Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep81: Failed at multiple interviews? Here's WHY.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. Episode of my Grow Your Career online and offline podcast. So this is the final episode of my 30-day client success story series where I share client success stories from clients who have worked with me

Starting point is 00:00:40 either to improve their job search strategy or to enhance their performance at work in the corporate world. So today is the final episode of the entire series and if you have not checked out any of the earlier episodes, make sure that you check out those episodes in the respective playlists that I have on multiple podcast platforms as well as on YouTube. So today I want to tell you a story about a client who was initially mistaken and had a belief that she had to be, she needed to join Toastmasters to be able to do well during an interview. So basically this is a story about the importance of learning how to articulate and express your point and actually communicating

Starting point is 00:01:27 that effectively during an interview process and how you can learn that without necessarily joining Toastmasters or taking presentation courses, which to be honest, is not the most effective thing. So this particular client was offered a position at a very big company to interview with the head of department who is a very senior person. So when this client first came to me, she had already attended different interview training, she has already engaged other interview coaches for multiple opportunities that she had interviewed for but unfortunately she failed in all the previous interviews not specific to this role but for other companies that are actually smaller than this company so when this client came to me she said that

Starting point is 00:02:17 she unfortunately didn't manage to proceed in a lot of her interviews in the past and she's quite surprised because from a communication standpoint actually she has been very active in Toastmasters and she consistently did well within the Toastmasters program itself so she was actually quite confused as to how come even as you know really strong Toastmasters with good skills, she still didn't manage to proceed in her interview rounds. And she was also very surprised as to how come the other trainings and I guess interview coachings that she managed to join didn't really manage to help her in that respect. So normally when I do interview coaching, I always like to ask my clients to tell me the common questions that they struggle with.

Starting point is 00:03:07 Then they will then share with me specifically how did they answer those questions. So these are the actual answers that they have given during that interview itself. So it's very important for me to actually listen to what they have been saying to the HR recruiter or hiring manager. It is because I used to be a hiring manager. So as hiring managers, we are actually listening for very specific things. And if you have never been a hiring manager before, that is something that you will not be able to know. So even though like this particular client, and maybe for you as well, you think that you're communicating very clearly, you think that you are very confident in talking about your experiences.

Starting point is 00:03:47 That might not necessarily be the case because you are actually missing out a very important perspective and that is about the intention of a question and what hiring managers are actually focusing on when they ask certain questions. So this was actually one of the main things that my client struggled with but she didn't even realize that she struggled with um because she you know she never really had a an experience as a hiring manager so those were that was one of the first things that i pointed out to her and second thing also is that she also didn't realize how her personality affected her interview answers like for example because she's a she's an extrovert and she's actually a very strong thinker meaning that she's a direct person what happens is then

Starting point is 00:04:32 the way that she was communicating her interview answers actually in most instances she's she can sound very aggressive even though you know it's not her intention, but the way that it comes across actually is a little bit aggressive and she didn't realize that. So that was something that I actually pointed out to her to say that there is a difference between sounding confident, sounding assertive versus sounding a little bit arrogant. So the lines are actually very gray, but there is a difference and normally very experienced hiring managers can pick that out so it could be the case that she actually failed in her previous interviews because she came across a little bit too aggressive and a little bit too strong and

Starting point is 00:05:16 that was something that is not exactly appreciated particularly from a team culture or team dynamic standpoint so unfortunately right while we while we don't want to be judged based on what we say particularly from a team culture or team dynamic standpoint. So unfortunately, while we don't want to be judged based on what we say and do, a lot of times during an interview, it is all about first impressions. It is all about how you convey yourself and how you carry yourself in that 30, 40, or maybe even 60 minutes.

Starting point is 00:05:41 So you just need to be very cautious as to how you come across. And this will require some self-awareness, but this will also require maybe some experience as a hiring manager, if you even have that experience, or actually getting the kind of perspective from an actual hiring manager like myself, where I can tell you very specifically what hiring managers are seeing and hearing when you give a certain answer that you think is the right answer but it might not actually be interpreted as such from an actual hiring manager recruiter or HR perspective so those were the two the two big

Starting point is 00:06:18 problems for this particular client and one thing that she mentioned to me is that she was still very surprised as to how come Toastmasters, her Toastmasters experience didn't help her, right, in the interview process. So this is something that I really had to explain to her that you need to understand that Toastmasters is like a show, right? It's a big presentation. You are portraying a part of yourself that may not necessarily be how you talk every single day, right? It's a presentation, it is a show, it is, yeah, it's a big presentation showcase, if you will. However, for an interview, actually, it's a little bit different because for an interview, it is about communicating and articulating your points that your hiring manager can understand you. So a lot of it is actually more foundational communication skills,

Starting point is 00:07:10 but there is an element of influencing as well. So where does the influencing come in? It is making sure that the hiring manager can understand your value, but also can see you as somebody that can work with the team. So that will be in the way that you carry yourself from a confidence standpoint, depends on what you say, how you say it. All these will actually affect the impression of the hiring manager of you. So for this particular client, I had to help her tone down some of the way that she was answering certain questions, because it was just too direct and aggressive that actually will be taken very negatively. That's why she didn't manage to

Starting point is 00:07:49 get the job offers in her other interviews in the past. It was actually a foundation, a very fundamental problem that she didn't realize, but it's still something very foundational that actually had to be fixed. So the other thing I also did with her is to give her my signature formula on how to answer the interview questions. For example, some of how to start, how to identify intention of question, how to position our answers so that she can utilize this exact same approach regardless of what interview that she goes for. And no matter how senior the person that

Starting point is 00:08:25 she's talking to she is very confident because there is a very clear structure to her interview answers it's not some random rambling of words that actually doesn't make sense and unfortunately that is actually one of the biggest problems with a lot of job seekers a lot of candidates when they go for an interview whereby they go in without a plan. They go in and basically it's on the chopping board, right? Just waiting for any questions to come, you know, without actually preparing and not having a clear formula and structure before they even step into the interview itself. But the point I want to make for this particular client is firstly is to remove the incorrect mindset that oh interview is just like a big presentation or it's just like toastmasters that

Starting point is 00:09:13 is not correct but secondly it also demonstrates a very important point around understanding your personality and how you come across to different people. Most people actually don't have this kind of self-awareness, but this self-awareness, I'm telling you, it is so important. If you don't even know how you come across to other people, you will not be able to actively manage that perception, the branding, the perception that you want other people to see of you. Managing that perspective actually is really the key to success in the corporate world. And that's something that I've actually mastered over the years so some things to actually think

Starting point is 00:09:49 about and and as usual the final success update for this client she actually managed to get the job within three days after the interview with a very senior person as well so a lot of the questions that we had prepared for, it actually came out and she was able to deliver very confidently, not aggressively, very confidently, the structure and the format of the interview answers that we have prepared for. She really impressed the head of department, who is actually a very, very senior person.

Starting point is 00:10:20 And she was very quickly offered the job. And it was actually a really big company it's a global multinational company from the very small family-owned company that she was initially working on so she got a really good pay she got a good increment and more importantly she got a great career growth opportunity with the ability to join such a big multinational company so from a person who got interviews, which is a good thing, the fact that she could get interviews with her CV, it's a good thing. But unfortunately, to get the job offer, you must do well in your interview as well. So that was really the

Starting point is 00:10:56 core foundation that I helped her with, removing the incorrect assumptions that she had about interviews, and also giving her the perspectives of the hiring manager and lastly helping her to understand the way that she is coming across to to different people including HR hiring managers and recruiters which is very very important so you need all three elements to be successful in a job interview. So with that, I hope that you find this client success story inspiring and empowering because job interviews is one of those things that a lot of people feel anxious about. They worry a lot, but I find that there's a lot of advice out there that's actually wrong. And even though different job seekers, they worry a lot, I find that

Starting point is 00:11:42 they don't know what to do. Let me tell you that before you even figure out what to do, you need to first learn what not to do. And that is definitely very, very, very important. So with that, kudos to my client for really able to nail and communicate and influence during the interview process and eventually landing the role at a global multinational company, impressing the head of department who is a senior person and really ready to kickstart her career in this new company where she's highly valued. So with that, I'll end this episode. And like I said, if you have not checked out the other episodes in this

Starting point is 00:12:21 30-day client success story series, make sure that you check out the entire playlist on my Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, as well as on YouTube. I hope that you also get inspired and empowered to take action because for career growth, it is not about motivation alone. It is not about mindset alone. It is about having the right strategy and making sure that you are moving in the right direction on a consistent basis, right? And that is really the secret sauce. So I hope that you have been inspired and empowered throughout this entire

Starting point is 00:12:58 series and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye!

Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep81: Failed at multiple interviews? Here's WHY.

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