The Most Important Thing Job Hunters Don’t Know

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

A few times a day, I checked LinkedIn news for career-related articles. Today, one was offered up titled, “Execs who’ve worked at Google, Starbucks, and other top employers share their best advice for acing a job interview and landing your dream role.” This good clickbait headline for an article actually came out in January.

I discovered it was hidden behind a paywall but found it on another site doing a Google search.

Do some research to figure out how to address your cover letter

Avoid humblebragging at all costs

Do research on yourself

Explain that you’re leaving your current job because you want to grow in a different direction

Flaunt your growth mindset

Show that you’re interested in making an impact on others

Ask questions about opportunities for professional development

Be confident and deferential

Ask the interviewers questions about their careers

Put some effort into your thank-you note

Check in him a couple of days after the company said you’d hear from them

leverage the relationships you already have

Try to keep a human element when recruiting virtually

Show the hiring manager you’re invested in your career

demonstrate how you respond to feedback

This is all great advice but the article promises, “their best advice for acing a job interview and landing your dream role.”

This doesn’t seem like it.

Let me tell you the most important thing you need to understand going into an interview:

Job descriptions are 80% accurate.

HR people I have interviewed laugh when I say this and one went so far as to say, “If we’re lucky they are 80% accurate.”

That’s because most job descriptions are generated right after someone resigns on Friday afternoon. The hiring manager calls their HR business partner or HR contact and says, “Do you have the job description we use the hire, Javier? Great! He just gave notice. Could you get it out to our recruiting resources, put it on our website and wherever else you share it, and see whom you can get on my calendar for Tuesday?” No one ever updates them.

Job hunters go into the interview believing they know what the company is looking for but are usually off-target.

Thus, the most important thing you can do is to find out at the beginning of the interview, before they start throwing questions that you, what is the really looking for.

If you don’t do that, you will talk about what you’ve done in your career and not talk about what you’ve done the matters to them. You’ll miss an opportunity to really connect the dots for them with how your background fits what they are looking for.

Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2021, 2024

The Top 10 Hiring Mistakes Managers Make