How to Fall in Love with Interviewing

What is worse than job interviewing in person? Interviewing with a bad webcam using a poor SKYPE connection.  You end up with the goldfish bowl look because of the camera distortion. Or your eyes are always looking down at the screen at the interviewers to whom you give no eye contact.

The fine art of interviewing is not improving anytime soon. It can still be a painful, dreaded, nerve-wracking experience on both sides of the desk. Everyone has a nightmare story about the "interviewer from hell", someone who was so bad at asking questions that you absolutely knew you were never going to be hired.

What about the interviewer who doesn't ask questions but rather just chats as the new best friend that you never hear from again? Or, the interviewer who asks questions so unrelated to the job you wonder if you applied for the wrong position?  Then there is the distainful interviewer, who acts as though it is a supreme imposition just having you in the room. I could go on and you can in the comments section to this blog.

How Do You Ace It?
Yes, bad interview stories are abundant. However, it still is on you to acquit yourself well during the interview. What does that mean?
- Should you ace all the questions with absolutely appropriate answers?
- Should you offer great, relevant examples, facts and figures with glib ease?
- Should you mirror the interviewers body language to make him/her comfortable in your presence?
- Should you create a dialogue to interact in easy conversation, thus putting your interviewer at ease?
- Should you provide business solutions to demonstrate the compelling value in hiring you?

Yes, of course, to all of the above!
But, while that will certainly go a long way to getting you hired, that's not it. If you do everything above, unless you are a glow-in-the-dark java software developer, it is not enough to be hired. And, if you do just some of the above with a less than stunning acquittal of your expertise and you successfully do one more thing, odds are that you will be hired.

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Love Me, Like Me and Hire Me?
What is that one more thing? You must get them to fall in like with you..even love... if you can manage that. People hire people they like. People want to work with people they like. People want to be with people who like them. It is so simple yet powerful: get them to like you, a lot, by liking them even more. It's all about the chemistry.

I always tell the story about how Brian Epstein agreed to manage the Beetles before he had actually heard their music. When queried on that, his response was simply to explain how much he liked them. In order to get the interviewers to like you, you must be in like with them, with their company, and their products/services and they will reciprocate to you.

You really can't fake this as interviewers seem to have built in insincerity radar which is probably because many of them are so well practiced in it. How many times have you left an interview thinking you had the job because the interviewer was so positive, and, well, likeable?  I have seen this scenario played out even at the boardroom level. 

It rests upon you to target companies that you can fall in love with. It is much more difficult to exude sincere likability with a company that you are willing to just settle for. Be picky and don't wait for companies to find you, go after the ones you love with gusto. It will show through and they will like you in return.

And, hopefully hire you!