The role of self awareness in interviewing
One of the most important skills in interviewing is self awareness- i.e. the ability to predict how your responses will be perceived by the person who is interviewing you.
Interviews are high pressure environments- your adrenaline is pumping, the pressure is on, and you are highly aware that your performance could dramatically impact the next several years of your life.
That pressure can make it difficult to “slow time down,” but doing exactly that is a key to interviewing success. When I’m asked a question in an interview, here is the sequence that goes through my head:
- Why is the interviewer asking this question?
- What are they hoping to hear?
- What example from my past best fits what they’re looking for, and why they’re looking for it?
- Most importantly, what takeaways will the interviewer have from the answer I’m about to provide?
This may seem like a lot of information to process in a matter of seconds, but this is part of human nature. It’s just a part of human nature that can be voided or abandoned if you’re unprepared.
Let’s look at an example
Let’s look at one of the most commonly asked behavioral questions in interviews: “Can you please tell me about a time when you were able to achieve an ambitious goal?”
If someone asks you this question, you should first ask yourself, “why is this question being asked?” In this case, the interviewer is probably testing your ability to execute, and do so in a way that doesn’t require a ton of handholding.
Next, let’s think about the second question, “what are they hoping to hear?” In this case, they want to hear about an accomplishment that is ambitious, that had relatively high stakes, and one in which you had a starring role in delivering a strong result.
Finally, “what example from my past best fits?” Now that you’ve established the reasons WHY you’re being asked this question, it will help you focus on the best fitting example. Additionally, if you’ve used InterviewX’s product, you know that a major focus of ours is identifying your best, most relevant examples ahead of time.
It’s hard to produce strong examples off the top of your head, but if you have a planned bank of potential responses, you can rapidly choose the best fit. As you tell the story, the best talking points will directly connect to the context around the question- “why are they asking this, and what are they hoping to hear?”
By applying that simple filter, and preparing a menu of responses ahead of time, you can guarantee that your responses will hit the mark.
Lazy Interview Responses
A lazy interview response ignores the context of why the question is likely being asked. It sounds like a stream of conscious answer that fulfills the candidate’s desire to avoid an awkward silence, but in so doing, you can put yourself at risk of having something slip that is unflattering.
Again, instead of rushing to provide an answer, feel free to ask for a couple seconds to think about your response. Go through the quick progression in your head- “why are they asking this, what are they hoping to hear, and what example from my past fits best?”
If you allow the first narrative that comes to your head to drive your responses, and aren’t taking a second or two to deconstruct the purpose behind the question, you open up a pandora’s box of risk.
This all ties back to self awareness- you must be aware of how your answers are coming off to your interviewer, and have a sense for what takeaways your answers will be creating in their head.
Takeaways from your interview responses
As you share an interview response, you should always keep an eye on the takeaways your interviewer will have from the answers you’re providing.
I once interviewed a candidate for a sales role, and noticed impressive sales figures on his resume. He had a strong history of hitting quota in his past role, and I asked him about it.
“These results against your quota look fantastic. What do you attribute your success to?”
His response, essentially: “Well, I was really good at finding good accounts in Salesforce that weren’t being worked, and figuring out a way to take ownership of them so I could pursue the best available leads.” This may be exaggerated, but this was the spirit of what he was saying, and it was what stuck with me.
My Takeaways from this response
From this type of response, I had a negative takeaway, which was “this candidate is not necessarily a strong seller- this candidate is adept at working the system, even if it wasn’t explicitly against their rules of engagement.”
Again, let’s break down the four questions we posed earlier:
- Why is the interviewer asking this question?
I’m asking this question because I want to get a sense for whether or not the candidate’s success will be repeatable in this new role. I want to see if the reasons this person sold successfully in their past role will apply to this new role.
2. What are they hoping to hear?
I’m hoping to hear that this candidate is very hardworking, process oriented, disciplined, and that they exhibit skills that will lend themselves to success in the role they’re applying for.
3. What example from my past best fits what they’re looking for, and why they’re looking for it?
Talking about ways that he had been able to work the system is not what I was looking for. I was looking for a scientific approach to prospecting, relationship building skills, and rigor around territory and account planning.
4. Most importantly, what takeaways will the interviewer have from the answer I’m about to provide?
My takeaway was that this candidate had been successful for reasons that probably won’t be repeatable in our sales org. In fact, the reasons this candidate had been successful could actually HURT others in the sales org. If you’re focused on grabbing good accounts for yourself, and that’s your competitive advantage, you’re essentially taking good opportunities away from your teammates.
Again, this type of behavior happens all the time, and I’m not being judgmental of it- that’s not the point. The point is that this is not a strong narrative, and had he thought about how it might come off before blurting it out, he wouldn’t have given this answer.
Self awareness is the key
If you’re aware of how your answers will come off to your interviewers, and what their takeaways will be from the answers you provide, you’ll be very well positioned for success.
key to this is preparation- if you aren’t scrambling to think of your examples ahead of time, you can spend your time and energy thinking through why your interviewer is asking what they’re asking, what they’re hoping to hear, and the best evidence you have to lead them in that direction.
