The Interview Guide

We’ve heard the phrase all the time from people “ I said so” and usually it's used in reference to an incident where someone was trying to become a guiding light but we refused to accept or we did listen but missed out on it. Whatever the reason maybe, Humans are very susceptible and we do take in every information provided to us. It's quite easy to hijack emotions and thoughts of a human, the choice of expression might be consciously explicit or unconsciously implicit. A reason being after every interview, my teacher’s guidelines resonated in my thoughts.

Suppose that Ace in the cards stands for 11 and double the value of the cards. Finally sum up the value and give the answer.

The answer must be 39 but you missed out on the black heart of 4. You wouldn't find that in the deck of cards ever but your focus was on calculating the result which allowed you to skip on that information. This is inattentional bias that we face on daily basis.

The title being the interview guide, I’ve provided you with a facet of inattentional blindness. Reason being, in my final semester I was offered a class called “Personal Effectiveness” where people from their respective domains came and gave a pep talk. What I can recall, for the entire course, the most boring class of all to be taken was on how to give an interview. The attendance was low and the proxy was high as well. Only a few timid students or the one’s too deep in water were the audience . Why so? Everyone claimed the talk to be axiomatic. However, the numbers tell a different story,  Most people find it difficult to perform in interviews but the attendance strength did not reflect that.

Personal Skills are hard to assess due to their subjectivity and they are intertwined with your personality thus we find humans to be defensive and show negligence. The hardest skill of all to teach are soft skills because they are hard to articulate and formalize. If anyone comes up and gives you a reality check regarding your communications skills, you're gonna take a back foot and defend yourself. You can't relate if you can't experience something. Students being guided beforehand graduation take everything lightly because they don't have any experience to relate and understand the magnitude of the matter.  This is the reason, you're gonna read the title and presume to save your time and skip this. Acceptance is the first step towards progression. I’ve listed down a few (Obvious) guidelines backed up with ample studies to help people score good in interviews. 

The Halo Effect

Toyota started altogether a different brand for their luxury vehicles named Lexus as they couldn't associate Toyota with Luxury after a legacy of creating reliable cars for the populace. They had all the resources in the world to turn the world around but they knew how strongly human impressions work. Similarly, to again uplift its brand name, they made a car known as the Lexus LFA which could compete with all the super cars of the world. The car took 10 years of the company's resources to roll out of production and whenever one LFA was sold, Toyota made a loss over it. They were underselling the car for what research & development was put in the car. Why did Toyota do all of this? Toyota made the LFA a halo car where its design would resonate in all of its family vehicles. The only reason they made LFA was because they showed they can make a super-car competing with all the big players. They wanted the people’s perception to change. They wanted consumers to feel good and proud for their choice. In the 1990s, If you wanted to buy a sports car then it would be Italian and if a commuter then it would be Japanese.   That's how impressions work in the world for even vehicles where you could measure the cost benefit analysis on paper, imagine how strong of a tool it is for humans?

We tend to think our first meeting is the first impression but if you dial it back and use a microscopic lens then you’ll know your appearance is your first impression. The interviewers use all their big guns to assess a candidate and one of the biggest guns of all is implicit judgements.  You can't rule out the possibility of that. Bias is always present in interviews but is reduced to the minimum depending upon the interviewer. Don’t give the interviewer any chance of creating a wrong impression.

This might seem as a very pessimistic approach but in reality we are hard-wired biologically. A psychological study showed that people with much more redness in their skin were deemed to be more attractive despite the fact that the participants were shown the same face but varying degrees of redness. Now redness in the skin comes in as a sign of health thus from an evolutionary background it shows vitality. We humans have an eye for color red in terms of societal standards.There are many more studies proving physical attractiveness bias and its correlation with goodness and smartness. Now if this vanders your thought to a blush on or red shirt, then stop yourself that instance.

Maintaining your appearance isn't a day’s activity but a constant habit to be developed. A day in the salon wont do the trick. If you're qualified, then your appearance should speak for itself. Reason being, there is a certain standard attached to being qualified as well. If we see a rich man with obnoxious dressing, our next assumption would be that he isn't educated or his wealth does not reflect him. We as humans correlate to develop insights and if an individual is set to do the specific job then you can imagine how much his senses would be at work.

Specifically for the interview, go for light colors that would be more receptive to the eye. Other than that, some colors just work good on certain personalities, always choose the color you're confident about. Wear a solid color shirt and trouser. As for shoes, match them with your belt and keep your belt black or brown. Try sticking to basics to avoid any controversial dressing or debatable style. Over invest in your appearance because it might give you a soft start in the interview. If an interview starts out on a tough note, it's hard to steer it in your favor.

Know What you’re Company and Role is.

It's getting to obvious now and nearly half of the world knows this but many few follow it religiously. Whenever you’re going in for an interview, talk to anyone who has been in a similar industry or role. The abbreviations should be on your fingertips. These Jargon are used to make you feel dumb and nervous in a interview. Return on Investment is a self explanatory phrase but if said like ROI then only finance people would be able to comprehend. Always be on a look out for these small details because they are used to take you down.

Always read the financials of a company you're going to interview. Don't worry, not many people can read the financials of the company but you can easily find a person who can help you out on this. It doesn't matter for what position you're interviewing for, but it would provide you a better understanding of the company. It's a simple and meaningless task but it makes an impression of being really smart. Financials seem very complicated and hard to comprehend. Read about the company very extensively on the internet and any other source possible.

Every job role has a stereotypical personality attached to it and the sudden fondness of Psychology among the HR has led to professionals believing its a good practise as well. They’ve closed their minds to new experiments and diversity. Finance people should be introverts and marketing people should be flashy and extroverts. Try following these stereotypes because you’ll have to dumb down yourself for others to accept you. Be the finance guy or HR guy they want. Don't oversell it, just keep it out in the air that you comply with their stereotype through an implicit reflection of your hobbies. 

Try to avoid Negativity

It's never wise to start off with a negative note in any possible relation. Sounds bitter but is considered to be true, no one likes to be with someone who is pessimistic. You should put in more effort to be likable through navigating avenues that are more common to discuss.  The interviewer should not be able to detect an iota of negativity in your personality.

Seems quite probable and obvious but again we see people giving out cues that allow them to slashed off in interviews. People usually reply back to questions in a negative manner to reason with the interviewer. For example, if you're asked why do you want to leave your organization? There two ways to go about this question if your purpose is to progress in your career, you could either say “the company doesn't offer any opportunities to grow” or you could say “ I have reached my plateau point in the organization and I feel, i should look upon new opportunities to grow” .Both the sentence serve the same purpose, but in the first your externalizing your purpose and in the second sentence your internalizing your motives. An interviewer is least interested where you work but he’s interested in you alone. Try making statements which define you as a progressive employee and avoid all external factors. Whatever difference you may have with organization or managers, try to keep them at a low key. Even don't make negative statements for the government or anything in the entire interview. If you didn't find the parking on time or were stuck in traffic, don't cover it up by complaining about it but go with a lighter note that you can never be too early.

The science behind this practice is, we as humans have a negative bias where we focus on what can go wrong but not what can be right. Moreover, the interviewer does not detect attributable qualities but anomalies in an interviewee. Even if he has been shortlisted, you're capable on paper to do the job thus he’s there to find out why he should not select you over others. From an evolutionary standpoint, we have evolved our habits from fear of death thus making us good at survival. We tend to find abnormalities more easy to capture. When the stock market goes down, we see investors exit the market to minimize losses but when the market goes up, we see people more eager to hold the stock to maximize profit. Similarly, our innate thoughts always resonate with our decisions, thus use your 15 minutes wisely to only show your positive side and keep your negative side hidden.

Despite all this science, it all depends upon luck as well. However, we can't lay back and call it a day. Your efforts would always make a role in getting through the interviews. Through every role and organization the percentage of your own effort would vary but you can’t try your luck if you don't put in your effort as well. Keep these 3 simple rules with you always and move along with the flow. Remember, everything has its own time and everyday is a small step towards that journey but keep your goals clear. The power of belief is always underestimated and do look up the word poronia before your interview and believe in that. The universe is always conspiring to bring you close to your journey and every interview is a step towards it, either you get rejected or accepted. If rejected, then be happy for what better ahead of you and if accepted be grateful for being accepted amongst all.  

References 

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