Of all my rejections (and I got quite a few), I’d say that 90% of the feedback was useless to me. It simply wasn’t feedback. It was just some generic email telling me how unfortunately on this occasion I had been unsuccessful, but that I should continue to look for opportunities with Company XYX in the future. I can understand if you get this kind of email after the first or second round of interviews when the volume of applicants is still really high. To get this kind of feedback after the final interview is diabolical. How can you ever be expected to progress and develop your business persona when you don’t have any constructive feedback to go by? Graduate programs are the worst for this! I just wish companies would be honest. How can one provide the solutions when you have no idea what the problem is to begin with?

“Sorry, but you had really bad halitosis. We feel that it could cause some problems in the work place” Solution: Listerine mouthwash

“When you were asked what your weaknesses were you said, disrespecting authority” Solution: Become an entrepreneur.

“I thought that you might pose a threat to my position within the company, as you seemed to answer everything perfectly” Solution: Don’t try and be too much of a smart ass. Prospective employers want to see that you are fallible.

Personally, I would welcome this sort of feedback, because then one can go into the next interview having addressed and solved the issues raised. I think a lot of the time a candidate might just be slipping up on one little thing, but because it is never brought to his/her attention, they continue to make the same mistake interview after interview.

Have you experienced the same thing with interview feedback?

Job interviews are tough things to master, and in my opinion one should not spend too much time trying to rehearse and create a super-polished interview. This only detracts from the real you. This is essentially what interviewers want to see – the real you.

Moreover, it is even more difficult to perform well in a job interview if you don’t already have a job. Simply, because you have little bargaining power. The pressure is on! In addition to this, the competition for entry level/graduate jobs is presently very high. You have to offer something extra special that differentiates you from the rest of the pack. As I have mentioned in the previous post (here), building a personal brand online using social media is certainly one way to do just that.

But how can you differentiate yourself in the interview, and make yourself stick in the mind of the recruiter? The most common piece of graduate job interview advice is to ask well researched questions. Although this is no doubt a good tip, it will by no means separate you from the rest. You need to use a simple guerrilla job hunting tactic. Something which will grab the attention of the recruiter and make them want to hire you.

This is the single most important question to ask in a job interview…..At the end of the interview you need to ask the interviewer what the next steps are in the interview process as you are currently interviewing with other companies,and managing expectations all round is of importance to you. This reinforces the idea that other companies have shown an interest in you (creating perceived demand) and also demonstrates your level of professionalism by suggesting that you actually have the interests of the other companies at heart.

Moral of the story – Apply to a lot of jobs. Put many irons in the fire. There is no such thing as too many job applications. Otherwise before you know it, 3 months have gone by and you’re in limbo because the 3 job interviews you had, came back negative and you now have to start the search again. Don’t be afraid of getting multiple offers and then turning down a bunch in order to pick the best one. This in fact is what you should aim for. Set yourself a target of getting a certain number of job offers in a particular time frame. Put yourself in the driving seat, and think of yourself not as being on the receiving end of an unsuccessful job interview email, but rather as the individual sending the email to turn the job down.

I did it for my first job interview I lined up back in London after working abroad for a year, almost a year ago to this date. It was with a large financial services firm in the city. A few weeks before the interview, I had a telephone interview with a women from HR. You see being over prepared on the phone is fine – it actually plays in your favour. With those interviews all they are really looking for is sufficient knowledge about what it is the company does, and what your perception is of the role that you are applying for. As a result I cruised the telephone. I then was called in for 2 rounds of interviews. These were scheduled for 3 weeks after the phone interview. This gave me too much time to prepare and prepare I did. I managed to find a blog written by a guy who had gone through the whole interview process at this same company. He had documented not just every stage of the interview process, but every question asked!! Jackpot! I subsequently printed these off and memorized them. I then rehearsed the answers I would provide. Some were quite tricky numerate questions, which were intended to put you on the spot, and these were now a ‘piece of cake’ for me.

The first interview was with two young employees who worked in different departments, but had previously done the same graduate program. The questions were delivered in a posh, well-enunciated tone, and my answers were delivered back with adept articulation. This was mine for the taking, and I cruised through to the final round. This interview was to be held with the manager of the department.

I arrived for the final job interview two days later. I had all my questions and answers well rehearsed, and just like the previous interview the questions that the blogger had written pretty much came up word for word. I smoothly relayed my answers back to the manager. Even when I was presented which one of those trick questions which challenges your analytical thinking under pressure, I purposely paused as if to be momentarily stumped, and then after a 30-40 seconds gave my answer. It my opinion it all went swimmingly well, and if that interview was to be graded, I was sure that I scored a full marks. Unfortunately this was all irrelevant as I DID NOT end up getting the job. As you can imagine I was mortified. If I interviewed flawlessly, what was their reason for turning me down. This I will never know, as this was a company that severed all ties with you once you received the “we regret to inform you on this occasion” email

Lessons learnt:

1. Don’t over-prepare for a job interview. Get the fundamental knowledge about the company and then end there
2. Don’t rehearse answers too much – In the actual interview you come across too robotic
3. Interviewers actually want to you answer something incorrectly in order to gauge how you handle failure

By Marc Bromhall