Navigating an Interview

Navigating an interview is just as much an internal exercise as it is an external one.

The external exercise is the one we often prepare more for.

This is the Google doc with our notes, this is the YouTube video preparation to portray our confidence and professionalism.

Preparation in the external lane usually leads to a positive outcome. That’s what we were taught, that’s what we believe.

The internal exercise comes when that promise is no longer true.

I’ll give you two recent and admittedly vulnerable examples.

The first is about maximizing the opportunity. I was interviewing for a cool start-up role. Everything to this point seemed intriguing. The people seemed great, the recruiter seemed to buy into the company mission and the salary was good.

I let myself envision a role here, from driving into the soon-to-be-announced office to engaging with my soon-to-be manager. (What can go wrong doing that, you might say.)

Then came the hiring manager interview, and I absolutely bombed it. I absolutely could have prepared better, but it was also hindsight 20/20. “Don’t know what you don’t know” kind of story.

The point is, I didn’t do well.

And the internal exercise only made matters worse. How could I do so badly on a job I liked so much! What could I have done better? Maybe I’m not equipped to succeed in SF after all.

I kicked myself for the failure, judging myself on the outcome, and belaboured over those 30 minutes for weeks after. That leads to the first lesson learned:

I evaluated my character in the fact that I didn’t get the job. More importantly, I played back in my head my mistakes.

The reality is, I’ll almost never get straight A’s. But if I’m proud of how much I studied, then I should take solace in that agnostic of the grade I get.

The other example is a bit more forgiving.

Here, I actually thought I did well, making it even more surprising when I heard the bad news. It was a case take-home for a pretty junior role. Of all the stages I thought I would do well, a prepared slide deck would be at the top of my list. Regardless, the next morning I got the dreadful email.

This leads to the second lesson learned:

This is a quote my dad would often say.

The unfortunate truth about the job search these days is qualification and background alone won’t get you the job. Hell, even a strong case take-home won’t do that either.

But that can’t define who you are. You’re defined by how hard you try, by the quality of your work and how you present yourself. You get to choose!

This approach focuses more on what you can control vs. the outcome of this interview. On how you feel vs. guessing what others feel of you.

So I didn’t get the job. But I helped focus my energy on the quality of the deck and how proud I was of the model I created in such a short period of time.

An important clarifier before I close.

This is not “kill them with kindness” advice. To be clear, both examples sucked. I felt bad for myself for weeks.

The difference is how you get back up. I’m not diminishing the instant reaction. It sucks. It sucked for me and the next rejection will also suck.

It sucks less when you prepare for it.

Do the best that you can, and the right fit will fall right into place. Bet on yourself and some lucky company will cash in.