How to Leave a Lasting Impression That Works
If you only ask one question in a job interview, ask this.
When future me looks back at the most difficult part of the pandemic, it won’t be the chronic isolation, the lack of places to go, the long wait between family visits, the extra weight or the annual haircut. It will be the virtual job interviews. Job interviews were stressful enough in the before-times. To the point I only ever had one, maybe two, formal job interviews. And they all ended up in gainful employment. What can I say, younger me could be very charming and capable of reading a room.
But reading a Google meetup where interviewees are openly taking notes and not engaging in what you have to say? And even when they are looking at you, they’re not making eye contact because they’re looking at a box on a screen. Let’s just say this virtual format has stripped me of my usual interview-acing powers and I’ve had to rely on A LOT of coaching and advice.
I have become addicted to newsletters and regularly file away bits of what I’m told are helpful information in my job search and eventual interview process. For weeks I’ve had one question tacked to my wall as the best question to end an interview with:
“Is there anything about my job history or experience that concerns you?”
The theory being, once they give you the hard truth you’re supposed to spin these criticisms into things you’re working on strengths you can rely on to compensate.
Last week I interviewed for a consumer reporting position, which relied heavily on creativity (easily my greatest strength) investigative reporting (which I’ve never done) and field producing (which I attempted to a decade ago with unfavourable results).
I turned to my career coach to help prepare and somehow overcome this two-thirds experience gap. In her mind, I would nail this interview with my passion, my creativity and management skills. They have my resume, she reminded me, they know what you lack and yet they’re interested anyway.
I asked her about the supposedly best way to end the interview “Is there anything about my job history…” HARD NO, she said.
On either side of the interview, humans tend to fixate on the negative. Don’t address the elephant in the room. Ever. If the experience gap is important, it will come out in the questions they ask and how you answer. But don’t come out right away pointing out where you fall short, because that’s all they’ll think of.
Instead, bring the focus back on what you and the potential employer share: values.
In any job posting, a company will include key values in the blurb. It’s so common, I often make the mistake of skimming past it having read it some many times, especially if it’s a large company that posts job openings regularly. But the values are key and corporate values are worked into every fabric of the company. Take these key words and ask:
”I see your company values creativity, integrity, inclusiveness and relevance. Those are also important to me in my work, so how does this look like on your team?”
Not only did this get a “that’s a good question” but it opened up the interviewer in a way that hadn’t happened throughout the conversation. Instead of interviewer/interviewee we were two producers who, for a brief moment in time, shared experiences what it’s like evolving content, increasing audience reach and keeping things fresh.
Did this moment get me the job? No. About half-way through the interview I realized just how much of an experience gap I had to work on this show and spent a bulk of the conversation wondering “how on earth did I get this first interview? Did they bring me in as a joke? Morbid curiosity?”
That self-awareness must have come through in the interview because instead of getting a polite “the position has been filled internally” voicemail or email (or, more commonly, no response at all) I did get a followup meeting with the full board who wanted to meet with me and share some advice on where they think I would be better suited. They let me know the key things every job interview at their network will test me on: the journalistic standards and practices (which is on their website) and pitch ideas (truth is, I did have pitches prepared, but by the time we got to that point my confidence was already shaky and could not bear the idea of pitching them in person). Plus, they gave me a referral for the department they thought I would actually be a fit for. If you can’t get the job, a referral is a good close second.
Even though I was embarrassingly underqualified for a show that relies heavily on investigative journalism (and listening to true crime podcasts does not count as experience), I made a strong enough impression to warrant insider advice on how to find work at their network. They liked my management style and creative passion, but I wasn’t the right fit. However, they do believe strongly that I would fit in the company but in a different department.
90% of the interview was an uncomfortable disaster. But I had a strong opening and ended the interview with a frank conversation about shared values with the company and the challenges of growing an audience on network TV. Instead of dismissing me completely, the panelists went out of their way to set me up for success in my continued job search. And they’re all hardened journalists who aren’t exactly known for kind gestures like this.
By the end of the day I had reached out to the recommended contacts in factual entertainment and daily news, both forms of TV I’ve worked at before. The hustle continues, but at least I now have a secret weapon to get more people on my side lighting the path to future opportunities, wherever they may be.
