There are countless articles and a multitude of career advice to be found on how to ace an interview. Job seekers are told what questions the interviewer will more than likely ask and how you should answer them, how to act, how to dress in the appropriate gray, blue, and white business attire, when to ask questions to show your interest and knowledge, how to write your cover letter and thank you letter. Interview advice is important to follow if you ever have hope of landing a job, let alone a dream job. Or is it?
The more this interview advice is followed, the more the advice has to evolve to become more cutting edge because when everyone is becoming schooled in the 'art of interviewing', job seekers are not standing out in interviews but blending in with one another! These days, job seekers look the same, sound the same, dress the same, ask the same questions, and answer the questions the same. They appear to be masses of drones applying for positions. They hide their greatest asset- their individuality- in order to become what the "general store" thinks it is looking for in a candidate.
So much so that many companies have resorted to using drone career websites with resume analyzers and recruiters to filter out 'qualified candidates' to move on to the next level for interviewing. Phone interviews are conducted with each candidate who is already coached in the rhetoric of the industry, boasting of their decorated track record and inflating their worth. The HR manager boasts how well the company is performing and how it's an exceptional place to work. All kinds of fluff going on. As the process drags on trying to find the perfect candidate, one is chosen, and everyone holds their breath. Now the truth will come out whether they were the right choice.
Hiring solely on qualifications and experience can be potentially troubling for a company is it can often lead to hiring the wrong person for the job because potential candidates become like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Michael Malchowitz supports this by stating that this can be a mistake. "The most effective way to hire fantastic, loyal employees who will fit into your company culture and help you meet your goals is to hire them for their inherent abilities (that which can't be taught), such as personality, learning style and core values. You do this by identifying behavior patterns during the interview process." I refer to this as a person's individuality- which eventually manifests months after being hired- the candidate may have wasted the company's time and money and their own time. Individuality plays such an important role in job fit and performance and it is not given attention in the interview process. Which is strange because companies really need individuality but they only hire what seems to be the 'safe' cookie cutter candidates.
On the other hand, both great talent and potential talent can be wrapped in unusual packages and HR managers are so brainwashed in package appeal that they often overlook the right candidate for the position because ironically- the candidate blends in and isn't noticed OR he doesn't blend in and HR flags him. An excellent candidate only hurts themselves by trying to act as a drone, worried that they won't say something right, shouldn't be honest about their likes and dislikes, or can't be themselves.
But this is a bilateral agreement between companies and job seekers. Each puts a superficial pressure on one another. By not breaking the cycle, each becomes an enabler of the others' expectations. My advice is that companies should loosen their fascination with only interviewing cookie cutter candidates and be less picky about non-important issues. Be more flexible to appreciate different types of workers. Spend more time with candidates to see who they really are as humans and how they view the their discretionary time and work time. Be honest about critical policies that every employee thinks is unfair. Be forthcoming about below average pay for the area and be able to explain why. Stop fluffing because your company is not The Best Company To Work For in 2011.
And job seekers should be more real about themselves in the interview, in their dress, appearance, and chosen words. It's understandable that there's an urgency to job seekers and they try to fit in to appeal to the company interviewing them. But differentiating yourself is key to standing out, and that differentiation comes from being yourself. Don't conform for the sake of landing the job. Saying you don't mind working past 5pm when you really do will make you regret it down the road.. Saying you want to work full-time when really you would like to work part-time is not worth the loss of discretionary time. If the pay isn't enough, ask for what you want. Don't say you have no plans of changing jobs for a few years when you know you have to be challenged in your career.
The hiring process should encompass more depth at knowing the company and the candidates and I believe the result would be beneficial to both job seekers and hiring companies.
Copyright ©2011 Teresa Bruneau
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