Interviewing Takes Practice: One of My First

I’m an expert in interviewing. For six years, I was a technical recruiter, learning both how to interview and how to be interviewed. My interview prep and selection methods resulted in a 50% placement of my candidates for as long as I tracked them, so rest assured I know what I’m talking about.
That experience came with practice, not natural talent. When I first started interviewing, I was terrible, and I want to share with you just how bad I was.
Interview: (from my journal)
My first experience with recruiting was in 1996. I was living in Florida, having picked up and moved from $50 to my name, a 1986 740Gl Volvo station wagon, and a sister in Tampa.
To pay the bills, I worked at two restaurants for about three months, then started interviewing. I looked in the paper and sat down with Enterprise Rent-A-Car (they turned me down), the ubiquitous multi-level marketing scam, real estate, insurance, and then found a recruiter for a company called Sun Staffing.
I dressed in my only suit, and drove the Volvo (no air conditioning) to the recruiter’s offices, sweating so badly that the back of my shirt was soaked. I rolled the window down and drove 40 miles an hour (2WD40 is the acronym for that kind of air conditioning). When I got to their offices, I ducked in the bathroom and used the hand dryer on the floor below my interview room to try to dry off.

The office was nicely decorated, and the receptionist handed me a form to fill out. The standard contract said I was to pay 20% of my first year salary to the recruiter if I got a job through him. I declined to sign, and when I got in his office, he told me that for the job he had in mind, the company would pay.
So in 1996, there still existed recruiters who charged candidates to get them a job. Just a historical note.
The place he had in mind, was Enterprise. I told him I’d already been there. He told me I should have gone through him. He looks me up and down, and says, “I got it. Gallo wine.” I’m hustled out the door, sit in the lobby about five minutes, and he comes out and gives me an address with directions.
“Do a good job.” Those were his words of advice. I rolled out the door, walked down to the Volvo, and drove to an industrial park about 10 minutes away (with the windows down, of course).
Inside I shook hands with one of two partners for an E&J Gallo wine distributor. I sat down in a chair on the opposite side of partner number one’s desk, and told him my story. Payed my own way through college the last two years, worked the whole time, moved to Florida on a dime to try a new life because I was wasting time in a mall. Eager to get to work, sir.
The interview went great – he was looking for a young go-getter who had to struggle to get through college (like he did). About twenty minutes into the job, he tells me that the job is delivering and setting up store displays to sell more product. Cold-calling sales on the route. My mall experience with setting up displays fit. My customer service waiting tables and catering fit, and I already had plans to buy a jug of wine when I got home to celebrate. The interview was going great, and it looked like I had a new career.
Except I had to do a second interview with Partner #2.
Partner #2 was laid back where Partner #1 was gregarious. He shook my hand, but sat back in his leather chair, put his hands together, and watched me. His partner gave him the thumbs up, prepping him with my answers while I waited in another office, so when I sat down, I knew he was privy to all of my first answers. As the questions came, I realized that he was repeating the interview format, and I didn’t want to repeat what I had already said.
So I danced. I extended and revised my remarks. I extrapolated, and analogized, and talked and talked and talked until the partner finally looks at me and said, “You’re pretty smart – how many books do you read a week.”
I was flattered, and naive. I thought he was sincerely asking me how many books I read. The problem, was I had no money, so the only thing I had to do every day before work was read. That week, I had read six books, so I told him six.
His eyebrow shot up, so I quickly gave an in-depth description and dicussion on each book to make sure he knew I wasn’t a liar. I had read:
1) A book on the Spanish Inquisition:
2) The End of History and the Last man (Francis Fukuyama)
3) A book on evolutionary science
4) Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault
5) A book on the life of the apostle Paul
6) A Tom Clancy novel
Somewhere in between explaining how hospitals, prisons, and schools are all built on the same principle and the triumph of capitalist democracy in the modern world, Partner #2 says…”Tom Clancy? That’s a pretty thick book, huh?”
Something had gone terribly wrong, but I still held out hope. I was thanked for my time, and I drove back to the recruiter. He was ready for me. Told me if I had just repeated the first interview, the job would have been mine, but what was I doing talking about books on an interview? Partner #2 didn’t nix me because I was a bookworm. He nixed me because I rambled on about a topic that had little to do with the interview. I was focused on me, and not on the job. He was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to talk to his customers if I couldn’t focus on the interview, and so I lost the chance.
The Moral of the Story.
I’ve seen many competent men and women flub interviews from overconfidence. No matter your position or your experience, interviews require practice. Few people are experienced interviewees, but few people are experienced interviewers. Your job is to practice, practice, practice until you can answer questions with ease, speak when appropriate, and recognize when you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Just something to keep in mind.
-Jim Durbin