In the first part of this interviewing success series you learned:
Everyone is hired as a problem-solver.
They only care about your skill set as it relates to solving their problem.
In the early interview rounds, it’s all about them.
You must acquire this orientation as you prep for the interview, as it is critical for interviewing success.
But, wait….there’s more!
The employer has questions they need answered during the interview. These are:
Can you do the job?
Will you want to keep doing the job?
Would you fit the company culture?
Every question or scenario interviewers pose is meant to to help them answer those questions.
Let’s examine the first question: Can you do the job?
Most job-seekers fret over this. They do everything they can during the interview to prove they can do the job. As I wrote in the previous article (“People Hire People”), job-seekers typically relate their extensive experience and cite all the skills they’ve picked up over the years. And, generally in all their answers seek to impress the interviewers with their skillset.
And this is the wrong approach. Why?
First, you already know you can do the job. If you didn’t think you could do it, you wouldn’t have applied.
Secondly, they already figure you can do the job. You made it through the ATS; you made it through the phone screen. You were worth inviting in for an interview. They wouldn’t have invited you, unless they believed that.
So, given how you know you can do it and they know you can probably do it. All you need do is remind them of this.
So, instead, of stressing over an imagined need to impress them with your skills and accomplishments, you should strive to figure out what their problem is-- why they really need to hire someone—and relate how you previously applied your skills to solve problems, and how you would apply them in the new position.
By focusing on how you would apply the skills to solve their problem, you cite your skills without coming across as trying to overly impress them. Furthermore, you’ll impress the interviewer with your ability to ask relevant questions and offer focused answers.
For these reasons, whether you can you do the job is actually the easiest of the three questions to be determined! In fact, it’s also the least important of the questions.
In our next article, we’ll examine the more important second question: “Will you want to keep doing the job.”