Job Interview Thoughts: Pre-Answer Their Questions with Questions

Looking for a job sucks. And so can interviewing for a job. It's an uncomfortable position to be in. Your world is unstable and it's easy to doubt your self worth.

Recently I spoke with a young woman who sought my advice on her job search. She's an accomplished UX/UI designer with both 2 years of experience and solid academic credentials. Still, she was unsure how to approach an interview situation. What to ask.

While not an expert in negotiating and certainly not in UX/UI design, I have been around many organizations including profit, non-profit, startup and mid-sized companies.

It's good to remember that they are hoping you are that perfect hire who will make their company a better place. Generally speaking, they aren't sitting in judgement on you looking for a gotcha so they can kick you out. That's a waste of their time as well as yours. So what do you do with that knowledge? Show them how you'd fit in and solve their problems, improve their team, or improve their product or service.

Simple? No. It takes doing your homework on the company to see what they're trying to achieve. Are they selling widgets or is it a platform for ______? That's what they're doing. Who are their competitors and what are they doing differently. Who has more market share - i.e. who's winning? You don't need to be able to say how you'd turn around their business but you should know these things to see what you're getting into.

Now how does your knowledge and set of skills fit to improve the company. That's your through line. That's your narrative. And, having done your homework, you can use the interview to see how they view both your role and how it fits in with all the touch points for that role, both internal and external. (unless someone in your role never sees a customer)

Ask the interviewer/s to talk through how your role interacts members of the team, with the other departments, how consensus is reached, how conflicts are resolved. When you have a project, what are the steps from start to finish? Be ready to talk about how you've done the role in other situations or how you learned it in school. (More homework - practice comfortably talking about process) This will tell them a great deal about you and head off questions they might have had.

You may not be the right fit for the job but you'll have shown people that you take the process seriously, aren't a flake and might be a great hire down the line. Also, with job mobility being what it is today, the person interviewing you today might hire you in a different company in 6 months.

Looking for and interviewing for a job is tough but it's the most common way people get work.

Keep plugging away.