Critical Assumptions for A Budding Interviewee:

Assumption One: Your Interviewer is not an illiterate twit.
A fundamental error I see with many interviewees is the response to the question: “Tell us a little about yourself?” For some very bizarre reason, interviewees fall back to the assumption that the interviewer wants to know what is already stated on the CV. Thus very often the response will be: “My names are Mary Kerubo Juma, and I went to University of Nairobi to study a Bachelor of Arts.” Fact number one: Your name IS Mary Kerubo Juma. You only have ONE name, one identifying moniker that describes who you are as an individual and differentiates you from the billions of other mortals on this earth. “My names ARE” means that the A in English on your KCSE certificate is highly doubtful. Fact number two: The interviewer wants to know more about you the individual, what puts a pep in your step, what floats your boat, what rocks your frock. The interviewer is not remotely interested in hearing anything that he can already read in the two stapled A4 pages in front of him that make up your CV. So look your interviewer in the eye and say: “My name IS Mary Kerubo Juma, a vibrant 25 year old female lover of South African Kwaito music and I love to play football with a girls team at our church every Saturday afternoon.

What has Mary done? She’s opened up a whole new conversation about what Kwaito Music is and how she long she has been playing football for. Mary will tend to relax as she will be talking about something she is passionate about while her body language, tone and energy will reflect positively on the interviewers. Interviewers tend to start with this particular question as a way to relax the interviewee with soft, non-job related questions before moving to the hard, technical questions. You should take advantage of this opportunity to display your social side. Please note however that clearly stating that you are a Man U fan -without having done any due diligence as to whether your interviewer never walks alone in a Liverpool jersey on Saturday afternoons- is nothing short of a train smash. Avoid English Premier League soccer discussions and political party affiliations in equal measure.

Assumption Two: It is better to be over dressed than to be underdressed.
The professional dress code for men is suit and tie. The extremely fortunate thing that the male gender experiences other than the fact that they can perform natural drainage functions while standing is that they can rapidly reduce the formality of their attire just as efficiently. Thus if they go for an interview and find that the dress code is smart casual all they have to do to adopt to the environment is to ditch the jacket and tie and open the first two buttons of their shirt. Sadly, ladies can do nothing of the sort without creating a crime scene. That said, interviews that take place on Saturdays do not mean that weekend attire should be worn. Au contraire. An interview is an interview is an interview. I have witnessed interviewees who come for Saturday interviews completely dressed down (one was wearing a pair of jeans and was promptly chased away like a rabid dog). Your interviewers will NEVER forget it and you will start your interview from a complete disadvantage – assuming you were allowed into the room in the first place.

Assumption Three: Your references will be called.
No, don’t roll your eyes on this one. You will be surprised at how many people do not expect the organization to call the references you have listed on your CV. I was once involved in an interview process for an organization in a certain industry where a potential candidate put the name of his neighbor as his referee simply because the neighbor worked in the particular industry. When the neighbor referee was called his reaction was a) utter confusion as the only way he knew the candidate was as a drinking buddy at the local bar and b) utter shock as he knew the candidate did not know the first thing about the industry. So much for that reference! The other faux pas is putting your current boss or human resource manager as a reference, again a bizarre occurrence in the interview process. I watched one candidate turn completely pale (a significantly difficult exercise given the not-so-delicate nature of our chocolate skin tones) when we told her that we had spoken to her boss who she named as her referee the day before the interview and the boss had expressed surprise that the candidate was looking outside the organization. The interview went down hill from that point on, which was quite sad as she had been a strong candidate up until that point. Why in the name of Moses would you put your boss’s name as your referee if you have a) not informed him/her and b) you are looking to move outside your organization without anyone knowing? Please read the Idiot’s Guide to Interviewing before you go to sleep tonight. References are not a placeholder in a CV template. They are used to verify the personal details as stated on the CV particularly with regard to the professional and social background of the candidate. Often organizations will call referees before the interview as part of the due diligence as it reduces time wasted interviewing candidates that have put absolute hogwash in the form of professional credentials on their documents. The referees should obviously be people who know you, can vouch for the credibility of your stated experience and ascertain your integrity and record as a good worker or colleague. Your references are NOT required to describe neither your absorptive capacity for alcohol nor your predilection for quarter ng’ombe fry.

Common sense, good people, is an oxymoron as it is not common to everyone. Always seek feedback from your interviews. You will be surprised at what you will learn.

[email protected]