Section 14: Interviewing
The Interview Mindset is a shift in the way you approach interviewing.
It builds strategy and tactics into your approach through a series of principles.
Incorporate the Interview Mindset into your preparation and you’ll become a stronger, more highly qualified candidate in the eyes of interviewers. Here are the steps at each stage of the process:
Before the Interview
Great interview performance starts long before the interview. Think of the process like an athlete. The feats you see on the field are the result of countless hours of preparation and practice. The same is true with interviewing.
Mindset Principle #1
Companies hire because they're facing a problem
The job is open because the company has a problem. It could be to replace someone who left, that they need more people to support growth, or expansion into new products and services.
Your goal is to understand the problem they're facing. From there, connect the dots between your experience and how it is the solution to their problem.
In addition to the team's specific problem, it's helpful to understand the company as a whole. For larger public companies, 10-Q quarterly reports and 10-K annual reports (found on their website) provide insight into the company's challenges, priorities, and future vision.
Understanding the overall company picture can improve your interview answers. During your interviews you can connect how your experience can not only help the team, but how it contributes to the company's big-picture goals. It also shows that you're serious about the opportunity and thoroughly researched the company.
Mindset Principle #2
Understand the interviewer's perspective
Interviewers have different goals at different stages of the selection process. The initial recruiter screen is focused on confirming you have the necessary qualifications.
Later-stage Interviews are more in-depth. They focus on your ability to problem-solve and utilize past experience to overcome on-the-job challenges.
Anticipate general questions around your experience during the recruiter screen. It's helpful to have a few stories prepared around your past experience, preferably ones that relate to qualifications listed in the job description.
You'll definitely want your stories prepared for the onsite/panel stage, where you can expect "Tell me about a time when..." and "Imagine that..." questions.
As you prepare for the recruiter screen, take the time to write down why you're interested in the role and company, what your salary expectations are (research similar jobs in the area to ensure your expectations match the market), and how your past experience relates to the job.
Make it as easy as possible for the recruiter to see that you're the best candidate for the job.
The "Tell me about yourself" question will be asked in just about every interview. Craft your answer as a 60-second pitch summarizing relevant experience and why you're the best candidate.
If possible, learn more about the interviewer's background. Their LinkedIn profile is a good resource for this. Knowing their background can help to build rapport if you both have things in common (previous employers, schools, hobbies, interests).
Finally, write down 3-5 questions to ask the interviewer. These can range from personal questions of what they like best about the company to big picture ones like what challenges the team is currently facing.
Mindset Principle #3
Great interviewers are made long before the interview
Becoming a great interviewer takes time. It requires practice, experience, and continually adjusting your answers based on feedback.
Practice with friends, family members, or a mentor/coach that has interview experience. This is a great way to get the repetitions in, receive feedback, and adjust as needed before the big day.
Resource Spotlight
Candorful - Prepare with an upcoming interview with free practice interview sessions (three one-hour sessions) for military members, veterans, and military spouses.
Interview questions typically fall into two buckets. The first type are behavioral questions. These are based on your past experience and often start with "Tell me about a time when..." These signal how your past experience would help you navigate similar scenarios that can be expected in the role.
The second type of questions are hypothetical questions. Often starting with "Imagine that..." these imaginary scenarios assess your problem-solving, reasoning, and brainstorming abilities.
When it comes to practice, write down a few possible questions from each category. The job posting can be used as a reference to formulate these questions. For example, if interviewing for a Project Manager role, questions might include:
Behavioral: Tell me about a time a project was at risk of being delayed. What steps did you take and what stakeholders were involved to mitigate the risk?
Hypothetical: Imagine you're leading a project and having difficulty gaining buy-in from a key stakeholder. What strategies would you take to overcome this challenge and keep the project on track?
Aside from practicing interview questions with an actual person, there are a additional options. One is to record yourself answering questions and then going back to review your performance.
Another is to use a tool like Google's Interview Warmup, which uses AI to analyze and suggest improvements to your interview answers.