6 Tips for Interviewing (From Behind the Scenes!)

I have had the pleasure of building teams throughout my career in multiple industries and it has been a true learning experience. As a hiring manager, interviews become part of the team building process. I am constantly evolving how I interact with a candidate and how that person would fit into the team, the role, and company culture. If you haven’t had a chance to read my other postings, it may be a great place to start. I have shared my tips in the past for how to ace a phone interview and some tips for interview success from my own experience.

This time around, I am offering a different perspective from behind the scenes that some people may not necessarily share. This is honest feedback from my perspective that have created some pitfalls for a few candidates. I hope that you find it helpful and I wish you all the best of luck at your next interview!

Have a clear reason as to why you are looking for a new role.
Be honest with yourself. Are you leaving because you didn’t get the raise that you were expecting or deserved? Were you passed over on a promotion? Or do you just need a change? Whatever the reason may be, make sure that you are authentic when you are sharing. It may become part of the discussion if you are made an offer, so make sure that your negotiations match your original objective.

Be Authentic – Prep but don’t over prep.
Make sure to research ahead of time so that you understand the company, what they stand for, and why you would like to work there. That said, don’t over prep to the point where you can repeat the company mission statement word for word. If you have a friend that is connected, reach out for tidbits and context but not for answers to what potential questions could be. The interview team can tell when you have been over-prepped and will leave feeling like they didn’t get to know the real you. They want to meet the person that will be joining the team and growing with the company.

Practice your answers the night before (out loud).
I cannot stress this enough – you want to be comfortable. You should be able to recall examples that reference some of your achievements, areas of opportunity that you want to grow in, team projects that led to impactful outcomes and any specific obstacles that you have had to overcome to get to where you are today. Each of these aspects of your professional life are a part of who you are, so be proud to share with the interviewing team.

Ask different questions and share different examples.
In my previous posting, I shared that you should always ask questions during your interview. If you are meeting with a team for your interview day, prepare multiple questions that you can ask each person during your interview. Each interviewer shares their feedback afterwards, so make sure you give them something to share that doesn’t match the rest of the team’s questions and answers.

Bring your energy and personality.
Another point of emphasis – be yourself! I have been in many interviews where a candidate may not be the most qualified, but a manager was willing to take a chance on developing them due to their personality and attitude. Remember – you want to be the total package and sometimes your attitude can be the tipping point when there are multiple candidates with the same qualifications for the open role. You never know what the hiring manager is looking for.

Say thank you and be personable
This step is extremely important and puts the exclamation mark on the end of your interview. You would be surprised that there are conversations that revolve around whether or not a thank you note or email has been received by the teams after an interview. When you write your note – make sure to make it personable to each interviewer. Hopefully you were able to pick up some tidbits in conversation with different interviewers about who they are and their role within and the company. Including these new bits of information in a than you note is a nice touch that shows attention to detail.