Don't Repeat this mistake I made

I recently received feedback from a recruiter on a mistake I made that was not obvious to me upfront. Today, I will share perspectives on managing perceptions as part of interviewing.

A hiring manager often asks questions about prior roles. In my scenario, I remember sharing details of what it was like to be an industry analyst. I remember sharing details of some of the clients I met in my travels and how it introduced me to other cultures. For example, I traveled to London on three occasions, visited Barcelona and even visited India for the first time. I knew the hiring manager was a champion of diversity and inclusion where I shared some of the valuable insights I gained by traveling the world.

I also shared that I had the opportunity to learn a lot about the oil and gas industry and visited Houston on multiple occasions to indicate I understood the practice of Enterprise Architecture not just in Financial Services but could bring my skills to other verticals and make an impact.

I learned via the recruiter that my interview skills were top-notch and that I was rated higher than other interviewees. By all views of my abilities and perceptions I thought this role should have been mines. I later learned that the hiring manager held the perception that since my past roles have a flavor of glamour to them, that somehow I might get bored working on his team.

The funny thing is that I am now at a stage in my life where I don't want to travel as much. Many people do not know that animal rescue has taken a strong position in my life where I spend much of my spare time figuring out how to rescue stray cats.

he McGovern family now has four cats which we rescued from the neighborhood who now are at the center of our lives. An orange tabby we named Tangerine has been at the center of my sanity in an increasingly insane world. I will likely write a separate article on the benefits of animal rescue to the soul.

Most recently I have rescued another stray cat whom we have named George who I keep in my office/theater whose home next week will be at a local cat shelter named the Cat Connection. If you would care to donate to this most worthy charity, please consider buying a product here.

In conclusion, you may be seeking to polish your interview skills but in reality, you have to sharpen your perception management skills.