Owning Your Greatness In The Interview Process

Written by Lucas Marcouiller

Essential Question: What does the interview process look like for someone who owns their greatness completely?

The task of having to define your unique value is already intrinsically daunting. Now, having to demonstrate the depth of that value to someone who is likely trying to make a snap assessment of you (we make first impressions in an average of about 7 seconds), with the clock ticking in the background and the weight of the rest of your life pressing squarely on your shoulders - almost seems unnavigable. That interview-induced pressure, however, is something millions of people have to go through every year, from recent high school grads all the way to senior management.

There’s a keyword I want to highlight here - demonstrate. This is, surprisingly, an approach few people take to interview preparations. Most people attempt to display their value. They point to it on their resumé, as if it were something outside of them. Usain Bolt didn’t use his 2008 Gold medals to win in 2012, or again in 2016. Actors don’t get cast in roles because of the Oscar in their trophy case. They have to show up and demonstrate their greatness in real time. They do this through preparation, and then trusting themselves when the time comes.

With the eyes of judgment glaring, limited opportunities for interviews, and a pool of well-qualified candidates that are surely more prepared than you, the fear settles in. Or rather - ‘unsettles’ in.

Fleeing to safety, we regress to our animal instincts - we puff our chests and flaunt our feathers. We deflect to the items on our resume, or factoids we may have researched that show our competence and preparedness. All to say, we inflate our past experiences and put them on display, because it is easy. And safe. And at first, it works! Our resume got selected, so something must have impressed the hiring committee. “I was chosen for an interview, wasn’t I!?”

But then, mid-interview, the conversation goes deeper and we have to explain our perfectly-crafted bullet points. We’re asked to describe how each role made us who we are today, and how each experience qualifies us for the position we are seeking. We have to know who we are today. Even further, we have to know who we want to be tomorrow (an incredibly tall order). This existential question we have to face is at the real core of our anxieties surrounding the interviewing process.

The experiences you’ve had are the foundation of who you are. Your foundation consists of the strengths, values, purpose, direction, and cultivated skills you’ve acquired in your lifetime. Understanding it requires self-reflection, being present to our past, and intentional about our future. Even though we lived the events, the intentional practice of understanding, simplifying, and communicating our story takes real effort.

When we can trust our own value, and confidently explain our story, the interview process is no longer a display of events passed. It is time and room for us to demonstrate the value we already know we hold in the present. You no longer have to spend time preparing to ‘be yourself’. You can just be yourself. This takes the pressure off and gives rise to the confidence that the interviewer and interviewee alike are dying to see. From this confidence emerges a clarity and conviction that will resonate with the interviewer far greater than any statistic on your resume.

So how do we put this into practice? How can we prepare to demonstrate our value rather than try to display it? We recommend a 50-50 preparation practice. Take the allocated time you have to prepare for the interview, and spend half of it doing your usual research. Become familiar with the mission, structure, people, and industry background that you would normally brush up on prior to an interview. Then, allocate the other half of your time to clarifying who you really are. Reflect on your resume, but rather than looking at what you did, connect the dots. How did each experience mold you and contribute to the strengths and weaknesses you’re aware of today?

Adam Grant, Organizational Psychologist at Wharton, posits the following: “Past experience rarely predicts future performance. What matters is past performance—and current motivation and ability.” (Adam Grant)

Interviews are supposed to be a time for you and your potential employer to get to know each other. The conversation will be looking to the future, so you need to be solid on your past and present. Going into the interview with this frame of mind allows you to be equal partners in a conversation of discovery, giving you the self-assurance you need and blunting the typical power dynamics associated with interviews. Some more tactics for preparing to demonstrate your value in the interview process are provided below:

• Review your personal goals, both short and long-term. Where are you excited about growing? What are you looking forward to learning? What’s next for you and your life? 

• Review your personal values and principles. If you don’t have them, reflect on what they might be!

• Create an iOS - an individual operating system [See iOS article here]

• Set your conditions of satisfaction for the position - what is a ‘need to have’? What is a ‘nice to have’?

• Have some experiences on hand that answer these questions from Shawn Callahan’s Putting Stories to Work:

  • Stories that show your character: What is the hardest decision you have had to make? What three things have happened in your life that have shaped who you are today?

  • Stories that show you care: When have you put people before results? When have you been surprised by what you truly care about?

  • Stories about purpose: When has your purpose been clear and strong? Have you ever been a part of a group that went beyond expectations because they believed so strongly in what they were doing?

  • Stories about lessons: When have you said to yourself, “I’ll never do that again!”? What is one of the most important lessons you’ve ever learned?

  • Stories that inspire:have you ever seen people become inspired to come from behind to win, or turn around a bad situation? When you are looking for inspiration, what moments do you reflect on?

• Ask genuine questions you’re interested in, that show where your head's at. Asking surface level questions will elicit surface-level answers. If you’re going deep into yourself, go deep into the company! Here are a few of our favorites: 

  • Where is the company headed? 

  • What are its major goals for the next month, quarter, year, etc? 

  • What type of skills or what type of person are they looking for to make those changes? I bet one of your stories resonates with their answer…

Imagine heading into an interview clear about all of these answers. You are clear about the unique value and skill sets you bring and present to your unique value. Since you no longer have to prove, now this interview is not dependent solely on you. It becomes a team effort, a collaborative conversation of exploration. You aren’t taking a test, you are both testing the fit of the relationship. 

As Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Greatness must be demonstrated because it can not be assumed. You can only do this when you trust in yourself. To show them why you’re great you need to first show yourself why you’re great, so spend some time studying what makes you great, and then all that’s left to do is show up.