Generally, we say that an interview went badly if it went one of two ways. Either the interviewee was nervous, said the wrong thing, rambled, etc. or the interviewer was ill prepared or ill tempered.
There is a third one that I call the grand miscommunication and more often occurs at the closing stage of the interview process. The interviewee can walk away feeling like they did not put their best foot forward while interviewer may be left feeling lost.
This does not always end in the company passing on the candidate, but it can certainly feel inevitable from the job seeker’s standpoint. They may even take another role that they like less just so that they do not lose out on an opportunity.
One of the hallmarks of a grand miscommunication is when the interviewer uses non-standard terminology or misuses industry jargon.
This usually occurs when there is some sort of mismatch between the applicant’s experience and the environment of the role. Common situations include Private vs. Public Sector, B2C vs. B2B, For-Profit vs. Not-For-Profit.
The interviewee asks for clarification on the usage of certain words and the interviewer explains using examples that would be classified as something closely related to the role, but are commonly called something else.
From the job applicant’s perspective, the interviewer does not know what they are talking about and the job applicant looks amateurish in the eyes of the prospective new employer.
Another grand miscommunication is an artifact of the job announcement. Job listings often include a disclaimer about the possibility that they do not include everything related to the role. And then in the interview, the question gets asked about a skill or experience vital to the role that not only was not mentioned in the job ad, but also does not fit with the applicant’s resume.
There is nothing more awkward than providing the answer “I have no experience in that arena” during an interview especially when it is a final interview and you had been doing well thus far.
The person asking the question wonders not only how the person got this far in the process, but also if they lied on their resume. Of course, a review of the resume and all company provided information shows that the skill or experience is nowhere to be found on either side.
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The person being asked feels confused as they have no experience or lack skills in that area. They might not have even applied if they knew that was a requisite skill or experience.
Broadly speaking, these skills and experience are not common for the role and unforeseeable based on the information provided to the applicant.
Skills or experience may be something as out-of-the-box as being SCUBA certified to clean a 40,000-gallon fish tank as part of a role as a front desk receptionist at a large corporation. Or it could be as reasonable, but still odd, as knowing how to operate a commercial rotisserie oven or meat slicer as the Head General Manager for a big box store.
Last, but not least, is the most common grand miscommunication which is the unknown interviewer.
Most companies try to let you know with whom you will be interviewing at the later stages of the interview process so that you can best prepare. Sometimes they will provide you with just the person’s name or title. The onus is on you to research them in order to best answer their questions.
However, you may end up being interviewed by people who were never mentioned during the process and you had no reasonable idea that they would be part of the process. You are left unsure at what level of detail to provide or what terminology to use.
Even worse is when you combine this with an interview where you cannot see the people interviewing you. You cannot even read their facial cues or know when they are taking notes. It is difficult to tell if you need to expound or cut your reply short.
These grand miscommunications are all avoidable. Some can be attributed to simple human error, while others show cracks in the hiring process.
Everyone who reaches the final stages of the interview process should be highly qualified for the role and it is only a matter of which one is the best cultural fit. If this is not the case, then the company needs to seriously review its hiring process from start to finish.
