A job interview is a delicate moment in a person's professional life, which in most cases marks a phase of change or transition. In fact, we tend to think that going to a job interview is only useful when we are actually intending to leave our current job for a new one, but is it really only useful to go to an interview when we are looking for a change?
The job interview as a training ground
If we were asked whether it is useful to exercise only before going to the beach to show off our physical fitness, the answer would be obvious: absolutely not. So here's how such a trivial example can help us when we ask ourselves when and how useful it is to attend job interviews. It is the process that matters, not the result: it may seem surprising or confusing, but if you focus only on the desired outcome of a job change, you lose sight of the quality of the process.
As with any good result you want to achieve, time is a factor that can change things in the success of a selection process. Taking the time to meet different companies, refine your ability to talk about yourself, and get to know different people are elements that help us focus on our professional goals, refine our self-awareness of our strengths and areas for improvement, and define our professional identity, including through comparison with various organizational identities. Every interview situation—even if you are not actively looking for a change—gives you the opportunity to analyze the organizational context in which you find yourself by comparing it with the outside world and offers you concrete elements for evaluating your goals.
That is why a professional—regardless of their seniority—should always consider themselves a candidate, at any stage of their career, and not only when actively looking for a new job.
The job interview as strategic exploration: 10 important factors to consider during a selection process
The job interview aims to create a space in which, first and foremost, the two entities—the person and the company—can tell their stories. What stage of development is your interviewer at? Growth, merger, acquisition, major restructuring, transition—it is important to identify the stage of the life cycle that the employer is at because it gives us important insights for defining the next steps.
Function structure, organizational chart, relationships with other departments and divisions, composition in terms of skills and diversity, centrality or laterality with respect to the current strategy: these are the key elements for a complete picture that allows you to make the necessary considerations.
How are roles and responsibilities divided, such as direct and indirect reporting lines, and how are activities and workloads distributed? These are all elements to actively seek out during a job interview, through active listening or direct questions.
- Leadership and Management
What are the leadership and management styles that guide the team and the department? What is the vision of the head of the department? What are the medium- and long-term objectives of the department? What are the dynamics of trust and delegation, empowerment, and collaboration? Investigating these elements will help you to further detail the picture and analyze the cultural fit.
It is important to investigate the consistency between the role description shared in the job advertisement/presented during the introductory meetings and the in-depth description that emerges as the candidate and company get to know each other. In addition, it may be useful to investigate short- and long-term goals, as well as the potential evolution of the role, in order to outline a hypothetical perspective that projects the role into the near future.
- Quality of the interviewer's questions
Certainly not secondary to the analysis is the issue of the type of questions asked by the interviewer, in terms not only of the methodological quality of the question but also of its content and approach.
- Quality of the interviewer's responses to the candidate's questions
Similarly, the content and manner in which the interviewer responds to the candidate's questions also provide food for thought.
- Teamwork organization and ways of working
Nowadays, the key to a happy career choice is not only the factors strictly related to the job itself, but also the environment, i.e., all those explicit or implicit factors within the team that define the way it works. Issues such as flexibility, work pace, working hours, and meeting management are essential in helping candidates decide whether their preferences match those of the company.
- Consistency among the various interviewers throughout the different stages of the selection process
Every person encountered during a selection process reveals something not only about themselves but also about the organization as a whole. It is therefore important to view each individual encounter as an opportunity to analyze and evaluate the overall corporate context.
- Timing in process management and feedback sharing
Last but not least, because it comes at the end of the selection process but is no less important, another determining factor in the candidate's motivation is how promptly the company provides feedback—whether positive or negative—and manages the candidate's experience from the initial contact to the final stage. If handled well, even after a negative interview outcome, this phase can represent an opportunity for the candidate and the company to build a useful professional relationship, despite the fact that, in the current circumstances, the needs of the company and the individual do not match.
