Distance Traveled to Date: 3.10 Miles
Today was the big day – my thrice canceled interview was finally happening. The sun was shining and there were no reported arrival delays at Chicago’s airports. Perhaps in shock that the long-delayed meeting was finally happening, my body responded this morning by doing the only thing it could do to combat such anxiety – my bowels worked overtime.
My case of the runs notwithstanding, the interview went fairly-to-very well. During the 90 minutes I sat with the New York-based executive director and the Chicago office director, I answered most questions with a modest amount of elegance and clarity. I aced my response about the agency’s history (has the candidate researched us?), I deftly avoided landmines when asked to critique their website (is the candidate able to offer subtle and constructive criticism?) and I ably identified their chief competitors and offered my take on how I’d frame the mission to a prospective funder (does the candidate understand our industry?). In fact, the only query to which my response was less than ideal (at least, that’s the was I perceived it due to their reactions) was about the specific actions I'd take to build corporate sponsorship efforts at their annual golf event.
Here’s the thing: you can prepare for an interview all you want, but I never like to promise one course of action before I truly understand the company, its past activities and its future goals. I know some people are confident enough to sit down with a stranger and say they will do X, Y and Z (not literally, of course. If you said "I’ll do X, Y and Z," you’re likely to be met with incredulous stares). But I never like to position myself as an expert when talking to actual experts. I tried to be vague and talk about needing to learn the specifics about the agency and all its constituencies before I approach them…but I think they wanted more. Oh well…I can sleep at night if I don’t get this job because I refused to make promises I couldn’t guarantee.
My question to you, dear readers, is what would you have said? This isn’t the first time I’ve faced this question in a job interview and I’m always skeptical about my response. Is it better to talk a big game and propose actions that you may later need to retract? Should confidence outweigh prudence? Does my so-called substantial expertise mean I really know the answers to questions I don’t fully understand?
I’m truly interested in your feedback. Please comment below and/or on this blog’s Facebook page.
Since I’m already running a little long, I’ll tease two tidbits for tomorrow’s post: first, the interesting next steps in the interview/hiring process for this job, as well as a new lead for a position at an agency with which I’ve had some interview experience in the past. Maybe it won’t be compelling reading…but it won’t suck either.
Or it will. Whatever.
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I understand why you would hesitate to offer a plan-of-action for a specific event as that could easily bite you in the butt later. If in your situation, the only thing I can think to do that may have appeased them is to offer a plan with a large disclaimer before and after describing said plan, about how you couldn't say for sure without having a better understanding of their constituents but that "one idea that comes to mind for this event is..."
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for you.
I think they ask questions like these to sort of cheat their way into the candidate they like. Think of Sully. Probably hundreds of skilled pilots could have landed a plane on a river and become a national phenomenon, but only one did. They're hoping you happen to land on the answer they're looking for.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think the short disclaimer idea is always prudent, but I also think that as long as you have some ideas that are specific to the agency but not so overly specific that it makes you look like you are going to come in and try to run the place, it shows you have ideas and have researched the organization. Go for it and hope for the best. You never know if yours is the answer that will land on the Hudson. And always prep for an interview with this question in the back of your mind.
Sincerely,
Your Unemployed Friend
I'd hire you on the spot! Of course, I have a bias.
ReplyDeleteJHS
You asked for our two cents, so:
ReplyDeleteWhen I was looking for jobs out of grad school, the best approach to this type of thing was to throw down some specifics. They asked for specifics, so you gotta deliver something. even if it's joined by a disclaimer. don't promise the moon, but you can worry about underdelivering once you get the job.
BTW - on questions like this, you can also throw out relevant past experiences to prove you know a thing or two. The career coaches had us use the STAR technique for this to help organize thoughts & reduce rambling.
give me a ring if you want to BS about interview techniques. I was terrible at it until they coached my up at the career center. In fact, I didn't even get the internship for the job I eventually took!
I agree with Dan... It's honerable that you mentioned that you don't want to make promisses but, it's obvious they wanted specifics.(They could be looking to steal new ideas too) Give them specifics about past performance, then add your disclamer that it may or not work in this situation.
ReplyDelete