Avoid tripping up at interview

I recently interviewed a senior professional for a board level role. The experience was very disappointing and I wanted to share it with you as I thought it might be helpful and possibly thought provoking.

Their CV looked impressive and a good fit for the position, so I was looking forward to seeing what they were like in person (ok, well over a video call…). I was particularly interested in two very relevant pieces of experience, and was keen to understand how they fitted into their overall professional development and career. 

A bad start….

After initial pleasantries and explaining what I hoped to achieve in the virtual meeting, I asked about the first piece of experience, expecting a well considered response. However, instead of answering my question, I was instantly brought back to another position in their career from where they clearly felt more comfortable starting. 

Despite encouraging them to come back to my question, they were unable to go off script. It felt like they were squeezing a prepared monologue into their answer, rather than responding naturally as one would in a normal conversation. Their response had no focus and I began to lose mine…. My initial excitement was draining away and as any recruiter will know, once this happens it doesn’t bode well.

However, the response to the second question was worse than the first…..

After sitting through the candidate shoehorning a prepared response into their first answer, they began their second by dragging me back through this same script all over again!

Fortunately, the individual did quickly realise this, but then just seemed to panic. They stopped, went quiet, seemed to try to reorder their thoughts. Finally, they did directly address the question, but so briefly that I was unable to take very much context from it. I then spent the next 10 minutes of the one hour interview unsuccessfully trying to get them to expand. 

My disappointment

 However great they were at their job, they were unable to adapt their responses to my questions. When pressed, they seemed to fall apart completely and then just answer briefly without providing the colour and detail that I would expect from such an intelligent individual.

Needless to say, that individual did not go forward to meet with my client.

What did I expect? 

Well, I expected them to know their career, and not a script. They should have been able to anticipate that each interviewer’s focus may differ, and be sufficiently prepared and flexible to adapt. Senior professionals must be able to pivot in their working lives and this should be reflected in their interview performance too.

It really does amaze me how many talented individuals out there let themselves down by failing to practice and prepare.

How can you avoid tripping yourself up in an interview?

Well, practice doesn't just mean remembering what is on the written CV page. An interview is an opportunity to demonstrate the intelligence, versatility and personality that lie behind those words.

 It means being able to speak fluently, from any starting point in your career, and seamlessly communicating your experiences and strengths. It means making the connections in new and novel ways in order to reconstitute your experience in an impromptu manner, and in ways that are appropriate to the question.

How can I help? 

Most of my time is spent interviewing professionals. I know what good looks like and I know what clients and recruiters look for, and the types of responses that really hit the mark. 

I use this knowledge to help individuals to improve their performance at interviews and to enable them to talk through their experience naturally, concisely and intelligently. Most, if not all, find the focused sessions are well worth the time and effort.

How do you practice for an interview?