Most people face job interviews with a degree of trepidation about the unknown-ness of it all. There is the sense of the interview being sort of a black box. The biggest bogey is trying to suss out what the hiring team is really looking for.
In fact, you have more control over how interviews will go than you might think. A concept I have pioneered and have been evangelizing is the idea of influencing job interviews to your advantage – ahead of the actual interview.
How does that work? First, let’s set the scene – 99 percent of HR interviewers and the vast majority of hiring leaders are not dreaming up novel questions to ask you. OK, some do. But most interviewers are just too busy to do that, and often come rushing from meetings into an interview. Thus, they are going to use your résumé as their starting point for their questions.
If your résumé content reads mostly like a job description, the interview, from the start, is going to be less than optimal.
Why? One downside is that a résumé that reflects job responsibilities rather than value and accomplishments communicates from the first read that the candidate isn’t thinking like a businessperson, nor is he/she communicating the critical “why you should care” effectively. Since both these attributes top the list of requirements for the best jobs, you are already at a bit of a disadvantage when you start the interview.
The second downside is that when your résumé details only (or mostly) the responsibilities of your role, the interviewer will likely spend quite a bit of the interview working to draw out from you what you really contributed to a project, to your department or to the organization. You and the interviewer are looking to cover a lot of ground in limited time. When time is spent trying to elicit information, you often miss the opportunity to provide more potent information that would enhance your chances of being a front-runner for the job.
Here’s the hack: Build your résumé to guide interviewers to ask about the work you really want to tell them about, the experience that sells you for the role. By doing this, you will have brilliantly created – in advance – a path for the interviewer to follow. That path, those guideposts, that you have architected, provide the basis for a powerful, content-rich conversation that will make you stand out from the competition.
So how do you work this? It starts with creating your master list of best projects and accomplishments – the things that differentiate you from peers at your level and from others vying for same types of roles.
When you write the content block for a specific job you have held, start with a few bullets (approximately 4-8) or a short paragraph that provides the scope of your role and its most interesting responsibilities, leadership elements (size of your team, direct or matrixed reports), and the level you reported up to. This sets the stage for the interviewer.
After writing the job scope, you list the key accomplishments that sell you specifically for the role you are pursuing, cherry-picking from your master list. You determine what those accomplishments are by carefully analyzing the prospective employer’s job description.
When you write your bullets, work to create a snapshot that will be clear to someone outside your company. (Be sure to avoid internal acronyms!) As much as possible, quantify your accomplishments, providing a metric for the success of the work (time saved, money saved, percentage of controls tested, whatever it might be). For every bullet include the “so what” – why was this accomplishment an accomplishment? Why was it important to your team or your employer?
Once you have built your résumé, test it. Have other people read it and ask them if they have a clear picture of your work and accomplishments. Ask if they found your overall career an interesting story.
The results! Your carefully architected résumé will prompt interviewers to ask about the work that will help sell you for the role. From there, you will be able to roll out your most impressive stories, adding color and details.
Another benefit: If the interviewer hasn’t asked about something that you think is a great bit of your experience, you can point to the bullet on your resume, paint the picture, and show them why it is important in their consideration of you for the role.
Even more horsepower in your interview performance: By preparing your resume strategically, you will have already organized and rehearsed your best work stories, making your interview presentation crisp and professional.
Finally, you have a far better chance of transforming the interview into a consulting conversation that helps you show the interviewers how you are the candidate who can help them solve the problem they are hiring for.
I know this résumé and interview hack works because I have been using it for years with my candidates – candidates who go on to have great interviews and win offers. Please put this technique to use and teach it to others because for far too long, most people have been using weak résumés that follow outdated conventions. Once you have a strategic, value-driven résumé, your interviews will be so much better. Try it and see!
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