Interviewing for your next job? Avoid this common mistake
The job market is still angry despite the fear of a Depressionand job seekers continue to express confidence in their abilities take on a better job.
“I quite often get this question from my students… how do they choose from among the many offers they receive?” Olivier Sibony, professor of strategy at HEC Paris said.
But when candidates find themselves in power, the “most likely mistake” they will make is to allow their decision-making to be influenced by one interaction, he said. CNBC Make It.
It’s also known as the “halo effect,” which is the tendency for a positive overall impression of someone or a company to positively influence one’s opinion in other areas.
Usually, when people aren’t right for a job, it’s because they didn’t do their homework properly… they didn’t ask the right questions.
Oliver Sibony
Professor, HEC Paris
For example, if a candidate’s first interaction with a company representative – which is usually a recruiter – is a positive action, then the questions they will ask in the interview “will support this assertion.” initially, Sibony said.
“For all the questions you ask, you’ll find satisfying answers, and you’ll only ask questions that confirm your positive first impression,” he adds.
“You’re not going to ask tough questions … you’re actually going to get answers that make you think, ‘Maybe it’s not such a good company.’
How can you avoid choose a job that you may regret? CNBC Make It found out.
1. Ask similar questions
To get around the halo effect, you should “force yourself to ask” every company the same questions, says Sibony, an associate fellow at Oxford University.
“Whether you actually ask those questions during the interview or get the information from another reliable source is a separate matter,” he added.
“It can be much better to get answers to your questions from Glassdoor or from people who work within the company – rather than asking the interviewer – who is very unlikely to give honest answers to your questions. you, if you’re realistic about it.”
2. Do your research
Sibony says it’s “good practice” that everyone has a checklist of questions or criteria they want their work to accomplish.
“Usually, when people aren’t right for a job, it’s because they haven’t done their homework… they haven’t asked the right questions.”
The author of “You’re about to make a terrible mistake!” suggested this process for creating a checklist: Talk to five friends who left their jobs within a few months or “tell you how much they hate their job every time you see them. ”
“Ask yourself, what could that person have done prior to taking the job that would give them the information they need to make the right decision? The red flag they should have seen but didn’t What is search?”
3. Are your potential colleagues happy?
Besides chatting with friends, you should also chat with your potential colleagues, Sibony says.
“You may think you’ve got a lot of information…but they [on the] inside, they have more information than you. “
If they’re not happy, chances are you won’t be either.
Olivier Sibony
Professor, HEC Paris
He added that applicants can skip red flagthink they are “different” or “unique”.
“But you’re less different than you think… The best predictor of how happy you’ll be with a job is how happy other people are in that job.”
“If they’re not happy, chances are you aren’t happy either,” Sibony says.
4. Know what’s important to you
Another reason job seekers aren’t the right fit for the job is that “they really don’t know what’s important to them.”
“Part of what you do when you start a new job or when you take on new jobs in a row isn’t just learning about these companies. It’s getting to know yourself,” Sibony says.
He adds that even if you prepare as best you can, there can still be “bad surprises” after you start a new role.
“I remember talking to a former student who said she felt very depressed and alienated because people work from home all the time, and [she] Sibony said.
“I asked her, but you didn’t ask that question [during the interview]? She said, ‘No, because I didn’t know that was important.’
This is why Sibony encourages job seekers to see every new job as a learning opportunity – not just to learn about the job but also themselves.
“You don’t really know who you are until you’ve experienced being different people in different situations,” he added.
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