Many applicants find job interviews to be stressful and a high hurdle, after all, it is not an everyday situation and a lot is at stake. They look about good resume services online… Their behavior is shaped by the fear of nasty trick questions, faux pas, as well as the claim to have to please convulsively. In coaching, I often notice that applicants look very one-sidedly at the personal meeting with their new employer. They overlook what is valuable to them in the “job interview”. Here are word games that will fundamentally change the way you look at coursework writing and behavior on it:
Interview: The good interview
I begin my wordplay with a somewhat surprising conclusion, but even this fact is often forgotten by many job seekers because of the intense tension: The interview is the interview. Yes, 50 percent of an interview is a “conversation,” but most of these interviews today are memorized monologues of job seekers or one-sided interviews of hiring managers. A good conversation as a dialogue between equals is very rare on both sides. It’s actually a shame because they have so much to say – and to ask too.
As an applicant, you may be thinking “Well, I have no choice!”, but this is a mistake! If you’re ever feeling like you’re in the dock or feeling like you’re on the tough school exam and your only job is to dutifully respond to questions that are fired to the point, then you should try to get a good conversation out of the exam do.
You have it in your hand and with your reactions, answers, and questions you can ensure that it turns into a conversation after all. By factually addressing how you perceive the situation, how you feel about it, why it is important to you to have a real conversation, and what you want for the rest of the appointment. Or by deliberately switching from the brave answer mode and actively asking questions about the current topic of conversation. If you hear “We’re asking the questions!”, You should think about whether it really is your new employer.
And if you read along here as a recruiter or boss, then why not try out how an interview feels like a real conversation. Without pattern F questions, artificial stress and away from rigid process standards, but with real interest as a person towards another person. It can be so easy to really get to know a candidate as a person with their strengths and talents and rough edges.
Job interview: the mutual introduction
It continues with the top 50 percent in “job interview”. It’s about the introduction – and the mutual introduction. In my perception, what is often neglected today is the personal introduction of the conversation partner. All applicants count on “Tell us something about yourself” and are well-prepared to recite their résumé, but they rarely learn more than the names and positions of the people who are sitting opposite them. The focus of “Introduction” is mostly on the applicant side, but it is just as interesting for them to find out more about the future boss or the colleagues in the team.
My impulse for both sides: Use an interview to introduce each other personally. As an HR manager or boss, talk about your career, the current functions, and tasks in the company, the interfaces to colleagues from other teams, your attitude as an employee or manager, and about everything that is particularly important to you in your job.
As an applicant, do you talk about your personal strengths, values in your job, and most important goals for the next few years – and maybe you would also like to give an insight into your private life? Here, too, it is up to you how much you want to learn from your counterpart and how much you want to reveal about yourself. Ultimately, the decision on both sides is not just about factual, professional, but ultimately above all about interpersonal fit.
Interview: No acting performance!
Speaking of “performance” – sometimes I suspect that the job interview is turning more and more into a circus arena or a stage performance. No, please don’t mean “introduction” like that! It’s not about skillfully jumping through the burning tire as an applicant, nor about putting on the rehearsed drama in three acts as an employer.
It’s about really getting to know each other, about honest and spontaneous moments in the situation instead of memorized dialogues, rehearsed body language, and defined process standards. No good parrying on instructions, no funny clown game, no daring high wire act, and no wild predators in the ring. Even if I am not a fan of the term “authenticity”, both sides should meet each other in the interview in a way that they are professionally genuine, respectfully appreciative, and thus credible in their respective roles.
If you have the feeling that you are sitting in the middle of a performance as a guest, then end the spectacle by addressing it. As a recruiter, encourage applicants to slip out of their rehearsed role and to be allowed to show their real side. And as an applicant, make it clear in the interview that you are not interested in empty phrases from glossy brochures about the company, but really want to find out what is behind a position, how your success is measured, and what makes the team tick.
Interview: The exchange of ideas
Warning, now it will be exciting with my play on words. Because good job interviews should always be a mutual exchange of ideas. Employers who speak clearly about their idea of a suitable new employee for the position to be filled and the team. Applicants who express their ideas about their professional future, the working environment that suits them, the type of management, and everything else that will be important to them in their future career.
I notice that too little is talked about ideas in job interviews these days. Employers check specialist knowledge and professional experience, do personality tests, but often have no idea what is really important to a candidate and what he or she needs to be motivated, productive, and satisfied later in the position and the team. On the other hand, many applicants do not dare to speak about their expectations as an idea of the future.
When else than in conversation can both sides see whether their ideas match and whether they have a good future together? Those who exchange ideas and clarify their ideas avoid unpleasant surprises in the future.
Job interview: The interview before the job
The job interview is a preliminary (employment) interview. Tricky what? With this last play on words, I would like to express that every job interview is the – possibly last – chance before contractual employment or employment to clarify all questions. To create as much security for both sides as necessary to make a good decision for or against a common future.
Clarify – especially as an applicant, what is important to you. It would be all too annoying to realize after the first few weeks with the new employer that you will never get warm with the boss or that the supposed dream job turns out to be a hell of a trip for you in reality. Who would like to file for a company divorce during the probationary period and start the tiresome search again? Use both of the interviews to talk about each other sufficiently before employment.
As an applicant, consider in the run-up to the first interview which topics are important to you, which information you need and which questions are relevant to, in the best-case scenario, later sign an employment contract with a clear conscience. Often two or more conversations are held by then, prioritize your questions accordingly. Questions about salary, working hours, and vacation entitlements, for example, are not good at the beginning of the first interview. You should save these for the end or even for a second interview. In preparation, create a list of your most important points to be clarified and determine what you want to clarify in the first appointment and what has time until the next conversation.
Oh yes, as an applicant, you can also take the recordings with your questions into the conversation and put them on the table in front of you – the other side does that too. After all, what speaks against showing that you thought about it before the interview?
I wish you good conversations – from whatever perspective you as an applicant, recruiter or manager are looking at your next interview at this moment.