The Right Way to Interview
A colleague of mine recently asked what the worst business advice I ever received was—and while mentally reviewing all of the advice I've been given over the years—I also thought of the advice I watch, read, and overhear being given to young, potential entrepreneurs. While some of it is sound, I find much of it comes from people who have read about (or theorized about) what it's like owning and running a business, rather than running and operating one from the ground-up themselves.
The most frequent advice I see concerns interview 'best practices.' I constantly see articles shared on LinkedIn about the 'best ways' to prepare for an interview, the 'best answers' to give your interviewer, etc. and I have to disagree with majority of the posts that I read. Although preparation is vital; today, interviews are so overly rehearsed that it's difficult to tell what someone actually thinks or is actually capable of.
From my experience, I think the best way to interview is to be completely genuine about who you are, what you're looking for in a new position, what your capabilities are, and what you're passionate about. Not only does complete transparency with who you are help to put everyone at ease, it allows both parties to evaluate if the position at hand is the best fit for the individual interviewing.
I find too often that people are told to 'fake-it-til-you-make-it' in regards to the interview process. In my opinion, this is truly the worst possible advice you could take. Overselling yourself only leads to underperformance and missed metrics. Be confident in your capabilities and always express your willingness to learn additional skills (if that's really the case); however, always admit if you don't know something. To me, it takes an extremely professional, self-aware and honest person to do so.
In order for both the employer and future employee to be fulfilled with their choice to hire someone or accept a new position, the new team member needs to feel like they can succeed. The boss wants a job-well-done, and the new hire wants to perform well in hopes it leads to promotions, more earning potential, etc. If the individual hired exaggerated their current skill-set in the interview and can't perform to their supervisor's expectation, no one really wins. However, the same goes for the employer—if you stretch-the-truth about your work environment, growth opportunities, etc., and the employee has a false idea of company culture that leads to disappointment, it's a loss for both parties as well.
As a Co-Founder of Go By Truck, I consider myself to be fairly well-seasoned when it comes to interviewing. The rarity of having a genuine, open and honest conversation with a candidate during an interview is so refreshing, that I'm more willing to consider an applicant with these qualities over someone that has more experience (and that can successfully regurgitate my company's mission statement from our website).
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