Interview Success – Some Learning Tips

Successful Interviewing Means Learning from Each Experience

Some Thoughts on Interviews and ‘learned’ Success!

The path to a new job is usually an exercise in ‘statistical failure,’ meaning that one’s securing a new position generally means that many others have gone by the wayside in your process.  Rarely does one apply for one job, get the one interview and then get that offer. It is a process of more misses than hits and this can be pretty discouraging for those seeking, especially if one is looking for instant results in the process.  If one had the option to get a commission on the failed interview as compared with the successful one, take the percentage on the failed one’s every time as the numbers will always lean that way.  

The key to interview success is to know that odds in the process are against you and what’s an important by-product about the interviewing process is to learn from each experience and generate a list of take-away’s for a better performance for the next time around.

1) Networking and Building Bridges

Today’s job search process is really about networking and building a community of concentric circles for you to be communicating with.  If you’ve received an interview, remember that first and foremost, you’ve built a bridge with someone in that organization. Clearly, if you’d been invited, there had been something in your materials that had caught the attention and deemed worthy of an invite. This is good news if you think about the sheer number of other potential applicants!  If the interview went well and there was a good connection with those whom you met, and that a good rapport had been established, take that as a strong positive. Never be afraid to reach out and again connect with these people.  You can do so via LinkedIn and email, among many other digital conduits today.  Keep that person or those persons as a connection and a possible referral for you in the future.
Always be sure to thank the person or persons involved in your interview process.  Use the time after the interview to thank them for taking the time for facilitating the interview with you.  This also gives you an opportunity, after seeing behind the scenes, to tell them what you think of the organization and to reiterate your interest for that position and with that organization.  There’s always the possibility that another position might come open or that the job you had interviewed for might again be available.

Also, it is not uncommon that connections made from the job interview could send you leads and tips on other jobs or positions within their network.  Remember, each networking contact you add, as stated above, is a new concentric circle and with that you’re potentially adding everyone they know to your search!

2) Your Uniqueness

Remember that if you’ve been contacted after applying for a job, to keep in mind there was something about your materials that enabled you to rise above the other candidates to get an interview.  So you must be doing something right!  Even if you didn’t get the position, you really should feel good to having been selected from the many candidates for that interview, and the experience of interviewing at an organization that you spent the time and effort researching will certainly help you to be a better interviewer the next time invited to do so.

Each interview experience will also help you shape an opinion of the kind of industry or organization, sometimes even the very people you would ultimately want to work for.  Too often we look at an organization from the outside thinking that it’s the dream job only, once in, to find that things aren’t as glowing as you may have thought.  Consider the interview as a two-way street, where they are finding out what makes you tick, but also an chance to examine them behind the scenes also.

3) Be Professional

It’s important to be professional and to respond professionally on every level regardless of the outcome of an interview. Sometime this means knowing the difference between when the person tells you “no” and what they are actually saying is “not this time.”  These are two completely different responses to an interview that has not generated an offer.  The latter being one of those times when you might not be the right fit for what they are looking for at the moment and it is more down to timing than anything missing or deficient in your approach.  Keeping the lines of communication open may ultimately end as a job that might be perfect specifically for you.

Professionals have to accept success and failure with equal parts grace and humility.  These economic times have been tough on the average job-seeker but especially tough on the Millenial generation, but you have to keep your head up and your mind open to possibilities you hadn’t thought of.

In the end, and it can’t be said enough, be professional through and through!  People look to positive people when they do their hiring and while this interview in particular may not have led to an offer, it may have led to another opportunity that wasn’t something you’d seen coming.  Keep the lines of communication open, clear and professional on all levels!  This will lead to positive outcomes in the process!

Good luck!