The candidate was sitting at the table. A confident smile on his face, relaxed and joking throughout the interview. He was very experienced and emphasized how he was the perfect fit for our opening: on point experience for the job, same industry, successful track record, and the positives continued. All I could think was: If what you say is true, then your current employer must really value you and you said you feel appreciated, so why are you looking for a job?
My “spidey sense” was tingling, but I just couldn’t figure out what was off. I asked him, “What do you think your opportunities for improvement are?”
He looked at me baffled and paused, then replied, “I can’t think of anything right now.” I told him to take his time. He responded again in a few moments, “Nothing, really. I’ve worked on all my opportunities.”
“OK,” I replied, “tell me one thing you are working on now to improve.” His face changed from baffled to frustrated. I could see him thinking: “why do you keep asking me the same thing?”
I tried to get to what area of improvement he might have by asking what feedback he had received from his manager. The response was that his boss thought he was doing a great job. I continued by asking what his team members had provided him feedback on? They didn’t do 360 evaluations, but he knew they all loved working for him. After many attempts to get to something, I eventually gave up. We wrapped up the interview and he left.
In essence, he had told me that he was perfect. For those of you interviewing: do NOT convey this in an interview. It signals to the interviewer one of three things: 1) you don’t recognize that you have something to improve in (hint: we all do!), 2) you don’t seek out feedback from others to help you improve (hint: if you don’t then how will you ever improve?), or 3) you are being led by some old-fashioned advice that you never admit your opportunities in an interview (hint: spidey sense working or not, everyone interviewing you knows that you aren’t perfect, and we don’t expect you to be).
So that got me thinking about strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses are typically our strengths overused.
- The person who has a terrific work ethic. Are they overplaying that and lacking balance in their lives? Are they then headed for burn out by working countless hours and weekends? Do they get all their sense of self-worth from their job? Do they take feedback too personally?
- The individual who gets a lot done. Do they overuse this drive and discount others’ contributions and ideas in their quest to get things done? Do they get things done quickly? Or do they get the best possible outcome? Are there errors in their work overlooked in the rush to get things done?
- The manager who is great at holding people accountable. Do they allow others to learn from their mistakes? Are they able to bend rules when appropriate? (Yes, an HR person just said it’s OK to bend rules.)
- The supervisor who is very team oriented. Are they able to get things done or are they overly focused on getting everyone’s input and ensuring that everyone buys in?
- The analyst who is great at details. Does this person get caught up in analysis paralysis and is unable to make decisions within imperfect data?
- The person who is super creative and great at idea generation. Can they drive one of those ideas across the finish line? Or are they just able to see the possibilities?
- The perfectionist. Is everything done so perfectly that it takes too much time to get things done?
For those of you interviewing, here are some tips. We don’t expect you to be perfect. We do expect you to know what your areas of opportunity are. If you don’t know – think of your strengths. Are those being overplayed? Maybe not all the time, but how about when you are under stress or when things start to go wrong?
I am guessing that this candidate’s confidence was being overused. He wasn’t hearing feedback provided to him, or didn’t feel he had any areas of improvement, or he felt he was such a strong match for our position that he didn’t need to discuss his opportunities. Whether he realized it or not, he was letting me know what his area of opportunity was, even without the benefit of my “spidey sense.”
