Taking charge of interview conversations

You’ve just landed a job interview for a position you really want. Congratulations.

What the Experts Say

One common piece of advice is to “take charge” of the interview. According to Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a senior adviser at Egon Zehnder International and the author of Great People Decisions, “You need to help interviewers do the right thing since most of them don’t follow best practices.” He has interviewed more than 20,000 candidates in his 26 years as a search consultant, and feels that most interviewers fall prey to unconscious biases and focus too heavily on experience rather than competence. It’s your responsibility to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Here’s how:

Prepare, prepare, prepare:

“You can never invest enough in terms of preparation. You should find out as much as possible about the company, how its organised, its culture, the relevant industry trends, and some information about the interviewer. Research the specific job challenges. This will allow you to demonstrate you have what it takes to fill the role.

Formulate a strategy

Before you enter the room, decide what three or four messages you want to convey to the interviewer. “People buy into stories far more than they do evidence or data”. Your stories should be concise and interesting. Make sure they have a good opening line, such as, “I’m going to tell you about a time that I rescued the organization.” Then, learn them like the back of your hand. Know how they begin and end so you can relay them without stumbling or sounding like a robot. Whenever possible, use one of your stories to answer an interview question

Ace the first 30 seconds

First impressions matter. Lees points to psychological research that shows that people form opinions about your personality and intelligence in the first 30 seconds of the interview. “How you speak, how you enter the room, and how comfortable you look are really important,” he says. People who perform best in interviews start off by speaking clearly but slowly, walk with confidence, and think through what “props” they will carry so they don’t appear over-cluttered. You need to use the first 30 seconds of the conversation to establish yourself as a confident, calm voice on the line.

Don’t be yourself

“be yourself” advice is demonstrably untrue.” Its a trained improvised performance where you’re trying to present the best version of you. Bring as much energy and enthusiasm to the interview as you can. But don’t oversell yourself. Because there’s an oversupply in the talent market, employers are wary that people are exaggerating their experience and skills.

Be ready for the tough questions

Many people worry about how to answer questions about a pause in their work history, a short stay at a recent job, or other blemishes on their CV. Again, the best approach is to prepare in advance. Don’t just have one answer for these difficult questions. First, have a simple, straightforward answer that doesn’t go into too much detail. Then have two additional answers ready so that if the interviewer follows up, you have something further to say. For example, if you didn’t finish a degree that would’ve been helpful to the job, be ready to answer an initial question with something like, “I felt it was better to go straight into the work world.” If the interviewer pushes further, be ready with another level of detail, such as, “I thought about it carefully. I knew it would carry negative connotations but I thought I would learn a lot more by working.” Lees says, “The key is to never be pushed so far that you are left high and dry without a smart answer.”

Be flexible in the room

Even with all of the right preparation, you can never predict exactly how the interview will go. “You need the radar working in the room. A good candidate knows how to tweak the performance to play to different situations. Ask yourself: Do I need to supply better answers? Do I need to work on my tone? Do I need to just shut up?

When it’s going poorly

There are times when it’s clear the interview is not going well. Perhaps the interviewer is not engaged or you stumbled over answers to some important questions. Resist the temptation to agonize over what’s already happened. “That’s a surefire way to get lost,” say experts. Instead, focus on the moment. “Concentrate on answering the current question as if it’s the first. You can also redirect the conversation by acknowledging the situation. You might say something like, “I’m not sure if I’m giving you what you need” and see how the interviewer reacts. You just have to be sure you aren’t digging a deeper hole..

Case study #1: Connect with your interviewers

Three years ago, Pei-Cen Lin applied for a learning and development job at a government agency. Since the job was in DC and she lived in New York, the hiring manager scheduled a phone interview. To prepare, Pei-Cen researched the organization and studied the job description. “I looked at key words and thought back to my own experience and how it would relate,” she says. “I tried to reflect on why they were interested in me and what I could bring to the table.”

When the interview started, Pei-Cen learned that there were three people on the line and they would each be asking behavioral questions. She knew she needed to engage all of the interviewers as quickly as possible. “I tried to imagine them sitting in their offices so I could get a mental picture of real people,” she says. When asked a question, she used the interviewer’s name in her response. Then she asked the others, also using their names, whether there was anything they wanted her to elaborate on. Still, it was tough to gauge whether she was connecting. “I couldn’t see their faces or if, for example, they were passing notes to each other in the room,” she says. But her attempts to engage them worked. A few weeks after the interview, she received an offer.

Case Study #2: Turn it around when it’s going badly

Rutger Von Post had recently been promoted and was interviewing candidates to fill his previous role as marketing associate. The position required strong sales and influence skills as the main task was to call and convince executives to meet to discuss the firm’s consulting services.

In one particular interview, the candidate, Thomas*, was failing and Rutger was eager to end the conversation. “He was unable to convince me that he had what it took to influence someone to take a meeting,” he says. As he was wrapping up, Rutger inquired whether he had any questions. Thomas said he did and then asked, “Do you have any concerns about my ability to do well in this job?” Rutger says, “I was taken aback by the directness of the question but I replied that yes, I did in fact have concerns.” He then told Thomas why he didn’t think he could do the job. Thomas asked for permission to address each of Rutger’s points. He did, much to Rutger’s surprise and satisfaction. “Basically, by countering my objections he ‘sold himself’ to me and demonstrated the exact skills I was looking for,” he says. Rutger passed Thomas on to the next round of interviews and Thomas eventually got the job.

*not his real name

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