Interview is a Crucial Conversation.
Sunday, May 25, 2008 17:49
Yes it is. Let me explain using the crucial conversation criteria.
1) Different opinion in a conversation
Job seeker thinks the job is his/her’s while future employer will give in if convinced. Different opinion between them.
2) Strong emotions in a conversation
For those who have attended a job interview will believe me it is a stressful experience and difficult to control your anxiousness if asked with difficult questions. The future employer will also react positively or sluggishly depending on the job seeker’s reaction. Indeed, there are strong emotions in an interview.
3) High stake in a conversation
The job seeker’s career is in stake during the interview. Failure in an interview will lead to the expected problem i.e. loss of income which will lead to lifestyle degradation and worst to mental & social pressure. For the future employer, failing to get the best employee will definitely impact productivity and eventually loss of profit and growth opportunities. So, the stakes are high.
Hence, an interview is a Crucial Conversation.
But….to recap Farrah’s comment that an interview may not be a crucial conversation if the job seeker plays safe. Playing safe in the interview is definitely recommended where the job seeker needs to remain calm but show confidence by answering the questions clearly as what the future employer expected. So, regardless how safe the jobseeker is playing as long there are different opinions, strong emotions or stake is high, the interview will be a crucial conversation.
However, there are job interviews which are not crucial conversation (just a chit chat 
). This happens when the future employer confirmed the job seeker is his/her best candidate, no strong emotions and high stakes are involved.
The good news now, if an interview is a crucial conversation, then we can start to use some of the tools I’ve learnt such as:
- start with Heart
- learn to Look
- make it Safe
- master my Story
- state my Path
- explore other’s Path
- move to Action
I’ll be writing my future posts on interview based on these tools.
Keep your comments coming in and it will also be good if you could share some of your experience during an interview (good or bad) for our knowledge sharing.
Till next week,
Take care
Best regards
Yusoff
shy guy says:
May 25th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
It ain’t easy to go to interview and relax..
It keep on frustrated when the interviewer ask a question that not related to the job
Yusoff Kamil says:
May 26th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Thanks Shy Guy for your inputs.
Yes, it is never easy to remain relax during an interview however, if you are well prepared for it, will definitely help. I’ll be sharing some tips in my future post. Stay tune.
Farrah says:
May 29th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Dear Yusoff,
I would like to share with you my experience during the interview session i’ve attented today.It was a short notice interview,i dun have chance to prepare.I was freaking out but thanks good everything goes quite well (Alhamdulillah).
the first session just like warming up session,to eliminate my nervous feeling i keep on talking bout something else with the interviewer (while walking to the interview room).I felt a bit relive by doing that:).atleast it helps..well i dun aspect that it would be 3 vs 1 interview…fuh..again i tends to be quite panic until there’s a moment where i end up with “i’m not sure..i don’t know’,i know that is a “don’t” words,shud not use it during interview..well i guess fair enough since i’m not prepared.
well when they keep on asking one by one..after person finish the interview ask his fren..bla bla asking frens opinion..strenght,what can i controbute to the company and bla bla..i really answer it like m16 hehehe then after all of them looks like settle down,i thought that’s it and when i wanted to take my bag….they came again with something…guess what?? i need to do some asessment..ermm the question not that bad tho..but just imagine you have to answer 2 pages of subjective question..words by words!!!! #%%@%@@$…well overall…the whole session turn to be like 2 hours..What a day..what a day..
but anyway i’m happy with the session…haha no harm trying aight!!!
Yusoff says:
May 29th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Thanks Farrah for sharing your experience. I would like to add on when you mentioned “no harm trying”, yes there is no harm trying but my advise is try it with knowledge and readiness. I hope your interview will be successful. Good luck…
In my future posts, I’ll be sharing on tips on some knowledge that a person must have and how to be ready before an interview. I’ll also cover the different types of interview methods commonly used by interviewers.
Stay tune.