Actually land an onsite interview? First, congratulations. Because that means you are a finalist. You survived the phone screen, video interview and assessments…now you have to prep.
First of all…congratulations! You made it to the interview!
Interviewing has changed dramatically. There’s far more upfront screening, and onsite interviews are really just for finalists. Don’t get annoyed about how you have to phone interview with 17 people before you ever get to meet with anyone in person. Remember, your goal is to build rapport with your Recruiter and go along with the company process, however crazy it seems to you as a candidate.
After you have made it through the phone screen, videointerview and coffee date, you are ready for the Big Day. You will be scheduled to meet with a lot of people if scheduling works out.
In person interviews and first dates have a lot in common:
- They are auditions for your future, not therapy sessions
- No one wants to hear about your ex
- There’s a checklist
CareerRx ProTips For Onsite Interviews
- Confirm the dress code for the specific organization, industry and region.
- Ask your Recruiter to confirm the names of the interviewers and their titles.
- Arrive 10 minutes before the scheduled time.
- Do not curse. (Yes, I’m adding that after having candidates lose great jobs because they get nervous and curse.)
- Do not ramble. Give Behavioral Examples for answers.
- Attempt to get cards from each interviewer or at least confirm email.
- If you are interested in the role, always make an affirmative statement about your interest.
- Send very short thank you emails to each interviewer with 24 hours.
- Follow up with your Recruiter within 24 hours of the interviews, either by email or phone.
- Think of the interview more like a business planning meeting.
Finally, have fun. When candidates get nervous, it shows and creates bias in the interview. You are better off relaxing and going with the process. There’s no way to control the outcome so just do your best.
You’ve made it through a lengthy screening process. If you have made it this far, now there’s a whole new set of minefields, dangers and sharks in the water.
Common Onsite Interview Mistakes
Let’s review common mistakes job seekers make when interviewing in person.
Attire
Dressing appropriately is a huge minefield. Because what constitutes business casual is confusing based on industry and region. When it comes to interview attire, don’t make any assumptions about what the unofficial dress code is for the company and the region. I always ask the Recruiter what they would recommend. In some companies and regions, wearing a suit would be the kiss of death. In other more conservative corporate environments, if you show up business casual you will look underdressed and less than professional.
Ensure that your accessories – shoes, bag and coat – are clean. As a Recruiter, when a candidate arrives wearing scruffy, dirty shoes and hands me a dirty smelly coat, I remember them in the wrong way.
79% of Millennials think they should be able to wear jeans to work. 50% of Boomers don’t agree. If you are a Millennial, keep in mind that the people who are interviewing you are Gen Xers and Boomers. I’m not saying be super uptight. You just need to use some good judgment.
GPS Your Route
Before you go on the interview, confirm the time and location with the interview scheduler. I always recommend GPSing the location in advance during the worst part of rush hour to get a sense of worst case scenario for traffic issues. I’ve had candidates show up 45 minutes late for an interview because traffic is horrible and they got stuck.
The lesson to be learned here is now with GPS, the acceptability for being late to an interview has gone down dramatically. New technology causes changes in social norms.
Build Rapport
Focus on build rapporting with everyone. That includes the people with whom you are scheduled to meet – Hiring Manager, potential peers, direct reports and never forget the Receptionist and Executive Assistant. If you are great with the person to whom you’d report, but mean to the Receptionist and his EA, don’t think they won’t tell him. They will. Be nice to support staff.
Oversharing
You may be your own biggest danger by self sabotaging and talking yourself out of the deal. The same way that some people are on dates and literally talk themselves out of the deal when they start talking about the 4 year legal battle with their ex.
The same thing happens with job search. You want to come across as a low risk hire. Stay aware that they’re assessing you against the job. And they’re assessing, “Is this person going to be a liability or a nightmare problem employee?” So leave any stories about conflicts and breakups at home.
Career Transitions
Recruiters and Hiring Managers typically will ask you to walk them through your experience and provide explanations for why you left one job for another. I call these career transitions. My strong recommendation is that you sit down with your resume BEFORE a phone interview and come up with one sentence per job – that’s it – that is your official explanation of why you made the move.
One sentence means that you will not have an opening to say or do anything negative, like ramble, get emotional, tell a story about how crappy that last employer was or even worse, share that “all of the good people left.” This one sentence per career transition should only include two possible answers:
- Recruited out for a new job
- Downsized or laid off due to sale, merger or reorg of the company
Anytime you’ve lost a job involuntarily, you will refer to that career transition as “being downsized.” Do not use the word fired or say that you were terminated. You say, “I was laid off” or “I was downsized,” and make the reason about a change in company operations, like a merger, acquisition, sale, or office closure.
Cursing
When you are in interviews, never curse. Even if the corporate environment is one in which your interviewers are cursing, just don’t. When you’re interviewing, you’re going through the test.
Rambling
Don’t ramble. Provide your interviewer great behavioral examples for answers by using the STAR acronym. If the interviewer asks you, “What’s your biggest strength?” You’re not going to respond, “My biggest strength is I’m good with people.” You’re going to say, “Let me tell you the time when I exhibited my biggest strength. Last November, we had a very dissatisfied client. The situation I was involved in was that the client was threatening to block and end the business. The task that I took was I replaced the product and the result was that we retained the customer and we generated 2M more in revenue.” Then stop talking. Let the interviewer probe for clarification.
Interview Questions
When you are answering interview questions, your mission is to provide evidence for your skills. You don’t want to give your interviewers generalizations. Many times, when candidates are interviewing for a new job and maybe they have about 60% of the qualifications. So it would be a stretch assignment for them requiring training, mentoring and support from their manager and the organization.
In these situations, try to identify which prior experience is directly transferable. This is far better than telling your interviewer, “I’m looking for growth opportunity.” Or “I’m ready to meet the challenge.” Those are claims. Proclamations. But not evidence.
You’re much better off saying, “Listen, I’ve done an analysis of the job, I understand that I have 70% of the must haves for the role. Here are the 3 things that definitely would be a stretch but here’s what I would do to learn those skills.” You specifically address your skills gap, and show that you’re actually very reasonable and accurate in your self-assessment. That is extremely valuable for a hiring manager. If you just say to a potential manager, “I’m ready to meet the challenge,” it could be perceived as “I want you to hire me and pay for something I don’t know how to do.”
When you are in your interview, it’s essential that you have your talking points ready before you show up. You’re going to take that job description, and any supplemental materials like executive summaries, case studies, portfolios – whatever is appropriate for your job interview for your field in your industry. Print them out or have it ready to view on your tablet.
A handout is low tech but it works and may be the way to go. It’s essential that you plan how you’re going to respond to interview questions around the requirements in the job description. You’ll have to be able to articulate your past experience with the STAR acronym.
Don’t drill your potential manager with questions about compensation and benefits. Save that discussion for after you have really shown them that you are the right person for the role.
Work Life Balance
And this is going to be very controversial but I recommend that you never use the term work-life balance. Work-life balance was hot in the 90’s. Newsflash – the work-life balance movement is over. We’re corporate indentured servants. It’s a very sad casualty of the Greater Depression. You’re now expected to work more hours for less pay and that’s just the way it is. Once you are hired, your direct manager is the person with whom you will work out how to maintain a work-life balance. Your manager has a vested interest in working with you after you’re hired to make sure that you are not miserable.
Closing the Interview
If you’re interested in the role, it is imperative that you as a candidate make an affirmative statement to your interviewer saying, “I know that you’re assessing me for this role. If you feel that I have the skills for this role, I want to let you know I’m super interested in this opportunity.” You’re not trying to sell or spin that before they’ve assessed you as being able to advance. This is real critical distinction. You’re not being pushy. Many people are afraid they’re come off as pushy.
What you’re saying is IF you think I’m a match, I’m very interested in this company. Many interviewers leave and hiring managers would tell me, “I don’t even know if they’re interested in the company.” It’s like auditioning for a show and not showing any interest for the show.
Send a very short email thank you to each of your interviewers about 24 hours after meeting. Wait about 12 hours so you don’t look stalkery but don’t wait more than 48 hours to send the email. Don’t send a thank you card via snail mail. People travel or work virtually so chances are they won’t get it for a month. You need to keep this moving along. Always think, “How can we advance the process?”