Over the last ten days, I have had over 10 interviews. With so many interviews in such a short amount of time, I learned a ton. Here are a few of my top takeaways.
It’s just a conversation
You’re probably tired of hearing this but it’s just so important. Often times, companies can see what “technical experience” you’ve had from the information you give them beforehand. During an interview, they’re wanting to see personality. Of course they’ll probably have some of the “test questions,” to dive deeper into your past, but even more than that, they care about the ease in communicating and talking with you.
If you can go in and have a conversation while also showing how well you can listen to their questions, you’ve already jumped a huge hurdle in their mind. You could have all the experience in the world on paper, but if you don’t mesh in conversation, it’s probably going to be a lot harder to swing their opinion. Skills can be learned but personality is not so easy to change.
Be completely honest yet completely confident
There is a way to go into an interview and be the most sincere person possible, yet still come across incredibly confident. This comes down to all the little things. When you answer questions, do you look a certain direction, does it seem like you’re actively listening to what they say and responding accordingly? I’ve found that just being completely transparent with companies goes a long way. By being transparent, you kind of open up a door for the conversation I talked about above.
Some people might think that interviews like this are too professional for so much conversation. That you need to get down to some real hardcore questions. There may be a time when it isn’t appropriate, but I would say it’s beneficial for almost any interview to have a relational aspect. For myself, I can read people well enough to know whether longer answers or shorter answers are what they’re looking/hoping for.
By being completely honest about everything, not dramatizing what you’ve done, just helping them to understand the situations, they’re able to get a better more realistic picture of who you are. By helping them to see that, you come across very confidently in the things that you’ve done
It’s okay to take a minute to answer
For me, if I have a minute or so, I can scan through my past and come up with some really good answers. Unfortunately, in an interview, you don’t often have this luxury. But you have more time than you think. The tendency is to panic and talk right away so that the interviewer doesn’t think that you don’t know something, but it is totally acceptable to say something like: “that’s a really great question. Hmm, let me think for a second.” Boom, you’ve got 10-15 seconds you can now use to think and figure out your answer.
The way you emphasize this is important. There’s an “Oh no! I’m totally not prepared for this, let me think” way to say it and then there’s the: “Wow, great question. So many things to think about.” way to say it.
The first answer comes off as if you’re about to make something up because you haven’t had very much experience with other roles and the other comes off like you have a TON of different experiences, and you’re just trying to narrow down. That’s totally okay.
These are just a few soft skills kind of interview takeaways. Mindsets to take into an interview. There’s a lot of info out there about interviews, but perhaps this will help you get down a little more to the basic attitude and personality of what is most you.
Remember, even if you bomb an interview, that just means you’re a little closer to the next good one.
Treat it as a challenge, not a discouragement.