Path to Job Interview Success – Strategy: Fail Early and Cheaply

A mistake is only a mistake if you make it twice.

— Robin S. Sharma

The Challenge

Have you experience the following moments after failing an interview?

• “Gosh, I wish I didn’t say that!”
• “Gee, I should have used the other better example when answering that question!”

On your journey to nailing the interviews of your dreamed job, a number of mistakes like the above are likely getting in the way. I’m going to show you how to solve this classic interview challenge below.

The Strategy

You should feel confident about the following 2 facts:

• There are only so many major mistakes that could bomb your job interview.
• You can learn from your mistakes and eliminate them.

Therefore, the more mistakes you can eliminate cheaply early on before your most important interview of your dream job, the better chance you have to nail that important interview in the end. Would you like to walk into your most important interview with a blank slate or with most of the mistakes already encountered and cleared? Of course the latter, just like the 2 minesweeper games below.

The Action Items

Below is how you could eliminate mistakes cheaply and early.

Mock as Much as You Can

Grasp any opportunity to do mock interviews. This is the cheapest way to fail and learn. If you attend any career workshop/class that offers mock interviews, take it. If you have any career mentor who offers mock interviews, take it. If you have some buddies who are also preparing for interviews, mock with one another. Even if you have none of the above, mock in front of your smartphone, play back, and critique yourself. When you watch the recording, you will be surprised how much more mistakes you make than you think.

Some people take this even further and do job interviews every 6 or 12 months even though they are not planning to switch jobs. They do this to keep pulse on their current market value and remain sharp on industry trends. They get positive side effect of keeping low hanging fruit mistake rate low.

Plan Interview Timing

When you start actual interviews, interview with less attractive companies earlier. You can even start your interviews with companies you don’t want to join at all. While you are warming up, you also step onto and clear any last minute mistakes you didn’t catch during mock interviews. Therefore by the time you walk into your most critical interview, you are at the optimal point where you have discovered and fixed all the mistakes and kinks.

Practice Anytime Anywhere

Although you can’t do mock interview anytime anywhere, you can break them down to building blocks and practice them frequently. It is also great exercise for you to improve communication skills that help your current job role too. One stone, two birds!

For example, when you persuade your team to adopt the “5 why” methods, it’s a perfect opportunity to practice articulating the benefits of the method, why the method works, and gotchas while using it in action. Another example is when you are trying to resolve a conflict between 2 stakeholders during an upcoming meeting, it’s a perfect opportunity to write down your pitch and talking points, which readily becomes a concrete example you can use in the interview later to demonstrate how you effectively resolve conflicts.

If you can make the connections between interview building blocks and everyday activities, you can practice those building blocks while working productively at the same time. The key is to write down your thinking process and organize your thoughts really well, so later you can assemble them into full answers to interview questions. For each mistake you make, write it down, reflect on it, and ensure you won’t make it again in the actual interviews later.

Takeaway

Fail early and cheaply to earn the final win!