Career Cube Blog

Don’t you wish you knew why you didn’t get that job?  You worked so hard on your resume, got through the phone interview and was called in for the in person interview. You think you’re on a roll, but you never hear back from the interviewer.  What happened?

Here’s a peek behind the interviewer’s desk.

They saw something promising on your resume and decided to call you for a phone interview. That went well-you handled yourself well on the phone and answered the basic questions they asked.

Something happened when they met you in person.

Each interviewer is different, but here are some common reasons why you may not hear back from them.

You weren’t dressed appropriately for the position or company.  Think about the way others at the company were dressed, and the status of the position you were interviewed for.  Were you “dressed to impress”?  One time I interviewed someone for an account manager position that might be a bit of a stretch from what he was currently doing.  I was willing to give him a chance.  However when he showed up for the interview he was dressed pretty casually and didn’t even bring a notebook to take notes during the interview, or a pen to write with.  I needed him to show me that he was going to project a professional image without my having to follow him around to remind him to bring a notebook when he meets with a client.  I expected him to look more pulled-together, and that he was hungry for this job.  I didn’t see that in him, and was turned off.

Your body language was a turn-off.  Did you maintain eye contact with the interviewer?  Not in a creepy-staring contest kind of way, but in an honest, sincere, and interested way?  Did you look comfortable?  Were you jumpy and nervous?  Did you talk very quickly?  What was your interviewer’s facial and body language while you were speaking?  Try to be objective about how you were presenting yourself.  You want to learn from each interview, not perpetuate your problems because you refuse to admit what you do wrong.

You just weren’t a good fit for the organization or with the interviewer.  Remember that they need to work with you day in and day out.  If they think that you’ll be irritating-for whatever reason-unfortunately it’s their prerogative to not hire you.  Period. End quote.  It isn’t fair, but better that they eliminate you now, than you get on each other’s nerves after you are hired.   There isn’t anything you can do to improve your chances if it was just a personality-thing, but just hope that you will have a better fit in your next interview.

So why don’t you hear from an interviewer after the in-person interview?  Consider the possible reasons I’ve outlined above and then imagine yourself in the interviewer’s position.  Would you rather have them cite one of the reasons above, or give you a polite but inaccurate reason, or not reply at all?  There isn’t a best answer, but those are the choices most interviewers are faced with.  So send your followup email, but if you don’t hear back from them, just move on with your search and try to improve your performance in your next interview as best you can.

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So you just found out that you have a job interview tomorrow and unfortunately procrastination is a weaknesses you haven’t yet conquered.  Here are the down and dirty tips to pull it together at the last minute.

1.  Look at the job posting you are applying for, and develop sound bites that address the needs of the employer.  Think of examples where you demonstrated the skills that appear in the job posting and develop answers that clearly show an employer that you are the perfect candidate for this position.   All sound bites should be 2-3 minutes in length.

2.  Use the TODAY acronym to develop additional sound bites of your experiences.  TODAY stands for Teamwork, Overcoming     Obstacles, Duties of your past positions, Achievements, Your strengths and weaknesses.  Remember to clearly describe exactly what you did in each situation. The employer is hiring you, not the other people in your story.

3.  Research the company.  Search the internet for any recent press releases and check out the company’s website.   Know what they do, and develop some idea as to how the position you are hiring for fits within the company.

4.  Think of questions to ask an interviewer.  Look at the job posting and your research about the company and think of 3-5 questions you can ask during the interview.  What are you curious about?  Do they manufacture a product you are familiar with, or never even knew existed before you started to research the company?  Where does this department fit in the grand scheme of the company? What projects is the department currently working on?

5.  Lastly, prepare answers to the following questions: Tell me about yourself, Why did you leave your last position, or why are you looking for a new job, Why should I hire you, and The Salary Question.  You know that these questions will be asked in one form or another, so there is no excuse to not have prepared an answer.

And that’s it.  Interviewing is just that simple when it’s broken into it’s simplest components.  Focus on preparing answers to all of the scenarios above, and you will be ahead of the game.  Remember to clearly articulate in each and every sound bite exactly what you did.  Practice with a tape recorder to critique yourself, or with a friend to repeat back to you exactly what you did in a situation to make sure you’re preparing correctly.

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Typically the topic of verbal crutches is something that people are coached on when they are improving their group presentation skills.  Verbal crutches are those little “connector” words that all of us use from time to time.  These are the ums, ahs, and even in the case of one candidate I interviewed-fabulous, that we unconsciously toss in while we’re thinking about the next sentence.

Let me tell you-this will KILL and I mean-RUIN your chances for a follow up interview, especially if your first interview is a phone interview.

As the interviewer on a phone interview, I have nothing else to focus on other than the sound of your voice.  If that sound is constantly interrupted by an umm, or a ya know, I’m really going to notice it.  If the job I’m considering hiring you for has a lot of phone work involved, I’m not going to subject the person on the other end of the phone to your poor verbal abilities.  At this point, I don’t care if you are the most qualified person on paper-you’re out of the running because your message is being lost in a sea of these verbal crutches.  It’s a very silly way to get eliminated.

Here’s how you clean up your act.  First, you need to either ask your friends very seriously and honestly if you are a verbal crutch offender.  Explain to them how important this is in your job search, and unless they want to hear you whine for an additional six months about not finding a new job-they should help you.  Verbal crutches are bad habits that can become more apparent when you’re in stressful situations like job interviews, but are probably apparent when your guard is down like when you’re hanging out with friends.  They don’t just appear when you pick up the phone for an interview.

Your other option is to record yourself while you practice for the interview.  This can be trickier because you will of course know that you’re taping and will make more of an effort to clean up your act, but it could work.

Another option is to just make a conscious effort throughout the day to listen to what you are really saying.  Too many times I find that if I’m not completely engaged in what I’m saying and am not truly “in the moment” that I will start umming and ahhing as my brain searches for the next coherent thought.  When I focus on the message I’m trying to convey, my speech patterns clean up immediately and I’m back on track.  I sound more professional and people have a tendency to not tune me out because they’re tired of trying to sort out the wheat from the umm and ahh chaff.

So bottom line, if this could be a problem for you-fix it NOW!  Make an effort everytime you say something during the day to really listen to what you are saying-don’t tune out!  If you want the interviewer to pay attention to you-you need to pay attention to you. For some people, this will be a hard habit to break, but it is well worth the effort, I guarantee it.

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