Ask not what the company can do for you but what you can do for the company

With the pandemic came The Great Resignation where people re-evaluated their lives, their jobs, and their circumstances – often deciding to quit their position either for a better one in the same industry or a completely new one.

However, quitting a job usually means having to get another one, which means an interview process. It’s often the case though that highly qualified people don’t land the job of their dreams because they don’t perform well at interview stage. Here is expert advice on how to stand out from the crowd and ace the interview.

The two most common reasons people perform poorly in interviews are not having a positive mindset and insufficient preparation, says Cathy Balfe, career coach, Career Coach Me. “We all have an inner dialogue – and people can be exceptionally critical of themselves.

“Clients often tell themselves things like ‘I’m terrible at interviews’, ‘I can’t do this’, ‘I can’t wait for this to be over’ or ‘I hate selling myself’. These thoughts don’t help in motivating you to put in the time and effort required to prepare well for interview, and they don’t help your confidence and how you come across on the day.”

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Balfe says positive psychology can be applied to this situation, and in particular positive reframing. Positive reframing is defined by the Harvard University Stress and Development Lab as “involving thinking about a negative or challenging situation in a more positive way”.

Often people don’t spend enough time preparing for interviews. “Or if they do spend enough time, they sometimes don’t make the best use of the time spent preparing. There is no point in doing in-depth research into an industry/organisation if you are not able to discuss this information in a clear and logical way during an interview.

“Do your research, but make sure you are formulating key speaking points to be able to demonstrate your industrial and organisational knowledge and your ability to summarise relevant information and to communicate clearly.”

An interview is an unusual social interaction, as most people do not spend much time discussing their skillset and experience with others

—  Cathy Balfe, career coach, Career Coach Me

Another reason that people don’t perform well, even if highly qualified, is that they don’t make an impact, says Robert Mac Giolla Phadraig, founding director and chief commercial officer, Sigmar Recruitment.

“An interview is about hearts and minds and often it’s not just about the content of the answers delivered during the interview but also about how you’re experienced during the interview,” he explains.

“If you think of a competency-based interview, quite often the interviewer is looking for an example of where that competency was demonstrated. If you put yourselves in the shoes of an interviewer, they are often interviewing four-five people, back to back, so when they sit down with a scorecard, what’s going to influence them to score you higher than a similar candidate? It’s how they experience the candidate subconsciously, how the candidate built a rapport with them.”

Balfe says there is a method to preparing properly for an interview – predicting interview questions, preparing interview questions, and practising. “I firmly believe interviewing is a skill, and one that can be practised and developed. An interview is an unusual social interaction, as most people do not spend much time discussing their skillset and experience with others. It is important to get comfortable discussing your background, including your skills and experience.

“There are lots of ways to practise your answers – you can say them out loud to yourself, you can record yourself delivering your answers and watch yourself back, you can practise an interview with a family member/friend, or you can work with a career coach who provides mock interview sessions.”

Often people worry about getting stuck on a difficult question, says Balfe. “Prepare for how you would handle this situation and it is no longer something to waste your emotional energy worrying about.

The biggest reason for a candidate not being successful is because of cultural fit, which is so nuanced and broad and is felt or not felt

—  Robert Mac Giolla Phadraig, Sigmar Recruitment

“For example, you can buy yourself some time in an interview by asking the interviewer to repeat a question, by asking for a moment to think, or if you need more time asking whether you can come back to this question later – make sure to come back and answer the question if you take this approach. If you feel you will not be able to answer the question, tell the interviewer you don’t know the answer but that you will follow up directly after the interview via email.”

The Star (situation, task, action, result) method of answering a behavioural-based interview question is well known, says Mac Giolla Phadraig. However, he believes there is a key element missing from this – impact. He says the biggest reason for a candidate not being successful is because of cultural fit, which is so nuanced and broad and is felt or not felt. “I would change the model to look like Sari – adding ‘impact’.

“Culture is driven by behaviour, behaviour is driven by values – so if I was talking to a candidate and giving them a cheat sheet, it would be that for every competency question, identify a value that the company values and talk about how you impacted that value in your answer.”

While there has been a shift to remote and hybrid work, Mac Giolla Phadraig says the tide is turning in terms of the employee having the power and that an awareness of the business needs and expectations – and being flexible to those needs – are key to standing out from the crowd.

“As a candidate try to understand the working practices that work for the people, if they operate a fully remote or a four-day week, try to understand the context and speak to the context. I would advise flexibility being in the workplace so the employer has the security that the candidate will go into the office if and when required.

“Ask not what the company can do for you but what you can do for the company. The current flexibility won’t always be for the benefit of the employee. If two candidates have the same skills and experience, and one candidate has the flexibility to come in and the other doesn’t, the candidate offering flex will win over the other.