The interview is not a confessional

All too often, job seekers feel they have to confess things during the interview. But let me remind you, the interview is not a confessional.

I am not Catholic but have a fair amount of friends who are. During confession, you are supposed to admit to your sins so the priest can tell you what to do to be forgiven for them.

But an interviewer is not a priest. It insn’t the interviewer’s job to forgive or understand you – their job is to hire the most qualified candidate.

So why do people divulge stuff they shouldn’t? I’ve heard job seekers say “I was just being honest”. That’s great, but when the information they provide is damaging their credibility, that’s not great.

Having responses to difficult or painful questions ready ahead of time will eliminate the need to confess the whole truth.  These are commonly disliked questions job seekers struggle with:

• Why did you leave your last job?
• What is your greatest weakness?
• What are your salary expectations?
• Have you and a supervisor ever disagreed and how did you handle it?

When I mock interviewed one job seeker, he responded to “why did you leave your last job” with the following answer:

“Well, (squirming in his chair), as you know, XYZ company was shifting their new products.  I was part of the old product group since the beginning, but I guess my skills were not the best in the group, so when they had to eliminate jobs, I lost mine”.

All he needed to say was “Due to the changes and restructuring at XYZ company, my position was eliminated”.

See the difference?

Stick to the facts and practice answers that you know you may struggle with.