It's About Them
A tip for interviewing
| Some thoughts from LinkedIn |
For #jobhunters, a helpful tip recommended to me by a former recruiter (thanks Greg!) who landed me one of my favorite jobs (thanks ArenaCX!).
In his words, “The interview is about them, not you.”
So I’ll unpack that. It sounds nuts, I know. But for me, it generally leads to smoother interviews, where I am more comfortable in my skin. I am more relaxed, more present, and less worried how to inject my Dig-Me Bullet Points into the conversation.
So: You’re in an interview. Because they posted a want ad? No. Roll the clock back further. A month or two earlier, someone at that firm came to a bracing realization that some problem or opportunity was looming large enough that the best solution involved finding and inserting a complete stranger onto their team.
So what was that realization? What happened? What’s happening now? What’s at risk? Interview them and find out. It’s not hard. Some questions that set the stage…
- Why is this position open? Did someone leave? Did something break? Are you chasing something exciting?
- What makes this hire so critical? Who is it critical to? What do they need?
- What’s changing in your industry lately, good or bad, that this role should help with?
Get into the headspace of an interviewer, and the questions can come naturally. Think of yourself like a columnist, or a podcaster, or a consultant, discovering what it’s like inside the doors of this company at this moment in their history. Get interested! It certainly has their full attention.
This shift of attention onto them, away from me, helps me shake off stage-fright. I’m not performing; I’m learning.
And my own talking points flow more organically into the discussion. Just this week, the person mentioned how their division was like an internal startup, and it was an easy/natural thing to describe one time I was an early entrant in such a maverick group myself (Healthways International). It landed naturally, and it established that I take risks, and I like maverick groups and that startup atmosphere.
When I do this, I feel like myself. They feel heard, and I am not playing manic connect-the-dots, ham-fistedly cramming in all my Bullets. (Don’t worry, you’ll say plenty. They ARE interviewing you, after all.)
It’s like that advice about meeting new folks: To be interesting, be interested.
So interview them. It’s really about them, anyway.