At my first job in IT, I had no relevant skills, no real work history and nothing to my name except a degree. I got that job though and have now been working in technical roles for 7 years.
A few months into the job, I asked my boss what it was that made her put me through to the second round, she said that she just turned to her colleague and said “he’s in the second round”, because we had a laugh during the interview. Also didn’t get super angry in the technical part of the interview (pretty low bar to entry).
The technical round was an Excel sheet I hadn’t seen, when I hadn’t answered her question in maybe a minute, she asked if I needed a clue, I asked a clarifying question, which she answered, that helped and I got to the right answer. It was actually fairly easy.
I was talking to another hiring manager the other day, it wasn’t an official interview so I won’t quote him, but I was asking about interviews and he said that plenty of people pass the technical round but many still don’t get offers.
Eventually he just chats to you, because he knows he will have to work with you if you pass.
If you seem like an arsehole, he doesn’t want to work with you, no matter how skilled you are.
He wasn’t looking for the funniest, wittiest, most charming guy in all the land, just that you respond to normal questions in a clear way and can communicate in a clear and polite way.
You may be able to get great jobs, even be a prick if you’re a mega genius, but we can’t all be as smart as Dr House. I certainly am not. So, I need people to want to work with me.
Chances are, if you’re reading this you’re a nice enough person to get a job, because you’re nice enough to have subscribed to me, or are about to.
You may struggle to show your lovely personality in interviews. I get it, it’s a high pressure situation.
There are some simple ways to get better at this, because it is a learnable, practicable skill:
Practice with friends
Get more interviews
Practice with me
You already know how to talk to your friends.
Ask them to do you a favour and practice some interview questions, so you can practice and get more comfortable with this style of talking to someone and show your personality a bit more.
You don’t want to seem like you are reading lines off a script like an automaton.
Nothing beats the real thing for experience.
Once you’ve done enough reps, you will breeze through interviews.
If you need help actually getting those interviews, reply or comment to let me know how I can help you.
I can take you through mock interviews, help you craft your answers, point out where you’re not presenting yourself as well as you could and get those job offers.
Reply or comment to discuss how I can help.
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