I just finished reading a YahooHotJobs article on recruiter pet peeves about job seekers. Yves Lemusi, CEO of Checkster makes an excellent point regarding the way job seekers tackle questions about mistakes or weaknesses. He says “people who are so insecure to admit their shortcomings or even their mistakes make me feel that they lack good emotional intelligence.”
Hiring managers aren’t looking for perfect candidates and many need to understand the mistakes you have made in the past so they can understand how the lesson you learned from a previous mistake made you better at what you do and how that experience will help shape the way you make decisions at your next company. In addition to the perception that people who can’t discuss past mistakes may lack emotional intelligence, many hiring managers will infer that the person who can’t admit to mistakes is either dishonest, very green in their job function, extremely risk adverse, or someone who has never been stretched in previous roles.
In order to build trust and rapport with a hiring manager, your interview stories need to be credible. And establishing credibility often includes discussing your past mistakes and areas for improvement. These are hard stories to convey and preparing quality answers requires introspection and practice. Focus on stories that prove how a mistake had a long-term positive result that could only be achieved because the mistake was made. You will score more points with the hiring manager for being authentic than you will for being perfect.
I once interviewed a candidate who told me he’d never made a mistake. I told him it didn’t have to be a work-related one, he could tell me about a mistake he made away from the job. Still, he insisted he had never made a mistake. Not that he couldn’t recall any, mind you, but that he had never made any.
I tell people I interviewed God.
Lisa,
Great example. Thanks so much for sharing!
“I can do that!” “I can do that!” I interviewed a guy who responded to every detail I shared about about the position with “I can do that!” I finally asked, “Is there anything you CAN’T do?” His response: “I can’t answer that.”
Sybil,
So it sounds like even in his moment of imperfection he was trying to be perfect? Too funny! Thanks for commenting!