Tell me if you can relate:
“Sometimes, I wish I could just open my head up, pull my brain out my skull, slap it down on the table, and say: ‘This is me. This is what I can offer. Take it or leave it. But, please, let’s stop with the silly and pretentious games.'”
You’ve earned the right to call yourself an experienced professional. You’ve put in your 10,000 hours of expertise. You’ve “paid your dues”, so to speak.
If you started the job tomorrow, you’d own it.
Everything they ask for in a candidate you offer — and a lot more.
Ostensibly, they called you in to assess your suitability for the job and get to know you. Yet, it’s been 30 minutes and the interviewers have done nothing but prod and poke you with superficial and cliched questions.
What gives?
Do they want the perfect candidate — or are they deliberately going out of their way to make the process miserable, depressing, and ineffective?
Here’s my take on all this:
Interviewing is a little like dating.
Ask men and women, and they’ll both tell you that they “hate playing games”, and that they’re looking for someone “who is honest” and “above it all”.
Yet, in reality, they’re forced to play along.
Do you remember that scene in Tootsie, when Dustin Hoffman’s character (the man, dressed as a lady) is sitting up at night with another woman and they’re complaining about men. She (the other woman) says:
“Do you know what I wish, just once? That a guy could be honest enough to just walk right up to me and say:”
‘Hey listen… you know, I’m confused about this too. I could lay a big line on you, we could do a lot of role playing, but the simple truth is, I find you very interesting and I’d like to make love with you. Simple as that.’
“Wouldn’t that be a relief?”
Hoffman’s character (the man, this time dressed as himself) walks up to the same woman at a party and says does just that — without the game-playing.
What happens?
She throws her drink in his face.
Moral of the story:
We all hate playing games. However, when we’re afraid of letting the wrong person into our life — work or personal — and committing to something we might regret, games are a necessary part of the process.
That said…
If you want to work through this “games” part of the process as quickly as possible, the key is to understand the other party’s underlying concerns and focus your responses around resolving whatever fears the interviewer has (but is afraid to come out and say).
It all about understanding what is important to the other person. That is how you build authentic trust and respect, and win omeone over.
This is the philosophy behind Interview Success Formula.
I know exactly what questions an interviewer will ask you. (HINT: They’re the same twenty questions, with slight and predictable variations.) Why? Because I know what concerns almost every interviewer has when they’re considering hiring a candidate, and I know what they’re looking for with their questions.
This is the “magic” behind Interview Success Formula.
