Nail Your Job Interview
Coaching Tip #12
When you are an elite athlete (or an accomplished musician, child actor, or your school’s valedictorian) people can be very curious about your life. You have done something that few people have accomplished, and it is natural that others look up to you. You are probably peppered with questions (and if you were really good, autograph requests) every time you venture into a public gathering.
But as we move away from past successes and toward a personal next, we must learn to turn the conversation around – away from what we have done, and toward discovering how our skills will fit into our future. This might not be something that you have had much practice in.
Why didn’t we learn this skill? Well, rewind the clock to when you first started to succeed. Family, friends and colleagues celebrated your “uniqueness.” You were noticed, and that felt good. Naturally, you worked to continue to be noticed. We all want to be relevant, and the more relevant other people believe you are, the more they want to know about your life. People ask you questions, and you provide answers. Slowly a habit forms.
And these habits are tough to break! When you are preparing for a job interview, you may assume that you will be comfortable answering questions. You have done it over and over again in your sport. Interviews should be easy, right? Well, not usually.
An interview is not a press release. Interviewers can read details about you on your resume, or as they scan your social media accounts. The purpose of the interview, in contrast, is to investigate how you, as a candidate, may add value to the organization’s objectives.
Here are two tips to shift the conversation away from what you have done, and toward your future goal, which is learning about the organization and discovering if there is a good fit for you. They both involve you asking questions.
Values. A common question you’ll hear is “tell me more about you.” The interviewer has read your resume. Don’t insult them by spouting it off. Instead, answer the question in a way that allows you to end by posing a question: “I know you can see on my resume some of the accomplishments that I have had, but it is also important for me to tell you about how I achieved those feats. They were driven by my underlying set of values: hard work, never giving up, and my ability to focus on a specific goal and go for it. Work cultures help supports values. How might the culture here support these values – so if you hire me, you get the best of me.”
Teamwork. If teamwork is important to you and you are asked about it, give an example why a team is a foundational part of development, for example: “I would never have accomplished what I did without a team around me. Toward the end of my career, I was looked to as a leader on the team, but if you rewind to the beginning, when I first joined the team, I looked to leaders to teach me, mentor me, support me, and challenge me. Coming into this organization I recognize that I am now starting over again. How do the teams here operate? How are we challenged? How are we supported?”
You do not need to be in an interview to start practicing this skill. When people come up to you and want to know about your life, answer their question and then turn the conversation around and ask the person about their life. You might be surprised at how the conversation proceeds.