Jeremy Johnson has a new guest blog post this week on what every interview question really means.
Jeremy is a recruiter in Kansas City for EHD Technologies, a recruiting, staffing and managed services company serving the IT, Engineering and Automotive industries.
What Every Interview Question Really Means
You just scheduled a big interview. You’re excited, you’re nervous and you’re wondering what in the world those interviewers are going to ask you. If you’re looking for resources to help you answer those tough questions, they’re everywhere. A basic search for “interview questions” on Amazon.com produces over 48,000 results.
Finding the resources to answer tough interview questions is easy. Even rehearsing your answers isn’t that difficult, if you can just get yourself to do it. But, you can read all the books and memorize all the “right” answers, but if that’s all you do, you’re missing a fundamental piece on interview questioning. And, that is the interviewer’s mindset behind the questioning itself.
Sure, you can understand why a particular question is asked. “How do you feel about travel?” is an appropriate question for a regional sales manager, and “What versions of Visual Studio have you worked with?” is pretty standard for a .NET programmer. What’s trickier to remember than the mindset behind the questions, but just as important, is the mindset behind your answers.
Here’s why it’s important to remember that last bit, especially when you’re faced with a question that seems off-subject, out of left field, or just a more personal conversation starter: every single interview question, no matter how bizarre or benign, always relates back to you in that job.
Here’s what I mean. Have you ever gotten the question, “So, tell me a little about yourself?”How do you answer it? Do you just start reciting your motivations, experiences and aspirations without really giving it much thought? Do you give them a summary of your life’s story? That’s how most people would answer. Here’s the problem, though. At this point, you don’t really know what’s important to the interviewer and why she’s asking the question. And so, your answers are in a vacuum. They’re not tied to what’s important to the interviewer; they’re just stand-alone answers to seemingly stand-alone questions. Again the problem: nothing stands alone in an interview.
Everything, everything, EVERYTHING relates back to the job. So, back to “tell me a little about yourself.” Even though you don’t know what the interviewer is trying to get out of that question, your answer is still evaluated on how you fit. So, without knowing more, you could say something that absolutely kills your chances of getting the job and you wouldn’t even know it. A better way to deal with that question is to ask a question yourself, “Did you want to know more about me professionally or personally?” or “Is there a particular part of my background you were more interested in or would you like me to step you through my resume?” At least by finding out a bit more of their mindset behind the question, you’re more likely to satisfy their mindset directed toward your answer.
I discovered this little truth the hard way, as most discoveries happen; I screwed up an interview. I didn’t screw it up at first. I was actually proud to have gotten the interview at all, because I was initially turned down for a face-to-face meeting and I got the interviewer to change her mind, which doesn’t happen often. So, I went into the interview feeling pretty good. It also didn’t hurt that it was a sales job, and I basically “sold” the hiring manager on why she should interview me. Everything was going well, until the question that sunk me.
“Do you think you’d like to own your own business?” Now, face to face, in that moment, I didn’t think this question was that big of a deal. It was only later, when I was pondering my rejection letter, that the light bulb came on and I realized where I went wrong. It was in how I answered that single question. When she asked it, I immediately thought of my dad. He’s owned his own business for 20 years. What went through my mind was all the joyless but necessary parts of running a business that I didn’t want anything to do with – taxes, legal issues, liability, accounting, customers that won’t pay you. Yuck! That’s what I focused on in the interview, so I said no, I didn’t want to own a business.
My mistake was answering that question in a vacuum, with what immediately came to mind. I didn’t realize at the time that what the hiring manager was getting at was whether or not I had an entrepreneurial mindset. That was the purpose of the question. That sales job was kind of like running your own business. You have your own book of clients that you find and take care of. But, I wasn’t thinking that. I only thought of the administrative part of business that I didn’t want – and ironically, wouldn’t even have to deal with by working for another company! So, I pretty-much shot myself in the foot. The focus of my answer was wrong because I failed to realize that every question directly related back to the job and how I fit in it. Had I made that connection when the question was asked, I would have related the aspects of running my own business that I enjoyed and that were relevant to the position.
Here’s a pretty silly illustration, but it makes the point, as well. What if you were asked in an interview, “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” Like I said, silly. And you’ll probably never get asked this question in a million years, but humor me. What if you did? How would you answer? It should depend on the job you’re interviewing for – while still being truthful. For example, if you’re interviewing for an accountant position, you better not say you’re a weeping willow, “I’m very flexible and flowing and my branches go wherever the wind takes them.” If that’s your answer, here’s what that hiring manager is thinking, “You just can’t go wherever the wind takes you when you’re dealing with numbers! I need someone resolute, ordered and precise. I need an oak!”
There are hundreds of questions that could potentially get thrown at you in an interview. You probably aren’t going to be 100 percent prepared for every one of them. But, what you can be prepared for is understanding the purpose behind each interview question, not matter what it is. And that’s this: every question, no matter how obscure, always relates back to the job, and the interviewer is taking your answers, and gauging them against a mental template of what fits the job. Interview questions don’t exist in a vacuum, so your answers shouldn’t exist in one, either.