Everyone has an attitude. How you project that attitude has enormous influence on how you are perceived. Those perceptions and interpretations by prospective employers make the difference between a winning interview, and one that doesn’t quite get it.
Attitudes are influenced by events and your reactions to them. You may be a great communicator, a motivating team builder, and an all around wonderful catch, but if you’re stuck in a bad place, all those attributes go up in smoke, replaced by behaviors that aren’t nearly as appealing. Under stress and duress you can act withdrawn, impatient, easily distracted, irritable, and cynical, second- guessing the motives of people you typically trust and value. Or you can take on the attitudes of the (pseudonyms) Ted, Chris, Janet, or Jake:
After twenty- five years with the same company, Ted was laid off. He had depended on the job for an income, insurance, retirement, friendships, and identity. Now it’s all gone. He says he doesn’t blame the company, they did what they had to do, that’s he’s moved on with his life. Has he?
“No, to tell the truth, I’m not over it. They could have done a lot of things differently. Lots of folks saw problems up ahead and no one seemed to be addressing them. Their answer to the economy, the competition, outdated equipment and outmoded strategy was ‘work harder’. Well, that didn’t work.
Maybe nothing could have saved us. The owners were good people. I know they didn’t want to let us go, and they didn’t want to lose a business they had worked all their adult lives to maintain. So, I don’t blame them. But I’m frustrated, angry and scared.”
How has your attitude impacted your interviews?
“I’m tentative. Cautious. I’m careful about what I say, careful about
how I act, careful about asking questions. The interviewer doesn’t get much of a read on me because I don’t let him.”
He’s right. And wrong. The interviewer does get a read and interprets Ted’s caution as not having the courage to make a decision, or the courage to question one. Ted comes across as a follower in need of strong direction. He won’t make the cut.
Chris has a different attitude. She believes that practice makes perfect so she practices for interviews the way she prepped for piano recitals, plays, and exams: Exhaustively.
“I’m ready. I’ve researched countless web sites for questions commonly asked and I’ve prepared my answers. I’ve visited the company’s website and I’ve memorized every fact on it. I know what to say, where to pause for emphasis, when to smile to show that I have a sense of humor, and when to look serious so that I’m perceived as, you know, serious. I am so prepared. I can’t lose!”
Sorry. Chris’s canned- do attitude won’t win this job. She’s so tightly wrapped the interviewer is turned off by her lack of spontaneity and her “too rehearsed” style. The interviewer wants someone who can work on matrixed teams that are as well oiled as they are well-integrated. The interviewer wants someone intellectually nimble, able to juggle tasks along with ideas, and when needed, change directions, without memorizing the how, what, and why of the playbook.
Janet is a battle toughened, hard worker with a victim’s attitude. Her strengths are obscured by a long-suffering, woe-is-me, nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen personality. Her affect is so depressing, the interviewer closes out the meeting before it even gets started.
Then there’s Jake:
He’s intolerant, temperamental, sarcastic, assumes the worst, and gets it. He’s smart but not savvy. He’s focused, but not on the right things. He answers questions with disdain, presuming the interviewer won’t understand his value, which is true, and he can’t provide the employer a track record of consistent contribution, because he doesn’t have one.
“My attitude is, why bother?” he says. “I’d be better off working for myself.”
That’s probably what he’ll end up doing.
Vitality. Social savvy, emotional health and physical well being. Intellectual dexterity, internal calm, and external energy. Positive attitudes that combine to project an image of someone we all want to have on our teams, and in our companies.
What’s your attitude?
