Discussion on:

10 ways to be liked in your job interview

Most of the points mentioned here make the difference in the classroom as well!

For those in an instructional capacity, the way you act in an interview can easily be applied in an interview. From experience, I think I can say that the ability to talk to complete strangers (ie in an interview) is the greatest skill an individual canhave, but to keep their interest? That is the real art!

11. Visualize what it would be like if you saw a movie, where a perfectly qualified job candidate would be in a friendly interview. The candidate would have a complete knowledge of the job, its requirements, and qualifications, the company and its history. The candidate would be easy-going or aggressive depending on the job requirements. (Think receptionist or salesman) The candidate would have no emotional baggage and be emotionally well adjusted. And so on.
Now, you be that candidate.
Visualize the perfect candidate. You be that.
The little things like sweatty palms or such will just fall away.

after all how could they turn you down?

The visualization method makes sense if what you visualize is yourself, on your best day!
(let people get to know how great you really are before they see you on a bad day :0). The point is to get across who you really are, and not sabotage yourself and/or give the other person an inaccurate perception. If you are a pretty good fit, and feel confident you can adapt and thrive in the job, which is the impression you want to leave. If you are pretending to be someone else, even if you give an Oscar winning performance, neither you nor your employer will be happy in 6 months.

So ask for the 25% then at least some good came out of it, and if you donly get it you can pretend it was becuse you are to expensive.

The last time I pretended to be someone else was the school play.

These sorts of tips are way too one sided for me, if you want a square peg, and pay well, interview me, otherwise don't waste my time is my attitude.

With all these rules as to who not to be, are you not essentially saying be someone you may not actually be?

I think that would be detrimental a few weeks in when your true self shines.

If you are a miserable grunt, no reason to be happy and bright in an interview, it won't last after yuo are hired and you are not that person anymore.

If you can't get a job just being who you are, you need ot think about who you are and what flaws people see in YOU as an individual. To simply be a paradigm of an employement candidate, doesn't show too much of yourself, does it?

I don't disagree that your interview tips are the way most companies like to view candidates, but if that is not really YOU it doesn't work.

If you are naturally a bummer and miserable, you may be a good candidate to look inward and adjust your sttitude, then it will appear normaly in an interview.

To simply mimick what people want is a lesson in failure to be.

After reading the majority of your posts I thought I would disagree with you on almost anything. Scarily enough I find myself agreeing with many of your comments, this one included. I've never tried to be anyone other than myself in an interview or a job. I supply the employer with what they ask for and hope they like me. If they don't like me or my attitude, perhaps I would be happier some place else anywho. No matter if I'm at work or at play, I can guarantee you I am the exact same person.

This part in particular I like:

If you are naturally a bummer and miserable, you may be a good candidate to look inward and adjust your sttitude

You need to fix yourself instead of worrying about what your potential employer wants if you're that person.

"I thought I would disagree with you on almost anything."

Me too, I hardly ever listen to myself.

Actually, while I find I debate.argue with many when it comes to politics, I often share very similar views when it comes to employment and personal responsibility with regards to employment. It's the conservative in me I guess. It's the me that doesn't fit with West Coast Canada because I am so right wing and exiles me from America for being too liberal.

I LOVE political tags, what a joke.

When applying to a salesman position, you need to show how aggressive and talkative you can be in the interview. May be you are a silent person inside, but for the job probably you use different masks. Or, when applying to a help-desk position, you must show a gentlemen/lady of you using nice words, not the real you drinking beer with friends after the job! Do you think nice lady on the phone never use bad words or get angry in her private life? Many jobs require us to play different roles than we are. It is the truth. My friend of bank manager hates his job, because he screw people for the good of the bank, but never in his private life!
Single person wear many different masks in his/her social and work life, that's normal. And in the interview they want to see what is your maximums to fill that specific position. So, play it to the bones!

I prefer a job that allows me to be myself. There is no way I could work a job that made me miserable. That's me, that's just who I am. When I worked one of my first jobs for an ATM repair\financial network support business I actually broke protocol and a couple of laws once. I watched an atm take an old guy's money. Now he should have called the bank, but I knew they had a habit of denying claims without iron clad proof. This was a rural area stand alone unit, no others around an no cameras on the grounds so he wouldn't have had proof. This guy was obviously in his 80's and had tattoos on his forearm that I recognized, signifying that he was a holocaust survivor. Well I performed the repairs and fixed the problem, both his and the machine's problems. I can't "screw people." It isn't part of my core beliefs. I'll quit, get fired or get written up before I knowingly screw someone over. I have to live with myself at the end of the day, not my company's bottom line.

I'm the same person whether drinking beer with my buddies or at the water cooler in the office. I'm not afraid of being myself regardless of company. But that is just me.

People get jobs hopefully to expand their experience and knowledge and grow professionally. This implies that there are a lot of positive changes that you want to make in your professional life.

With that said, in an interview, you have to BECOME whatever the position requires. So don't be yourself, be whoever the company needs you to be. Be in the interview who you want to be 5 years from now.

I still have to disagree. Why be someone I'm not? I don't want my job to shape who I am or where I want to take my career. If I'm not the right person for the job, why subject myself to that? It seems to me that I would just be putting myself into an environment where I will not be satisfied or happy.

That's just my humble opinion. I have no desire to pretend to be what a potential employer is looking for. I'd much rather find a job that fits what I want and be happy with myself and my career. It is possible to grow professionally on your own terms, not your employer's terms.

FIT is the most essential part of building a successful career. Skills, goals, motivation can all be learned or taught, but that 'FIT' is imperative.

That is an issue I have now, my day job is a cakewalk and I own it. However, while it is in a field that interests me, there is a major lack of 'something' that I can't seem to find.

I'm waiting it out for a bit and probably next spring will just up and move on as i have irons in the fire and opportunities that interest me too, a couple working the music industry in the UK again, which is VERY VERY VERY VERY tempting.

My job is a mix between challenging and a cake walk. There's a huge trust between myself, my staff and management level. I really am happy even though I know I could make more money. But our network is ever expanding and I'm constantly learning. Basically things get as complex as we choose, so I get to expand my knowledge base on the company dime. Plus it is (mostly) a great group of people. Everyone is a fast learner and creative. We recently had two new staffers come on board that are those "strictly by the book" types. One is a pc guy. Nothing is more annoying than someone who adheres to a strict set of guidelines with no exceptions, ever. I also enjoy those free trips to Cisco Live each year. Can't say that I ever care to go back to Frisco though, I had a blast but I'd not be upset if I never go back there again.

I was there last month to meet with Cisco engineers and work with Symbol/Motorola to help design a rugged casing/sleeve for their handhelds.

Love San Francisco as a tourist but not so much for biz.

as for challenge, my job can be challenging, if I make it so. I am just afraid of becoming lazy and complacent, I have always seen people get stuck into careers or just jobs that thye do because it's there and easier than constantly trying to move up the ladder of life. Sometimes I'll quit a job just to throw a little boost in the butt and kick me into forward gear again but I just have it pretty easy and the money is still good. I get more by base salary than others in my field get combined with commission, however I can't make much more as I am capped, so it's a tough move right now.

You have the smartest comment I've read about a successful career. Getting a job that's the "right fit" takes work & self-reflection. I had a job that people would have killed for, but it was the wrong fit for me. I was miserable. I moved on in less than a year-but I learned a lot.

Yes! I am going threw the soul destroying process of finding a job and being groomed by various agencies to present a certain way. I find your reply comforting and reassuring..if I can't be who I am in an interview, then I probably wont fit with the culture of that particular work place.

If I hired you and you turned out to be nothing like you were in the interview, you'd likely not make it past performance review..
Having said that, you could out to be an all star and I'd be delighted..but way too much of a chance that things would go the other way.

An interview is not only about skills, its also about attitude, and once you start the job if I feel you've presented yourself falsely how am I to know what else is false?

I would expect any person I hire to expand thier experience and grow professionally, it "initiative" i'm looking for.

One becomes what the position requires when they get the position. If you ARE the perfect person with all of the skills I require, I'm a bit wary. If you've nothing to learn and nothing to aspire to, why do I want to hire you?

Just my thoughts..

I agree wholly, and to add to yuor comments, I have been hired even though I was NOT as experienced too.

As you say, growth and seeing the future potential of a new hire is most important. I have been hired over people with much more experience, simply because they figured I had what it would take and the technical information can be acquired in short time.

Often, if you have the potential and look like the right fit for the company, you will be hired whether or not yoy are initially WHO they are looking for or not.

I've even been hired by an owner who admitted that we probably wouldn't get along so well because we were so alike. But he said I would get along like a house on fire with the manager and those I was to work with. The owner and I were both very strong Alpha males but at teh same time, where we did not have to work together as closely, I fit in perfectly with the sales team and sales manager.

I soon became good friends with teh owner too, as we found out where we worked well together and focused on those areas instead of conflict. Turned out to be one of my longest company runs, being in my line of work anything from 1-3 years with the same company is considered an average, not long term.

I've gotten jobs where I wasn't the most qualified.. I've been told many times that I had a great personality and knew enough for the position, and thats why I got it.

I've hired in the same way. A few years back interviewed 4 people. One was seriously annoying..could do the job though. One has impressive CV, but she was too shy to tlak in the interview. Third knew everything, was perfect, but he would have been bored and he would have been gone in 6 months..the last one, friendly, chatty (but not annoyingly so), open about what he didn't know. I figured he's take about 2 months to learn the ropes .. I hired him and in 6 weeks was a star, outperforming 2 girls on the team that had been there for 2+ years..

Oh, and we still mates..went partying with him 2 weeks back

He had a nice bum, and now you are working your way in.

he not really my type..too young and silly..
great guy to hang out with though.

"I would expect any person I hire to expand their experience and grow professionally, it "initiative" i'm looking for."

Spot on, and this attitude is what I look for when hiring managers.

Some of the companies I have worked with have a hiring process that filters out the best candidates because they don't fit the template; the HR/recruiter treats the job description as check boxes. Something to consider that when you right the job description.

First of all you suggest being hwo the employer NEEDS you to be, you then state you should become whatever teh position requries, and THEN you say be who YOU want to be in 5 years?!?! That's a lot of people to keep happy.

I once worked for recruiters as a BDM and also taught a job club that showed people employment skills such as writing the right resume, digging for a suitable job as opposed to simply answering ads and sending out resumes, cold calling and proseting and ultimately building your career.

If people did not work towards a career they were properly suited for, perhaps just being who teh interviewer wanted them to be, they soon returned unemployed again. There's just no longevity in pretending you are who you are not.

Certainly personal change and ADAPTATION is requried in many positions, but simply pretending to be the person you aren't will not result in a lasting career most of teh tie, it is worse than false advertising or a made up resume that you can't fulfill.

If you don't have the skills to do the job, then don't apply. I'm not giving people a license to lie on their resume or pretend to be someone else.

I'm assuming that becoming who the employer needs you to be and whatever the position requires is one in the same. Hopefully if the employer needs an Oracle DBA whose a good communicator then the position requires that you be a DBA who is a good communicator. Now if you aren't a good communicator and don't see the need to change, then don't apply for the position. However, if it's your goal to hone and polish your communication skills, then for by all means, go for a position that will force you to do so.

My point is that you have to show the employer that you can be what they need you to be for the position. To do that you have to look ahead five years and see yourself being successful in that position and do and say what it takes to make them believe you.

Getting a job is a lot like getting married. It's a long term commitment where a lot of change needs to happen in order to be successful and happy. You become who you need to become to do that.

You are confusing skill and knowledge sets with personality.

You are assuming that an employer will take potential over actual, they might at aower rate, in which case what they said they wanted wasn't exactly true.

And as for five years to become a success, which planet are you from, because it's not earth.

It isn't as though they are offering much...

Be yourself and if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work and move onto the next. No use getting a job for the sake of getting a job. If you can tell from the interview you don't fit.. Tell them that and leave. Saves you and them a lot of stress.

...then that's your business. Some people like me want something more out of a job than just a bigger paycheck.

Rule one in life, if you want to grow, organise your own sustenance.

Whether you do it you way or ours, you are being yourself. We are simply more honest about it.

We are a small company that requires extensive travel, so the last thing I want out of an interviewee is a knee-jerk "YES" when I ask them how they feel about 75% travel...

In an interview, I'm looking for a candidate's soft skills as much as the technical qualifications, since our people do lots of customer face-time and are often the only representative of our company our customer meets in person. I don't mind "naysaying" from an interviewee, if it's offered in a tactful way. Techies often make the mistake of thinking that it doesn't matter if they're a jerk because of their credentials. That might've been true 25 years ago, but it is no longer the case.

Seeing all of these points, don't do this, do that, don't sweat, don't look at the ceiling...it's no wonder that an interviewee is usually very stressed!

I think the very best advice is to be yourself because if you're not, you're only harming yourself in the long run. Don't make yourself LIKE that job that you interviewed for if you have a gut feeling that it just isn't for you. It probably ISN'T for you.

And another good point is to drive the interview yourself...subtly (timely intelligent questions and feedback). Be confident and prepared. That's really all there is to it.

This is topic is over-analyzed. The best advice is usually the simplest.

If I start getting negative in an interview, I'm just giving you some free advice before I leave for my next interview....

People interview me for what I have done and can do. If I think what you want me do sucks, I don't want you, whether you would have employed me if I'd have kept my gob shut is utterly irrelevant.

Don't forget I'm interviewing you while you are interviewing me, and the crap joke about the weather and the expectant smile waiting for a sychophantic laugh tells me you're nervous and ill prepared...

Been there done that with customers. Not the best thing for busines or even getting a job but I've had one or 2 come back and ask for a paid consultation.

More often than not, the "free advise" falls on deaf ears.

My main objective at an interview is to see if I am willing and able to fill the position.
I no longer see it as an employer interviewing me. I know some of you managers might take exception to that, but its just the way I am. I've turned down several jobs because I felt I wasn't the right fit, or I had no interest in it.

Did an interview about 18 months back where the 2 idiots interviewing me couldn't even phrase proper questions..and they were the existing DBA and Lead Dev. I couldn't run form that interview fast enough..

But I don't struggle to find work, business's struggle to find people with my skills and experience. I've turned down lot's of opportunities before the other guy even got a chance to voice their opinion.

Nothing makes me laugh louder than the regular email from HR/Recruiters starting "Unmissable opportunity". Wrong from word one....

I can't say any job is unmissable..(well, ok, i mean as long as you've got work)

I always get "unbelieveable opprotunity"..eh..ya sure... like I should feel honored that they might consider little ole me to grovel at thier feet for a job.

Not in a million years.

Delphi, Croydon, 10k pay cut.
So lets see now, career killing dead tech, relocate to somewhere where the cost of livinhg is about half again as much, and take a massive pay cut.

Yep it's unbelievable you sent me this....

I'm trying to do some work on a Paradox database at the minute..fun fun..I don't think I was even born when Borland released it!

Its basic enough, but just one more friggin thing I gotta learn..

1987 I think that was. One of the reasons I got my current job was to get rid of it, in favour of SQL Server.

so....how much do ye remember??
haha

ah, they've a few legacy bits hanging around here that i've inherited.. all i do is try and keep em running, other than that i generally don't go near em!

it all by now, then you do a bit, a few facts surface and all of a sudden you strart rembereing all sorts of drivel you hoped you never need again.

I did it for nearly three years solid, and it was my first commercial IT environment, so once the brain has been kicked started probably a good deal.
It was the DOS stuff thought, I exited stage left as paradox for windows came out.

I've got a few bits to do on it..completely new to it..

Even if its an older version, you might have a clue or two on which area to direct me to.

Right now I'm in "what the h*ll is this???" mode... its some step back from a SQL backend and web front end

Were the ones I had to convince to work for me.

in the candidate, the role, the organisation. Anything else means you could have got an equivalent result with the job as a lottery prize.

I've made similar comments before and have been lambasted for it.

I too interview teh employer, I don't usually set up formal interviews or become part of a process where multiple people are interviewed at different times in a specific period. I usually create interviews based on me going after an employer, whether they are planning on hiring or not. I make my case and, if I find them a viable enough employer to offer me a challenge and some interest, I'll take it.

However, you must realize that many Americans are sittign on harder times these days, employment is not something where the picky can be choosey, so I am told anyway.

If people get the wrong idea, which usually results in them sounding cocky and standoffish, it'll actually hurt their chances of employment.

That said, I agree, pass MY interview or you won't get to hire ME.

I know back in the dim and distant past I kept my opinions to myself. I'm sure you may have zipped it as well. We put a lot of effort in not having to do that anymore though.

I've done a good few interviews, never succeeded in getting offered anything of worth starting on my knees.