#JobSearch : How To Ace Your Job Interview: Insight From A Recruiter. Great Checklists . MUst REad. - First Sun Consulting, LLC | Outplacement Services and Career Transition Firm

Having spent the past two decades leading recruiting teams around the world, I’ve conducted and observed tens of thousands of interviews. Honestly, I still see things that surprise me. For all of the effort that goes into the interview phase (it’s the most labor-intensive, and therefore the costliest part of the hiring process), the quality of the execution is often, at best, mixed.

This poor execution can be attributed to several factors but is primarily because training hiring managers on how to interview is a rarity in most organizations. Furthermore, it’s a muscle that is used relatively infrequently (unless the company is particularly high growth, individual hiring managers are probably hiring once a year, not once a week).

The first step to being better at interviewing is therefore to recognize that you’re about to participate in an imperfect process. You may even have more experience of interviewing, albeit from the other side of the desk, than the person interviewing you.

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Before The Interview

Conducting some focused research is the best way to set yourself up for success. Follow these three simple steps ahead of every interview:

Review the LinkedIn profile of each person you’re due to meet with, and prepare your questions accordingly (e.g., I see you joined Acme Corp a year ago, what made you want to join and what have you been most surprised by since you started?)
If the company is publicly traded read the most recent annual report and/or quarterly earnings statement. Many larger organizations have an “investor relations” section on their website which contains a wealth of enterprise information.
Search for mentions of the company in credible journals (e.g., here on Forbes, in the Harvard Business Review, The Economist) rather than a broad Google search.

Most importantly, remember that interviewing is just storytelling – your job is to distill your unique career journey into a compelling narrative. Get used to condensing your work history into a two minute “elevator pitch”, specifically focusing on moments of transition (why you left one job for another), and key learnings and achievements along the way. Practice with friends and loved ones.

During The Interview

The single most important thing you can do is be your authentic self: letting your personality show helps to establish a rapport. Whether the interview is in-person or conducted virtually, try to remember it’s just a human-to-human conversation. This is your opportunity to make the most of your time with the hiring team:

Try not to let nerves get in the way (easier said than done) – remember hiring managers probably do this less than once a year so in many instances will be just as nervous as you!
Make notes and ask questions (both pre-prepared based on your research, and to clarify things you learn from the folks you meet with).
Don’t forget that you’re interviewing them too! Can you work with this person? Will you learn from them? Are they inspiring?

After The Interview

One of the hardest lessons to learn is the ability to trust our gut reaction on walking out of an interview, especially in an economy like this one. If your gut is telling you no, listen to that voice. It is easy to let our scarcity mindset to take over, but one of the most powerful things you can do is walk away from an opportunity, especially if you’re getting the feeling that you might not be able to thrive there in the long term:

First make an honest assessment – do you still want the job based on what you learned? If the answer is ‘no’, that’s OK! The interview process is a two-way street, and sometimes it’s just not a good match.
Irrespective of what decision you make be sure to send thank you notes (email is fine) to the hiring manager, to the interview panelists and to the recruiter.

There has been some discourse on whether the practice of sending thank you notes is outdated, which is a premise I strongly disagree with. At a minimum, sending thank you notes allows you a further touchpoint with the hiring team, and gives you the opportunity to expand or double-down on key points you made during your interview. Furthermore, it demonstrates that you are familiar with longstanding professional etiquette, and that you are the sort of person that follows-through.

Lastly thank you notes can help cement relationships with the folks that you met during the interview process. Even if you are unsuccessful, these “warm” relationships will be useful either for future applications at the company, or indeed elsewhere, as you never know where folks will work next.

Although the interview process is far from perfect (indeed the same can be said for the broader talent market), the best way to set yourself up for success is to be prepared, and to take a pragmatic view of the process you’re about to participate in.

Forbes.com | January 17, 2023 | James Hudson