I’ve hosted 4 coaching sessions this week that have been centered around interview preparation. Pure mocks with folks going after top tier companies like AWS, Snowflake, and Salesforce.
For one of the final panel interviews that happened this week, it felt off from the start. The person clearly wasn’t interested and while there were a few moments that made the pendulum swing, there wasn’t much excitement towards the end of the interview.
5-6 rounds, endless hours of prep, just for that energy from a panel.
It sucks and isn’t fun. You can’t control how the panel shows up or how many candidates have already been interviewed this week.
So what do you do? Be the top tier professional you are.
Knock out the steps.
Sending your follow up + thank yous to everyone in the room. Pausing before you answer to make sure you're actually giving them what they asked for. Walking in with 5-10 questions ready, because you studied who was on the other side of the table. Writing out your answers before you ever set foot in the building. And when there's a gap - admitting it, cleanly, without apologizing for it.
That's it. That's the list.
It'll shock interviewers because people who actually do those things have a high emotional IQ. They can read a room. They understand the problem before they try to solve it. They work with people, not around them!
And honestly, it's attractive.
People want to hire someone they like, and the above makes you someone worth rooting for even when the panel showed up flat.
One question for your career this week:
If you’re headed into an interview room, what’s the one thing you need the hiring team to believe about you after you walk out?
Before you leave…
10+ interviews across 14 professionals this week. When I work with someone 1:1 my goal is to reset the foundation and then get them out into the marketplace to hear how folks react to their candidacy fast.
This is how you win and it's working for folks in Conversations > Applications. Don't believe all the noise, come get to work.
Have a day ✌🏼
Dominic
This week's newsletter is brought to you by HubSpot for Startups.
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