How honest should you be when you’re interviewing?  Unequivocally one hundred percent honest.   But don’t confuse honesty with showing all your cards or not utilizing the power of presentation.  Nor does honesty mean volunteering your dark secrets – perceived or otherwise – from the moment you walk through the door.

For far too many candidates, honestly is one extreme or the other.  Either the candidate throws everything out there too early and unnecessarily or hides it because he’s defensive about whatever it is he doesn’t want to be honest about.  Either way, it only causes trouble.  Finding your perfect job does not mean giving all your power to the interviewing company.

This isn’t a process where you everything you say and do screams “Hire me, hire me, hire me!”  When you confess to your interviewer, or conversely, hide as much as you can, that’s what you’re thinking and that’s the message you’re conveying.    Consequently, the interview never goes as smoothly as it otherwise might.

If there’s something in your employment history that’s caused you problems in the past, there’s no reason to blurt it out.  You’ll get no recognition or appreciation for that.  In fact, the only thing you’ll get in return is…..dropped from consideration.  Instead, examine the circumstances under which those problems took place and ask questions to make sure those conditions aren’t present in the job for which you’re interviewing. If they are, gracefully decline to continue the process.

Being terminated, returning to the corporate world after self employment, and being unemployed for several months are just three instances that put candidates unnecessarily on the defensive.

Flip it.  Find the positive.  What did you learn from being fired?  What are your positive characteristics aside from what happened to cause the termination?  And by the way, are you absolutely sure the termination was your fault?    If it wasn’t, don’t say that outright!  The phrasing of your presentation can convey the same meaning.

Recently a client asked me to critique his resume and cover letter.  They’d just been done by a professional firm, and he wasn’t comfortable with the result.  He lives in one state and is planning on moving to another.  They advised him to omit the locations of his previous jobs saying “the job is about you, not the location.”

They also advised him to get both a P.O. box and a phone number in his targeted city, then to enlist forwarding services.  My question was, what happens when a prospective employer wants him to come in for an interview tomorrow…..because they think he lives only a few miles away?  There’s a very easy way not to have the distance work against you so that you can search within an honest framework, but that’s another column.

Then, as if those two instances of duplicity weren’t enough, they tucked his self-employment time under a previous job.

Why walk into an interview crossing your fingers that they don’t find something out?  How relaxed can you possibly be under those circumstances?  And if they hire you and then discover the truth, you’re tainted, and everything else you do or say from that point on is suspect.

There’s one hard and fast rule that overrides any instance where you haven’t had to – or felt a reason to – provide what could be considered extraneous information.  When you are asked a direct question, one usually designed to clarify, answer it directly, honestly and with a smile.  Don’t lose your composure or get defensive.  Handle it gracefully.  Most situations aren’t the big deal so many candidates perceive them to be.

Keep the power within yourself.  To find your perfect job, you need to know what you’re looking for.  Your questions are designed to elicit that information, while your answers are designed to sell yourself, even as you’re processing what you’re learning.  Remember, you have the power to make a choice too.
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The only thing that might be more difficult to deal with than an interviewer who asks tough, probing questions is an interviewer who hasn’t a clue how to interview.    You can leave feeling as if you ignited no interest, bombed the interview, and surely won’t be asked back.  Where was the scintillating conversation?  The professional give and take about the industry and your skills? 

But if you’ve just met the person, how are you to know if they’re a lousy interviewer – or you’re a lousy interview?  If you prepared for the interview, then you’ve an indication where the problem lies, because your preparation enables you to jump in and take control of those awkward moments.

I speak often about the importance of an interview being a two-way street.  This not only means that you need to be interviewing the company as they are you, but that the company needs to sell themselves to you, as you are selling yourself to them.  If the interviewer doesn’t have those sales skills, you need to elicit the information.

Interviewers who ramble on and on ad nauseum about the company need to be re-directed before you begin snoring.  Interviewers who don’t have the ability to speak about the company or the position should be prompted with your questions. Interviewers who are unprepared, or perhaps even forgot about their appointment with you, must be briefed –by you — on your background, because they probably don’t remember your resume.

Lots of holes and awkward pauses in the conversation?   If the interviewer doesn’t have the sense (or ability) to ask you what your skills are or why you’d be a great choice for the company, speak up and tell him. Toot your own horn.  “I’d like to tell you about the time I put a winning proposal together under a stiff deadline, since the job we’re speaking of is also very deadline oriented.”  That doesn’t mean talk non-stop, but it does mean don’t sit there and be uncomfortably silent for long periods of time.

Jump right in with the questions you came prepared to ask.  What are the priorities that need to be addressed immediately?  What’s a typical day like?  How long has the interviewer been with the company?  Why does he stay? 

Other interviewers may ask questions, but stupid and unimaginative ones.  “I see you worked at The Snappy Scissors Company.  How did you like working there?”  (“Um, I hated it.  That’s why I left.  Duh.”)  Answer with what you learned while you were there, and remember not to disparage any previous employers.   Resist rolling your eyes if they go through your entire resume this way or if you’re asked a Barbara Walters question:  “If you were a tree, what type of tree would you be?”

Sometimes getting a bit of movement in helps.  Ask for a tour of the building or offices.  A tour provides focal points for questions and an opportunity for words related to why you’re there.  Ask about the decision making time frame and if there are any other steps involved.  See if you can set up an interview with any others in the department or your interviewer’s boss or other decision makers in the company (and hope they’ll be a better interviewer!)

Be patient with these inept people.  Whatever their interviewing skills – or lack thereof, it’s possible they’ve had very limited interviewing experience.  Speaking up and taking control of the interview may be the only thing that not only gives you the information you need, but saves the interview from being a total bomb.  They may be a bad interviewer, but they aren’t the one being interviewed.

No matter how bored you are, no matter what you’re thinking, smile and be enthusiastic.  At the very least, you can chalk it up to interviewing practice.

Like this post?  Please share it to help others by linking to it on Twitter, facebook, or any other social networking sites! 

sign up for my free newsletter at www.FindthePerfectJob.com 
blog: http://findtheperfectjob.com
Let’s connect! http://www.linkedin.com/in/judiperkins
twitter: @how2careercoach
facebook:  www.facebook.com/howtocareercoach