How to thin-slice your interviewer before the interview?

Before the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) was widely used, recruiters spent 6-10 seconds to scan each resume to quickly decide whether it was worthy to interview. As a job seeker, you can do the same thing.

"Thin-slicing" was first coined by Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, "Blink, the Power of Thinking Without Thinking”, which refers to the ability of our unconscious mind to find patterns in situations and behaviours based on very narrow slices of experience.

Two Real examples from the book:

1. Only a 15-min conversation videotaped of a chatting couple make the testers quickly conclude whether their marriage will last
2. An experienced tennis player know at the exact moment when the ball was flipped in the air, whether it is a good serve or bad serve

When being asked why and how they have this special ability, they cannot explain it. Malcolm argues that there's a locked door of this strategy, and no one knows the science behind it.

As a job seeker, you can snap judge the recruiters before and during an interview.

The purpose is to determine your interview strategy to best organize your answers and make them like you. In this blog post, I will focus on the first part - before the interview

Before Interview

Say you receive a confirmation interview email. Most times, the email will confirm the interview date, time, interview panel (who are interviewing you), and a closing message like, "we are looking forward to meeting you and please reply with a confirmation receipt." Once you reply to confirm, and technically, your interview process starts.

Time is limited, you prepare questions and hope you can win this time. If you are lucky, some recruiters provide interview questions 15min or 30min before the interview. They may give you 20 questions in advance and only ask you 10. However, most time you prepare questions without knowing what questions they will ask, here are strategies:

Find Expression

Search the interviewers online on Google and LinkedIn, and get as much information as possible about their:

1. current title
2. past title & work experience
3. education background
4. article related (if any)

Look at their profile picture - Are they smiling? Are they looking kind or serious? Subtle expressions explains a lot. Based on the findings, you could approximately sense what kind of personalities they are (e.g. introvert or extrovert), or even how they work with people.

Find Connection

Search for connections you have with the interviewers or one of them, the connections could be:

1. the same company you both worked at
2. the same person you are both connected with
3. the same school you both graduated
4. the same conference or volunteer you both attended.

Connection = Similar Topic/Interest = Interaction = Success

When you have connections from the above list, you may have the same interest or topic, which will leads to more back-and-forth conversations. When the interviewers are engaged, your interview is success.

Integrate the Expression and Connection by design into your answers. It is your choice where you want to mention it by the way or ask them directly. Take me as an example, with real story scenarios.

Story One

Once I got an interview with two persons - one of them is the director of X university. When I researched them, I found the director talked over the future planning and challenges of X university. During the “Do you have any questions for us” part, I asked, “I read an article about you talked over the future planning and challenges of X university in Y newspaper, and I wonder what is the future planning for the X university library?"

The message I want to deliver are:

1. I did thorough research about you and company
2. I am interested in about the library too (the workplace)

Story Two

Once I had an interview with one that we both worked at the same organization. When I answered by question, “Tell me about yourself”, I mentioned it by the way, “I noticed you also worked at the organization before,”, and then we exchanged the same colleagues we both worked before.

Be smart and design them into your answers, and not all of them worked. As in story one, I passed the interview, and story two, I didn’t. But there were many reasons to fail the interview, and I will explain them later. Remember to keep trying. Once you know where to sprinkle them, go to the next part:

Imagine!

Imagine they are sitting in front of you, virtually or physcially. Try one of your prepared questions, for example, "Why do you want to join us?" Deep think in the tone, expressions, body language, eye contact, dialogue pacing, etc., and play it in your head, or answer it out loud and imagine how they will respond. The main purpose is to let you get mentally ready for the interview.

1. You predict the worst could happen and prepare the strategy against it;
2. You exercise the conversation between the interviewer, and on the official interview date, you are not afraid.
3. You "know" the interviewers somehow, and you are "familiar" with their tones, and this is the second time you meet them.
   

I hope you will not feel like I’m talking too much. I sincerely hope you can learn something useful to help with your interview and boost your confidence.