Your CV got you the interview. It has already done its job. The interview is a different test with different questions, and most people fail it by trying to prove the CV again instead of answering the three things the interviewer is really asking.
Behind every question, an interviewer is working out three things.
1. Can you do the work? Not can you list the qualification. Can you do the task on a Tuesday when nobody is watching. This is the only one your CV speaks to, and they have already read it.
2. Will you actually come? They are thinking about the taxi at 5am in winter, the month your transport money runs short, the family emergency. They will not ask this directly. They will ask where you live and how you will get there.
3. Will you be easy to work with? Will you tell the truth when you break something. Will the customer come back. Will the supervisor have to check on you twice a day.
Two of those three are not on your CV at all. That is why the interview exists, and it is why a person with a thinner CV often gets the job.
The interviewer asks: why do you want this job?
What happens: They have heard this from everyone today and it tells them nothing about any of the three questions. Passionate is a word people use when they have not thought about the answer.
What happens: That answers all three at once. Can you do the work, yes and here is where I learned it. Will you come, yes and here is the route. Will you stay, yes and here is why.
My CV is weak. Does that mean I have already lost?
No, and this is the most useful thing in this lesson. The CV got you into the room, which means it was good enough. From this point everyone in the waiting room is competing on the two things a CV cannot show. Somebody with three years of experience who mumbles and cannot say how they would handle an angry customer loses to somebody with none who can.
They barely looked at my CV in the interview
That is normal and it is a good sign, not a bad one. They read it when they decided to invite you. In the room they are testing what they could not read.
Before you move on
- Write down the three things every interviewer is weighing
- Prepare one true story that shows you can do the work
- Know your route and how long it takes, before they ask
Check what you know
3 questions. Have a look at what this lesson asks.
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