Some candidates don't realise they are losing their audience by focusing too much on the small details.Strelka Institute/Flickr/Attribution License
- Human Resources Director Judith Janssens says good candidates don't realise they're losing their audience by focusing too much on the little details.
- Her advice is to answer the questions asked, rather than trying to bring up your positive qualities at inappropriate times.
- If you want to bring up a specific quality, make sure to raise it in a way that still allows the conversation to flow naturally.
Your application letter immediately prompts a phone call inviting you for an interview, you get on well with the reception staff, and you remember to email the interviewer to thank them for their time.
The interview goes well, as far as you can tell.
And yet you get rejected.
It may be that there was simply a candidate with better qualifications than you — but perhaps you unwittingly shot yourself in the foot.
"What I often see is good candidates losing themselves in the little details — and not noticing that they're losing their audience," says Judith Janssens, Human Resources Director at Wolters Kluwer's Global Platform Organisation (GPO), based in the Netherlands.
"At GPO, we have a total of 450 employees in 19 offices around the world," said Janssens. They ask her for reviews, salaries, bonuses, talent management, and new colleagues.
Attention to certain qualities
Getting lost in detail isn't the onlproblem: "Candidates are often very keen to bring a certain part of their CV to the interviewer's attention. Of course, you can, but do so at an appropriate time."
When's the right time to tell your prospective employer that you have great leadership skills — while talking about the skills you acquired during a placement abroad or while explaining the gap in your CV?
Janssens said: "If you're asked a question, answer it. Don't just tell people what you think they want to hear; respond to the question then find a way to bridge into the subject you wanted to mention."
Unfortunately, conversations don't always go the way you'd want them to: your prospective manager is honing in your weaknesses. What then?
"If, by the end of the interview, you've not had the opportunity to highlight a specific quality you think 'they absolutely must know about me,' you can make space for it yourself," said Janssens.
"It's fine to say: 'What I'd also like to share with you is...'"
Read the original article on Business Insider Nederland. Copyright 2018. Follow Business Insider Nederland on Twitter.
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