Secrets of a Moderately Decent Interviewee

Interviews are nearly worthless.

The fact that we put so much emphasis on them is a testament to our falling prey to our illusory superiority, aka The Lake Wobegon effect – ‘where all the children are above average.’

While we’d all probably agree that others are prone to being fooled by good interviewees, we’d rarely put ourselves in that same boat.  We think that we can intuitively get a sense for who a person is and how well they’ll work out on our team after meeting with them in person.

Yet, it’s worth pointing to again, but half of new hires fail within 18-months.  Failure, in this case, is defined as exiting the company.   You can bet the real failure rate is even greater given how slow many are to fire.  Interestingly, the vast majority of those people fail because of the interpersonal dynamics between manager and subordinate.

How can that be?  That’s a primary reason we conduct interviews.

Interviews fail because the interviewer is human.  It’s a likability screen and little else.

While I’m not an expert on interviewing from either side, I’ll disclose what’s worked for me in the past and it’ll be pretty easy to see why our human subjectivity is so easily tricked.

photo by kaptain kobold

My strategy falls from understanding the real reason we conduct interviews.  Most people want to see if the candidate is moderately personable (does the candidate make you feel comfortable?), moderately likable (can you see going to lunch with him/her a couple days a week?) and has a decent grasp on the job/industry (will s/he embarrass you?).

1. Talk as little as possible. The less I talk the more interesting and intelligent you’ll think I am.  Like meeting someone at a cocktail party, thinking they are fascinating and then realizing you know nothing about them.  You like them because they let you talk the entire time.
2. Find the connection. A good interviewee does their homework.  Not just about the job but about the people interviewing them.  They’ve found the point of connection.  Interviews are a likability screen.  Identifying a shared home town, grad school or interest is the first step.  Once identified it says ‘see, we’re the same.  We’re going to get along great.’  Asking open-ended questions around the topic also eats into the interview time and allows the interviewer to strengthen the bond by reinforcing the connection points herself.
3. Defer expertise. Take advantage of the interviewer’s lack of preparedness. Everyone is busy and it’s shocking how little preparation goes into interviewing people.  After all, the hiring manager is rarely evaluated on how well they hire.  Anticipating the usual battery of questions is pretty easy.  I, as the interviewee, like to get home-court advantage right away by asking the first question after we establish the point of connection.  If steps one and two (talk very little and make a connection) are done right, the interviewer has done a lot of talking and it’s only natural for you to speak next.  Ask them about how they’re addressing their challenges or about a specific action they’ve taken that you’ve recently read about.  This will give you an insight into how they’re thinking when they want to ask you the same question in return and allow them to feel good about themselves by proving their expertise.
4. Body language. Body language says a lot about you, particularly from people who think they are incredibly intuitive.  You don’t want to overdo it, but occasionally mimicking the interviewer’s body language (naturally) reinforces the subtle clue that we’re a lot alike.  When not mimicking, take an interested, open and slightly aggressive posture.  Lean forward to show you’re interested and ready, keep the hands open to show you’re not a threat and keep the shoulders back to show you’re confident.  Sounds too simple, but it’s amazingly effective when compared to someone who is sitting back with a slouched back.
5. Judo questioning. End questions with questions. Ending questions with questions reinforces that I’m curious about you and your company.  Plus it’s unnatural for someone not to answer when asked a question.  It disrupts the flow of the interview and turns it into a conversation.  It’s harder to negatively evaluate a conversation since the interviewer is responsible for half of it.
6. Show your work. I take several notes about the company, challenges and ideas I have to help out prior to interviewing.  Let the interviewer see that work.  I like a clip board because there is no cover on it.  It allows you to be very subtle about showing off what you’ve done.  It may all be rubbish, but the interviewer can’t read it (tip: make sure to put the name of the person and company in a font size big enough to read across the table).  The perception will clearly be that you know your stuff.

There are some who have been trained in the process and they can cut through these tactics and effectively evaluate, but those folks are a very rare breed (read: it’s probably not you.)

In sum, the interview isn’t going anywhere.  But we need tools that are objective, uniform and rigorous.  That’s what RoundPegg is all about – predicatively figuring out whether we’ll successfully work together.

Subjectivity has very little place in the hiring process.  When we rely on our ‘good gut instincts’ we barely beat the flip of a coin.

With that, like Christopher Columbus, I’ve burned my ships.  RoundPegg has to work out because I’ll now never successfully interview again.

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