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Five Interviewing Mistakes Even Smart Job Seekers Make

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Recently I provided interview coaching at the executive program of a top graduate school. These students were the best of the best – juggling a rigorous academic program while maintaining demanding full-time day jobs. They were clearly proactive about their careers to enroll in such an intense program. These students, as well as other top professionals I have interviewed over 20+ years as a coach and a recruiter, have strong credentials and diligent preparation. Yet, even the smartest job seekers make common avoidable mistakes that once pointed out give them a Eureka moment so they can improve their interview technique even more. Here are five interviewing mistakes I commonly see even among the smart and prepared:

Saying Too Little

Yes, you want to be concise in your interview responses. But concise means just enough information – not too much, but also not too little. Some candidates are so concerned about getting mired in the details and talking too much that they end up with the opposite problem – saying too little. Take the Tell-Me-About-Yourself common interview opening. I’ve heard candidates leave out key steps of their career when they introduce themselves. One of the executive students didn’t mention her current program at all -- a missed opportunity to highlight the skills and technical knowledge she is learning. Sometimes candidates mention all the career steps but like a laundry list without any supporting detail. One executive student who had several roles within her current Global 500 employer mentioned the titles and departments but not the management responsibilities, interesting projects or bottom line impact that were hallmarks of several of the roles. The details are where the value is, so you need to include rich detail about your roles and projects, not just a summary or superficial mention.

Assuming Your Value Is Obvious

Some candidates just assume the interviewer knows the details – how rigorous a specific program of study is or how involved a product rollout is. When you assume what an interviewer knows, you cede control of your interview to the other person. Furthermore, even if the interviewer knows how a product rollout generally goes, s/he won’t know about your experience. Work environments, market conditions, resources at hand, and project scope all differ company by company (and project by project!), so even common job titles or common business objectives can be executed very differently. You need to spell out the specific skills, expertise and accomplishments that match you to a tee with the job at hand. Do not assume what the interviewer knows or does not know.

Getting Too Friendly

Of course, you want to treat the interviewer as if s/he is smart and in the know. In fact, you know how important likeability is in the hiring process so you want to treat the interviewer especially well – you make a concerted effort to develop rapport, find common ground with the interviewer and make your interview conversational. Some candidates go overboard here and get too friendly – adding a funny aside to every other sentence, providing gossip-style inside knowledge when they describe a situation, or speaking too casually as if we’re two friends dishing at a social rather than transacting in a business meeting (which is what an interview is). Likeability does matter a lot, so you want to develop rapport and not appear too stiff. But the other extreme – getting too friendly – is an interviewing mistake. Some interviewers get annoyed and view overly friendly candidates as overstepping professional boundaries. Some interviewers appreciate the friendliness but question an overly friendly candidate’s professionalism. Be approachable and conversational, but don’t ever forget you’re still conducting business, and you don’t know the interviewer (no matter how thoroughly you read their LinkedIn profile!).

Being Too Coy

Now that I’ve turned you off from being too friendly, I don’t want to discourage you from showing emotion – specifically the desire for the position. I’ve heard many candidates tell me that they don’t want to seem too desperate by gushing about the company or the opportunity. You don’t want to sound like you’re a groupie or an obsessed fan but you absolutely want to relay your excitement for the position and the company. The more specific you can be about why the role and company interest you, the more genuine your interest appears. If you can give the same reasons you want to work at one company to their competitors, then your reasons are not specific enough. Talk to current and past employees to get cultural attributes or business approaches unique to your target company. Don’t be shy about sharing with the interviewer that it’s this company that you want and not their competitors.

Not Following Up

One very experienced, very bright candidate I coached adjusted her interview technique and felt great about her performance. But she hadn’t heard back from the company after two weeks. Should she follow up? Of course, she should! The hiring process doesn’t end at any one interview. You always want to follow up – first with a thank you, then with checking in on your status, and finally on an ongoing basis, regardless of the outcome of the initial interview, to expand and maintain your relationship with that interviewer. Interviewers, like all other employees, come and go. Whatever happens with that particular job you initially interviewed for, the interviewer is likely involved in filling others. Or s/he may move on to another company and if you maintain the relationship, all of a sudden you have an additional target in play. One of my clients got hired by another company altogether when her interviewer from one place left and tapped her for a different opportunity. She followed up with that interviewer at the new company, which was a welcome outreach to this interviewer, who was busy with a new job and needed to quickly amass a candidate network. Win-win!

Interviewing is an involved process with lots of moving parts and the unpredictable chemistry of two (or more) people relating and communicating. Smart, experienced, and well-meaning professionals can easily get tripped up – just because you can do a job well does not mean you can interview well. Mock interviews are a great way to assess your real-time interview performance and identify what you need to adjust, add or drop. Practice and prepare in advance of your next interview.

NYC-based readers: I will be giving a talk on advanced networking strategies organized by the Greenwich Village Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday evening, June 16: Master the Ask: What Do You Do With All That Networking? Let me know if you’ll be there – I always love to hear from readers!