How to Take Home the Gold when Interviewing

​Interviewing is a necessary evil in the professional world.  Most of us despise it, few of us are good at it, and it’s rarely ever considered fun. It’s an interesting phenomenon because, although it’s necessary to advance in our careers, it’s not something that we do very often, which means we’re typically not practiced at it. 

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In many ways interviewing is very similar to something we all love, the games happening this summer. Consider the following parallels:
 
1. Attention
There are many sporting events in the world (too many to count!) but these games that happen every four years are one of very few events that truly captures the world’s attention. Interviewing is similar as it’s truly unlike anything else we experience in the business world. It happens rarely and it likely captures your attention more than any other professional event.

2. Competition
The games represent the purest form of athletic competition known to man. At its heart, interviewing is a competition as well. In both, participants compete against opponents where there is a clear winner and many losers.
 
3. Training
Like world-class athletes do for the four years leading up to the games, business professionals are all continuously training for the ultimate competition: your next job interview. In both, you don’t necessarily know who your competition is going to be, so all you can do is prepare yourself to perform at your best when the competition comes.
 
Your training over many years will mainly consist of doing the best, most valuable work you can until the next opportunity arises. Every athlete’s training regimen and every professional’s work will be rigorous at times because it’s meant to prepare them for greatness. What sets you apart is how you show up on the day of the competition – when adrenaline is pumping, nerves are frayed, and it’s time to put everything that you’ve been doing for the last number of years together and win the day.
 
4. Coaching
Behind every gold medal winner is a great coach. Often this is a former athlete themselves who has been through competitions. But sometimes it’s just someone who has a knack for understanding what it takes to succeed in competitive moments. Being a Recruiter is akin to being a coach. Not only have our accounting and finance recruiters competed in interviews for accounting and finance roles ourselves, but we’ve collectively coached hundreds of candidates through thousands of interviews.
 
How to Win Gold
These time-tested tips and tricks will set you up to win the gold medal:
 
1. Have Confidence in Your Training
The most important thing that will win you the gold medal is relying on everything you’ve done to get you to this point. Remember, you were chosen for an interview based on the merits of your past work. You qualified for the final, now it’s time to take home the trophy.

What you can do:
Review your résumé in detail. Take notes, write out examples, and be prepared to talk through them for each line in your résumé. Remember, your resume is a collection of talking points that are meant to stimulate questions from the interviewer that you can expand upon to show why you’re qualified, how hard you’ve been training.

2. Be Prepared for The Unexpected
Do you remember what happened two decades ago when the world’s leading swimmer lost his goggles right after he dove into the pool? He kept swimming and won the gold. What happens when our national basketball team invariably goes down by 30 points to a huge underdog? They usually grind out the win. They don’t panic because things aren’t going exactly how they expected. They take a breath and adapt.
 
What you can do:
Anytime you’re thrown a curveball in an interview (a strange question, a different location than expected, a panel when you weren’t expecting one), just take a breath. Redirect your energy to what’s in front of you and move on. Most importantly, do not go into the interview with one concrete expectation of how things will be. Clear your mind of whatever vision you have so that when the unexpected happens, you’re not caught off guard.

3. Be Present
The best athletes perform at their peak when they are fully in the present moment, not up in their heads. They are seeing, listening, and absorbing everything around them, not focused on their thoughts. The same approach should be taken for the interviewing process.

What you can do:
Truly listen to the interviewer’s questions. Try not to rush through an answer. Take time to think before you answer and if something doesn’t make sense or is unclear, ask clarifying questions. This shows you are truly listening and thinking critically about a thoughtful response (which is a highly sought-after quality). Being present also means being yourself. If in normal social situations you like playful banter, use dry humor, or are very complimentary, by all means have that shine through in a professional way. Be you! You should show off your individual style in the competition to set yourself apart.

4. Be Assertive
The best athletes take gold when they know how and when to attack in their sports. When there’s an opening to shoot, take it. When you can see that victory is near, step on the pedal and don’t let up. The same goes for interviewing.

What you can do:
Come prepared and researched so you can talk confidently about the company. Saying things like, “I really love how your mission statement mentions _____” or “The decisions you made 20 years ago to move into the new market were really impressive” are examples of how you can assertively show that you’ve done your research. Also, research the company to find topics that truly intrigue you and strike your curiosity and then craft questions around them. Interviewers can easily tell when someone is genuinely curious about the company the role and has given sincere thought to how they could fit into the position. This is another assertive way to show that you care and are focused on them. Finally, ask questions like “How do you see this person adding value to your job?” and “What does success look like in the role in 6, 9, or 12 months?” to assertively show you’re thinking about how you can help them and be successful in the role.

5. Finish strong
Gold medal winners know how to win and how to finish off a competition to ensure they take home the gold. This goes for the interviewing process as well.

What you can do:
If you are excited about the position at the end of an interview, let the interviewer know how you feel. Be straightforward, open and honest about your interest in the role and feel free to ask when you will get feedback and how you will what the next steps are. This lets the interviewer know how you feel and put the action in their hands. Also, send a thank you note. This reinforces your thoughts and sets you apart from your competition, further increasing your chances of closing the deal. You’d be surprised how many candidates timidly end an interview and just leave things completely up to chance.
 
No athlete knows for certain if they will win a gold medal, but I’m willing to bet those that do win gold are highly confident in the outcome because they are prepared to win. Interviewing for a new job is the closest thing to a global sports competition that we have in business. If you prepare like a professional athlete, there is no reason you should not go into an interview with the same level of confidence as a gold medal sprinter, swimmer, or gymnast. Your ultimate goal is to leave the competition, knowing that you’ve done your absolute best and leave as little up to chance as possible and as little room for your competition to beat you as possible.
 
Like each athletic competition, every interview is different and there is much that is situational. Contact us at ASP if you’d like more in-depth interviewing guidance. Our accounting and finance recruiters can give you specific advice to help you win gold!
 
About the Author
Recruiting Services Leader, The ASP Team

​Quinn is a native Washingtonian, born and raised in Tacoma and Lakewood. Having lived and traveled all over the world with stints in Portland, OR, Salzburg, Austria and Maui, HI, he returned to his roots in 2008 and now lives with his wife and two children in Issaquah. A proud alumnus of The University of Portland, Quinn received his undergraduate degree in accounting and began his career at Deloitte in the audit practice. Later he worked in corporate accounting and finance working for the Seattle Seahawks and Amazon. In 2015 Quinn actively sought out the Accounting and Finance recruiting industry and has been serving Puget Sound based middle market companies ever since.

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