1 Welcome to InterviewSpeak
Have you ever left a job interview thinking you really nailed it and were then surprised when you didn’t get the job? You wonder, what happened? You were so sure that the job was yours.
Here’s what might have happened. You thought that you said all the right things, but it really wasn’t what the interviewer was looking for. The interviewer smiled at you and couldn’t wait to get done with the interview.
We’ve seen this happen way too often. So many people think they have great answers, but they really don’t. One big reason for this is that people don’t understand what the interviewer is really saying and really asking for. If you understood that, your answers would be much better.
We wrote this book to show you what the interviewer is really asking and why. Think of this as a way to translate “interviewspeak.” By understanding interviewspeak, you can be better prepared to answer an interviewer’s questions and give them exactly the information they need.
We’ve learned this from many years of interviews and corporate work. Barbara spent many years as an internal recruiter where she sourced and interviewed candidates, referred some to hiring managers, and then debriefed with both candidates and hiring managers. It was interesting to note that about 99% of all candidates thought they did well in their interviews, but in talking with hiring managers, it turns out that most did not.