You’ve secured the interview, researched thoroughly, thought about how to present yourself, got interesting questions to ask, put on your best shirt and tie, arrived early, your preparation couldn’t have gone any better – in short your ready!

What can possibly go wrong?

Nothing?

Not quite, what if the interviewer isn’t prepared for you?

The majority of people you see for interview won’t be professional interviewers, they may be the Managing Director, IT Director or Manager, even the HR Manager in anything other than large companies (and even in some of those!) may not necessarily be trained in how to carry out effective interviews

The person you see will undoubtedly be busy, they may have forgotten your appointment, maybe they can’t find your CV, maybe they haven’t prepared questions, are inexperienced or are just not very good at interviews!
What should you do?

If you are well prepared you can turn this situation to your advantage, but you must prepare for this eventuality (it happens often!)

As with every interview, the message you need to leave is simple. How their company will benefit by employing you?

Think about this in advance and have 5 pieces of information (as a minimum) that communicate this, if possible, get them in to your answers. If not bring them up yourself!

Here are a few scenarios:

Unprepared Interviewer

Challenge

The interviewer has forgotten about your meeting, they’re uncomfortable and can’t find your CV. On top of this they haven’t read your CV or prepared any questions (what a great start!). When this happens the interviewer often buys time by talking, at length, about their own experience and company.

Solution

Remember that you only have limited time to make an impression, make it easy for the interviewer and focus on your performance

When you have relevant information, bring it in to the conversation e.g. “it’s interesting you mention the customer service award as in my current role I was involved with a CRM implementation that improved my companies Customer Service Index by 20%!”

If you are positive and proactive the interviewer will settle down and will be encouraged to ask follow on questions about you

Closed Questions

Situation

You have prepared thoroughly, you’ve got engaging information that will impress and be interesting but you can’t get them into your answers as the interviewer is asking closed questions. The answers you are giving the interviewer are correct but you’re not building any rapport with the interview or doing anything special that will make you stand out to the interviewer.

Solution

Just because the interviewer is asking closed questions doesn’t mean you have to give Yes / No answers. Be expansive (but relevant), use the information you have prepared and bring this into your answers

Yes / No answers to closed questions are wrong and they will not give you the opportunity to impress the interviewer.

Interruptions

Challenge

The phone keeps ringing, there are several knocks on the door, you have to change your meeting room etc

Solution

Use the times when you are being interrupted wisely. These interruptions should give you time to prepare and think what information you can give next or think of a follow up to the point you were making. Make sure the interviewer remembers what you were talking about by reintroducing the conversation like this,

’as I was saying…’ or   ‘In relation to the point you were making…’

Negative Approach

Challenge

The company or interviewer may have been trying for a while to find a suitable person to fill the position or the job might have a high turnover of applicants. They may be frustrated with the whole process.

Solution

Dealing with a negative interviewer is not an easy task. You first need to make them relaxed and reassure them you find it easy to adjust to new work environments, enjoy getting on with people, and most importantly that you can do the job well that you have applied for.

It would be good to hear any comments on bad interviews / interviewers and how you’ve dealt with them!

Written by Richard Morgan at Remit Resources

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