Prepare for the People, Not Just the Interview

Earlier this month, I wrote about approaching an interview the way you would approach the job itself. That idea also changes the way I prepare clients for interviews.

Most candidates begin with the job description. They look at the responsibilities, match them against their experience, prepare examples and practice explaining why they can do the work.

That makes sense. AI has made this kind of preparation considerably easier. Give it a résumé and a job posting and it can generate likely questions, suggest answers and help you prepare STAR stories demonstrating that you have performed similar activities in the past.

All useful.

But there is an obvious problem with spending too much of the interview proving you can perform the activities in the posting.

You probably wouldn't be sitting in the interview if the employer didn't already believe you could do most of them.

Something got you through the door. Your résumé, application, recruiter or referral provided enough evidence to justify the conversation. There may certainly be qualifications the interviewer still wants to explore, but everyone else who earned an interview will also be prepared to explain how they can perform the duties in the posting.

That's the price of admission. It isn't necessarily what will distinguish you.

The more useful preparation requires reading between the lines. Why does the employer need someone to perform those activities? What results are they expecting? And how will the individual people interviewing you know whether the person they hire is doing the job successfully?

Answering those questions requires more than studying the job description. It requires some empathy.

Prepare for the People

Before we start preparing answers, I want to know who my client will be meeting and each person's relationship to the position.

Then we gather everything we already know. Is the position published? Is it new or a backfill? Why is it open? Has the client spoken with someone inside the company or an outside recruiter? What did they learn from those conversations?

I also want to know something about the interviewers themselves.

LinkedIn and a simple online search can sometimes provide surprisingly useful clues. Maybe an interviewer recently gave a presentation advocating a particular approach. Perhaps they are taking a class in analytics. Maybe they were recently promoted out of the very position you're competing for. They could be brand new to the company, or they may have made a career move similar to yours.

None of this tells us exactly what the person will ask or how they will make a hiring decision. But it may tell us something about the perspective they will bring into the room.

Someone recently promoted from the position may evaluate you differently from a new boss hired from outside the company. Someone who has made a similar career change may see your background differently from someone who has spent 20 years following a traditional path.

This isn't research for the sake of finding something clever to mention during the interview. We're looking for clues about how this person might define a successful hire.

Then my client and I work together to identify three ways each interviewer might measure success if the ideal candidate were hired.

I don't hand this exercise to the client. We work through it together. They know their field better than I do, but I have spent a lot of years looking at hiring from the other side of the table. I am often better at asking why a particular person cares about the position and what that person will need from whoever gets hired.

A client may understand exactly what their function does. I may be more likely to ask why the COO cares about that function, how a recently promoted manager might view their replacement, or what a peer needs from the person hired to make their own job easier.

Between us, we develop our best hypotheses about what matters to each interviewer.

They are still hypotheses. We're not mind readers. Part of the purpose of the interview is to find out whether we're right.

Understanding what matters to each interviewer is only part of the preparation. We also think about how that person communicates. A technical manager may want enough technical substance to understand how you solved a difficult problem. A senior executive may care much more about the business impact. Some people want detail. Others want you to get to the point.

This isn't about mimicking someone's personality. It's simply courteous and effective communication. If you were working with these people after being hired, you would learn how to communicate effectively with each of them.

You can start during the interview.

Don't Spend Your Stories Too Soon

Most interviews begin in one of two ways.

You may get an open-ended question: Tell me about yourself. Why are you interested in this position? Why do you think you are a strong candidate?

Or the interviewer may begin with your background: Take me through your résumé. Tell me about your current job. Why are you looking to leave?

I prepare clients to handle all of these openings in essentially the same way. Focus on the impact you have typically had, explain why this opportunity appears to line up particularly well with what you are good at and what you want to do next, and touch on the three areas we believe may be important to this interviewer.

Then turn it around.

Suppose we believe the hiring manager is particularly concerned with customer retention, improving team performance and creating better coordination with Sales. The opening might end something like this:

“Much of my impact has come from improving customer retention, developing stronger teams and working across functions like Sales to solve customer problems. That's one of the things that attracted me to this position. It looks as though those are areas where I could make a meaningful contribution here as well. How well does that line up with what you're hoping this person will accomplish?”

Now listen.

Maybe we nailed it. Maybe two of the three assumptions were right. Or perhaps the interviewer tells you that customer retention is fine, but Sales keeps promising things Operations can't deliver.

All of those are useful answers.

Asking a turnaround question early can provide a roadmap for the rest of the interview. Once you know what really matters, you can decide which accomplishments to discuss, which stories to tell and which parts of those stories to emphasize as additional questions come your way.

This is why I don't want clients launching into success stories during the opening. Until the interviewer validates what matters, how do we know which evidence will be most useful?

I approach conversations with prospective clients the same way. There are many ways I can help someone. But I don't start telling success stories until I understand why that person called me.

Stories are evidence. First find out what you need to prove.

Candidates are often taught to save their questions for the end of the interview. There are certainly questions that can wait. Questions about how success will be measured shouldn't.

If you wait until the end to learn what the interviewer really needed to hear, all you've gained is a better understanding of what you could have said but didn't.

Prepare for Questions They May Never Ask

There is another question my clients and I consider before an interview:

What might cause this particular interviewer to hesitate about hiring you?

Candidates usually know where the apparent gaps are. Maybe you are changing industries. Perhaps your technical experience isn't quite as current as another candidate's. Maybe your background makes you look overqualified.

I generally prefer to deal proactively with significant and predictable objections rather than hope the interviewer doesn't notice them. Interviewers don't always ask about their concerns. Sometimes they simply draw conclusions.

Consider someone moving from healthcare into financial services. The hiring side may naturally wonder about the learning curve and lack of direct industry experience.

The candidate could wait to be challenged about it. Or they could help the interviewer see the connection.

Healthcare and financial services are both enormous fields where client delivery is affected by insurers, regulation and compliance. Someone who has spent years successfully delivering results in that kind of environment may have highly relevant experience.

Now the candidate isn't asking the employer to overlook the healthcare background. They are helping the interviewer understand why that background may be valuable.

This doesn't mean announcing every possible weakness before anyone asks. It means recognizing the questions your background may create and deciding whether the interviewer needs additional information for your candidacy to make sense.

If there is an obvious question sitting in the interviewer's mind, hoping they don't think of it isn't much of a strategy.

Ask Questions Like You Would on the Job

Imagine your boss asked you to take responsibility for a new project. You wouldn't simply start working. You would first make sure you understood what needed to be accomplished and what might affect your ability to accomplish it.

An interview deserves the same judgment.

Depending on the role, the interviewer and the stage of the process, you might want to understand how success will be measured, what problems need to be solved or what has made the position particularly important now.

These aren't simply “good questions to ask in an interview.” They are the kinds of questions experienced professionals ask when they are trying to understand what they are being asked to accomplish.

Remember that you are gathering information for two decisions: Can I solve these problems? And do I want to solve these problems?

Getting an offer for the wrong job isn't a particularly impressive interviewing achievement.

There is another benefit to approaching the conversation this way. You aren't merely telling interviewers that you are thoughtful, curious, collaborative or good at working with different stakeholders.

You are letting them experience it.

The easier you make it for interviewers to envision you doing the job, the less work they have to do to imagine what hiring you might look like.

“We'll Be in Touch” Isn't a Next Step

Before the interview ends, find out what happens next.

Who will be getting back to you? What is the next step? When should you expect to hear something?

Candidates frequently leave interviews without this information and then put themselves into a completely unnecessary form of purgatory.

Three days pass. Should I follow up? Will that demonstrate enthusiasm? Will I look desperate? Should I wait another day?

Establish the expectation before you leave.

If the interviewer says you should hear from someone by Wednesday and Friday arrives without an update, you have a perfectly legitimate reason to contact them. You aren't manufacturing an excuse to follow up. You're following up on an expectation that was already established.

If they tell you things are taking longer than expected, you can take ownership of the next step yourself: “I know you have a lot going on. Why don't I plan to check back next Thursday if I haven't heard anything before then?”

Now everyone knows what happens next.

And think about what that behavior demonstrates. If you were responsible for an important project, wouldn't your manager expect you to leave meetings knowing who owns the next action and when it is due? If a deadline passed, wouldn't they expect you to follow up?

Establishing follow-up and meeting deadlines as a candidate suggests that you may be the kind of person who will do the same thing after being hired.

If you forget to establish timing during the interview, your thank-you note provides a second chance. I generally recommend a brief thank-you after every interview anyway. Two or three lines is usually enough to thank the person for their time and reinforce something positive from the conversation. You can also use it to empower yourself to follow up on a specified date if none has yet been established.

Tip of the Month

Employers prefer to hire people who are enthusiastic about taking on the job. But enthusiasm doesn't require pom-poms and splits.

For an experienced professional, enthusiasm is better demonstrated through preparation and curiosity. Take the time to think about what each interviewer is likely to value. Ask questions that help you understand what they need. Then take ownership of connecting what you have accomplished in the past with what they need accomplished in the future.

You aren't simply telling them you're excited about the opportunity. You're demonstrating enough interest to understand it and making it easier for them to envision you doing the job.

Give Them a Preview

A hiring decision is ultimately a prediction. The people interviewing you are trying to imagine what will happen if you actually show up for work.

Past accomplishments provide evidence. But the decision is about future impact.

Think about what interviewers get to observe when you approach the conversation this way. You researched the people involved and tried to understand their objectives. You formed reasonable hypotheses but asked questions rather than pretending you already knew the answers. You listened and adjusted your message based on what you learned. You communicated in a way that made it easier for each person to understand your value. You addressed potential problems instead of ignoring them. And before the meeting ended, you established responsibility and timing for what happens next.

In other words, you have taken ownership of tying your past to their future.

Don't just tell interviewers how you work. Give them a chance to experience it.

The best interview preparation doesn't simply help you answer questions better. It helps the employer envision you in the role.

That's not just good interviewing. That's how good people work.