Interviews can be challenging and intimidating.
You are looking for a great job and a thriving career. Hiring managers are looking for someone that has the best technical and cultural fit. They are ultimately in search of someone they trust and can provide a good return on their investment.
Here is an insider look at what goes through a hiring manager’s mind during an interview to save you from the agony and help you better prepare.
The magic happens when you manage to answer all these questions before they are asked.
- Who are you?
- How did you get to know about us?
- How well do you know us?
- Why are you showing up here, why now?
- What’s your deep and genuine motivation to work here?
- What have you achieved in the past, and how can that be useful to us?
- What are you proud of?
- What concrete stories from your professional experience can you tell us so we can see if you are a suitable candidate for the job or not?
- Where can we find out more about your work?
- What aspects of your personality should we know about?
- Who are you when you are not working?
- Are there any aspects that we should be aware of where you may fall short for this job?
- Do your expectations about the postion align with what the job entails?
- Why are you inclined to think you will be a good fit in our culture?
- Why should we hire you?
- Will we do good work together?
- Will it be easy to work with you?
- Are you confident in your abilities to get the job done?
- Can we trust you?
- Will you bring us a good return on our investment? How we’ll we know?
That is, in a nutshell, what the hiring manager is thinking.
From the moment you get in touch with an organisation, make contact with a referral, submit your resume, cover letter and maybe even your portfolio, the contact that is made through email interactions and every step of the interview process, it’s these questions (whether asked explicitly or not) that are, one by one, getting checked off the list and vetted. These are the questions that you need to be prepared for.
I suggest grabbing a notebook and jotting down two or three strong and thoughtful responses per question.
One of the many quotes from Maya Angelou that rings true in this context: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.
Let’s not forget that hiring managers are people, too, and we all want to work with people that resonate with us.
To your success!
Mr. Cover Letter
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Looking for a job is time-consuming and frustrating. Mr. Cover Letter has everything you need to clarify your story and value, engage with hiring managers, get shortlisted and land a great job, faster.
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