5 Things Interviewers Want You to Know
Do you have a job interview coming up? There is information that the interviewer will want you to know, even though they haven’t mentioned it specifically. If you want to deliver a dazzling performance, make sure you go into the interview with these five pieces of information.
Information About the Company
Interviewers want to know that you are not just interviewing for any job, you are interviewing for this job. That’s why they listen for details that reveal whether you have researched the company, understand its history, its challenges, its opportunities, and its goals for the future.
Objectives for the Position
The published job description only states part of what interviewers want you to know. It only describes what kind of professional they want to hire, not why, they want to make the hire in the first place. The interviewer will be listening to determine how well you understand the strategic rationale behind the hire, and whether you are uniquely suited to deliver the intended results.
Culture, Values, and Mission
Employers are increasingly making hiring decisions based on a candidate’s ability to enhance the existing company culture. That’s why your interviewer will be listening closely to determine if you understand that culture and can make a positive contribution to it. Every one of your responses helps to answer that question, whether in the positive or negative. A candidate should prepare for an interview by researching the many aspects of a company on LinkedIn and through the employer’s website to gain insight into the role they could play if given the opportunity to fill the position.
Professional Etiquette
This one should be self evident, but interviewers consistently meet with candidates that are lax in their professionalism. In any situation you should be professionally dressed (and always err on the side of formality), organized, polite, confident, and composed. And turn your cell phone all the way off.
Career Highlights
More than one interviewer has been tempted to cut someone off mid sentence and point out that they’ve already read the candidate’s resume. Too many job seekers waste the interview by simply reiterating dates, places, and credentials that have already been established. Your interviewer wants you to go a step or two further and provide information that gives a deeper portrait of who you are and why you are valuable.
It helps to simply put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes. If you had to sit down with 20 people, all similarly qualified, and pick out the one that is best suited for a job, what would you want those 20 people to know coming in? Answer that question and you’ve already set yourself apart from the pack. Find more resources designed to help you land the job by contacting CultureFit.
