There is a common post-interview plague that is tragically infecting job seekers. It is in regards to not understanding how the interview went and going as far as to say you “killed the interview.” From my experience in being the middleman in this process, those who claim the interview went amazingly well, don’t get the job. Those who said the interview was OK, or they “think it went alright” are the ones who usually get the role.
Lack of Awareness
There is a disconnect between what you perceive as building rapport and being jovial, and the true reality of the situation. Candidates will tell me they were joking and laughing and the conversation was very light-hearted, as trademark signs that the interview was going swimmingly. What’s happening is the laughter is the nervous kind, and the jokes were off-putting. The laid back nature of the interview is because they’ve already decided you aren’t a fit and they don’t need to get deeper into the details of the job. Generally, this is recurrent theme with these candidates and is something that can be reversed by focusing on MBTI and the way in which one interacts and perceives the world.
Myers- Briggs and Interview Style
We have to start by understanding ourselves. And the way we do that is by first reading, Please Understand Me by David Kiersey. Once we discover the way our specific type (out of 16) perceives and relates to others– in a way I guarantee most of us haven’t fully conceptualized– we can fix some of the recurring potholes we always stumble in.
I think I can offer one straightforward explanation as to why your type is affecting your interviews and potential job offers. If you are an Extrovert in general, you are going to get your energy from the outer world. If along with your extroverted-ness, you also have a preference for Feeling vs Thinking, you are going to internalize your outer world. So when you get the laughter and smiles and eye contact in the interview, you are going to say, “hey, I am doing pretty well here!”
Unfortunately, you may be reading the situation on a very superficial plane. Your S and T functions will come in handy here if you make a wholehearted effort to develop them. Learning to strengthen your Sensing (S) and Thinking (T) functions will help you pick up on physical clues that can alert you to points when the interview might be taking a wrong turn and you need to course correct.
Obviously, there are millions more words to be written on the finer points of using MBTI to help with JUST how to interview better and be more aware of our faults. Though our tendency is to find a way to externalize our blame onto the interviewer, we should first make certain the interviewee truly knows themselves.
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