Why You Should Get a Friend to Interview You
The interview tip that changed how I prepare forever
There’s something taboo about preparing for interviews. It almost feels naughty, as if you’re cheating and not being yourself. I think a part of it comes from thinking you’re being inauthentic if you prepare. You don’t prepare for a coffee chat with a friend, so why should you prepare for an interview?
Preparing can also say “I’m not good enough, so I need to prepare.” It’s a dangerous mindset because we all intuitively know that preparing for an interview will give you a better chance of getting the job.
Preparing makes rejection hurt more. If you don’t prepare, you can say to yourself “I didn’t care about the job anyway, that’s why I didn’t prepare for it.” If you do prepare, you’ll have to admit you cared, tried, and failed.
I was lucky to discover the stupidity of this no-preparation approach when I was young. I walked into interviews without preparation and I couldn’t even answer the simplest questions like “tell me about yourself” — at least not to the standard I wanted to answer them.
It felt like walking into a battlefield naked when everyone else was wearing a suit of armor and equipped with a battleax. I couldn’t compete in the interview even if I was the better…
