As a supervisor, it costs time, energy, money, and often sleep to have an open position on your team. Each resume received or interview scheduled comes with the hope that that backup will arrive soon.
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As many administrators, principals, and Human Resource teams are this time of year, I’m spending a fair amount of my last few weeks before the start of the new school year going through resumes trying to find the last few missing pieces to fill out my team.
I’ve sat in a number of job interviews over the course of my 18-year professional career.
Of course, early in my career most were on the candidate side of the table.
However, it wasn’t until I had the opportunity to sit on the interviewer side of the table a few times that I understood a fundamental truth about the job application process that I’ve taken into every job-seeking interview I’ve had since.
I was working for a major daily newspaper at the time and trying to fill an opening for a City Entertainment reporter on my team. The role basically involved going to bars at night, listening to bands, eating food at quirky new local restaurants, and getting paid to have an opinion about it all. It’s a dream role for many young journalists and only one of several intriguing openings that I was trying to find candidates for at the time.
The candidate I initially wanted seemed like a perfect fit, and performed tremendously on his in-person interview. We made an offer before he even left the newsroom.
However, things went sideways later that evening when he called one of my colleagues on her personal cellphone (she had it listed on her business card) to ask her for advice “because she seemed cool” on what to do when he failed his pre-employment drug test.
Not “if.”
“When.”
And he wasn’t sure which of his – er, recreation aides – might still be in his system.
Now, I was interviewing our No. 2 choice — our distant No, 2 choice — and between the sunglasses and baseball cap he refused to take off, I couldn’t tell if was applying for a job or applying to be in the witness protection program.
It was then I understood the one truth about every job interviewer and the one thing I wish I could tell every candidate who ever applies for a job with me.
I’m rooting for you. I want you to be the answer to my problem. You just have to give me a reason to believe in you.
As a supervisor, it costs time, energy, money, and often sleep to have an open position on your team.
There is a job not being done, a client not being satisfied, a project being put on hold, a dollar being left on the table, and likely a current employee straining to hold things together until backup arrives.
Each resume received or interview scheduled comes with the hope that that backup will be in place soon.
I’m rooting for you. I want you to be the answer to my problem. You just have to give me a reason to believe in you.
That doesn’t mean that as an interviewee you should show up unprepared and entitled.
What it means is that if you’ve made it to the interview phase of the application and you’ve arrived prepared and able to discuss how you can be an asset to the team — a solution to my problem — then you have every reason to feel confident in yourself and how the interview will go.
Once you frame the interview this way, it’s easy to relax and let your best self shine.
I haven’t been offered every job I’ve applied for since making this epiphany: Sometimes someone else is just a better fit.
But I’ve left every interview pleased with how I represented myself, as well as with how our conversation about the role went, which in turn has led to future business contacts, unexpected friendships, and even a different job with a company that initially turned me down the first time.
That company? The school system I work for now.
So if you find yourself on the other side of the interview table from me, remember this:
I’m looking for a solution — and more than anything, I want it to be you.
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