Preparing for Interviews

As the owner of a staffing firm that two divisions focusing on the Medical field as well as Banking and finance; I can tell you that we hear our share of unfortunate stories after our candidate interviews with the perspective client.  Sometimes, it is the candidate that performed so well with us and then for some reason, they just bombed the interview with our client.  I have often asked our recruiters “what happened?”  And they always seem to answer with the same type of reasons of which we usually answer with “not again!!”  I hope to help any perspective employee avoid some of these “job killer” pitfalls. The first and most common reason for employers declining and employee is because they did not research the company.  It is so common that we make it systematic to encourage our perspective employees to research the company before their interview.  Regardless of the warnings that we offer along with almost every employment article (written by professionals) noting this as a common reason for employers moving on, we still see this as a major concern that employers report back to us.  I am sure that we are not the only staffing company that hear this common reasoning for employers turning away from someone that might be a very intelligent and competent candidate.  It is always sad and frustrating when we hear this feedback and wish that many more would take the small effort to research their perspective company before attempting to interview with them The second is either not having any questions for the employer at all or having questions that do not show a high level of intellect.  This is tougher to coach employees because there are only so many questions that the employee can prepare before the interview.  We often advise employees to go and look for questions either online or within books that would offer some suggestions for well thought out questions.  But we always mention that they need to be prepared to ask questions that are specific to their conversation with their interviewer.  It is helpful for anyone interviewing to be well versed in the types of “good questions” to ask right before the interview.  If the proper preparation is taken, there will be several questions that can be altered to fit the conversation and it will definitely be worth the potential employee’s time. The third common thing that I think we hear most often from employers is that the candidate just did not show much interest.  If you are the interviewer, you obviously want to hire someone who is interested in the job.  But it is so frustrating when we hear that from the employer and then when we contact the employee they tell us that they are VERY interested in the position.  At this point, it is very hard for us to convince the employer that they in fact have told us that they are very intereste din the position.  Most employers will just move on following their intuition rather than reconsidering.  This sometimes is a huge opportunity lost by the employee and it could easily be avoided if interest was shown. Being unemployed (especially if you are a high performing person) is often very frustrating and a difficult season of life.  Because of the stress involved, it is no surprise that we see many small errors made by employees just simply out of nervousness.  I like to advise employees that because of the stress and uncertainty during this “season of life” it is very important to prepare for the interview with focus and intention rather than just show up and hope that you have a good connection with the interviewer.  At Trinity Employment Specialists, we see mistakes made every day by great potential employees and it is sad when all they had to do is prepare.  I hope that this advice spurs you to prepare and be the best interviewee possible.