you could be doing too much to prepare for your interview. How many times have you shown up to an interview in a thoughtfully put-together outfit with a script of perfect answers at the ready, and... still not gotten the job? It’s possible that all that preparation – the canned lines, the unwavering eye contact, and the impeccably shined shoes – has held you back from authentically expressing yourself in the room.
Ultimately, when it’s down to two highly qualified candidates, the hiring manager is going to choose the person that they would be most excited to work alongside every day. The person with interests and quirks and passions. If you’re preparing to the point that you’re not acting like yourself during the interview, this can hurt your chances of landing a job.
A few things can help encourage your authentic self to shine through while still maintaining a level of professionalism. Instead of scripting your answers, consider preparing key points in your head beforehand and then taking some time to think about the phrasing when you’re asked the questions.
If you’re asked about personal hobbies or interests, answer with honesty and enthusiasm. When you get the dreaded “Tell me about yourself” question, don’t just list professional qualifications. That’s what your resume is for. Instead, be frank and clear about your ambitions, but feel free to inject a little fun into your answer.
As is the case with life in general, some of the most interesting and exciting moments of an interview are the offbeat, unplanned ones, like when the candidate comes up with a joke on the fly or stumbles upon a surprising commonality with the interviewer. Allow space for these moments to happen. They may just give you the edge you need to clinch the job.
You’re focusing too much on the interview itself
At face value, a job application process seems easy. Update your resume, maybe write a cover letter and nail the interview. But by focusing on these three elements only, job seekers can neglect other crucial elements of the hiring process. For example, are you doing a thorough audit and clean up of your social media profiles?
According to a 2018 survey from CareerBuilder, 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates during the hiring process. Most people know to keep their hard-partying mishaps private, but other social media-related red flags include posts with problematic political statements, insensitive remarks related to race or gender, or tasteless photos or screen names. Twelve percent of employers surveyed also cited “Job candidate posted too frequently” as a reason not to hire.
References can also be a blind spot for many job seekers. Not letting your references know that they might be contacted, not Googling your references adequately to make sure their name hasn’t been tarnished since you last saw them and giving the recruiter outdated contact information are all disqualifying mistakes waiting to happen after the interview process is over.
So now that you have a better idea of what could potentially be holding you back from landing a job, you might be thinking, “this is great Yiorgos, but how do I know which issues are impacting my job search specifically?”
How do you know if it’s…
A lack of enthusiasm
A struggle with selling yourself
A compatibility issue
A too-polished interview style, or
A couple of missed details
… that are standing in the way between you and your dream job offer? Well, that’s where I come in. I’ve been working as a recruiter in the startup space for 15+ years so I know how hiring managers think and what they’re looking for because, well, I am one.
Whether you haven’t had a lot of experience with interviewing or have been job searching for months with little success, I can teach you how to tell your story, structure your work experiences and build confidence so you can bring your best self to every interview.
So, are you ready to update that LinkedIn headline? Get in touch with me to learn more about the ways we can work together.