Oct18th

Be Yourself in the Interview By: Jun Loayza

Under: Interview, Personal Branding, Uncategorized tagged with: honesty, just be yourself

I just read a blog post by Mark entitled How Much of Yourself Should You Really Be?  Mark seems like a great guy, but I must completely disagree with all the points and statements that he makes on his blog post.

I have so many friends right now that are stuck in a job that they hate.  Do you know what the number one culprit of this is?  The reason they are stuck in this position is because they were not true to themselves.  Before you go off and immerse yourself in the interview hunt, take a long moment to reflect upon yourself and find out what it is that you truly love to do.  It is very cliche to say (Yu-kai know I hate the word), but find out what you are passionate about.

The interview is not only a place to show off your best qualities, but it is also the place to find out if you really want to work for this company.  Mark goes a little extreme and says to talk about yourself positively “even [at] the cost of slight dishonesty.”  Now, I don’t have to be a complete saint to tell you that there is something fundamentally wrong about lying during an interview setting about your skills and qualities.  I can understand if you advise someone to exaggerate your stories and interview answers, but to be dishonest is just plain wrong.

For those of you who will soon be interviewing next Fall for a full-time offer or if you’re interviewing for job positions right now, do what the cliche tells you to do and just be yourself.  I have been interviewing students night and day for my marketing team position, and the people who stand out the most are the students who drop their guard, are honest with me when they don’t know something, and show eagerness and a passion for the job position.

A few questions will arise from this, and I will do my best to answer them:

1. What if all I did at my previous job experience is grunt work?  Shouldn’t I exaggerate a lot and say how I led the project, met with clients, and raised revenues for the company?
   • If your previous work experience was all grunt work, then it shows that you are able to pay your dues and do whatever it takes to get the job done.  If all you did was file papers, then demonstrate how you were the greatest paper filer in all of the world.  If your organized filings helped secure a multi-million dollar client, then you can definitely explain how your efforts greatly contributed to the business development.  However, never completely lie about your skillsets or make up things about your position.
2. I just really want a job.  Shouldn’t I do whatever it takes to secure myself some kind of revenue?
   • It is difficult to help students get a job when they have no experience, no leadership positions, and a low GPA.  I will provide you with as much advise and guidance as possible, but in the end, you just don’t deserve to get a prestige job if you haven’t worked hard for it.  If you have no experience, then you need to find a company that will give you low pay but A LOT of hands on experience.  Do not just add things to your resume and lie during your interview.  If you haven’t worked hard for it and cannot be honest with yourself and the interviewer, then you do not deserve the job position.  Also, you will not last in the company because if you’re not qualified for it, they will eventually figure it out sooner or later

I could go on and on about things people could bring up to argue against being yourself; however, I would love to hear back from you.

In the end, being honest with yourself and others is always the best policy.  This applies to everything including jobs, relationships, school, friends, and life.

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