Mastering the Interview

Preparing for an interview can be challenging. Yet, if you invest time and effort to prepare and take the appropriate approach, you may be able to ace the interview and demonstrate your capabilities. 

I have been on both sides of the interview panel and have interviewed 50+ candidates every year for leadership roles at Meta, GoDaddy, and eBay.

In a series of posts, I will help you understand how you can prepare for these questions, frame the direction of the conversations, and land a memorable impact in your interviews.

In this post, we will examine the following questions:

1. Tell me something about yourself …
2. Why are you interested in this company?
3. Why are you a great fit for this role?
4. Why are you leaving your current role?

Tell me something about yourself

In most interviews, the first question aims to build rapport and invite the interviewee to start the conversation. I define the first response from an interviewee as “opening the envelope.”

The contents of the envelope can set the tone for the entire conversation, the impression you leave in the mind of the interviewer, and potentially the hire/no-hire decision. 

An effective response to questions like “Tell me something about you?” can be planned and adapted for every opportunity you interview for.

An ideal response has the following characteristics:

• Brief: no more than 2 minutes, or 3-4 sentences
• Relevant: establishes why your skills and values are a match to the company
• Confident: spoken in a tone that displays positive energy

In my blog post “Opening the envelope ," I have discussed a framework for you to build your perfect opening move.

Why are you interested in this company?

It is imperative that you research the business and the position you are interviewing for before the interview. To learn about the company's culture and what it stands for, review its website, mission statement, and values. By understanding the job description and requirements, you can build a narrative for how your qualifications and experience relate to the role.

Companies want to ensure that the candidates they hire are a fit across multiple dimensions: skills, ability to learn, and culture fit. Ironically, candidates spend most of their time sharing how their current skills are a great match for the job opportunity on hand, while interview panels at most companies would veto a candidate who was not a culture fit despite having the skills to excel at the job.

The response to this question should include the following two dimensions:

1. Why does the company's mission resonate with you?
2. Which of the company's values do you live by? 

When you align with a company's mission and vision, you share the same values and goals. This alignment can create a sense of purpose and a shared commitment to the organization's objectives. When you can demonstrate that you share the same values as the company, you are more likely to be considered a good fit and be viewed as someone who can contribute positively to the organization. Using a story to illustrate this alignment with the company's mission and vision could help raise the bar of the conversation to the next level.

Why are you a great fit for this role?

This is one of the most important responses, which can change the trajectory of the conversation and set the tone for how you stand out as compared to the other candidates.

The most common answers I have heard for questions similar to these tend to highlight why the candidate is the best for the role and enlist all the skills they bring to the role. The responses that have stood out for me are the ones where the candidate approaches them to create a resonance between the needs of the company and the candidate. 

You can leverage this response in interviews even where the interviewer does not explicitly ask this question as a way to “summarize” your intent at the end of the interview.

I use the MCO framework to respond to this question.

• Mission (M): How do you connect to the mission and values of the company?
• Culture (C): What aspect of the culture of the company did you learn through this interview that resonates with your values?
• Opportunity (O): What specific aspect of the opportunity excites you? People: Are you looking forward to working with specific teams that are experts at solving problems you care about?Problem: Why is the problem you would be responsible for solving meaningful?Learning: What are you looking forward to learning?

Why are you leaving your current role?

Every individual interviewing is exploring new and exciting opportunities, either voluntarily or involuntarily. The most important aspect of responding to this question is being honest and professional in your response.

The best answers to this question have the following three aspects:

1. Be positive: You might have had a bad experience in your previous role. Focus on what you learned, which you can bring to your next role.
2. Be forward-looking: Emphasize your excitement for the opportunity, and look forward to contributing and learning.
3. Be concise: Be crisp, be on point, and get done.

What will help you stand out?

Preparation is the "yin,” and practice is your "yang!”

Preparation document

In the current environment where companies are prioritizing interviewing remotely, candidates have a distinct advantage by having information in front of them while responding to questions over video. Your preparation gives you the edge, and documenting how to use them in an interview provides backup support. 

I leverage bullets, not paragraphs, for my preparation document. Bullets are easy to scan as compared to paragraphs, and enable your responses to come across as authentic vs. memorized. 

Practice

I recommend practicing your responses to the questions listed in this post and recording your responses using any video recording tools. Playing back your video and analyzing it always provides interesting insights. I highly recommend replaying your videos with a friend or a peer and asking them for feedback. 

Look for the following signs:

1. How fast were you talking? Did you pause between sentences and significant transitions?
2. How was your body language? 
3. How was the tone of your language?
4. Do you have an opportunity to make this response more concise?

LinkedIn offers an interview preparation platform where interviewees can respond to questions through video and/or text and get instant AI-powered answers. Alternatively, you could send the response to anyone on your network and get feedback. 

Good luck! The opportunity you are looking for is just around the corner!