In a previous post on interviews, I bullet-pointed some… pointers… from an article that I read about the dynamics of interviews. It was all well and good, but it seemed to me to be a bit contrived and too planned out. This is fine if that’s the way one operates, it gave me the same feeling I was getting when I was sending out applications willy-nilly a few months ago, before I sat down and had a talk with myself – I just didn’t feel it.
I do agree with the essence of the pointers, but I don’t really agree with the style. The advice almost made it look like interviews are a “me vs. you” conversation when in fact, it should probably be “me possibly work with you, you challenge me to see if I can do the job for you”. But maybe I’m being just a bit too pedantic over this one.
***
That hunt for advice was well before the interviews came in. With this one organization at least (but many interviews), I’ve taken away a different success strategy.
The best advice I got from everyone around me was this – be yourself. If one acts at an interview, and one is hired, one might need to put on the act every day at the office. This is a risk, and I really prefer to be in an environment where I can be myself. So if you can’t hire me without me having to put on an elaborate act, then it’s probably best for both of us that you don’t.
So I put my best foot forward (because one must, and the key word is “forward” and not “in my mouth”), but I made sure that the foot I put forward was my own.
Success – I got the job.
