Interview Fatigue

Don’t short cut your answers, and you will land the offer

Interview Fatigue

I have been using the term “Interview Fatigue” around our company for a while now. I firmly believe that interview fatigue prevents candidates from landing jobs, so I thought it would be beneficial to articulate this idea.  If you consistently find yourself with multiple interviews for the same position but are unable to secure an offer, this may shed some light on why.

I am not trying to take credit for this term.  Interview Fatigue is just a phrase I find myself using regularly.  Out of curiosity, I Googled it to see if others were using it, and yes, the term does exist, but the definitions I found were not used in the same context.   

Traditional interview fatigue

According to my quick Google research, interview fatigue refers to a candidate going through a full day of interviews and becoming physically exhausted.  Over a day of interviews, the candidate becomes tired and lethargic. Their energy level decreases.  Although this is not my version of Interview Fatigue, I provide advice below to avoid experiencing this showstopper:

• Get a good night’s rest the night before the interview.  Don’t stay out late and drink alcohol.
• Avoid a breakfast of coffee and sugary donuts.  After a few hours, the caffeine and sugar wear off, and you crash.  They don’t call it the most important meal of the day for nothing.

HRNasty’s version of Interview Fatigue

The interview fatigue I am referring to is a bit different.  I find that some candidates get tired of answering the same questions repeatedly. Consequently, their answers become abbreviated and less enthusiastic as the day progresses.  The great answers I heard during the first interview were a far cry from what the 4^th interviewer heard when asking the same questions later in the day.   

1^st interview:

I am typically the first to interview candidates interested in working at Acme Publishing.  A standard question I ask is, “Why do you want to work at Acme Publishing?”.  This question gives me an idea of how excited the candidate is about the opportunity. This also provides the candidate with an opportunity to demonstrate the extent of their homework.  A good answer could last three full minutes and spawn multiple topics of conversation.  The candidate shares with us what they like about the company, including who they have spoken with, friends who work with us, our new products, our blog, and some of the great things they have heard about our company culture.  They may discuss the industry, the position’s upside, and the impact they believe they can make.

You get the idea. They are excited, energetic, and full of smiles as they deliver their answers. This is all good stuff. I get excited about a candidate when I hear answers like these. There is nothing to do except imagine how excited the hiring manager will be.

I am excited to pass this candidate along to the hiring manager or hiring team because I will look like a hero for uncovering this hidden gem. 

Interview #2

The candidate is asked the same question, “Why do you want to work at Acme Publishing?” in their second interview. All interviewers want to hear the answer for themselves.  What happens with Interview Fatigue is that the 3-minute answer I just heard becomes a 2-minute answer in the second interview.  Although not as animated as their first answer, the answer passes the litmus test. Everyone is “excited enough” to pass the candidate to the third interview, but no one is doing the Happy Dance like I was.

Interview #3

This could be the hiring manager.  Of course, this manager wants someone sincerely interested in working for the company. The hiring manager asks the same question.  “Why do you want to work for Acme Publishing?”  The answer I heard from this candidate during their first interview was 3 minutes. I rated it a nine on a scale of 1-10 because of the detail and emotion.  The answer delivered in the second interview was 2 minutes and rated a 7.5 on our scale.  That’s a decent enough answer, but it doesn’t convey the passion I heard.

The hiring manager asks the same question and hears a 1-minute answer with very little emotion and none of the pomp and circumstance.  No jazz hands were in this number. This landed the candidate in hot water with a weak 6 out of 10.  The candidate answered the same question 3 times in a row. The third delivery was just “Meh.” 

The same questions asked

Remember, I asked 10-12 questions in the first interview.  Interviewer number 2 asks 10 more questions, of which we can be sure that 2 or 3 will be repeated. 

• Why do you want to work at Acme Publishing?
• What do you know about Acme Publishing?
• What do you like to do in your spare time?

Our third interviewer is the hiring manager. The hiring manager will also ask 10 questions, including a few that were asked in interviews 1 and 2.

The Hiring manager just heard a 1-minute “Meh” answer.  The candidate just delivered 2 answers to questions at the beginning of the interview which for lack of a better term, “suck”.  They delivered the Cliff Notes on the Iliad of answers. Our hiring manager is NOT impressed but presses on.  The hiring manager wonders, “WTF, why am I wasting my time? The gatekeeper and hiring team just passed the candidate along, so there must be something here. . keep pressing forward.”  

It’s not a conscious move

The candidate doesn’t realize it, but they just shortened their first two answers to such a degree that they are NOT impressing anyone. This answer will not land the job.  The candidate also subconsciously put themselves into a different interview gear. They are not giving the hiring manager complete answers FOR THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW.   Moving forward, all of the answers are shortened and less enthusiastic.  The candidate became lazy, tired, and “fatigued” from answering questions they had aced two interviews ago.   

The depth, detail, and enthusiasm in their answers in the first interview are now non-existent.  The hiring manager in later-stage interviews sees a VERY different candidate than the one presented in the first interview.  This is too bad.  Had they stuck with what they were doing earlier, they probably would have had a shot at an offer.

Discipline vs. cutting corner

The hiring company assumes you do not possess the discipline or Emotional Intelligence. If you do not possess the “stick with what got you the win” gene, this trait will likely carry over into corporate life.  If you cut corners in your answers, you will probably cut corners in other work-life factors. 

This is why I like multiple interviews before making a hiring decision. Numerous interviews will weed out those without the foresight.  We have all heard of Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection.  This is HRNasty’s theory of natural selection in the hiring process.

True Story:  I interviewed in corporate America back in the day.  I wore a grey pinstripe suit, a white shirt, leather-soled shoes, and a conservative tie.  Fortunately, I made it past the first interview and was invited back for a series of 6 interviews and lunch.  I asked the recruiter what I should wear to the second interview.  Although I had several suits, they told me to

“WEAR THE EXACT SAME THING TO THE NEXT INTERVIEW.  STICK WITH WHAT GOT YOU TO THE NEXT STEP.  DON’T JUST WEAR THE EXACT SAME SUIT; WEAR THE SAME UNDERWEAR AND WEAR THE SAME SOCKS.” 

Do not take any chances. Superstitious? Maybe, but the recruiter knew that what got me past gate one would probably get me past gate 6. Yes, I landed the job.  

I always remember this story when I hear back from the hiring manager who says the answers were unemotional. The answers they had heard were much shorter and more incomplete than what I had heard.  The candidate should have worn the same underwear.    

Next week, we will discuss long interview loops and HRNasty’s theory of interview frustration.

See you at the after party,

HRNasty

nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball”.

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