WHAT MESSAGE?

A century ago when we were much more tolerant of the spoken word, you might have listened to a speech lasting two hours and then gone home able to repeat much of the content. In an age of information overload we absorb and transfer relatively simple bursts of information – sound-bites and bullet points. Asked why we choose one brand or another in a purchasing decision, the answer is normally a very brief bundle of facts, emotional responses and instinct – things just appeal to us, or look good value.

Decisions like this generally hang on three or four ‘reasons’ – a term to use carefully, because often such choices are far from logical. The same is true when people get recommended or in a hiring decision. You will have hundreds of pieces of information in your CV and may communicate 20–30 good points in an interview, but even with detailed note-taking an interviewer is only going to remember half of what you said, and will act upon a small handful of pieces of evidence. How do we know? Ask an interviewer what impressed her about a candidate, and you get three to four items. Ask why someone got the job, the number of reasons is about the same. We deal in shorthand. Make that fact work in your favour by deciding what messages you are going to leave in the mind of the interviewer.

BEING MEMORABLE

Simple messages matter because interviewers retain only a small amount of information about candidates. They take interview notes and may cover a lot of territory, but only a small amount of what you say will be noticed, and even less remembered. What will someone remember about you? You could of course leave that to chance. You might assume that your main skills or achievements will be remembered. Don’t be too sure about that.

One way or another, interviewers work to a checklist, and once you have provided evidence of an area of competency the interviewer will probably make a note and move on. The kinds of things that do stick in their memory are those that make you stand out in a good or bad way. If you don’t address these in advance you may either miss an opportunity to shine, or deliver a negative message without meaning to. These things can be entirely random – something you do or say during the interview or even the way you look.

Being memorable is essential if you hope to get through to second interview or get a job offer. So you need to decide in advance what impression you want to make, and what you want the interviewer to remember, making sure that if only three or four things are remembered these are all reasons why you fit the job.

Taking control of your message is about making sure that the interviewer gets to hear the things you want to talk about. Focus on the three to four elements you believe really matter to the employer, and then provide one or two additional items of information about why you are different from a run-of-the mill candidate. To some this sounds like devilish manipulation, but it really isn’t – it’s simply making sure you get through your agenda for a meeting and present yourself as the best candidate for the job.

It’s important to always keep in mind that this doesn’t mean ‘How many different things can I say about myself?’ Instead think about the things which are most important to the employer and how you can deliver them. This may be even more important if your interviewer is not highly skilled.

Careers specialist Loraine Bones writes: ‘Not all interviewers have been professionally trained in recruitment practices (they may be professional accountants, engineers, systems analysts or whatever). As such, you may feel that you haven’t been given the right opportunities to present your case. Under these circumstances it is vital to take the initiative and “engineer” an opening in the discussion to present your evidence of suitability. Never leave the interview feeling you have sold yourself short!’

Whatever your messages, make sure you communicate them. Some highly skilled candidates fail to get beyond the first interview stage simply because they sit back and wait for the right questions to come along, or fail to mention things because they are already in the CV.

NEGATIVE INFORMATION STICKS

Interviewers ‘tune out’ for some part of the interview. Our brains are perfectly capable of listening to interview answers and thinking about the traffic, tonight’s match, or what to buy for supper. Conducting an interview is not always an inspiring process, so the interviewer is quite likely to be thinking about other things during the conversation, just as you are not always fully attentive when undertaking a routine task like driving a car or mowing the lawn. Interviewers frequently tune out by starting to think about their next question rather than listening to your answer. At other times they are thinking about something you said earlier, not really listening to your carefully prepared evidence, particularly if it all sounds rather dull and predictable.

What always gets an interviewer’s attention is where you say something negative about yourself or somewhere you worked. It might be a throw-away line joking about your lack of wisdom. It might be a comment about a former boss or employer. Either way, you can guarantee that the interviewer’s attention jumps back, and if you’ve got their attention, you’ve planted something in memory.

But was it something you wanted the interviewer to remember? This is the big danger of unplanned over-delivery – if you ramble on, sooner or later you will say something negative. Focusing on your message means you need to think first of all about the topics you don’t want to be remembered for.

‘LIFEBOAT ANSWERS’

You should never go near an interview without some short, pre-packaged responses around the most vulnerable topics. These are short, upbeat statements which get you past a negative point and move you onto positive ground. What topics should they cover? Anything that will throw you off your game in the interview. This could be about gaps in your CV, strengths and weaknesses, reasons for leaving past jobs, how up to date your learning is, or your job search history. These questions leave you feeling all at sea. They are entirely predictable, and so is their effect if you are unprepared for them – you are going to squirm and shuffle. So take them seriously, and prepare for choppy waters.

Your aim here is to have a series of short, ready-made statements that keep the interviewer happy, make a strong point in your favour, and allow the conversation to move on quickly. You cannot achieve that aim by thinking on your feet in the interview room itself. That strategy will lead to you floundering and splashing about and losing all sense of what is actually happening in the interview.

Instead, you need to stock your lifeboat with safety equipment in advance – your pre-prepared ‘lifeboat answers’ (an idea which builds on the Presentation Statements concept developed by careers specialist Bernard Pearce).

Talk through dangerous question areas with a friend. For example, if you worry about being asked ‘Why were you made redundant from your last job?’ rehearse an answer that shows the experience was not about you (‘like a lot of people I was offered terms when the organisation restructured’) and shift the focus to the future (‘it’s been a good opportunity to rethink what I want to get out of my career, and has shown me that this is the kind of role I would really like’).

Start by sketching out your answers as bullet points on paper, try them out loud, and then try them on someone who knows what will and won’t fly in a real interview situation. Don’t learn them word for word because they won’t sound like they match the question, but take even more care here to control your material, and be brief. Get a trusted friend to ask you the questions you don’t want to be asked, and practise your ‘lifeboat answers’ at least three times. That way they will be secure, tested, and ready to rescue you from the stormy deep.

YOUR QUESTIONS ARE PART OF YOUR MESSAGE

Decision makers frequently comment on the fact that strong candidates put in a performance that is sustained right until the end, which includes some good quality questions. Sital Ruparelia, Host of Career Management TV, says ‘the questions a candidate asks tell me much more about their thought process and intellect than the prepared answers they provide’. For the interviewer this moment will probably be the easiest part to remember, so plan in advance to ask questions which confirm your overall message. For example, if you want to show you have a lively, enquiring mind, don’t ask questions like ‘What exactly do you do here?’

Go beyond the surface level (‘How does this job fit in?’) and don’t waste time asking questions which are more appropriate after a job offer has been made (‘Is there a pension scheme?’). You could ask for more details about initiatives you have seen mentioned in the press, or questions which show your curiosity about new product lines, but these are better for small talk at the beginning.

The best questions are about your future in the job (for example, ask about how the job will change, what opportunities you will have for personal development or working with other teams). This reinforces a picture of you in the job, the same picture you have been building throughout.

SO WHAT?

When you try to get your key messages across you’ll be wondering how they are being received. If you’re getting lots of nodding and other positive signals, great – these are all buying signals. If you are not getting much back it could be for a variety of reasons. You might need more practice. You might be offering messages which are not as effective or as matched to the role as you imagine. You could feel that the interviewer is thinking ‘so what?’ If so, remember there are three kinds of ‘so what?’:

1. So what? You’re telling me something I hear all the time – I can’t differentiate you from other candidates.
2. So what? I get it, but you haven’t yet sold the idea to me in language I can get excited about.
3. So what? I like what I hear and I am interested, but I genuinely need your help to work out how we can match your ‘offer’ to our needs.

You know what kind of ‘so what?’ you’re getting from the level of interest. If the interviewer isn’t really listening it’s probable that you’ve failed to get past first base. If you’re getting cautious encouragement you may be getting a category 2 response, but if you are getting detailed questions and requests for clarification you are probably hitting level 3. You’ve got someone to remember the kind of message that gives you a real edge. Be absolutely clear about how your ‘offer’ matches to their needs – don’t leave this to chance or the employer’s skill at interpretation.

HOW WILL YOUR MESSAGE TRAVEL WITHOUT YOU?

You’ll already have recognised that some jobs aren’t advertised and the only way you come across them is through actively networking your way into conversations with employers. There is only one real measure of success here: how often your name comes up in your absence.

An invitation to talk about an unadvertised job is a gift. You’re in a short list of one, and you have more influence over job content, salary and other negotiable points. So how does your name come up as a potential candidate? It’s still all about messages. Making sure that your name comes up is about being visible, talking to people, following your curiosity, finding out about organisations and sectors.

Just as you hope to plant three punchy pieces of evidence in an interview, you can do the same thing when networking. If asked ‘What are you looking for?’, your answer should not be a job title, but those key messages you want someone to pass on.

If your name crops up as a recommendation it’s rare that more than a handful of reasons will be mentioned. I often ask clients to put their CVs away and just talk to me for 90 seconds about what they would like someone to say when recommending them. They usually start with words like ‘reliable’, ‘well-motivated’, or ‘creative’. Those are the adjectives used by this year’s graduates; unless you want to send out the same undifferentiated message as everyone else, think again. The most transportable messages seem to fall into the following categories:

Role summary – How would you like to be labelled? This might not be your last job title but something more descriptive, e.g. ‘change management specialist in the finance sector’.

Primary skill set – What are you known for? What do you excel at?

Know-how – What areas of work do you know about? What is your specialist knowledge?

Personal hooks – People often remember shared or memorable connections, interests or hobbies.

Personality – the above information may be topped off with something extra about how easy you are to work with or your impact on others.