I have just come back from my first job interview in months (I’m not counting the call centre thing, that was a group interview in which we all had 30 seconds to speak). Ages ago, I remember knowing straight away, as soon as I walk out of the building, how well I’ve done, but today I am completely emotionless. Maybe it’s just been way too long since the last one (which was some time in July) that I have forgotten how to read the interviewers – and by read I mean with my intuition, because that’s usually how I figure out where I stand.
When I was still in high school, I remember having a lesson in job interview behaviour in year 11. I know that they taught us how to shake hands when you first meet your potential employers (never put you hand on top because that means that you are dominating, or on the bottom because that means that you are submissive), and how to hold your posture upright and how not to use the word “um”. I also remember how they told us to wear collared shirts, pants/skirts and proper shoes (preferably with a little bit of a heal) and how to keep our hands firmly placed in our laps or by our sides when we’re speaking. The funniest thing I remember them telling us is not to chew gum when we go into an interview….who would be crazy enough to do that, it’s common sense (I have realized since that there are plenty of people who don’t know what ‘common sense’ even means). The reason I mention my year 11 “how to behave in interviews” class is because I attended an IPA Recruitment “how to behave in interviews” three day training session about two weeks ago. They didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know (even they mentioned the chewing gum issue), but what they did do is confuse me with all the things that I believe in….
See, my personal theory (and I sand by it because it has proven itself worthy over the years) is that when you go into a job interview, the first thing you need to do is try and relax and the second is to listen. When the employer tells you about the company, which is usually what they do before they ask about you, you can already figure out pretty much what they’re looking for in your answers. Having said this, I by no means claim that I am an expert in job interviews, but the third and final component which I believe works is – honesty! In every single job interview I have ever been to, I have always been as honest as I possibly can. That way I eliminate two dangerous things that could cost me the job: 1) lying about the things I’ve done or the things that I’ good at and then risking being found out anyway when I got the job, and 2) stuttering, stumbling and sounding foolish because instead of talking about myself properly, I’m constantly thinking about whether one lie corresponds to another that I mentioned 5 minutes ago. When I said this to the IPA people, they told me that complete honesty is not a good way to go because you want to draw in the potential employer by telling them what they want to hear. There’s a huge possibility I would agree with this theory if I was being interviewed for a job that I wasn’t particularly interested in, but if I truly want to work for a certain company and I believe that I will benefit from the experience I could gain there, there is no point in telling my interviewer only things that thy want to hear. This is someone who will tomorrow be my boss (and hopefully over time my friend), someone who has obviously seen something that already interests them about me (other wise I wouldn’t be at the interview), so I believe that it is also someone who deserves to get to know me well enough (within that half an hour) to fill in most of the blanks. My belief is that if we are right for each other (as employer and the employee) my interviewer will see right away from my honesty whether I am a suitable candidate.
And finally, what I would like to add (for all those creatives out there who certainly know what I’m talking about) in terms of the dress sense for interviews is: show a little bit of yourself when you dress up for the interview. Again, this advice doesn’t really apply to say, a lawyer, but I’m no talking about interviews in the creative industry. I don’t mean to say that you should go to an agency interview wearing your latest make-shift attempt at fashion design, but have at least one accessory that defines you. Personally, my trade mark would probably have to be my high cut Converse sneakers, because they compliment the honesty that I was talking about earlier – this is me, what you see and hear is what you get (and because I am a little laid back you can also expect to get even more that what you see).
So to conclude…. my theory for job interviews is that honesty truly is the best policy and if you’re happy with yourself and you know exactly who you are, when your interviewer sees that, they will b very likely to appreciate it and if nothing else, have respect for you.
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