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How to influence your interviewer - Episode 1

(And make it easy for them to hire you)





Why influence your interviewer?

To stand out from your competition and get to “YES” you need to present yourself differently than other candidates. This includes using methods that influence the interviewer towards you.

During your interview there are multiple opportunities for you to influence your interviewer using a wide variety of strategies. You need to be impressing and influencing from the beginning of the conversation until the very end; and even after the conversation has finished. 

In this series you’re going to learn secrets of influencing interviewers

Background: I was a Head of Recruitment for 2 Banks and know what influences hiring managers, because I spent years asking hiring managers, “Why did you hire this candidate?”.

Every one of my experienced hiring managers has made a ‘wrong hire‘. 
‘Wrong hires’ are candidates that impress at interview but later perform badly or exhibit  wrong behaviours. 

Often hiring managers selected the candidate based upon:

  • Gut feeling
  • Best of the bunch
  • Convincing communication skills

So it IS possible to influence hiring managers, which leads to a REALLY important point.

Hiring managers are overworked

Managers are overwhelmed with work. They have to manage the results of their team and produce their own work too.

This means, they take shortcuts to make decisions.
They don't have time to deeply analyse EVERY action.
It's impossible because they wouldn't meet deadlines and they'd lose their job.

Managers make hiring decisions based upon gut-feeling balanced with data. Some rely on gut-feeling more than others. You need to tap into this gut-feeling as it's incredibly powerful.

So let’s begin with the end in mind.

Last impressions count

Every interview coach will tell you that first impressions count.
What they don’t tell you is about FIRSTS and LASTS.

People remember FIRSTS and LASTS. The stuff in the middle is less memorable unless you are making points that truly connect with your interviewer. First impressions ARE important, but LAST impressions deeply imprint yourself into someone else' memory. Good or bad.

Extensive research, most notably by experiments carried out by Fredrickson and Kahneman (1993) have defined the ‘peak-end rule’ in which:

  • people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience. 

Let me give you an example.

Remember Game of Thrones?

It was loved by millions, it was the most pirate-downloaded series of all time, lasted 8 seasons and had a cult-like following.

Fun-fact, it would take you 3 days and 16 minutes to binge-watch the entire series without a break.

Game of Thrones wrapped up in 2 deeply unsatisfying rushed episodes. Internet forums were flooded with angry GOT fans. Nearly 2 million people signed an online petition to have series 8 remade with different writers.

Never mind the 71 previous high-quality episodes, GOT is now remembered as having the most disappointing ending since LOST.

Interviews are exactly the same. You need to impress the interviewer right up until you put the phone down or the elevator door closes. Here's how you can do it.

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Beat your competition with this knowledge.
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Reiterate WHY you are interested in the job

Hiring managers want to hire people that will actually ENJOY doing the role. If they know you’ll enjoy it, it’ll make you easier to motivate and manage.

So, if you really want the role then reiterate to the interviewer again towards the end of the interview WHY you would enjoy doing this role. Remember that you need to make it relevant to the job. Interviewers don’t care so much about what you want as much as what you can give.

Example:

 “It’s really important for me to enjoy my work and I know I would really enjoy working in this role.

It’s got a high amount of stakeholder engagement that lets me use the collaboration and influencing skills I’ve honed over the years; as well as leading people, which I have 10 years experience of. 

In reality I know the role has it’s challenges but this is part of why I know I will enjoy working here”

You can see that I’ve been very open and upfront in the first statement.
In the second statement I have qualified the first statement.
In the third statement I have demonstrated that I’m a realist, and then ended by reiterating my first statement.

Ask quality interview questions that generate discussion

You should be asking questions throughout your interview because this generates the 2-way discussion. Towards the end of your interview there’s usually a point where they ask you “What questions do you have for me?”

First piece of advice for you. ALWAYS have 10 questions written down to take in with you. Don’t go in unprepared. You don’t want that feeling of leaving the interview and remembering something you wished you’d asked or stated.

Here’s a list of questions you could ask in an interview.

Why did you join this company?
What do you most enjoy about working at this company?
What employee development opportunities are there here?
What do you see will be the biggest challenges for this role?
How do leaders encourage employees to speak up here? 
How does the organisation listen to and implement change ideas?
I read that the organisation values are [XYZ], can you tell me how these show up in this department?
How are employees recognised for high performance here? 
How involved are employees in the structuring of their own goals and tasks?
How would you measure the success of the person in this role?
How often do managers give positive and constructive feedback to help people like me improve?
Please tell me about the team I’d be working with.
What does it take to be a top performer at this company? 
Is there anything about my background or resume that makes you unclear whether I am a good fit or not?
What are the next stages of the interview process?

Finish by making an excellent lasting impression

Remember you have to be professional right up until the last interaction.
Finish off by thanking your interviewer and making a positive statement. Like this:

"Thanks for meeting with me today, I’ve really enjoyed our discussion.
I know I would enjoy working here so I hope to hear about the next stages”

Here you’re being polite and thanking them, you’re also reiterating your interest in the role, but you're keeping it professional and not polishing their shoes.

Finally

There is no magic formula for getting a job offer from an interview.  But what you can do is to make it EASIER for the interviewer to say "YES" to you.

Everything you say or do either pulls the interviewer towards you or pushes them away from you.

You can pull them towards you by engaging with them, building 2-way communication and leaving a positive lasting impression.


Look out for the the next episode where I’ll tell you what hiring managers are asking themselves when they meet you. You need to answer the questions the DON’T ask you.

About the author

Denis Miles-Vinall is an HR professional with over 20 years experience of hiring people across 4 continents and coaching and training over 12,000 people in leadership seminars and on MBA programs.
He teaches interviewing skills to hiring managers at investment banks, insurance firms and other MNCs across Asia.

Sources


Kahneman, Daniel; Fredrickson, Barbara L.; Schreiber, Charles A.; Redelmeier, Donald A. (1993). “When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End”. Psychological Science. 4 (6): 401–405.