What is the golden rule in interview?

The interview process is an ordeal that is fraught with anxiety, may make you break out in a cold sweat, and is generally unfavorable. Consequently, when you find yourself sitting on the other side of the desk, in the role of the interviewer, you shouldn't forget this. To put it another way, while conducting an interview, you should approach the person you are questioning in the same manner in which you would like to be questioned yourself if you were in that position.

In light of this, I found the following piece of advice regarding how to effectively begin an interview that you are conducting to be both reassuring (to the interviewee in me), as well as spot on (to the interviewer in me). It was written by Dottie Mattison, a former executive at The Gap, Wal-Mart, and a hedge fund who is now the CEO of Gracious Home New York, an upmarket home goods company in New York City. It was published in the most recent edition of The New York Times Corner Office column.

An individual's level of ease during an interview is the single most essential factor, and this is due to the fact that it enables one to get a clearer picture of the person's true nature. Therefore, the first thing that we will most likely do is speak about your family and your day.

After that, I am interested in learning about the job that you have done. Give me an idea of who you are when you're at your best. Please describe your special ability to me. It doesn't bother me when other individuals start sentences with "I." To begin, everyone is now aware that they should not say that and should use "we" instead. This has been drilled into their heads. However, when individuals speak about themselves, you can also see responsibility and inventiveness in action. I believe that having a strong sense of self-esteem might be beneficial at times.

In reference to the first half of the paragraph that was just read, my observations have shown that the majority of interviewers are not very good at, or are unable to perform at all, the task of making an interviewee feel at ease. According to what Mattison has said, an ideal interview is one in which the person conducting the interview gets to see and hear the finest that the person sitting across from them has to give. In addition to this, you only have a limited amount of time to do this task. If you make what is already a stressful situation even more stressful for your interviewee, you won't be doing yourself or your interviewee any favors. Yes, you may also want to see how interviewees handle stress and how they handle difficult situations like interviews, but you won't be doing yourself any favors by doing so. Which is to say that you probably won't get to someone's best work and traits if they sense that you're trying to trip them up to see what they can't do, rather than lifting them up in order to find out what they can do, can do well, and might be able to do well for you and your company. This is because they will perceive that you are trying to find out what they can't do, rather than lifting them up in order to find out what they can do, can do well,

As for the second half, Mattison offers some wonderful guidance for those who are being interviewed. When you're interviewing for a job, you usually have a very limited amount of time to highlight your most impressive qualities and accomplishments, as well as to explain how those things will help you succeed in the role for which you're applying. This is because the interviewer also has a limited amount of time in which to determine what you're good at, and because you have the same amount of time.

There is no getting past the fact that every interview is, in some sense, a contest between different people. Therefore, it is crucial to be able to work effectively with others in a team and to take the initiative within a team, but it is as as necessary, if not more important, to communicate what you have accomplished on an individual level (whether in team settings or on your own). It is important to keep in mind that the teams you have worked on in the past are not the ones interviewing for the position; you are.

Also worthy of mention is the question that Mattison enjoys asking applicants the most.

The query, "What do you do on the weekends? " is one of my favorites to ask. "In your leisure time, what do you like to do?" Because in the end, you find out what really matters to individuals, and you discover where their true interests lie...

People who are able to work effectively are attractive to me. Done is always preferable than flawless. It's always interesting to hear about people's weekend projects around the home, like the treehouse they made and how they couldn't go to sleep until it was finished. That's a great thing that happens.

Interviewers would be wise to model their own questions after Mattison's go-to inquiry (or to find similar ones to use). It's also a question that candidates for the job should be ready to answer, and they should answer it well.