The Conversational Interview
The best interviews are conversations, figuring out if you're a match.
By Soozy G. Miller, CPRW, CDCC, CDP
Hiring Manager: “Can we contact your previous employer to find out what you were like on the job?”
Candidate: “Sure, as long as I contact your previous employee to find out what you did to drive them away.”
Hiring Manager: “Welcome on board!”
This is a fantastic post that I found on LinkedIn. I bring it up in jest, but also to show that the interview should be conversation.
You are interviewing the company just as much as they are interviewing you. Which means that you are making sure you want to work there just as much as they are making sure that they want to hire you. For leadership positions, the company wants to make sure that your energy and personality fit the culture just as much as your hard / technical skills fit the position, because working culture and company environment are set from the top down. There are many leaders who are ill-fitted for their position, and it shows in their work. And it affects everyone else at the company.
If you have worked with me, then you know to read the job posting and the company website thoroughly before going to an interview. This arms you with initial information about the position and the company. But you'll want more specifics before you decide if you want to work there. After reading the company’s mission and reading anything else online about them, you probably have some questions. Such as:
Where did my predecessor fail or fall short?
What are your top 3 priorities for this job?
What does success look like for this position?
What deadlines should I know about?
What complications or barriers might I come across as I’m trying to achieve goals or fix problems?
If you don’t understand something, either in the job description or during the interview, ask for clarification. You will not look stupid, you will look interested and engaged. Chances are the job description wasn’t written by the interviewer, so your question might spark an interesting conversation.
By asking questions you will get (hopefully) helpful information, and then you will have more ammunition for answers. The more information that you have about the company, the employees, the leadership, the culture, their gaps, their issues, and their priorities, the better you can address all of that and talk about how you will make their lives better, easier, and faster.
The more you give, the more you get.
If you feel uncomfortable during an interview, it’s probably because you don’t know enough about the company to discuss the position, or because you’re getting a weird vibe from the interviewer and you’re not sure if this company is right for you.
Either way, the only way to find out is to talk about it, and make the interview a conversation instead of an interrogation.
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Better job. More pay. More control.
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