When interviewing, it can be hard to tell whether it’s going well or not. I think interviewers like being hard to read, but that’s just a theory.
Through helping candidates prepare for hundreds of interviews over the course of my career, I’ve picked up a few tricks of the trade to decipher how an interview really went. While most candidates can assess how well they answered the questions, most have a hard time understanding it from a hiring manager’s eyes.
This is what I’ve learned so far.
In most interviews, there are small things an interviewer may say or do that will give you an indication on how it’s going. My colleagues and I refer to these as buying signs, also known to the internet as buying signals. For our purposes in this blog post, we’ll stick with the former.
These may show up in different forms including their actions, their words, and the way they’re phrasing things specifically.
Here are a few to look for:
“You” Language: This can show up a few different ways but usually is their way of envisioning you in the position. In theory, this means that they can picture you doing this job or fitting in with their company.
Examples include:
In this position, you will do x, y, and z.
When you’re in this position, you would be in charge of insert project here
When you’re in training, we will cover insert topic here
Asking When You Can Start: While this can be a typical question an interviewer asks, oftentimes it can be seen as a positive sign. After all, would an employer ask this question if they didn’t care for the answer?
Positive Feedback in Interview: This could be verbal or nonverbal via body language. This could be as subtle as the interviewer nodding along with your answers or as blatant as the interviewer confirming they liked your answer to a question or set of questions.
Ask yourself: were they engaged or were they bored? Did we build a good rapport?
Alluding to Next Steps: This could include setting up another interview or giving quick timelines of when you’d hear back from them, such as “You’ll hear from regarding next steps by tomorrow.”
When I accepted this position, I had a good feeling about my candidacy as I made it to the last round interview (a half day shadow) and was told they would be contacting my references. This leads me into # 5...
Asking for References: If you’re already in the interview process and an employer asks you to provide these, it’s a positive sign that they’re serious about you as a candidate. If this is something asked for on the front end, it doesn’t hold as much weight.
If the interviewers are holding their interest tight to the vest and you’re having trouble gauging how it went, try out this question at the end of the interview: Do you have any hesitations about my qualifications for this position?
This way, you can address any elephants in the room including areas you might not have expanded upon enough or areas of concern they have. After all, this may be your last opportunity to talk through it.
All in all, interviews can be a hard thing to navigate. Utilize these areas to gauge how you did!
This article is my own and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of TEKsystems.
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