Interviews - It's the whole package

I was talking to a customer last week about their recruitment process and how they were getting on recruiting an Account Manager for their Print business. What she told me at first horrified me, then on reflection just confirmed my thoughts about how important every action you take in your life can be.

This customer is seven months pregnant and the weather was humid and warm on this particular day. She was interviewing at her premises and their office is particularly small due to space constraints. She led the candidate to the small office, where the candidate automatically took the big comfy chair and left a tiny hard wooden stool for the heavily pregnant interviewer to sit on. Call me old fashioned, but firstly you wait to be shown a seat and secondly good manners should have dictated that even if you were offered the big comfy chair, your instincts would not allow you to take it and insist the pregnant woman sits down.

By now it didn't matter what the candidate said or did, they were never going to get the job. The customer quite rightly believed that if this individual would treat her like this in a formal interview situation, how would they treat her clients, suppliers and anyone else who interacts with her business.

An interview is to get a real understanding of the person and it's not only about the questions and answers, what you wear, how you behave... it's about all of these things and more.

Prepare for your interview by practicing with your family or friends and if possible try and get someone who doesn't know you to give you an honest critique.

Interviewers take the whole interaction into account not just the questions and answers!