September 19th, 2009
An Anecdote: Over-Preparation and The Interview (*Dun Dun Dun*)
I received a much anticipated phone call yesterday afternoon from the potential employer I mentioned in an earlier post – I’ve been invited to complete some editing tests, and if all goes well on those, I’ll secure an interview! Ack, The Interview. I absolutely dread interviews because I always over-prepare for them, only to under-perform during the actual thing… always.
The initial “pre-screening” interview was conducted over the phone. Fortunately, the kind woman from Human Resources was never able to reach me live when she attempted to call me – instead, the pre-screening interview was set up via a series of voicemail exchanges, and this highly convenient game of phone tag allowed me to prepare a nice little script to adhere to unwaveringly during our chat. It’s always a good idea to anticipate the questions that a potential employer will ask you, and since I’m a stronger communicator in writing, it helps me flesh out my thoughts better if I write down the general gist of my answers and expand them verbally afterwards. A great tip, I think, for all of you who share the same preference for writing! Anywho, I decided I’d go that extra mile this time and write an exhaustive script from which I could read VERBATIM (while throwing in the occassional, “you know”, “hmm, that’s a good question”, etc., to make it more natural).
So of course I was incredibly confident that I’d ace it, especially given the format of the inverview, which not only allowed me to refer to my script but also to the company’s website on my laptop, all the while pyjama-ed out and lying on my stomach (the most comfortable position, I think!) in bed. I was so ready, I thought, so ready.
Imagine my horror when the kind woman from Human Resources asked me questions about my current position rather than inviting me to discuss my relevant previous experience as an Editor. I wanted to impress her by emphasizing how multi-faceted my previous job was; instead, I gave her a rather cringe-inducing one-sentence answer when she asked me about what I did. Yes, I froze. =S It wasn’t in the script!
The script did help me in answering some of the more general questions that she asked, but let this be a lesson on how not to prep for an interview - while I didn’t quite bomb it and was able to redeem myself just enough to snag an editing test invitation, sometimes excessive preparation can limit you and ironically under-prepare you if it leads you to take the kind of narrow approach that I so gracefully took. I think from an employer’s perspective, a good interview is a good conversation… and no one likes talking to a wall!
