It’s time to bring the last two posts about your job search and resumes into greater context. We will do this by talking about interviewing.
There are so many reasons why people aren’t hired, but the book 59 Seconds lays out one important observation as to why people are hired.
- It’s likeability.
No, not drinkability. Likeability.
After presenting research on successful interviewing techniques, the book’s author writes, “Going out of your way to be pleasant is more important than qualifications and past work experience.”
This makes sense on an intuitive level. We tend to gravitate towards people who are humble, genuinely interesting, and share common values and interests. So when you answer a question from an interviewer — any question — you should be ‘present’ and actively engaged in the conversation. This means being enthusiastic without being a spaz. Have good posture. Make eye contact. Smile and have something meaningful and relevant to say without being too pushy.
I am wholly convinced that I got a job because I wore a Patricia Locke necklace to an interview. Honest to god. It was a twenty-minute topic of conversation and I just rolled with it.
Here’s another helpful hint from the book: Wiseman suggests that you state any flaws or complications in your resume upfront. This is especially important for people who have been fired or have left their jobs under tough circumstances. There are ways to discuss the gaps and flaws in your resume so you can address it briefly, focus on what you learned from your experiences and how you’ve grown, and move on.
Unfortunately, the research quoted in 59 Seconds flies in the face of everything recruiters believe to be true about the hiring process. It may also contradict every law the federal government passes to ensure that the hiring process is fair & equitable. I would encourage you to read the book because it’s very interesting on several levels. Please read pages 41-51 to understand how to have a near-perfect interview that focuses on likeability.
As for how you answer interviewing questions…
My methodology is simple. Be prepared. Be concise. Be honest. An interview is a chance to talk about your life and your work; however, the less talking you do, the better. You know that an interviewer — especially someone who isn’t skilled — will ask some basic stuff. So get to work on google. Look up questions. Practice. Practice again. Record yourself on a webcam. Work on your story so it makes sense and flows.
Here are those dumb questions. Add your own to the list, too!
- Why are you interested in this company and job?
- What do you know about our company?
- What is your understanding of this job?
- Take me through your resume.
- What did you like about your last job? What didn’t you like? Why?
- Give me an example of a time you didn’t like a co-worker? Who was it? What happened? Did you resolve your conflict?
- Have you ever had to say no to someone at work? What was the situation? How did it end?
- If I called your previous supervisor, what would she say are your strengths and weaknesses?
- What are some of your strengths? Can you give me an example of how those strengths have helped you accomplish something amazing?
- What are your weaknesses? When have you failed at something important? What did you learn?
- Did your education contribute to the success in your last job?
- What do you enjoy about this industry? Why?
- What frustrates you about this industry?
- What are your future plans beyond getting a job? Where will you be in five years?
- Do you have any questions for me?
Sheesh, I could go on & on. The goal isn’t to prepare for the specific questions, but rather, to prepare yourself to talk about your life and your life’s work and follow-up with specific examples to support your ideas.
I want you to put yourself in the hiring company’s shoes. Think about what you would ask if you were hiring someone for a specific role. Think about the perfect candidate who gets the job. What would you want to know? What are the things you would like to hear? How would you like the interviewee to sound? To appear? To sit? To stand? To shake your hand? How would you like this person to dress? Would you want someone who meets the role 100% but can’t make eye contact and disrespects her previous employer? Or would you hire someone who meets the job description 78% but has potential, is mentally stable, shows the ability to think about bigger issues, and demonstrates professional enthusiasm?
Existential and philosophical questions, yo. That’s what it’s all about in 2010.
Also, do me a favor and remember to inflect your voice. Smile on the inside and your voice will convey positivity and likeability. Please stop sounding like a Debbie Downer who’s been unemployed for 16 months. You’re better than that.
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So many people don’t realize that an interview is no different than a first date. You have to be interesting, likeable, ask the other person questions, and be remember that your only goal is to get another date. The only caveats: don’t bring flowers to an interview.
@Puf I like the date analogy a lot, and fuck it, I like flowers.
Art or science? 25% of new hires are not good fits (25% are) and the other half are somewhere on the fence…so with all the analyses and books no one really has perfected this, nor will they ever. So lets look at it realistically…make a connection with the interviewer…If its HR maybe it is more personal, a tough line mgr. might be all about your work style…so you have to flex to each person uniquely…you and your readers already know this…So instead of overthinking this, how about simplying the process…Be yourself, be upbeat, find common ground or common interests, and be engaging…oh and look good/professional but not rediculous…you could spend hours on this. I just hired 3 new staff for my team (been a long time with any new staff)…2 of them I knew within 10 minutes we would offer a position too, the third job I had two great candidates so we had to do an extra round of interviews…best situation is to have 2 great candidates for one job…its not always clear…
As far as questions…all of yours listed are good. I like to ask what frustrates people at work and how do they deal with frustration…I also ask ethics questions like if you see some one doing something wrong – but not in your department, how do you react…you need to know how they will react to advertisity not regular day to day stuff and are they self sufficient or high maintenance… Oh I agree with HRPufandstuf-no flowers…
anyway my two cents!!!
M
@mark why aren’t you writing a book?
Is this manila envelope filled with Jacksons or Benjamins?
“I want you to put yourself in the hiring company’s shoes. Think about what you would ask if you were hiring someone for a specific role.” Please do this. Many of the jobs that I filled over the last several years require analytical and problem solving abilities in a fast pace changing environment. So I often ask a question that attempts to gauge their thought process (e.g. You are asked to complete a adhoc analysis on ______ by Monday. What do you do?) .
Also I like to ask one of the universal dumb questions (e.g weakness) at the beginning of the interview. Usually I do not given a damn about the candidate’s answer. I use the question to see the candidate has done at least some minimal level of interview prep work. (Excellent. The candidate has supplied me with a hokey weakness that can be turned into a strength.)
@Sales Smart comment and the envelope is filled with Washingtons.
so here’s my question: does “likability” influence hiring decisions more than it should? i think hiring managers (not recruiters necessarily) qualify candidates based more on their ability to “connect” with them during an interview. it’s important for the manager to feel that way, but will it be the basis for a lasting relationship if they miss out on some of the other important components of screening skills/capabilities/experiences/approach etc?
@charlie If you’re a metrics guy, and some people are, the likeability factor will chap yo’ ass.
I hate asking: “Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a co-worker and how you resolved the issue,” because I feel like I sound soooooo HR-y when ask it. But I am constantly amazed at the ludicrous responses I get to that. Easily 75% of the interviews I’ve done recently have crashed and burned on that.
I also like to ask candidates to give me an example of the kind of independent research they’ve done. We’re typically hiring for positions that require up-to-date technical knowledge, so if you’ve been unemployed for more than a few months, it’s in your best interest to at least be practicing new programs at home or, if nothing else, keeping up-to-date on local industry news. I understand that everyone can’t afford to take a class, but there’s no excuse for not being plugged into all the industry news online.
@HAria Awesome advice especially on industry news.
As a hiring manager, after qualifications and a demonstrated career progression, my only concern is how this candidate will fit into the department. We can teach case load management, how to respond positively to an angry oversight committee, or how to create a five year plan. What we can’t teach is personality. What we can’t afford is upsetting group dynamics of a highly productive team with a too dominant or too subservient personality.
Though intuition is based on subconscious evaluation of past experiences, when we don’t use it, we open ourselves to the potential of a bad hiring decision. Sometimes the candidate with the bare minimum qualifications is the ideal fit if the team would benefit from the personality traits this candidate brings to the job.
It may indeed fly in the face of current employment law. However, qualified on paper and qualified to meet the challenges and realities of the position are two different animals. When we forget this, we are usually cleaning up a mess and trying to figure why we didn’t see this coming.
@STeven I wonder if American businesses are so shitty because we hire on fit instead of ability.
In good economic times, where there’s limited candidates for positions and submitting the “70% resume” isn’t out of the question, personality comes in second to “Can you get the job done?”.
Bad economic times dictate a much different way of screening anywhere from 10 to 20+ resumes per position: Personality.
Also— you’re questions, although good, automatically warrant canned answers– or the candidate risks misinterpretation of the answer s/he gives. (the canned answer isn’t necessarily bad though– it means the person can stay politically neutral). Although the candidate fulfills 99% of the qualifications and interviews– I just hate when I hear someone was rejected because “I just didn’t like his/her answer to question 6a – He doesn’t like Rumba?? Everyone likes Rumba! He must be some kind of isolated psycho or something.” double-Ugh!!!
@MattyMat Life is canned answers, isn’t it?
I will admit I ask *some* of those questions, or at least variants of them. I do ask people to take me through their resume. It gives candidates who aren’t great resume writers the opportunity to verbally express their experience and I can often find holes in candidates past who happen to be better writers than performers… Like @H Aria I am always amazed how telling the conflict questions can be. You would be shocked how often people answer it badly and/or they set off my BS meter. I also ask a variant of the enjoy/frustrate questions. If you hate xyz but love pdq and my opening is xyz heavy with limited pqd, best that we all know that upfront. And of course I end with, do you have any additional questions for me…
@Corey I’m not sure I could answer that conflict question smoothly. “I hate people.” That’s about the best I can do.
I HATE the “Do you have any questions for me?” question. The only things on anyone’s mind when someone asks that is “How much money are you willing to give me?”, which is highly inappropriate, although totally justified.
@T It’s a time for you to show that you have questions about the company, culture, blah blah blah. Also, we want to know if you can speak clearly. Subject. Verb. Object.
Building on what Corey added …
As a hiring manager, I’d think about what kinds of questions the candidate asks about the job and the company, especially questions that address company culture, managerial styles, and how success is measured and rewarded. That tells me they want to be sure the job and company are a good fit for them.
Getting back to the theme of Laurie’s post: In my experience, candidates who best meet the qualifications – based on their resumes – wind up being invited for interviews. In the interview, you’re looking for the candidate to address their experience in more detail, but you’re also seeking a certain “comfort level” with the individual to determine whether this is a person you can work with – or not.
@rick Good points. You are awesome.
On smiling;
If you have really bad teeth, don’t. I speak from personal experience when I say it will cost you most jobs than it will get you. Don’t suppose dental was included in that new health care bill (I know it wasn’t). My kingdom for real pretty false teeth.
@mouse I was going to write something soon about personal appearances and interviews. This is so true.
A lot of people interview well. Know how to prepare, communicate clearly, and have a burning desire to hit the ground running and focus on, oh I don’t know…. the job! The work!
What chaps my ass is interviewers who are trying to play beat the clock to get a butt in a seat based on someone’s time line and spreadsheet. And then saddle the new hire with an ill-equipped “mentor” who, being part of the interview process (that showed up a hoody sweatshirt and pair of jeans- and the company isn’t in the boonies) hoards information and chants endlessly about bringing people up to speed and wastes time rambling on about their personal life and how busy they are and how much they love their job and can’t stand to be away from it.
Talk about a sucky process. On both sides.
Maybe another topic for discussion is candidates spending more time interviewing the interviewers.
Oy.
@iknwtoo This is a good point about candidates interviewing the interviewers. It’s such a f-ked up process 100%.
Hi Laurie…I always seem to do this, so please fire me if this gets tiresome. I agree about the likeablity factor. Some time back, I wrote a piece on it to help people get started, you know, being more likeable. Here is it is (it’s long, sorry)
http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2007/10/08/the-how-to-be-likeable-series-number-1-no-left-turns/
@GL No probs. Link away!
@HRPufnStuf has a great point – it’s like a first date. But with the JOB. And like a first date, it’s not ok to just go through the motions solely to get to the good stuff. I got to the point where I would start my interviews out actually saying “I want to get to know you and you want to get to know this job. You are interviewing this job as much as I am interviewing you. That way we’ll both know whether this is a good fit. If it’s not, but we both like a lot of what we learn about each other then maybe this isn’t it but something else is. In my ideal world, people would find THE job not A job. I realize that – as a rule – that’s just silly, of course – the world doesn’t work that way. But still it drove me nuts when I’d have to listen to what someone thought I wanted to hear even after imploring them to be themselves. If you have skills, show evidence that you can learn and grow, and have an interest in something that you can actually articulate honestly, well…then I’d probably like to hire you for something.
@Julie Thanks!
I agree with the likeability factor, but I view it as less about how pleasant the person is. Each person has “something” that makes them unique, different, interesting, and specifically themselves. I equate likeability to how quickly that comes out how it resonates with me. Maybe that is the gut factor that plays a role in how some people can find good ones and others can’t.
@jeff Lots of people trust their gut. I dont’ trust mine.