| SUMMARY |
Navigating the job interview process can be difficult and full of uncertainty. From the job search and application, to the interview and negotiation, job seekers face a range of emotions. A successful job search requires a combination of preparation and resilience. This article gives tips on how to handle the uncertainty that comes with job searching, interviewing, and negotiating.
The job search is the starting point in the job search process. Job seekers should consider the type of role they are seeking, determine what employers are offering and research them to understand the company culture and mission. Once the job search is complete, the applicant can apply and wait for a response.
Applying for a job may result in a difficult waiting game. It can feel like you are waiting forever, with no response from employers. In order to survive this process, job seekers should focus on being proactive and resourceful to stay engaged. A potential way to do this is to reach out to recruiters or career counselors for feedback.
When the job seeker is contacted for an interview, it's time for preparation. Preparation includes researching the company, understanding the role you are interviewing for, and role playing with yourself or with family or friends. This preparation helps to reduce the uncertainty of the interview itself.
The interview is the main event when it comes to getting the job. Interviews can be nerve wracking and applicants should be sure to bring a positive attitude. The best way to manage the uncertainty of the job interview is to stay focused on the task and take a few deep breaths to stay relaxed. Additionally, you should practice active listening and be sure to ask questions to show a genuine interest in the role and company.
Navigating the job search process can be a time of uncertainty and stress. Following the tips outlined above can help job seekers manage this stress and stay focused on the goal of getting a job. Job seekers should focus on remaining proactive and resourceful during the waiting game, practice for the interview, and understand the importance of salary negotiations. With the right mindset, job seekers can navigate the uncertainty of the job search process and be successful.
| QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS ARTICLE |
Understanding Uncertainty During the Interview Process
In today's competitive job market, it's normal to feel uncertain during the job interview process. Unfortunately, the uncertainty associated with a job search isn't just limited to the initial interview. Even after the interview has gone well, there is still the matter of waiting to get feedback from the hiring manager. The wait between the interview and a call from the company can be nerve-wracking and lead to feelings of uncertainty.Impact of Uncertainty During a Job Search
Uncertainty during a job search can have a negative impact on your life, creating feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. Even the strongest of applicants can feel low self-esteem and a lack of confidence when a job search drags on longer than expected. Oftentimes applicants feel a lack of control over the process when employers do not provide timely feedback. This can be exacerbated if there is a significant amount of time between the interview and the employer's response.Tips For Managing Uncertainty During the Job Search
Fortunately, there are some ways to manage the uncertainty during a job search. Firstly, it's important to stay connected with the employer. If it's been some time since you've heard from the hiring manager, reach out and make sure they have the necessary information. A brief yet polite email or phone call can help to break the silence and provide the applicant with information about the status of the job search.Advantages of Showing Patience
Having patience with the employer also provides an opportunity for an applicant to demonstrate their professionalism and dedication. This can be beneficial in the long-term when it comes to impressing a potential employer. Demonstrating patience in the face of uncertainty can be a good sign for a potential employer. Typically, employers want to work with people who show that they are reliable and hardworking.On many antiquarian maps, there is a simple, chilling statement scrawled at the edge of the known world: "Here be monsters." This is the mapmaker's rather dramatic way of saying, "No one is quite sure what lies here, but it is almost certainly bad." But a hedge of this sort is not nearly as evocative, nor as indicative of human nature, as a miniature pictorial of ravening mythological beasts. From a psychological perspective, this three word warning symbolizes how humans have dealt with uncertainty from time immemorial: with a keen sense of dread. And returning from a law firm interview that was difficult to read can fill you with a similar sense of foreboding. With no quick feedback, this can rapidly deteriorate into worry, followed by full-blown panic, and finally, despair. Meanwhile, your recruiter could be negotiating a lavish salary package for you with the firm. Who knew?
The interviewing process is punctuated by uncertainty. Indeed, uncertainty is perhaps its defining feature for everyone involved. Let's take one example. Particularly in the early stages of a recruiting cycle, interviewers often present a 'poker face' to everyone. Needless to say, this is unsettling — especially for their spouses — and even more so when you contrast it to the sometimes fawning (by comparison) courtship process that you may have encountered in law school. The normal cues that accompany friendly human interaction, such as body language, tone of voice, and facial expression are either intentionally obscured or altogether absent, as if you were meeting someone who missed the audition for Invasion of the Body Snatchers by several decades. Why is this?
To overcome the tendency to feed into the mythic nature of the interview, and to get a realistic grasp of the hiring process, the first thing that you need to do is try to understand the law firm's position, however hard that may be. Try to get perspective. In the case of poker-faced partners, it is likely that they will be meeting with a number of candidates. Many will be unsuitable, for a variety of reasons. Others may be ideal, but uninterested in the firm. So the partners (and sometimes associates), realizing that a preliminary meeting is only that, choose not to 'invest' in the meeting to a great degree. It would simply be too frustrating to do so. Furthermore, no one likes to reject someone they truly like - it is too emotionally taxing - so they erect walls designed to limit any kind of rapport (at least initially). I have seen candidates walk out of a screening interview like this utterly mystified. The next day, they get a callback. I have also seen candidates blow the screening interview because they misunderstood that the frosty reception was not something they were supposed to try to overcome. Through a variety of antics, some taking place literally in front of the elevator doors, they try to 'break through' and light up their interviewer's interest. This is almost guaranteed to backfire. The lesson is: don't panic, and try to make peace with uncertainty, because that is where true confidence and competence lie.
If confident candidates often react in the same way to unwelcome news — or no news at all — by keeping their cool and taking things in stride, candidates who have a phobia of uncertainty react in a variety of self-destructive ways. They may pester the hiring partner with phone calls, faxes, or emails (beyond the obligatory thank you note), which is a bad thing to do. Or they start harassing their recruiter for feedback, which is really doing the same thing at one remove. Although ideally the recruiter will have the sense not to start harassing the hiring partner in turn, or other members of the hiring committee, there is a danger that they will. This is definitely a case of less is more. Put yourself in your recruiter's shoes - in all likelihood, he wants you to get the job as badly as you do. The recruiter who does not care about finding a job for her candidates is a rare breed - and a non-existent one at BCG Attorney Search.
Furthermore, when a firm is still soliciting feedback from different interviewers, and possibly meeting with other candidates, they may not show their hand to the recruiter, no matter how close the relationship is. They may simply not know enough yet to take a position. If it is a definite 'no,' they will usually say so. But there are others who are maybes, and this is where the wait and the lack of information can get very frustrating very quickly. What to do?
First of all, keep a firm grasp of reality. If the firm wants to make you an offer, it will. If you've met with the firm, there is very little chance that you have slipped between the cracks - and if you did, they probably were not intent on hiring you. Much of the worry that accompanies the interview process is generated by an unhealthy focus on the self. It's essential to strive to be your best -well-prepared, well-presented, punctual, and so forth. But even then, your ability to control other people and their reactions to you is limited. There are extraneous factors that you simply can't control - perhaps the firm has just lost a major client and won't be hiring anyone — and it is unhelpful to focus on them. This heightened focus on the self is often what leads you to imagine the worst. To imagine monsters where a simple question mark would do.
In fact, depending on current market conditions and your practice area, recruiting is almost always a time-consuming process for everyone involved. It is also heavily subject to Murphy's law, as anyone who has been involved in it can attest. At any stage in the process, things can go wrong, sometimes in bizarre ways. The horror stories that you hear from your friends are shared by the firms themselves, only in reverse. The gal that everyone loved turns out to be a grifter who never went law school. The guy you just hired was caught in flagrante delicto with the hiring partner. And so on.
So, what to do? First, understand that even the most ideal interview process will have its moments of uncertainty. Second, do not use that uncertainty to construct elaborate, macabre fantasies that are the stuff of nightmares. Third, realize that no matter how much you want the job, this is partly a numbers game for you, too, and you must not despair. Work with your recruiter, be at your best, and use that feeling of uncertainty to give yourself a little extra juice to climb the next mountain, which is getting that ideal job you want with what Hemingway defined as courage - grace under pressure. And finally, most important of all: stay positive and keep focused on what you want - getting the job - not what you fear. The great explorers, after all, had those primordial fears too, but they were able to overcome them.
Or else those maps would have never been finished.
See the following articles for more information:
- 21 Major Interview Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
- The Best Way to Prepare for a Job Search and Interviews
- How to Talk About Other Interviews in Your Interviews
- How to Answer the Tell Me About Yourself Interview Question
- How to Answer the Do You Have Any Questions for Me Interview Question
