How to speak your truth without going full Prince Harry

You’re at the interview for a job you desperately want. You’ve prepared anecdotes to show you have the key skills:

• Project management - check. That hen party didn’t organise itself. And the bride was out of hospital well before the wedding.?
• Problem-solving - check. You’ve just finished a 1000 piece jigsaw called “Sky”.?
• Conflict resolution - you can talk about how you got the whole hen party through customs on the way home.?Plus that time at Camp David.

You’re exactly ten minutes early. You’re dressed in a slightly smarter version of what people typically wear around here. It was well worth the investment in a sequinned hoody. You’re ready. But there are a few things that you are praying the interviewer won’t ask you. Like “why do you want this job?”. Is “um, I’m just really passionate about paying rent” a good answer?

Sure, honesty is always the best policy. The truth is easier to remember for a start. But you are here to present the best version of yourself. Not the version that spent all day on the sofa eating a family pack of salt and vinegar crisps and binge watching Bridgerton. The goal is to speak your truth without going full Prince Harry.

Here’s how to deal with the questions you don’t want to answer.

AWKWARD QUESTION 1: Why did you leave your last job?

Awkward because: you were fired from your last job

Do:

• Say that you and your former employer have agreed to go in different directions. It’s perfectly true. You are not obliged to use the “f-word”.?
• Keep it simple and matter of fact. You are not angry or upset, you are not even disappointed. Because you have the patience of St Jude, patron saint of lost causes.
• Give a short reason why such as "redundancy due to cost-cutting in the business", "new boss wanted something different" or "I needed a new challenge" - if you can say this with a straight face.

• If you left because because your boss was a total bitch/ psycho/ narcissist that no sane person could work with try: "the job was not what I was expecting". Sometimes less is more.

Don’t:

• Express negative feelings towards your previous employer. This is a red flag for an interviewer. It raises questions in their mind like - "are you too much of a boy/ girl/ child scout for the messy reality of corporate life?" And "if you don’t want to see how the sausages get made, why are you applying for a job in an actual sausage factory?"

AWKWARD QUESTION 2. What have you been doing since you left your last job?

Awkward because: You took an extended time out due to burnout or illness

Do:

• Concentrate on what you did with the time in addition to recovering. Did you learn a new skill? Or do some bucket list travel??
• Talk more on your time learning to meditate with Tibetan monks and less on how long it took you to recover from that nasty case of parasitic worms picked up on your bucket list trip to the Amazon rain forest.?

Don’t:

• Show any weakness!

Key reassurances to provide:?

• You are completely recovered - you’re now running marathons, lifting your own bodyweight and only throwing up if a night out ends with tequila
• You have learnt the lessons of what caused your burnout/ illness. You no longer sweat the small stuff - thank you Tibetan monks!
• You can’t wait to get back to work, because you have really missed the small stuff.

AWKWARD QUESTION 3. Tell me about your experience doing… ?

Awkward because: you lack experience with that aspect of the job

Do:?

• Use your experience with a similar skill in your private life. You have loads of management experience - leading your team the Know It Ales at your local pub quiz night.?
• Cite your experience observing or shadowing someone else doing this skill eg if you want to be President of Argentina.?

Don’t:

• Cite your experience observing or shadowing someone else doing this skill eg if you want to be President of the US.

Even more awkward because: you lack a qualification which is critical for doing the job

Do:

• Demonstrate that you are well on the way to getting that qualification. How hard can astronaut training be anyway?

Don’t:

• Lie. You won’t get away with it. Also, it’s morally wrong of course.

AWKWARD QUESTION 4. Why do you want this job?

Awkward because: the job is at a much lower level than your previous job

Do:

• Give a short reason why you want to go back to working at this level eg you enjoy being a content expert much more than being a manager. You are fascinated by obscure tax deductions.

Don’t

• Go on and on about what you didn’t like in your previous role. Some people enjoy managing a sausage factory.

Even more awkward because: the truth is, you don’t want the job, you just need the money

Everyone needs to make a living. There is no shame in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. But you do need to be somewhat motivated, or this is going to turn out exactly like your last job.?

Do:

• Be honest with yourself - is there anything at all that you can get excited about in the new role? Apart from being able to bring your dog to the office? If you had a dog?
• Do the work to find out what you truly want to do for a living
• Make like Machiavelli and "develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer”. Legend!

Don’t:

• Continue in a line of work that kills your soul. No matter how much money you’re making. (Um… is it a lot of money? Editor).

AWKWARD QUESTION 5. What was your salary in your last job?

Awkward because: your last salary was much lower than what you want to be paid in this job

Do:

• Your research. Make sure you have a realistic expectation based on the general market and the specifics of this company.?
• Focus on your salary expectations for the new role.?
• If they really insist on knowing your previous salary, add up your total package with all the perks and talk about a “ballpark package”. Yes, you can count the value of the free coffee. Have you seen the price of Starbucks these days?

Don’t:

• Break eye contact

Even more awkward because: your last salary was much higher than what is on offer with this job

Do:

• Talk about the well-researched and realistic salary that you expect

Don’t:

• Break eye contact
• You are not obliged to disclose what you had before. If pushed, tell them you had more, without specifying figures, and give a short reason why you are willing to take a pay cut such as:
• this is your dream job/ company/ industry
• for personal/ family reasons you need to move cities quickly, preferably this afternoon
• after your time with the Tibetan monks, you no longer believe in the concept of money

The bottom line: Keep it truth-y and future focused. Talk about what you want and stay focused on the future with this company and not the past working for your psycho boss at the sausage factory. Address awkward truths head-on, give a brief “because” and stay unemotional.

You’ve got this! You’re welcome!

What do you think? What was the most awkward question for you to answer in a job interview and why?