When coaching people through the interview process, I find that most of my mentees have the wrong focus. They are solely focused on getting the job and they feel that the best way to get it is to make the interviewers like them. This is all well and good, but in reality, it is only part of the process. They forget that they are also interviewing the company, school, university, institute, etc., that they are applying to.
I am lucky enough to work with a lot of new teachers while they are going through the interview process. One of these teachers was working as a leave replacement for us for two months. During this time, she was interviewing at other schools looking for a long-term (tenure-track) contract. A few weeks later, one of our teachers announced her retirement. Our leave replacement teacher successfully interviewed for the job and received a long-term contract. Being the professional that she was, she wrote to all of the schools that she was also interviewing with to let them know that she received a long-term contract and that she would not be continuing with the interview process at their schools.
As expected, most of the schools wrote her a thank you letter that congratulated her on her new position. One did not. Instead, the principal of the school wrote her a scathing letter asking her how she could have done this to him. She was a finalist and he trusted her to take the job if he offered it to her. (This job was a leave replacement and it was not going to lead to a long-term contract). Our new teacher was upset and did not know how to respond. I advised her not to respond at all and to move forward. As we talked further, she felt bad that the other principal was mad. She had the wrong focus. Instead, I asked her if she would ever want to work for this guy or his school district. She said no. Good answer. At this point, she started to realize that she was not just interviewed by the principal and the school, but that she had the power to interview both the school and principal as well. In her eyes, they clearly failed the interview. During the interview process, she was so focused on getting a job that she did not pay attention to the signs that told her that she did not want to work there.
In order to maximize your success, you must never forget that you are also the interviewer at all times, no matter what.
We later hired another teacher, who worked for the same principal that wrote our successful candidate the scathing letter. She too got a scathing letter. None of my mentees will ever get a recommendation to work in the district or for that principal. Every day is an interview and he, and the school district that hired him as a leader failed.
Everyday is an Interview 