Imagine the following world.
There’s a job out there, it is your dream job, and as it happens you are the best qualified person for the job. The company doing the hiring identifies you immediately and calls you in.
You ace the interviews, blow the other candidates away, and are offered the job. You and your new employer are just the perfect fit for each other, and you sail off into the sunset together, working happily ever after…
Let’s compare this to the real world.
There’s a job out there, it is your dream job, and as it happens you are the best qualified person for the job. The company doing the hiring identifies you immediately and calls you in.
Unfortunately you are so wound up about landing your dream job, you fluff the interview, big time. Your nerves are shot, your handshake is limp and damp. You are sweating and panicking, stumble and mumble your way through the process, and frankly can’t wait to get out of this road crash quick enough.
You go home, gutted. Your interviewer is disappointed that what looked like the perfect candidate on paper was such a let down in person. But he’s seen it all before, and offers the job to someone who was pretty solid on paper and aced the interviews.
Sound familiar ? This might be a bit extreme, but we’ve all been there in some shape or form.
A truism of hiring: it is the best prepared candidates, not the best candidates for the job, who often get hired.
I’ve been there myself, hiring people who I figured would be a great fit, but subsequently turned out to disappoint. And then I had to let them go. In the process I’ve overlooked candidates who would probably have done a better job, but for some reason couldn’t come across well at interview.
Interviewers rely on their gut instincts to sniff out good candidates, and inevitably are easily led by the impressions created in that 30 minute interview.
Good candidates who interview badly rarely get hired, it is that simple.
Needless to say this is a very inefficient world. Inefficient for companies who make bad hiring decisions which cost time and money to correct. And downright disastrous for all those great talented people out there who get passed over for a role, just because on the big day they didn’t quite get their interview technique in the right place.
So, bad outcomes all round, and this is the world we live and work in today.
This is why interviewing is broken.
Luckily it is in your hands to minimise the risks of these bad outcomes happening to you.
Think about the effort and energy that has gone into building the experiences and qualifications that make up your CV. You just need to dedicate a tiny fraction of that energy to researching and understanding the interview process, and you will be in good shape !
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