YOU In An Interview!
I have been working with a client for a month or so. He has a couple of interviews scheduled this week so much of our time has been practicing for those. The practice has gone very well. He is a smart and well experienced manager of engineers.
The questions being asked have been very easy to answer. Questions like: What makes you angry and How do you plan your day are typical. He has his answers ready and most of the sound right on! He has only one bad habit. His habit is in his use of the word YOU instead of I. This may seem trivial to most people but this minor use of the wrong word has tainted my impression of him when he speaks.
As an example, let's use the question: How do you plan your day? His original answer was: "You plan a day by organizing it into appointments. When you set up the next day's schedule, you have to keep some time open in case there are pressing issues that come up." His use of "you" instead of "I" to answer these questions gave me the impression he was trying to teach me something through his answers. This was subtle but after a few questions, I started getting the impression he was either hiding something or not telling me the whole picture.
So I encouraged him to replace the "you" with "I" and here is the way it sounded: "I plan my day by organizing it into appointments. When I set up the next day's schedule, I have to keep some time open in case there are pressing issues that come up." Instead of teaching me or hiding something, I now had the sense he was truly answering my questions. This minor change made a world of difference.
My client had a difficult time changing this because he has been doing it this way for most of his working life. We discussed that it probably stems from his not wanting to self promote himself and sound arrogant. I thought it was because he didn't feel comfortable promoting himself so this was his way of avoiding it.
Is there something in your demeanor or speech which may be giving off the wrong impression? Find someone you can trust who can analyze you or get a video recorder and record an interview. You will be amazed what you do!
The questions being asked have been very easy to answer. Questions like: What makes you angry and How do you plan your day are typical. He has his answers ready and most of the sound right on! He has only one bad habit. His habit is in his use of the word YOU instead of I. This may seem trivial to most people but this minor use of the wrong word has tainted my impression of him when he speaks.
As an example, let's use the question: How do you plan your day? His original answer was: "You plan a day by organizing it into appointments. When you set up the next day's schedule, you have to keep some time open in case there are pressing issues that come up." His use of "you" instead of "I" to answer these questions gave me the impression he was trying to teach me something through his answers. This was subtle but after a few questions, I started getting the impression he was either hiding something or not telling me the whole picture.
So I encouraged him to replace the "you" with "I" and here is the way it sounded: "I plan my day by organizing it into appointments. When I set up the next day's schedule, I have to keep some time open in case there are pressing issues that come up." Instead of teaching me or hiding something, I now had the sense he was truly answering my questions. This minor change made a world of difference.
My client had a difficult time changing this because he has been doing it this way for most of his working life. We discussed that it probably stems from his not wanting to self promote himself and sound arrogant. I thought it was because he didn't feel comfortable promoting himself so this was his way of avoiding it.
Is there something in your demeanor or speech which may be giving off the wrong impression? Find someone you can trust who can analyze you or get a video recorder and record an interview. You will be amazed what you do!
posted by Jeff at
8:12 AM
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