The Job Interview : One-to-One Communication Scenarios

A job interview is a communication setting, wherein a candidate sells their skills and experience, and an interviewer tries to analyse how to fit a candidate to the organisation.

Watch the following video to learn about the job interview process and understand how the interviewee and the interviewer can be empathetic and compassionate while effectively communicating with each other.

As you learnt in this video, both the interviewee and the interviewer need to be empathetic and compassionate towards each other. This helps to build a relationship between both parties.

Any job interview has some major factors that affect the conversation, for both the interviewer and the interviewee. These factors are as follows:

1. There is an air of mystery surrounding the interviewee and the interviewer/the company/the position.
2. There is a far greater chance that the interviewee does not land the job.
3. There is a specific purpose of the interview. For example, it could only be a screening exercise, a detailed discussion of the interviewee’s experience or a test of the interviewee’s skills.

Given these factors, as an interviewee, you can be empathetic by:

1. Understanding the purpose of the interview,
2. Learning about the company, the team, the position and the interviewer as much as possible,
3. Highlighting the experiences and qualities that are fit for the job, and
4. Placing yourself as an ideal candidate for the second-best outcome, such as:
   • A job elsewhere that the interviewer knows about,
   • A future opening in the company, and
   • A potential customer whom the interviewer knows.

And, as the interviewer, you can be effective by:

1. Having clear requirements that are easy to understand,
2. Learning about the candidate to assess them against your requirement, and
3. Placing yourself as an ideal source for the second-best outcome, such as:
   • An ideal candidate whom the interviewee knows, and
   • A compelling offer being made by a competitor.

Now, let’s watch the next video, where David will describe interview outcomes and discuss some of the tactics that you can use during interviews.

Some of the best practices to follow in interviews are to demonstrate excellent listening skills, maintain sufficient eye contact with your recipient and make notes of what they say. And, when dealing with a difficult question, remember to exhale first. A brief pause can send your brain whirring to prepare for the perfect response.

Additional Learning

You can read here the dos and don’ts for a job interview as accumulated by the Virginia Tech University.