The Musician's Way Blog

“You can’t tell by looking at a piece of paper
what some of the strengths and weaknesses really are.”
–Kevin Kelly, hiring guru, quoted on Forbes.com

In almost every field, job seekers who rise to the top of their applicant pools will be interviewed.

Still, nearly all of the job seekers that I’ve coached – performers, educators, and others – have initially made the same mistake during the pre-interview period:

They assume that their interviewers will draw out of them all pertinent information.

As a result, they misconstrue their role as interviewees and don’t recognize the extensive scope of interview preparation.

An Interviewee’s Role
An interviewee’s role is to comprehensively demonstrate his or her job-worthiness to an interviewer, irrespective of the expertise of the interviewer (sometimes, the people who conduct job interviews possess such scant knowledge of interview practices that they’re incapable of drawing out pertinent information).

Ideally, interviewees will offer uncommon value to an organization, exceeding their prospective employers’ expectations.

At minimum, though, interviewees must ensure that their interviewers will answer “yes” to the following 3 questions (via George Bradt on Forbes.com):

1. Can you do the job?
2. Will you love the job?
3. Can we tolerate working with you?

Preparing for Interviews
With these issues in mind, here are some preparation tips, tied to the above 3 questions, to help rising professionals triumph at interviews. Also review guidelines on sites such as Monster.com as well as in my post “Ace Your Interview.”

1. Create your talking points and any presentations far in advance, and then practice. Prepare to give evidence that you meet a position’s qualifications and that you’ll eagerly learn new skills. If you’re a novice at interviewing or need to build confidence, do mock interviews with one or more mentors, and be sure to video-record.
2. Emanate enthusiasm. Be passionate about your field and the position you seek; articulate a succinct vision. In tandem, research your prospective employer and colleagues, and plan to ask questions about their projects and visions.
3. Display warmth and professionalism. Through your amiable yet polished demeanor, make it clear that you’d bring value and collegiality to an organization.

In sum, interviewing involves skills that anyone can master with practice and feedback. Even so, because most of us seldom do interviews, to excel at them, we have to prepare meticulously.

Related posts
The 3 Roots of Performance Anxiety
Ace Your Interview
Applying for Faculty Positions
Artistic Vision

© 2012 Gerald Klickstein
Photo © ARENA Creative, licensed from Shutterstock.com