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Crisply dry-cleaned suit. Check. Several extra copies of resume. Check. Responses rehearsed. Check.
When we know we have an interview scheduled, we prepare every last detail. But do those details include preparing to demonstrate our character? In competitive environments, credentials are not enough to make us stand out. Therefore, it is absolutely vital to highlight our character when we need to convince someone to choose us over the competition.
Unfortunately, most people don’t do this well. The good news is there are two easy ways to improve.
- Get ready to tell the interviewer about your character.
As part of your interview prep, list your five strongest character traits. Maybe you are known for your persistence, curiosity, generosity, courage or honesty. Note these for yourself and repeat them strategically throughout the interview.
Now, you may have heard the writing and speaking advice “show don’t tell.” Up to this point, you’ve prepared to tell your interviewer about yourself. And despite the oft-repeated advice to “show not tell,” it’s actually really important to tell the interviewers exactly what your strongest character traits are. Don’t just hint at them. Don’t just relate an anecdote and hope they’ll form their own conclusion. Tell them who you are.
But don’t stop there. The adage should really be “tell AND show,” instead of “show don’t tell,” because both are important and work together.
- Prepare to show your character.
When it comes to illustrating your character, there are three main tools at your disposal: evocative descriptions, dialogue and brief stories. Here are examples of each category.
- Evocative description: “I love to read so much that I read even while blow-drying my hair.”
- This isn’t a story, per se, but it sure tells us a lot about this person! When one of my clients shared this detail, all of a sudden, I could see what being an avid reader really meant to her.
- Dialogue: “It’s always been important for me to be authentic on the job. Recently a student in my executive education program said to me, ‘I appreciate what you do. But more importantly to me, I think one day you’re going to be an awesome grandmother! Look at that mischievous smile.’ That student’s comment made me realize that I was bringing my full self to work, mischievous smile and all.”
- This isn’t a fully developed story, either, but when a student of mine mentioned my mischievous smile, I knew she had shown me something about my character. And if I chose to share what the student said, it would be engaging because the dialogue shows an exchange between two characters: student and teacher.
- Brief story: What do you do when you see a horse galloping down a main street with lots of pedestrians? That’s exactly what most people who witnessed this happening one spring day were asking themselves: “what do we do??” The cars were stopped, people were looking at each other--no one knew what to do. Then the horse ran around a corner where one of my clients was standing. She was afraid, but felt like she needed to do something despite her fear, so she stepped into the middle of the street and grabbed the horse’s bridle.
- When my client shared this story in a job interview, it was in response to the question, “can you really execute an idea?” She told this story to show that when no one else was taking action, she did what needed to be done--despite her fear. The story showed that she could be the one to put an idea into practice and take action. She got the job.
Go back to your list of five character traits. For each, come up with two or three ways to show your character--whether an evocative description, a snippet of dialogue, or a brief story.
Ironically, the most earnest preparation can backfire. Why? Because chances are good that if you’ve spent all that time preparing, you will want to make sure you get your message out and neglect to actually listen to the questions your interviewers are asking you.
When I used to spend days doing back-to-back, marathon interviews, I could tell the interviewees had prepared for every last detail. That’s what made being an interviewer so draining. Many of the candidates were so well rehearsed they sounded robotic. (And yes, I could tell which ones were coached by consultants!)
You do need to prepare, but balance that preparation by telling intersecting stories. I will cover what that is and how to create it in my next article.
