Managing “Bad” Job Interviewers

You can and should prepare for interviews, but the fact remains that you are interacting with another human being.  You cannot control their behavior and therefore cannot fully control the outcome of your interview.  However, you still have control over yourself, so you can and should manage interviews to your advantage.

As a former recruiter, I often hear this complaint from jobseekers:
Interviewers don’t ask questions that are relevant to the job
Interviewers ask about unrelated topics or personal questions.
How can a jobseeker win when employers don’t know how to interview?

You can and should prepare for interviews, but the fact remains that you are interacting with another human being.  You cannot control their behavior and therefore cannot fully control the outcome of your interview.  However, you still have control over yourself, so you can and should manage interviews to your advantage:

Let’s assume your interviewer doesn’t know how to interview – e.g., asks vague questions, rambles on about himself the whole time.  If questions are vague, consider them open-ended and direct your answers to showcase your achievements and potential for the company.  (You should have prepared specific examples just waiting for this type of opening.)  If the interviewer rambles, show how well you listen.  Don’t bother trying to steer the conversation to yourself.  If the interviewer is self-centered, he won’t remember what you say about yourself anyway.  But he will remember that you paid him a lot of attention.  You want to make a connection, not teach the interviewer how to interview.

Let’s go even further and assume the interviewer is rude – e.g., asking improper questions, starting late, smelling bad, interrupting the interview to take phone calls.  Show how professional you are.  In any job, you will have difficult clients and co-workers.  Focus on what you came to do (sell yourself, build a relationship), and ignore the rest.  Your interviewer might not know a question is illegal, she might have a good reason to be late, she might smell bad because she’s sick, and she might really need to take that phone call.  Assume the positive, so your attitude remains upbeat.

Finally, before complaining about interviewers not knowing how to interview, have you confirmed if you know how to interview?  Waiting for the “good” job interviewers conveniently puts the blame and the responsibility for the interview outcome (and your job search) away from you and onto someone else.  Get rid of that attitude.  It’s not attractive, it’s disempowering, and it leaves the door open for that confident, proactive candidate who recognizes that it’s her responsibility to manage her interviews – to brand herself and make her own opportunities.

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