Interviewing with Empathy

While I always (…welp. Almost always.) have deep empathy for job-seekers, since it’s such an emotionally-draining position to be in, the more I coach, the more empathy I have for the poor souls who have to conduct these interviews. And this isn’t just because I spend a lot of time doing mock-interviews with clients. Trust me, my clients know better than to show up for these drills unprepared.

No, I’m talking about  people who will score an interview with a company they have a huge hard-on for, and then seemingly sit back and watch as the opportunity goes down the toilet. Listen: getting the interview is the hardest step, but when you go into that interview totally unprepared, disorganized and unfocused, among other things, you’re just wasting your own time. Not to mention your ability to network in the future. So many people go into interviews with this attitude of, “Well you called me in here; amuse me and then hire me! I need cash.” These are the same people who then will frequently tell me, “Yeah…the interviewer wasn’t super enthused. I don’t think I got the job.” Oh. You don’t say…

Have some empathy for the person interviewing you, and prepare! Because the interviewer also has her own job to perform. Her job isn’t solely to pull out of you the vital information she needs so as to be able to make an informed decision as to whether or not you’re competent to do the work. She or he has other candidates to meet, and their own position to cover. It’s like when I was an assignment editor at the national desk of a certain fair and balanced news-channel, and I’d get prospective desk assistants who, in the eye of the storm, as everyone else was answering three phones at once and trying to not have a heart-attack in the midst of live, late-breaking news, would casually say, “Um, could I like bring my boyfriend to work sometime?” Of course you can, Sunshine! We’ll just pencil you in for the 5^th of Never. Save the date!

So when you go into an interview and you haven’t prepared your talking points, when you don’t have a pitch, when you haven’t researched the company and thought about what you offer, and how your previous experience prepared you to work at this company…rage. Rage rising. Also, feel free to presume that your interlocutor is thinking, “If you’re this disorganized and unprepared for the interview, sweet fancy Moses, what will you be like on a regular day? I have enough train-wrecks working here.” #donotwant

If you’ve made it to an interview, be proud! Now, this is your time to kill.

1. Research the company. This does not mean just spending 5 minutes on their website. It means checking them out in industry trades; Googling newspaper and magazine articles; investigating their social media. Reach out to your fellow alumni on LinkedIn and Facebook, asking if there’s people working at this company who’d feel comfortable getting coffee with you, and answering a few positive questions. What are people saying about them? What are they saying about themselves? What issues are they focused on and how can you contribute, intelligently, to that conversation?
2. Research the person interviewing you. At least be able to spell and pronounce their name correctly. When I had people ask me for help getting into network news, and they called me, “Carla,” or “Carlotta…” Good luck with that. You’re trying to get work in a business that runs on details and research…and you can’t even get my name right? Well, I’m sure they’ll spell your name correctly on your Emmy. (Ha!)
3. Write out your talking points. Write out and organize your narrative, the condensed version of your professional story that you wish to sell. Writing this narrative out is a great way for you to organize it in your mind, and thus become comfortable telling it. It’s a great way for you to become confident enough to focus on the interviewer, and not the part of your brain freaking out. Because the more comfortable you can be in an interview, the more it becomes simply an interesting dialogue. When you’re able to speak with the interviewer, as an equal…bam, the world is yours. You lose your nervousness and you’re able to sell.
4. Finally, the interview is for you to sell yourself to the company, NOT the other way around. When I have friends tell me, “Oh, I’m just going to go and see what they can do for me,” I have to start breathing into a paper bag, so I don’t stare at them and say something like, “Wow, it must be so liberating to go through life so mindlessly. So freeing. I envy you, actually.” What the company can do for you? What about that whole bit of hiring you and giving you a paycheck and benefits and someplace to go every day? Yeah, that whole thing. When you’re rich and famous, then yes, you can show up and be amazed at the crazy and naked things people will beg to do for you. Enjoy it! Please blog about it, so I can enjoy it vicariously! Right now, when you show up unprepared, all you’re doing is sabotaging your ability to sell and thus get hired.

Those were some points to get you started. Want some more help? Of course you do! Email me at carlotazee@gmail.com, and become a fan of my Facebook page, “Carlotaworldwide Creativity Yenta,” for a free session.

Besos,

C.