A job interview isn’t fundamentally different from a sales meeting—and, in both cases, we need to avoid two traps:
- Reinforcing an unequal balance of power (by seeming desperate)
- Talking too much and listening too little
Equalize the Balance of Power
I’ve mentioned this before, so I won’t dwell on it: there’s a subtle shift between showing up as:
- An interviewee—someone who just answers questions well
- A potential business partner—a meeting in which two people are working to figure out if there’s a fit between the person (attitude/skills), the job, and the organization (culture/need).
The vibe is one of mutual, respectful exploration. The interview is about much more than clearing the basic hurdles—that puts you in the top 5 or 10 group, but it doesn’t get you a job.
Listen More
The trap of any sales meeting is spending too much time talking about yourself and your product, and too little time learning about what your prospect is looking for.
It’s even easier to make this mistake in an interview: to think that if you earnestly answer every question, you’ll have gotten it right.
Instead, hold a mindset of genuine curiosity, and be as thoughtful about asking great questions as you are about giving great answers.
Don’t do this at the expense of answering the questions that have been asked of you. You must convey that you are a compelling candidate, that you are interested, and that you have strong answers to the interviewer’s questions.
Use Preparation to Ask Great Questions
But you also want to engage in meaningful dialogue, and you can do this with great preparation that’s far beyond the superficial glance at the company website. Things like:
- Using AI to learn about the company’s strategy.
- Finding articles or talks given by your interviewer.
- Spending meaningful time on LinkedIn to figure out who you know in common.
- Developing your own hypothesis about the challenges they are grappling with, and coming with solutions to those challenges.
Everyone is flattered by someone expressing deep, genuine interest in them. Your thoughtful curiosity shines a light on them, and it might even get them to drop their guard and share what’s really going on at the company.
You can ask questions like:
Could you tell me more about the division I would be a part of? What’s going well, and what are the challenges?
What would you say this group is best at and what are areas you’re trying to shore up?
Could you describe the culture of this team? Does it differ meaningfully from the overall organizational culture? How?
If I’m really successful in this role, what impact will I have had?
The goal of these questions is to find a jumping off point for conversation, so you have the opportunity to say things like:
- “It sounds like you’re eager to have this team take more risks. Is that right?” And then share some thoughts of how you’ve seen that happen / helped make that happen in other places.
- “It sounds like getting a better understanding of customer needs is a real priority. Have you thought about _______.”
Uncover a Real Pain Point They’re Trying to Solve
When you get the interviewer to put a real pain point in front of you, the two of you are suddenly working together to address that issue. This is both a more interesting interaction than the traditional interview, and a dry run of you working together with this person.
Once they’ve gotten a taste of that, they’ll instinctively put you in a different category than all the other candidates: they’ve interviewed everyone else, but they’ve gotten a glimpse of what it’s like to work with you.
And you’ve also gotten to see what it really will feel like to work together, so you’re in a better place to see if this is going to be the right place for you.
Everybody wins.
Other posts in this Series:
On Interviewing Well: Introduction
On Interviewing Well: Convey Deep Self-Knowledge (3-3-2)