Soft Skills Series Part 1: About the Interview...

There I was, listening to my favorite business-minded podcast like I do, when this happened.

Short story even shorter: in some organizations, AI is going to start to assess an applicant’s soft skills by measuring how they respond to questions and simulations in real time.

First take: “Wait, what?” Followed by “OH COME ON!”

Is this necessarily a bad thing? Are we going to expect me, born of the art of sarcasm, eye rolling, and a member of a generation where this didn’t exist when I was coming up in my career, to pull out my cane and start yelling at the AI kids to get off my lawn?

No. I wouldn’t be very helpful if I shut down every new technology that quite frankly will help make the candidate screening process more efficient. I’ve used candidate screening tools in the hiring process, so that would be mildly hypocritical. Mildly.

My initial reaction was much more of a “hi, we’re still human and human people can help screen for human soft skills. PLUS, we can give human people tips on how to be human in the process.” That’s where I’m coming from. As a fellow human (for the time being at least), my hallmark as a trainer, leader, and coach has been, and always will be, soft skills. The fact that it’s now getting the spotlight as THE most important thing in the workplace and the hiring process is confounding, but ok that’s where we are in the world of work.

If I have the experience, I’d like to share the experience. So that’s where we’re going on this journey. Pack a bag!

Welcome to The Career Perceptive by PGS Soft Skills Series, a multi-part mini tutorial for jobseekers and job-havers alike that may help improve communication within all things work.

Part 1: About the Interview.

The first stop in our Soft Skills Series tour is actually the last stop: the interview. Everything you as a job seeker have done has come to this point, it’s the most crucial, and naturally, this is where some seekers fall apart. Why? Because your resume told your story; now YOU have to bring that story to life. If you’re too nervous, you may come across as not able to think critically because you’re getting tripped up by every question. If you’re overconfident, you may come across as inauthentic and I as a hiring manager may question if you can really perform in the role or if you’re just saying you can perform in the role.

There’s a great quote in the article I referenced at the top: ‘You never know who you’re hiring until they start working’. That’s 100% accurate, and the hiring manager is going to try to the best of their ability to get as close to that 100% as possible. So, I am putting on my hiring manager hat and letting you know what I have found to be most helpful in the interview process, because I knew what I was looking for:

1.) Please, please, PLEASE research the company. Gonna be really solid here: don’t come to the interview without knowing something about the company and how its mission fits in with your values. I’m more than likely not going to recommend you move forward. If you can’t explain to me why you even want to work here, then that shows me you had nothing else to do today and just decided to stop by for fun. Full stop.

2.) Review your resume. Not only review your resume, but the version you sent to the company. Yes, we tailor our resumes, so our experience more strongly reflects the role we’re applying for. If you walk in with a completely different resume, I may pause to reflect on your attention to detail and that can cost you a role.

3.) But don’t lean on your resume. In #2 above, I’m recommending you review your resume so you are prepared to speak about how that experience relates to what YOU will bring to the position I am interviewing you for. I am not looking for a play-by-play on your resume; I already read it. Numerous times. That’s how you ended up in my interview chair in the first place.

4.) RJDPE. I know, what?! This stands for: Review Job Description, Prepare Examples. It’s easy to be thrown off by a question, especially if you’re nervous. And guess what, I’m GOING to ask: “Can you give me an example of a time when…” Reviewing the job description (or responsibilities listed in the job posting), being prepared with a couple of examples, and repeating them to yourself will help commit them to memory for easy accessibility. Even if your mind goes blank (yep I’ve been there too), these examples will stick.

Let’s go with a general job description example for a Corporate Trainer: Analyze the effectiveness of training and workshops to employees; modify programming as necessary.

I’ve done that. But wait, how DID I do it? In an interview, the hiring manager is probably not going to want to hear me go “uhhhh……” but they ARE going to want to hear me say, “I developed anonymous surveys using Survey Monkey and asked the participants to give feedback using open ended responses and scales of 1-5. I distributed them post-training and used the responses to measure the effectiveness of the training. I noticed in the feedback that there was a particular question on the knowledge assessment that was super-confusing, so I used that feedback to make it clearer. Knowledge assessment scores went up significantly after that, but I wouldn’t have known it without the feedback.”

5.) Be YOU. Step 1: Deep breaths. Step 2: Answer honestly. Step 3: BE YOU. As a hiring manager, I want to know, as much as I can, who you are and what you bring to the role. That includes your personality. When I’ve interviewed someone, and even now, when I work with people on their interview skills, I am always assessing what qualifications they meet and what can be coached. I’m not looking for you to have 100% of the qualifications on the job description, so don’t lie. I can tell. Again, I’ve read your resume; you’re sitting in my interview chair because I read your story and now, I want to hear YOU bring your story to life. I want to see your personality. I want to see how you fit in with our company culture. I want to see your potential and I’m already thinking of where you could go. THAT’S what I’m hiring for, because if I hire you, I want you to enjoy your experience and I want you to stay. HIRING IS EXPENSIVE, PEOPLE! So, I want to make sure that this work relationship is a mutual and beneficial one!

Got all that? GREAT! Welcome to all of the wonderful things a still-human mind goes through when hiring a candidate. Hopefully these tips are helpful when preparing for your next interview, which WILL happen. The process may be slow, but DO NOT give up!