There’s a saying that goes ‘To know where you’re going, you need to know where you’re coming from.’
This sentiment explains why your career path is considered an excellent indicator of your personality and what kind of employee you would be for the company you’ve applied with. In the context of a job interview, you will likely hear a variation on one of the following questions:
‘Tell me about your professional journey.’
‘Talk to me a little about your education and what led you to choose that field of study.’
‘What led you to change jobs in 2014?’
No matter how the question is formulated, the principle is the same: The idea is to talk about your past and to distill the important elements from your experience.
For some recruiters, this question may end up forming a large part of the interview itself. They will use your resume and take notes about how you respond to their questions. Your career path will form the foundation from which the recruiter can ask you about many different aspects of your candidature.
Don’t get lost in the labyrinth of your life
It’s often when a candidate begins talking about his previous experiences that I have to interrupt him to guide him back on the right track. When discussing your past, there is a strong risk that you will lose yourself in pointless details and lose track of time.
It’s a trap to talk about your path from the very beginning because your early experiences are likely the least important elements of your history to the recruiter. Recent work experience is much more relevant.
In any case, if you’ve already spent a considerable amount of time describing your early experiences, you’ll be forced to skim over the most important/most recent parts as the recruiter becomes increasingly impatient.
You can get rid of sections like this: ‘I got that job because a friend provided a reference. Well, he weren’t exactly a friend, more like an acquaintance. I think it was in May of ’87, but it could have been June. I’ll have to check. My boss was a guy in his sixties and his office was on the second floor…’
Whenever I have to cut a client off and ask them to describe briefly what they gained from that experience, they often reply with ‘I was just about to tell you!’
Respond to questions in a way that responds to the needs of the recruiter, not your own. It’s your job to quickly get to the facts.
A short preamble may be necessary to put you in the right mindset to go over your history in abridged form, but you should do this before the interview.
Instead of going over your career path spontaneously, break your speech down into several sections. Allow yourself a specific amount of time for each section. Think about the key messages you’re trying to get across.
I suggest practicing with a stopwatch.
Be careful about which doors you open
Faced with a nervous candidate, a recruiter may use questions about the candidate’s career path to set them at ease.
Talking about his past may be easy for a candidate, since he can recount the answers without too much effort.
He may be encouraged to be more confident if the recruiter focuses on the his strengths, using questions like:
‘What were you the most proud about accomplishing at this job?’
‘How were you able to learn about customer service so quickly?’
Once the candidate is feeling more self-assured, the recruiter can ask other questions. The ice has been broken.
While a question about your career path may seem a safe one at first glance, it also contains several pitfalls that must be avoided. Because the candidate will feel in control of the interview at this point, he may let his guard down.
For example, perhaps you had a bad experience at a previous job and don’t want to talk about it. The recruiter may ask you more questions than you’d like about this job. Some questions may seem innocent, but they can lead you onto thin ice. The recruiter will use the answers you provide to formulate other, more specific questions.
‘Tell me about your previous boss’ personality. What was your day-to-day relationship like?’
‘You said that your boss sometimes lost his temper. Can you give me some examples? Was he angry with you?’
‘I’d like for you to tell me about when you decided to quit your job. What was the final straw? Can you summarize for me the conversation you had with your then-boss?’
If your response is too vague, the recruiter will be able to tell that you don’t want to talk more about the subject. He may think that you are hiding something, which could reflect badly on your candidacy – even more so if you provided detailed answers to other, more positive questions.
The art of being well-prepared
I’m often surprised to find out just how unprepared many candidates I meet are to answer the questions I ask and are unable to recount their career path succinctly.
As a result they get lost in unhelpful details or focus solely on the challenges they’ve faced, having no strategy prepared for how to answer my questions.
If you really want the job, improve your chances of success by preparing for the interview. You could ask a friend to help or hire a professional.
Explain to them your career path and ask them to ask questions that take different directions. It is one thing to know your own history, but it’s another to know how to tell it effectively.
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