Once you’ve done all the other usual prep like knowing your resume well, understanding the organization you’re interviewing with and the role you’re interviewing for, here are a two critical things to keep in mind if your goal is to find a job that’s a good fit for you, aligned with what you want and where you’ll have a good chance being happy.
You might have heard these points before, but maybe not like this. These additional angles are often missed.
1. Just be yourself.
Good advice. But, it’s often said in an effort to calm someone’s nerves before an interview and the reasoning implied is, “Oh, you’re just so fabulous they’ll fall in love with you and you’ll get the job if you just be yourself.” While that may happen, there’s another, more important reason to just be yourself; it’s a key part of a solid strategy to make sure you don’t end up in a job that’s not aligned with who you are.
When we think have a pretty good idea of what the employer/interviewer is looking for, it can be extremely tempting to turn into a chameleon and be whoever we think they want us to be, saying whatever we think they want to hear. But it’s not a good idea. Because you may get the job, but now you’ve created a situation where they think you’re someone else. And you’ll either have to keep up the facade, pretending to be someone you’re not - a recipe for misery - or you’ll have to face the tricky situation of showing up as the real you and possibly disappointing or upsetting your employer because that’s not who you said you were in the interview. So, in the short run you’ll get the job, but in the long run there’s a high chance things won’t work out.
If you want to avoid all that just be yourself! And remember - they might just like who you are! Those ideas you have of who you “should” be could be just that - ideas. You really don’t know for sure what they will like because you’re not a mind-reader. But either way, whether they like you and you get the job or you don’t, just being yourself gives you the best chance at finding a job that’s the right fit for you.
2. You’re interviewing them too.
This is also some pretty common interview advice. I’ve heard some take this to mean, “Come up with some questions about their business you can ask at the end of the interview to sound smart.” But that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean use the interview process to observe and ask as much as you need about the employer.
Observe both what is said and the subtext of the conversation and how you feel in the work environment. Use all your intuitive abilities to get the vibe of the place and people. Ask questions that will help you paint a better picture for you to evaluate if this is what you’re looking for. If anything doesn’t seem like a good fit for you, take note. You may have heard this before too. But here’s the real key and possibly tricky part that people often don't follow through on - trust yourself and don’t ignore any of those intuitive hits. Get honest and ask yourself, “Is this really a place where I can see myself enjoying working? Does this company and role feel good to me?”
This may seem obvious, but if I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say they knew going into the job, what they’re unhappy about now that they're in the job. It’s similar to shoving your concerns aside and hoping your partner will change after you get married. Best to take a good look at those red flags now.
While our mind can try to make it complicated (and I get it, it could be a job that looks really good on paper), what you like and what feels good to you is actually simple and pretty straightforward. Academy Award winner Viola Davis says, “You can’t be hesitant about who you are.” That sums it up pretty well.
Ultimately if we want to find work that we enjoy we have to be willing to go into the job search as ourselves and be selective - finding work environments and situations where we feel good and can thrive.
