This Might Not Be Pretty

I’ve noticed that you’re making some interviewing mistakes that you’d probably prefer not to repeat. I’ll tell you what they are and what you can do about them but fair warning, this might not be pretty:

  • You’re getting there late and when you do, the game’s over. Here’s why: Interviewers expect you to be on your best behavior. If getting there late is the best you can do it’s not good enough. If you want to make the cut, make it across the company’s threshold with time to spare and with your act intact.
  • You’re showing up so early you look as though you either can’t tell time or you’re unsure of yourself. If you’re concerned that getting there much later than you are accustomed is cutting it too close for comfort, stick with your early arrival, just don’t present yourself until it’s time for the interview.
  • You’re showing up right on the button but you’re as calm as a nervous wreck. Your stomach’s churning, your voice is quaking and your hands are shaking. Rewind. Prepare. Nail what you do best, how you benefit companies you work for, and get used to talking about it. Work with the toughest handlers you can find who will ask you realistic questions and give you honest feedback.
  • You describe yourself as confident but you’re coming across as arrogant. That’s a style that has to go. If you’re not sure if this pertains to you, check out the following: Instead of asking open ended questions that get at what the company’s issues and challenges might be, you act as though you already know. You’re making assumptions, drawing conclusions, and solving problems they don’t have and ignoring those they do. You’re eye rolling, sarcastic, and just a little smug. If that’s you, get a grip and get yourself a career coach.
  • If you’re coming across as insecure and more than a little lost, the interviewer might offer you compassion and a compass but not a job offer. You might not need a check list for this one but here’s a short one anyway: You’re asking plenty of questions but you don’t appear to have any answers. When you do have answers they sound as though spoken by that proverbial deer in the headlights. You can minimize your problem and maximize opportunity if you immediately apply Practice, the time tested product that gets rid of the most virulent case of the gotcha’s. It’s guaranteed to work if you use it twice daily, every day, for at least two weeks prior to an interview or networking meeting. That way you have time to fill in the blanks, correct your mistakes, or rectify what even the right answers, said apologetically, can sadly say about you.
  • You talk too much. It’s not good to chat the ears off interviewers. Pay  attention to their body language and you’ll know when it’s happening: Their eyes cross or look longingly at their computers, telephones, and finally, their clocks. Relax. Exhale. Give interviewers a chance to learn about you in their terms, not in yours. It’s their meeting, their company, and you’re an invited guest. Act accordingly.
  • You’re not participating. You sit, listen, and nod approvingly which may be reassuring but it’s just not enough. The quieter you are the less likely it is you’ll be offered the job. Yes, if the interviewer wouldn’t ask so many questions and would give you more time to collect your thoughts, arrange, review and edit them, you’d provide more answers. That won’t happen. You need to practice jumping in and engaging, exchanging insight and information for no reason greater than you have something worthwhile to say and you deserve to be heard.

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Joyce Richman (www.joycerichman.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce has appeared regularly on WFMY-TV and is the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.