Workplace Challenges
Career coward's guide to interviewingInterviews are infamous for being the most nerve-racking part of a job search. Everyone from powerhouse professionals to career experts themselves have admitted to feeling intimidated and apprehensive throughout the interview process. No one, however, feels the heat of an interview like an introverted job seeker. |
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 [ 2007-09-27 ] |
25% OF POPULATION
According to a Myers-Briggs survey, 25% of the population is introverted, often characterized by their tendency to withdraw from social contacts and become preoccupied with their own thoughts and feelings. In part because of these character traits, introverts often fail to confidently sell themselves and their skills to hiring managers when seeking a new job. Instead, they tend to be modest and hold back for fear of seeming foolish or arrogant.
Katy Piotrowski, M.Ed., author of The Career Coward's Guide to Interviewing, believes personality traits like these create a barrier between job seekers and offers of employment.
"When it comes to interviewing, you are your biggest asset and worst enemy," Piotrowski says. "When you believe in yourself, you -- more than anybody else -- are capable of promoting yourself effectively. Yet when you're scared or nervous, your confidence can crash, making it nearly impossible to represent yourself in a positive way."
Piotrowski, once a self-declared "career coward" who overcame her interview fears to help others do the same, says one of the most intimidating parts of an interview typically occurs near its end. Most hiring managers leave the last few minutes of an interview open to allow the job candidate to ask questions that give them more information about the available position and most importantly -- to prove to the hiring manager that they are interested in the job and employer.
Often, many introverted job seekers skip this opportunity or botch it entirely, because they are too afraid to ask questions for fear of seeming nosy or alienating the hiring manager.
Not asking questions or asking the wrong ones alerts the hiring manager that the candidate did not take the time to prepare questions in advance.
To avoid this predicament, Piotrowski recommends that job candidates write a list of questions on a notepad and take them along to the interview.
Among the questions Piotrowski recommends job seekers ask are:
- What do you see as this position's greatest challenge at the present?
- Why is this position open at this time?
- What projects do you need done, and in what order?
- Can you please tell me about the training I would receive?
- What does the company hope to accomplish in the next few years?
Although it's essential that a job seeker asks questions and appears interested in a job, it can be dangerous to ask inappropriate questions during an interview.
WRONG MESSAGE
Piotrowski warns that questions such as, "How much does the job pay?" and "I plan on taking a vacation in a month, will that be OK?" send the wrong messages to hiring managers and are a dangerous way to wrap up the interview -- the most critical stage of a person's job search.
The Career Coward's Guide to Interviewing is available at all major bookstores and from the publisher (www.jist.com or 1.800.648.JIST).
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