You Suck at Interviewing, Here's How to Suck Less

I have hired and rejected a lot of people from jobs and found a clear distinction between those that I hire and the feedback I have given to those that I haven't.

I have also beaten out numerous candidates in interviews that are significantly more qualified than me on paper because of how I have presented myself.

The distinction I have found between those that get an offer and those that don't is preparedness and the ability to answer questions in a clear, and concise manner.

In this article, I am going to help you prepare for the process, show up to the interview and represent yourself well through the interview, and follow up through the interview process so you are able to show up prepared and ready to articulate yourself.

Interviewing is a skill. This is something that you refine over time through feedback and repetitions. This is not something that I would expect you to be good at right away unless you have an extensive background in building rapport and answering questions on the spot or giving presentations.

Regardless of outcome, each interview is an opportunity to learn and grow.

My goal for you is to feel like you are representing yourself to the best of your ability. This does not mean that you will get the job. The best of your ability may not be enough yet. Your job is to feel like you can drop the mic and walk out after you have interviewed. This showcases that you represented yourself to the best of your ability at this time and that you have minimized the potential of YOU being the reason that you don't get hired (unless you are completely socially unaware - that is a different problem that I won't be addressing here)

We are making the assumption that you have managed to land an interview after applying (fast forwarding through making your application stand out).

Preparing for the Interview

• - Assume that they haven't taken much time to read your resume nor that they know your backstory. Anything that you put on your resume that strongly differentiates you from other candidates should be brought up in your interview.

• - Practice. I don't care if this is by yourself or with someone else. The more comfortable you are in the interview setting, the better you are going to be able to present yourself.

• - DON'T prepare for the questions.

• - Questions can be framed numerous different ways. If you are preparing for interview questions, you are preparing to fail unless you can quickly move on your feet.

• -Instead, look up common interview questions and think about what a hiring manager might be trying to understand about their candidates.

• -Prepare for the job. Get an understanding of the role that you are applying for.

• - If this interview is for an internal job at your company - network and talk to people that have done it. Preferably, before the job posts if you can.

• - If the job is external, you don't work for the company, see if you can find somebody on LinkedIn that has previously done this job or people that may work within the company that hold similar roles. Reach out to them.

• - You'll be surprised how many of these people are willing to connect for a brief amount of time and they could potentially turn into advocates for you if you show up well to that conversation. I would not ask them to do this. Show up prepared and make it easy for them to choose to advocate for you.

• - If you have done either of the above, bring it up. It may differentiate you. Don't go through the motions with this. If you have done this but can't answer basic questions about the role or about the organization, it is likely to make you look bad and like you don't know how to utilize your time effectively.

• - Show up to these meetings with questions that will help you get a better understanding of the organization, the role, and how the role contributes to the success of the organization.

• - Have an understanding of what makes you the best candidate for the job. If you can't articulate this, it's unlikely that you are going to get the job. This should include the benefits that you bring to the space along with how the job fits into your career path.

• - If there is only one point for you to bring to an interview, this would be it. Make sure you can clearly articulate it. If you can't weave it into one of your answers naturally, surface it before the interview is over. I will highlight a way to do this below.

• - If you don't meet all of the job qualifications but still managed to land and interview, I would be prepared to talk through how you are going to address overcoming those potential hurdles.

• - I would STRONGLY caution against trying to write out perfect responses to every question they could ask. In my experience, when people bring these lists - it distracts them from the interview, they present themselves with less confidence, and look like they aren't well put together with how much they reference their notes instead of focusing on answering the questions being asked.

• - If you are going to bring notes, I would do bulleted lists of main points. If you forget a point - you are the only one that is going to know so act like that point didn't exist so you aren't distracted the rest of the interview.

Showing up to the Interview

• - Regardless of how you think you should be able to present yourself during an interview, you should come well-dressed, groomed, bathed, etc. This applies to Zoom interviews. And for the love of god, clean up the background. I don't care if your bed is in the background but please make sure it doesn't look like you just rolled out of it.

• - Showing up with bedhead is not okay.

• - Showing up in regular clothes is not okay.

• - As a man, you should always where a suit. If you don't have a suit, you should at the very least have dress pants and a dress shirt. If you don't have those, go to a thrift store and get some. Make sure you have dress shoes too.

• - Ties aren't necessary, especially as we lean more into a more laid-back society but suits look more polished with them.

• - As a woman, you should wear a suit, a nice blouse, a dress or any combination of what a reasonable person would identify as business formal wear.

• - Presentation is a small part of your interview but if you show up disheveled, everybody will notice - regardless of if they want to or not.

• - Firm handshakes

• - Regardless of your gender, firm handshakes make an impression. Guys, this is not your opportunity to try to break someone's hand. Don't be a dick.

• - Regardless of gender, there is nothing more awkward than reaching out to shake someone's hand and feeling like you are shaking an overcooked noodle.

• - Practice this with literally anybody but friends and family members are great starting points as long as they don't also suffer from limp-noodle syndrome.

• - Thank people for their time. They didn't have to interview you and you are using their most precious commodity.

The Interview

• - Introductions - Most interviews will start with a brief moment to introduce yourself. You should be intentional with this time.

• - I like to start off by talking about my education, fast-forwarding through relevant work experience plus any outcomes they should know about, and then I pivot to personal topics. I'll talk about myself (fun facts that they may potentially connect with), my wife, our dogs, our cats, and our plants.

• - People are more likely to hire people that they like and resonate with.

• - Education is only relevant if you don't have a ton of work or if it is directly applicable to the field you are interviewing in.

• - Don't be the "great question" guy or gal

• - Full disclosure - I have been this guy and didn't know for years until one of my bosses called me out on it.

• - This is distracting for interviewers and takes away from your responses.

• - Usually we use this filler as a way to provide time to craft our responses and figure out what we are trying to think about.

• - If the question was great - use this once MAYBE twice in an interview but don't be redundant.

• - If you need a moment to think, ask for it.

• - I like to state the question back to the interviewer to buy myself time.

• - If you are asked, What is a time that you have failed to achieve a goal or project deadline and how did you respond?"

• - This could be as simple as stating, "a time that I have failed to achieve a goal or project deadline is…."

• - Using their question as the start of your sentence should buy you more time than your filler and it will be less distracting.

• - Situation, Task, Action, Result

• - Interviewers are inherently trying to understand the behaviors that you bring to the work space. As much as you possibly can, you should be painting pictures of what you have done historically with SPECIFIC examples.

• - Caution: Sometimes our use of explicit examples can turn into run on sentences leading to nowhere but you not getting the job. In these moments, I pause, think about the question and summarize the point that I was going to make. If you are losing your train of thought, it's likely you have lost the interviewers too.

Closing the interview

• - Before you are given the opportunity to ask questions, reflect back to your preparation. I told you to be prepared with your greatest strengths and to identify and be able to fill in experience gaps for them. Have you done this? If you haven't say this:

• - "Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to ask questions. Before I do so, I would be remiss to not address these/this talking point that I didn't address throughout the interview…" then lead right in to the point that you would like to make.

• - Do NOT give them the opportunity to fill in gaps in their knowledge for you.

• - If you ARE given the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the interview, use questions that show how much preparation that you have done for the role. For instance, through networking prior to interviewing for my current role, I knew that they were looking for a solid culture hire for our space. For this, I might have asked, "what does building a better culture in this space look like for you and how do you plan to do this?"

• - This would give me insight into how my potential boss thinks and gives me an idea of if I crafted my answers well enough to position myself to their needs. If not, I may expand to give them a better idea of how I fit those needs.

• - If you don't know what they are looking for in an ideal candidate, there is no time like the present to ask. You can't change your answers but you can address how you fit their needs

• - I would also ask for timelines so you don't develop more anxiety than necessary if it is a three month process.

• - Thank them for their time, again and let them know that you look forward to hearing back.

Follow Up

• -If you have their contact information, send a thank you message to the interviewers.

• - If you messed up one of your answers, it could be worthwhile to address this here too - showing your self awareness (as long as you state how you would fix it) do this once, don't be annoying.

• - I would ignore minor mistakes - only correct something that you were way off on.

• - If the timeline they set has passed, follow up.

• - Hello ___, I am still highly interested in this opportunity. We had discussed that I might hear back by ___ and I haven't heard anything yet. I am checking in to see how the review process is going. Please let me know if there is anything that I can provide greater clarity on. I look forward to hearing back from you all. Respectfully, _____

• - I won't go into offer acceptance but if you get declined and they don't give you feedback. Ask for the feedback.

• - Thank you again for the time and the opportunity to interview with your organization. While I am disappointed that I didn't get the opportunity, I am committed to my learning and development and would love to hear what separated me from the candidate that you chose to hire and how I could better add value for you all in the future. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Additionally, if there are jobs within your organization that you believe I would be better qualified for, I would love to hear about them. Thank you again, ___.

• - I am not going into offer acceptances because there are tons of different ways to go about doing this and this is already long. Your ability to negotiate is going to depend on the organizational structure, your work experience, and other factors. If you are straight out of college and have no leverage, you are likely best to accept the offer without negotiating yet.

If it seems like I have set you up to do more work than you have to, it's because I have. If the interview process is competitive, you need to stand out in the right ways. This will help you do so.

If you are unwilling to do the extra work, I would evaluate if you actually want or deserve the job.