By Caroline M. Cole
Many applicants know what they should do during an interview, and most can identify what they should not to do. Unfortunately, the conventional do’s and don’ts list applicants use when preparing for interviews configure these discussions as a series of isolated tasks to complete and mentally check off as the candidate moves through the process: Dress professionally, check. Arrive on time, check. Offer confident handshake, check. Show enthusiasm, check. Answer questions, check. Send thank you note, check. But even candidates who move through these steps with ease can leave a hiring manager feeling lukewarm about their fit for the position for one reason: In their quest to dazzle during an interview, candidates focus more on their performance; unfortunately, performance is seldom the foundation for the genuine relationships organizations need with their team members.
On the surface, interviews seem grounded in power differentials, and why not? Candidates are looking for a job, and companies have openings, so candidates feel compelled to suck up to an organization or otherwise strut their stuff in order to make an impact. Ironically, however, the most impressive interviews are not about power or even showmanship but, rather, respect and reciprocity.
Based on the conviction that both parties could be better off by working together than they would be working independently, interviews are opportunities to discuss if, and how, a collaboration would be mutually beneficial. Yet because symbiotic relationships are contingent upon an authentic awareness of and concern for one another’s interests, and because applicants have more information about themselves and the types of companies they’d like to work for, candidates need to do the heavy lifting. Specifically, candidates must do more than help a company learn about their capabilities; they must demonstrate a sincere interest in helping the organization meet its needs.
To accomplish these goals, candidates need to understand both themselves and the company they wish to join. After all, it is only by knowing where, how, and to what extent (if at all) their ambitions intersect with or map onto a prospective employer’s objectives that candidates would be able to argue that a reciprocal alliance is, in fact, possible. The discussion below thus offers strategies for how candidates can gather and use information to promote win-win collaborations—the foundation of dazzling interviews.
In working to understand themselves, candidates should recognize that they are the “product” they’re trying to pitch to prospective employers so, like an effective salesperson, they must know their product intimately. Contrary to belief, however, self-awareness is not an automatic byproduct of living, which means job applicants must be proactive in not only identifying the experiences, talents, interests, values, and so on they have (i.e., product specifications), but the ways in which those elements—in isolation or in combination—would be of use to the companies to whom they are “selling” their services (i.e., consumer value). Therefore, to dazzle during an interview, you should be prepared to answer the following questions on a moment’s notice.
• Who am I? Although this question can move candidates into abstract, esoteric responses, you might consider how you would describe yourself in professional contexts. You might begin with descriptions of your strengths, your limitations, your interests, and your expertise, but you should also work to answer questions that can help you identify what motivates and inspires you so as to target industries and contexts that will help you be your best self. For instance, what characteristics do you value most in yourself, and in others? What adjectives would you use to describe yourself? What beliefs shape the way you see and interact with others? What behaviors, actions, attitudes, and habits do you aim to have or demonstrate on a daily basis?
• What have I done? Whereas the previous question focuses on who you are, this question focuses on what you have accomplished. Taking inventory, you may discover that you have accomplished many things in your life, but hiring managers are most interested in learning about the accomplishments that would increase their success; therefore, you might start with accomplishments that demonstrate characteristics, skills, or talents that could be put to use in the organizations with whom you are speaking.
To that end, you might consider what have you done—individually and collaboratively—in school, industry, or even in your community that has improved circumstances, solved problems, or otherwise increased value for others. Along the way, you should aim to identify the training, skills, and experiences that helped you move forward, as well as elements that may have limited your success. Collectively, this information can help you identify what you can or would be willing to continue doing in other forums.
• What do I want to do? Although people may know things, companies pay their employees to do things. Therefore, you must be able to discuss the type of work that interests you. Certainly this work may be inherent in a job title; for example, managers manage, consultants consult, researchers research, and analysts analyze. Nevertheless, you might also consider ways in which that work could be configured beyond the job title in light of people you’d like to work with, forums or environments in which you’d like to circulate, services you’d like to offer, products you’d like to make, and so forth. Questions that can help you identify such work include: What needs do you strive to fill, and how do you work to fill them? What projects or endeavors to date have given you the greatest satisfaction? What activities give you the most fulfillment? What contributions would you want to make, and how do you envision making them? What would you do if time, money, and fear were not obstacles or, alternately, if success were guaranteed?
• Where do I want to do it? The way candidates respond to this question can say much about their values and interests. For instance, some candidates might describe particular industries, while others will focus on specific divisions or positions within an organization. Others might discuss geographic location. Given the variety of answers, you might consider your response to the question “what do I want to do?” as a starting point for answering “where do you want to do it?” in case the work you want to do is possible only within particular environments. If not, you can use other “where” factors to identify additional and, perhaps, less conventional opportunities.
• Why do I want to do it? Knowing what they want to do will help job applicants find forums for how they can do it most effectively, but understanding why they want to do it can help candidates make more meaningful contributions.
In his book Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek explains the “Golden Circle” (his model for inspirational leadership that inverses conventional starting points for human motivation), arguing that people don’t buy what you do it; they buy why you do it. Applying his argument to employment practices, Sinek suggests that when a company hires people for what they can do, it attracts employees who pursue results (the “what”), such as money, status, power, and other accolades. In contrast, when a company hires people for why they do what they do, it can attract candidates whose vision resonates with it’s own. This matters, according to Sinek, because individuals who see an organization’s vision as an extension of their own will be more likely to offer their blood, sweat, and tears to help realize and extend that vision, and these are the candidates that will stand out.
• Where do I see myself in 5, 10, or 20 years? Definitive answers may be impossible, for experiences continue to shape and move people in directions they may not always foresee. Even so, you should be able to explain where you’d like to go, because few companies want the responsibility of deciding your career path. Granted the direction you see yourself moving should be flexible, allowing for deviations or complete reversals, but having short- and long-term professional goals can help companies identify where and how there may be mutual benefit. Equally important is that this information can help you identify organizations that could move you more quickly and efficiently in your target direction.
Where and how you enter, take up, and respond to these questions will say much about you and what you can bring to an organization. And though it may be tempting to simply think about answers, offering a clear, concrete, and succinct response under pressure can be challenging. Therefore, rather than just consider ways you might answer each question, you should write down a 250–300 word response to each question. The resulting answers can give you tangible reference points for your conversations with organizations. As importantly, they offer a concrete foundation to help you prepare for and respond to most interview questions.
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Being able to answers the questions above will put you in a better position to have genuine, thoughtful conversations that are of interest and value to both parties—providing you select organizations that match your interests and values. While this statement may seem obvious, industry practice suggests otherwise. For example, there are candidates who cast their nets broadly and apply to numerous companies they admit are of little to no interest, simply hoping to get an offer. Others will sign up for or participate in interviews with companies they have no intention of working with just to practice interviewing for organizations they truly aspire to join. Whatever the reason, the results are the same: candidates waste recruiters’ and companies’ time for personal gain, a move that inherently suggests there’s little mutual respect. Therefore, before submitting application materials or agreeing to an interview, candidates should take the “$50,000 Investment Test.”
Consider, for example, that asking companies to pay their employees for the work they do on behalf of the organization is one thing, but asking employees to pay the organization for the opportunity to do that work is quite another. And yet that’s exactly what employees do. Granted, they may not be writing out checks, but employees are investing in their employers with the energy they spend, the materials they produce, the products they sell, the ideas they offer, the clients they secure… all contributing to the company’s brand and bottom line. The question thus becomes whether you’re pitching yourself to organizations that could help you meet your goals, satisfy your vision, or otherwise make the contributions you’d like to make in the most productive and meaningful ways, even as you help the organization meet its goals. In other words, would you be willing to pay the organizations you’re talking with to do the work they need done?
To help answer this question, assume you had $50,000 (or the annual salary your profession supports) to invest in a single company for one year. Would you trust any company you’re applying to with that entire investment? For example, would you write a personal check to the company’s CEO? Would you buy stock in the company as it’s presently configured or managed? Would you invest in the research and development of the organization’s products and services, or actually purchase the results of those efforts? Would you financially subsidize work the organization does, the values it espouses, the direction its heading, the reputation it holds, the leadership if offers, and the systems it maintains?
Once you’ve identified an organization you’d be willing to invest in, push yourself to answer “Why?” For example, what is it about what the company does, or about the way it does it, or about the people it serves, or about the reasons it exists that appeals to you? In other words, why this organization as opposed to others that might do comparable things, in comparable ways, for comparable audiences? Then consider to what extent those answers overlap with the information you generated while answering the earlier questions about yourself. The greater the overlap, the stronger the connection you’ll be able to promote in your discussion.
By understanding where, how, and to what extent your training, experiences, values, concerns, and so forth map onto those of the organization you’re interested in joining, you can identify more common ground and use this information to discuss where and how you might work together in mutually rewarding ways. In the process, you might discover that you do more than outshine the candidates who are simply looking for a job. You may actually eclipse them.
Working toward Areté…
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