The Authentic Interview
An Authentic Interview is your best chance for a great job-don't blow it!
by Ric Giardina
My best interview ever was when I
didn't get the job. Not only did I not get an offer, but
midway through the interview, I politely invited the interviewers to call a halt to the process so we
wouldn't waste any more of each other's time.
Right about now, you may be wondering whether I was out of my mind-and in a certain sense, I was-but
that was a very
good thing. I believe that for most people a job interview is a totally mind-centered
event and, as such, it takes into account little of what may be happening in their emotions, their
bodies, and their spirits-in other words, the totality of the Authentic Self.
In a career that has stretched over nearly four decades, I have participated in hundreds of interviews.
On occasion I've been the candidate, but mostly I've been the hiring manager or somewhere in the new hire
approval chain.
I've seen too many candidates who were unwilling to let the "wrong job" get in their way of a job
offer. A job can be "wrong" because your skill set doesn't match the job requirements, you don't
really like the work, you believe it is the only thing you are trained or qualified to do, the
culture of the hiring organization is inconsistent with your personality, and so on.
Rather than using the job interview to determine if there is a "fit," many interviewees have the
wrong mindset; namely, to get an offer no matter what the circumstances. On more than one occasion,
I've seen a candidate transform right before my eyes in an effort to convince me that he is the
"ideal candidate" for a job.
When someone succeeds in fooling an interviewer-and often herself-into believing that she is the ideal
candidate for a position when that isn't really the case,
everyone suffers. The new hire has a
difficult time dealing with the demands of a job she isn't really interested in or has trouble
adapting to a work culture that isn't natural to her disposition. The employer is now dealing with
an employee unsuited to the position or to the organizational culture-or, worse, both. These are not
the starting ingredients for success. Getting a job the "real" you doesn't want is a short-term
solution with long-term negative consequences.
The only way you will know if a job is right for you is to test it for fit during the interview with
everything you can bring to bear. That means asking questions and listening with feeling and
intuition for the answers: What will it feel like to work here every day? Will I enjoy doing this
work day after day after day? How will it feel to immerse myself in this organizational culture for
several years? More personally, how does it feel having this person sitting across from me as my
manager-knowing that, to some extent, I am putting a key piece of my future in his or her hands?
The best way-no, the
only way-to get accurate answers to those questions is to bring your Authentic
Self to the interview. There is nothing you can do to increase your chances of succeeding in your
next job in terms of both career and personal happiness other than to just be yourself during the
interview-
nothing!
Look at it this way: if you are hired because of who you are instead of who you are pretending to be,
you have a performance advantage over everyone else in your new workplace, many of whom are working
hard trying to be the people they represented themselves to be during their interviews. You, on the
other hand, will find that having magnificent results by simply being who you are is a lot easier than
having satisfactory results trying to be someone you aren't!
When asked by my interviewers why I was suggesting terminating the interview, I explained that based
on the questions they had already asked, I felt intuitively that this job was not a match for me.
While I think that answer surprised them, they readily agreed; we shook hands and went our separate
ways.
That truncated interview was over three decades ago, but the importance of that event and the
potential lesson it holds for all job seekers was not lost on me:
Don't let an opportunity to steer clear of the
wrong job pass you by!
About the Author:
Ric Giardina
Why Shouldn't We Hire You?
Effective Personal Marketing