Pivot during the interview
Pivot during the interview
Pivot during the interview
So you’ve made it to the on campus interview! You’ve spent your time studying in preparation for it and you’re well prepared for the questions and challenges ahead of you.
But one of the things that you didn’t anticipate has come up: your hiring manager, search committee, and human resources representative have begun asking you some really challenging questions.
You feel off balance. You don’t know how to react.
It’s okay to feel this way. All student affairs professionals have found themselves in this position before.
This is why it’s important to pivot and weave during your on campus interview.
Pivoting and weaving allows you to respond to questions that highlights yourself as the best person for the role.
This article builds on what is covered in the preparing for the on campus interview article and what is included your briefing book. This article covers a startling revelation about interviewers that took me years to discover. It also reviews the differences between answering and responding to interview questions. Finally pivoting and weaving during your interview is reviewed in detail.
Pivoting and weaving during the interview
It’s okay to be nervous during the interview. This is a stressful situation where everyone is watching their behavior.
There is one thing that you should remember when you’re interviewing on campus. It’s something that I discovered later in my career; but I’ve come to rely on it ever since…
Interviewers are NOT professional interviewers
Outside of the human resources recruiter or the seasoned search chair, the individuals who you’ll meet with during your on campus interview are not professional interviewers. They’re just student affairs folks like you who have job duties, responsibilities, lives, hobbies, and families. Interviewing candidates is NOT what they do on a regular basis.
Because of that, you can take advantage of the situation by being the professional. It’s time for you to become the professional interviewee. Reading this bog is a solid first step towards achieving that goal. Gaining practice is another.
One of the best pieces of advice that I’ve applied in the past has been the difference between answering and responding during interviews. What most other candidates get wrong is that the interviewer will ask them a question, and they’ll then provide an answer to that question. This gives the interviewer the momentum and control of the dialogue. Rather than answering questions, focus instead on providing a response.
Answering vs responding
So what does providing a response mean? A response is like an answer only it puts YOU in the driver’s seat. It allows you to talk about your strengths and how you see yourself applying your background, knowledge, skills, and abilities to solve the interviewer’s main problem: needing to find someone for this job.
Answering questions gives the interviewer what they want which is more information about yourself that they can use to make a decision. A response, on the other hand, provides the interviewer with carefully tailored information that puts you in the best light and demonstrates how you’d be the best choice for the role.
Time to pivot
That’s where the pivot comes in. When the interviewer asks you a question, determine how they’ll use what you say as a “yes” or “no” for you to continue in the process. Then use this information in order to formulate a response that nudges their perspective of you into the “yes” category.
You want to leave your interviewers nodding their heads in agreement with your thoughts and responses. That demonstrates impact as well as alignment between what they need and what you can bring to the position.
Interviewing pivoting & weaving
Remember that answering interview questions provides the information that your interview wants. Responding allows you to choose what kind of information you want to provide. Pivoting during your interview provides a response and helps determine YOUR direction in how you’d like to respond to the question.
An example
One of the best examples of an answer versus a response is whenever you get the question “what is your greatest weakness?”
An answer to this question would be to literally tell them you greatest weakness. But no one wants to know how you have a bad habit of leaving your socks all over the floor.
Instead, take this opportunity to pivot and provide a response that also puts you in the best light for the position.
Here’s a sample answer as an entry level candidate:
“I’ve had problems in the past with making sure that the most important work gets done first. That’s because when I was in college I could just set my schedule and my priorities to whatever I wanted. That meant that the things that became the most important were the ones that were due the soonest. I know that worked when I was an undergraduate. But as a resident director, I know that I have to change things up. So, during my senior year as an RA I asked our resident director at each one of our 1on1’s: ‘what’s the most important thing for me to work on right now?’ Doing this helped to clarify what I needed to work on, and pay attention to, on a regular basis.”
Takeaways
This article built on what is covered in the preparing for the on campus interview article and what is included your briefing book. The article covered that not all interviewers are professional interviewers. It also reviewed the differences between answering and responding to interview questions. Pivoting and weaving during your interview were covered in detail with an example provided.
I hope that you found this article useful! If you need some additional help on your student affairs job search, then check out the eBook The Student Affairs Job Search: A Comprehensive Guide available here.
Happy searching,
References
Eng, D. (2019, July 1). On Campus Interview Job Hakr | Student Affairs Job Search. Accessed January 21, 2020. Retrieved from www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2019/6/26/4-steps-to-navigating-the-on-campus-student-affairs-interview.
Eng, D. (2019, September 30). Your Greatest Weakness Job Hakr | Student Affairs Job Search. Accessed January 21, 2020. Retrieved from www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2019/9/30/your-greatest-weakness.
Eng, D. (2020, January 7). Align with the Job - Job Hakr: Student Affairs Job Search. Retrieved January 21, 2020, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2020/1/7/align-with-the-job.
Cite this Article
Eng, D. (2020, February 11). Pivot during the interview. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2020/2/11/pivot-during-the-interview
Internal Ref: JHKR52STPCY28