Jeremy Phillips

Since starting back at my current role in February, I’ve been performing a large number of interviews. A few candidates have really impressed me, a few were woefully unprepared, and most fell somewhere in between. In the spirit of sharing knowledge, I have a few tips to share on how to be a candidate who impresses the hiring manager.

Know The Company – Do some basic research to find out what the company does. A good sized percentage of the candidates who I sit down with think they’re applying at a hosting company when 10 minutes of research would tell them we do remote monitoring and management; the small minority of candidates who find out what our company does start off the interview heads and shoulders above the other candidates.

Be Honest - During the interview process we ask quite a few in-depth technical questions, and even though I always inform candidates that “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer, I still see the vast majority of individuals trying to either change the subject or guess when they don’t know an answer. This is not the way to get a job. I ask technical questions to find out how a candidate thinks and how much training they would need if hired, not as a determining factor in whether or not to hire them. I do use a candidate trying to pull on over on me as a determining factor in hiring though, which is why I want to emphasize Be Honest. This also goes for what is on your resume; if you put it on there I will do my best to work a question on it into the interview process.

Dress With Respect - When a hiring manager or recruiter contacts you to setup an interview, ask what the company dress code is and then dress one step above that for your interview. We don’t have a dress code so business casual is what I would expect to see candidates in, but you’d be amazed at the number of candidates that make me feel over dressed while I’m wearing jeans and a polo.

Know The Hiring Manager – In our case we actually use a panel of 3 people for in-person interviews, but the same concept still applies. I always give candidates a list of people that will be in the interviews in the hope that they will do some research to find out our backgrounds; we’re all on LinkedIn after all. When you know the background of a hiring manager, you can use that information to both establish a personal connection with them and gain a better understanding of why they are asking certain questions.

I’ll never forget the candidate who got upset when he didn’t know the answer to a question and proceeded to very angrily ask me “What have you done in your career that makes you so special?” He didn’t get the job if you’re curious.

The above four are the most important things you can do to make a positive impression during your interview. Thoughts, questions and comments are welcome!