On paper, I should have been beating potential employers off with a stick when I graduated. I spoke Japanese, had two degrees, got first class honours. Sure enough, most of the places that I applied to asked me in for an interview, and I turned up in my black suit with polished shoes and a hopeful smile. But the rejection letters kept coming in. I didn’t even need to open them to know what they were – a thin envelope meant one page, which meant “We’re sorry but we are unable to offer you a graduate position at this time. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you every success in your future career.” Big Fat No.
I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong – my handshakes were firm, my hair neatly pulled back, nails tidy, makeup subtle, teeth checked for stray lettuce. My stomach rebelled from nervousness before every interview, perhaps I smelled? I think it was probably my growing sense of desperation that was sabotaging me, the determination that this time it would be different and I’d get the job. I stopped looking at the people I was talking with as people, but saw them as the guardians of nirvana, the place I absolutely had to get into if I was ever going to be happy. I must had made the people interviewing me so uncomfortable, with fake laughs and forced smiles and a look of almost manic hope in my eyes. I wouldn’t have given me a job either, who wants to work with that?
Towards the end of the process, I decided that I might as well try and think about something else to do, if the law firms wouldn’t have me. I started looking into alternatives and got quite excited about courses that I could do or other paths that my life could take. I was just about to sign up for an overseas volunteering program when another job interview came up, at one of the bigger firms. This time I wasn’t so fussed whether I got the job or not, as the idea of spending a year in Vietnam instead was really quite appealing. I did a little bit of preparation for the interview – looked clean and tidy and did some research into the firm and what they did. Instead of answering questions with answers from the self-help books that I had practiced and thought that a law firm would want to hear, I answered honestly and naturally. When the interviewer asked about my hobbies, instead of focusing on something that would demonstrate my teamwork or leadership abilities, I was honest and just said “salsa dancing”. It turned out that the interviewer was also a dancer, and we spent the next twenty minutes chatting about the various classes and clubs around town. I breezed through the other questions, and I was offered a job with that firm the next day.
Several years later when I decided to move overseas, I didn’t have the same urgent need to get a job as I did when I was a graduate. Interviews became much more relaxed, more of a conversation than an interrogation. The balance of power shifted, I was just me, and firms were competing to be the ones to hire me.
Here are a few things that I’ve learned through my various interview experiences (both good and bad) -
1. Relax. Try to think of a job interview the same way as you would trying on a pair of shoes. Sometimes shoes fit and sometimes they don’t. You don’t get nervous before you try on a pair of shoes in case it might not fit, so why feel any differently about a job interview? There are always other opportunities out there, and it’s better to wait for them than try to squeeze into a job that doesn’t fit.
2. Avoid eating or drinking in the interview. My interview with one of the partners of my law firm in Japan involved me having a brief chat with the managing partner, and then the partner I would work for taking me to lunch. We went to a place which had a set lunch, including (as most meals in Japan do) a lovely big of miso soup, which I managed to spill all over myself within 5 minutes of sitting down. I spent the rest of lunch with a big brown stain all over my lap, smelling slightly, and I could see my interviewer trying to hold back a giggle. I can’t believe I still got the job after that (perhaps he was impressed with the way I handled it, or recognised that you can be a clutz and a good lawyer at the same time?).
3. Don’t include any interests or experience on your CV that you’re not really familiar with. In one interview, I found myself being grilled about technical aspects of a deal which I had listed on my CV but had only been peripherally involved in. They went into detail on an area of the deal which I hadn’t been involved in, and where I knew nothing but a few catch phrases and acronyms. Needless to say, it was a thin envelope for that one…
4. Don’t over prepare, it will only make you nervous. Look at the company’s website, know who you’re going to talk to, make sure you’re familiar with your CV, know what the job involves, know how to get where you’re going, but otherwise leave it at that.
5. Don’t schedule interviews too close together, you might get the names of firms and interviewers made up. (You don’t win many brownie points from Baker & McKenzie if you tell them how impressed you are with Clifford Chance’s blue chip clients and stellar deal sheet…)
6. Video conference interviews can actually work out better than travelling to an interview. When you travel, you’re tired and crumpled from the flight. A video conference gives you extra time to think, as you can sit still and not talking for a moment while you gather your thoughts, and the interviewer assumes the pause is because of a technical problem!
7. Dress up, but don’t go too far. If you turn up professionally manicured and with your hair and make-up done by your favourite salon, you’ll look like a barbie doll rather than yourself, and who wants to work with a Mattel figurine?
If you’ve an interview coming up, good luck! And remember – if it doesn’t work out this time it’s probably for the best. Why take a ratty pair of sneakers when there’s a pair of Jimmy Choos just over the horizon.
By Anonymous
http://ezinearticles.com/?Job-Interviews-Should-Be-As-Easy-As-Trying-on-a-Pair-of-Shoes&id=3585241
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