Your resume is impeccable, your outfit all-Italian. You’ve boned up on the company as if you were prepping for the GMAT. And your trump card is that you once played tennis with the CEO’s niece—and let her win. And while it may initially seem that you and this job were meant to be together, the interview, like a date on The Bachelor, can go either way. You might say something stupid. You might not hit it off with the interviewer. Your cell phone might ring right in the middle of a recruiter’s most prized spiel. But, say experts, you can save your skin (in most cases) with these pointers if you feel the interview is heading south in a hurry.
1. You've embellished one of your roles at a previous employer—and the recruiter gotcha. You told yourself that it’s fine to say that you “managed a team,” when you really just sent emails to coworkers to set up a March Madness pool. You also told yourself that everyone has fudged, although no one will ever admit it. But try telling that to the interviewer sitting across from you with a furrowed brow.
Recruiters say that if you’re caught flat-out lying about your credentials, you have a better shot of making the cut on American Idol than getting an offer. This is a tough one to get out of, so Arnnon Geshuri, staffing director at Google, suggests that falling on your sword is the best bet. He recalls grilling a candidate about a position that he had clearly embellished. After realizing he had no choice but to come clean, the candidate admitted that he hadn’t done everything that he stated on the resumé. He then decided to pull himself out of the application process.
Geshuri says that, in the end, the fiction writer didn’t get hired because he wasn’t qualified, “but in that instance, he scored some points and left the interview on good terms.” In some cases, you can overcome resumé fudge, depending on how much wiggle room you’ve left yourself.
Janet Raiffa, head of recruiting for the Americas at Goldman Sachs, says if a recruiter tells you point blank that you are too junior to have done what you claimed, you can always respond, “I didn’t really have the high-level responsibilities on every project, but I highlighted the efforts I really got to stretch on.” Or, you can note that you were working with a team—or on projects under someone else’s supervision.
2. You arrive late to the interview. A 21-car pileup on I-95, a snowstorm that swept in the night before, and your father’s bypass surgery are acceptable excuses. The alarm not going off or thinking you were still on Daylight Savings Time are not.
“Being tardy does leave a negative impression and makes us question your ability to be responsible,” says Merissa Cherian, who handles Accenture’s MBA recruitment strategy. If there is a legitimate excuse, immediately call and let the recruiter know, giving as much information as you can about your arrival time. Acknowledge in the process that you might have thrown off their day and offer to meet them at another time—at their convenience. If the excuse falls into the “not acceptable” category, just tell the truth—and fasten your seat belt for a tough interview.
Either way, once you do finally meet with the hiring manager, apologize immediately—and profusely. Bringing some Starbucks and pastries wouldn’t hurt either.
3. The interviewer asks you a brain-teaser of a question and you're completely stumped. Some candidates in this difficult situation say they don’t have the foggiest and wait for the next question.
Others try to fake their way through it. But while recruiters are looking for the right answer, they are equally interested in seeing how candidates handle themselves when the answer isn’t on the tip of the their tongue. Caitlin McLaughlin, global head of campus recruiting at Citigroup, recommends honesty. After all, just because you think you learned it all in business school doesn’t mean you did.
But don’t stop there. “You should start solving the problem by thinking aloud and saying, ‘I don’t know the answer, but if I were going to think through it, here are some key criteria I’d use.’ It shows the person has some facility with the concepts,” adds McLaughlin.
Some recruiters claim it’s even acceptable to come up with a better response later via email. But then, of course, you’re adding to your anxiety level by having to put together a well-structured, coherent note. Remember, you will be providing the recruiter written proof of your thought processes—or lack thereof.
4. You say something truly stupid or grossly inappropriate. Yeah, you and the recruiter really have it going on. You both decide that Achy Breaky Heart wasn’t a bad tune after all. Then for a split second, you forget that you aren’t on the campus lawn anymore and let one of those lovely expletives deleted slip out.
The recruiter may not have blinked, but make no mistake—he caught it. Let’s hope you quickly realize your mistake and grovel at his feet, claiming that in the heat of the moment, you blew it. No matter how sincere the apology, you’ll most likely be remembered for that verbal jewel than for any problem you may have solved during last summer’s internship. Sarah Quarterman, a recruiting director for Merrill Lynch, recalls chatting with a student who fired off some bad language and didn’t acknowledge it. “It speaks to how professional someone is going to be with a client and points to someone’s judgment,” she says. So depending on the degree of the profanity, context of the word, and the perspective of the interviewer, “this could be a fatal error,” says Juan Morales, a managing director at the Miami office of Stanton Chase International, an executive search firm. A “hell” is easier to recover from than an F-bomb. Just make sure the mistake isn’t repeated to show you learned your lesson.
5. Twenty minutes into the interview, the recruiter calls you by the wrong name. “So, Christine, it looks like you accomplished a lot in your past job,” says the marketing director. Yeah, he got that part right. Problem is, you’re Michelle.
Your inclination might be to brush off the mistake to keep the conversation flowing. Wrong move. Recruiters see a lot of people and if you don’t give a solid impression of your name and identity, your entire interview might get lost in the black hole of their BlackBerry. Plus, not correcting the person might say something about you. “I once called a student by the wrong name and she didn’t set me straight,” says Connie Thanasoulis, the former head of Corporate & Enterprise and Global Private Client Campus Recruiting at Merrill Lynch and now co-founder of SixFigureStart. “I later realized [the error], but it made me wonder why she allowed me to call her by the wrong name.”
Simply interrupt and say, “Just to let you know, my name is Michelle. I know you’re doing a lot of interviews, so it’s tough to keep track of everyone.”
6. The recruiter says something you know is plain wrong. “We’ve had six straight quarters of earnings increases,” offers the partner conducting the interview. But since you pored over the company’s earnings like it was last month’s bank statement, you know for a fact that one of those quarters had a decline.
Sure, this might seem like the perfect time to show that you’ve done your homework. But if you make the recruiter feel like an idiot in the process, this is the quickest way not to get the job. Brian Drum, president and chief executive of Drum Associates Inc., an executive search firm in Manhattan, suggests moving away from the false statement and back to your accomplishments.
On the other hand, the interviewer could be testing you, “and you have to assess that as well,” adds Drum. You could tactfully mention (preferably with a smile) that you understood something else to be the case. The key, says Drum, “is to maintain your equanimity.”
7. You're asked a personal question that's none of their business. You’ve always been told that personal questions like “Are you married?” or “Do you have kids?” are out of bounds, and shouldn’t be answered. It’s generally never a good idea to volunteer too much personal information during a job interview.
But if an interviewer asks you one of these red flags and you don’t feel uncomfortable answering it, go ahead and do so, says Drum. If you do feel supplying the information might put you at a disadvantage, you could say, “I look forward to discussing that with you after I’m employed here.” You don’t want to snub the interviewer by saying, “Hey, dude, don’t ask me that.”
Then move onto another topic, such as the skills that qualify you for the position. That was Lataya Washington’s strategy when she was interviewing for a job at a college a few years ago. The therapist and single mother from Charlotte, North Carolina, let it slip that she had a son, which opened the door for the recruiter to start asking personal questions. Washington realized that the recruiter was worried about her ability to handle the job, considering she was responsible for her child. “I sold myself as a single parent by stating that the sacrifices I was making made me a better person—and that I welcome challenges,” says Washington. She got the job and afterward her employer mentioned he was impressed with the fact that she was a multitasker.
8. The recruiter is stiff as a board—and you're convinced you're flubbing it. When an interview feels like a casual conversation over a beer and some cheese dip, most candidates think that they made a connection and have a greater shot at snagging the gig. Wrong. Recruiters say that good rapport really has no bearing on whether you’ll get the job—they’re interested in the right fit, not the right friend. Still, if it seems as though the recruiter is more worried about whether he’ll make the Mets game that night than hearing out your career riff, it’s a good idea to get the person back into the conversation. “You can say, ‘Is there something I’m doing that isn’t working? I want to make sure I’m using your time appropriately,’” says Accenture’s Cherian. Raiffa of Goldman Sachs suggests “interviewing the interviewer.” Ask him about his history and career. “That’s a good way to engage them,” adds Raiffa. Or at least wake him up.
9. Your cell phone rings. It’s annoying and short-sighted not to have turned it off in the first place. But you will undoubtedly kill your chances of getting any offer if you check to see who is calling. Thanasoulis, formerly of Merrill Lynch, found it “infuriating” when a candidate glanced at the number before shutting it off. Recruiters say that there is nothing else to do but apologize and say that you thought you had shut it off. The key is to assure the recruiter that nothing is more important than the interview.
10. The recruiter asks, "You're staying at the W Hotel, right? They've got a great bar. How about we finish the discussion there?" If you reach for the pepper spray and speed-dial Gloria Steinem, you can kiss your job goodbye. But if you pretend to flirt back just to try to stay in the recruiter’s good graces, you could get the job but find yourself subject to even more serious advances.
Steve Watson, chairman of search firm Stanton Chase International, suggests that the candidate should say that he or she is comfortable at the present location. And if the interviewer insists, “offer a safe alternative location—like a busy restaurant.”
That way you send a message, without a confrontation, that you want nothing to do with his suggestion and that the interview should continue—with clothes on.
MBA Jungle, Aug./Sept. 2007