Are you tired of trying to mind read what a hiring manager is thinking?
Tired of trying to figure out what the hiring manager is actually looking for in an interview? Why would she ask me that question??
I have good news – it’s simpler than you think.
The three questions every hiring manager is trying to answer about you during the interview
No matter the industry, organization, or person – every hiring manager is looking for three things. They’re universal. And you can prepare for them.
What are they?
- Do you have the skills and competencies I need?
- Are you passionate and excited about the role? The organization?
- Do I like you?
Simple, yet crucial
This might seem overly simple. Or obvious.
But trust me – you can stand out from your competition if you keep these three questions in mind as you prepare for the interview.
Let’s dive a little deeper into each question as I show you how.
1. Do you have the necessary skills and competencies I need?
This is the most obvious one, yet I routinely see job candidates miss opportunity after opportunity to share how their skill set and experience matches what I need.
Many job candidates simply describe their job title, experience, or background, then hope the hiring manager makes the connection to what wasn’t said.
But this isn’t enough.
Let’s take a simple example. Say I’m a hiring manager and I need someone with strong relationship management skills. It’s not sufficient for the job candidate (we’ll call him Randy) to share with me that he “participated in many projects” or “worked with a lot of people.”
Those descriptions could mean almost anything. Randy may be trying to say “I’ve worked with many people on multiple projects where I had to hold firm on my recommendations while maintaining strong relationships that lasted beyond the project.” But he’s relying on me to connect those dots.
It’s not safe to assume in an interview. Don’t make the hiring manager connect the dots. Connect the dots for them.
Here are a few steps you can take to ensure you clearly articulate that you have the necessary skills for the role:
- When prepping, write out the top 3-5 skills you think are required for the role. This will help you anchor back to them during the interview itself.
- When you prepare for (and answer!) the inevitable “Tell me about yourself” question, reference at least 2-3 of those skills. Better yet, check out my post “4 Simple Strategies to Confidently Answer ‘Tell me about yourself.'”
- As you respond to behavioral or situational questions during the interview, clearly articulate that you have XYZ skill, rather than only providing an example. As I mentioned above – say it out loud. Connect the dots for them!
2. Are you passionate and excited about the role? The organization?
Very few things bother me more in an interview than a job candidate who apparently only showed up just in case the only criteria was “human with pulse.”
Instead, chances are pretty good that you’ll need to show a level of excitement, passion, and energy that demonstrates you actually want the job.
Having the right background, experience, or skills simply isn’t enough. You need to demonstrate that you’re pumped to be there, you want the job, and that doing this kind of work is going to motivate you to keep showing up after the initial “new job excitement” wears off.
Here are a couple ideas to help you make this easy and clear:
- Be obvious about your passion and excitement. For instance, use the words “excited”, “passionate”, or versions of them that truly indicate your emotion. As a result, you will clearly get your point across. If you don’t actually feel that way, this isn’t the job for you. Don’t fake it. They’ll either see through it or you won’t last long at the job anyway.
- Provide an example or two of how you’ve been trying to get into this role/organization/industry for a period of time. This shows that you’re not just throwing your name in the hat – you’ve been purposeful in your pursuit of this position.
3. Do I like you?
This one is more tricky to prepare for. A large part of what the hiring manager is trying to do is figure out if you’re a good fit. You should also be doing the same on your end. Do you want to work with this person?
Assuming you feel it’s a good fit, it’s now up to you to ensure you come across in a positive light. While you can’t fully plan for this, there are some steps you can take to prepare ahead of time.
Review the following list prior to your interview to avoid some of these job interview common mistakes:
- Talk too much. This is the most common blunder I see. Make sure you practice responses ahead of time, and even time yourself if you know you tend to talk too much. Look for cues – if the interviewer is frequently checking the clock or her watch, pick up your pace.
- Ask the interviewer to repeat every question. While you may need to have one or two questions repeated for clarity or to give you some time to think, you shouldn’t ask for more than that. Eventually, it comes across either as an inability to listen, retain information, or simply as a stalling tactic. Either way – it’s not the impression you want.
- Make too many jokes. You do want to be likable and relatable. But consider that not every hiring manager is looking for a stand-up comedian. Read their cues – being personable and smiling (which you NEED to do) is not the same thing as making jokes throughout.
- Give your strengths as weaknesses. Please don’t do this. When asked to share your weaknesses or something you’re working on to develop yourself, don’t say things like “I work too hard “ or “I’m too much of a perfectionist” or “I’m too good looking.” The hiring manager may completely dismiss you as a candidate if you can’t answer this question honestly. The point is to understand your level of self-awareness, and choosing to not answer the question won’t help you with that. Instead, pick a skill not critical to the role (i.e. not in your list of 3-5 skills mentioned above) and share how you have a plan you’re working on to address it.
- Ask terrible questions. Another pet peeve of mine (apparently I have a few…) when I’m interviewing is when I ask “So, what questions do you have for me?” and the candidate says “I don’t have any questions.” Or instead, and only slightly better, he asks questions that could have easily been researched ahead of time. Instead, use this as your time to engage the interviewer in conversation. The bulk of the interview is over at this point, so you’ll likely be a little less nervous. Show the hiring manager the real you. If you want to know more about how to best do this, check out my post “How to easily transform your job interview questions.”
Conclusion
While you may think every hiring manger is looking for something different, it really comes down to those three main questions.
All you need to do is be intentional to clearly demonstrate you have the skills they’re looking for, passion for the role or organization, and avoid some common mistakes to give yourself the best chance of the hiring manger liking you.
It will take preparation, but it’s worth it.
And if you want to start the research process early, try finding out who the hiring manager is if you don’t already know. Here are some ways to appropriately going about this research.
Discussion question
I’d love to hear from you! Join the conversation with the Equipped Community – we’re in this together! In the comments section below, share your thoughts on the following question.
What other common mistakes have you made that we can all learn from?
