Article 4 – Job interviews and reducing the interviewers risk of getting it wrong  

Do you know what the job interviewer biggest fear is? The interviewer’s biggest fear is selecting a candidate who turns out to be a lame duck or worse a troublemaker.  

When you look round any workplace you see people who are less effective in their job than others. They have of course been selected based on the evidence of the interview process.  

In all likelihood they have been a poor employee at their previous roles but managed to hoodwink the interviewer that they were the outstanding candidate for their present role. 

Inevitably someone asks the question who interviewed them?  

Not only is it embarrassing for the interviewer but the likelihood is they are stuck with an ineffective employee who makes their everyday job more difficult. 

So how do you reduce the interviewer’s risk?  

Quite simply you need to go back to the 5 key elements that all interviewers are looking for.  

Here are the first two: 

Key element 1 – Can you do the job? 

Key element 2 – Will you do the job? 

If you fail to answer ‘yes’ to all of these criteria you leave the interviewer open to taking a risk. They need to be confident that these 5 key elements have been addressed. 

It is not always possible to know what key element 3 is certainly not before the interview. That is why it is important to find out exactly what the job is and relate your experience to how you could be useful in solving it. 

Address these 5 key elements in your closing address. Ask directly if you have covered everything the interviewer was looking for? You need to reduce the element of risk in their mind.   

Having listened to many post interview analysis it is amazing how many times the interviewer is unsure the candidate can meet one of more of these elements. Does the interviewer take a risk, virtually never? They would rather go through the interview process again than risk employing someone who is an ineffectual candidate not completely right for the job.