The Interview – A Conversation, Not an Interrogation

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Most interview preparation is focused on answering the tough questions you know you will hear. Questions like ‘why did you leave (or want to leave) your last job?’ and ‘what’s your biggest weakness?’ do require some advance thought. But if you’re only focusing on how to answer questions, you’re missing half the work you need to do. Too many view an interview as an interrogation and prepare to calmly and clearly answer the questions posed by the interviewer. But if you only do that, you transfer all your power to the interviewer. You’re not a supplicant; you’re an equal in the meeting, offering value for value.



The interviewer has a job to offer and you have your skills and hard work to match it. Start off understanding that you are equal parties to a negotiation and retain your power.



Remember the basic rule of interview success – people hire people they like. It’s hard to sweden phone number resource develop any kind of relationship when you are simply responding to questions. It’s your job to transform the Q&A into a conversation where you have the chance to not only learn more about the position and the company, but also to demonstrate how well you would fit into the company and its culture. At least half of your interview preparation must include planning for this. You need to:

Know about the company , its challenges, its competition and how it makes money
Know as much as you can about the job itself, not just the HR description of it. Talk to people in your LinkedIn network to get this information
Plan questions of your own to interject in the interview process, but not about salary and other benefits.
Learn as much as you can about those who may be interviewing you. Identify common non-work interests if possible.