Why practice for Interviews?

Not everyone makes sound decisions. (No surprise there.) One might suppose it would be in one’s best self-interest to get it right—especially if the decision involves something important like job interviewing. What may surprise many is that most of our deci­sions amount to spontaneous choices without consideration given to long-term consequences.

In short, we usually choose ‘feels good’ options, rather than what might benefit us in the vague and distant future. Behaviorists refer to this as instant gratifi­cation versus delayed gratification. 

The problem with instant gratification decisions is that they usually trump logic, reasoning, and common sense. Only when something goes materially wrong or disaster befalls the individual do we instantly acquire 20/20 hindsight. To illustrate this concept, we will use job interviewing.

We start by posing a question: Is it a good idea to practice for job interviews? The over­whelming majority (95-98%) agree that it is. With such an overwhelming percentage in lopsided agreement, does that imply that most jobseekers will in fact practice for interviews? – Absolutely not!

Statistically, 80% of jobseekers perform badly in interviews. It turns out that less than 20% actually practice for them. Within that 20%, less than half of those that do practice actually exert a bona fide effort. (Now we’re talking single-digits.) The slightly larger portion will focus only on those questions that might pose an interviewing challenge to respond honestly. (Shocking as that appears, many will focus on rehearsing something that sounds good or plausible.)

New question: What could possibly account for saying one thing, and then proceeding to do quite the opposite?

The rationales generally follow this line of reasoning: “I am pretty sure I can wing (or b.s.) it. Therefore, investing the extra effort would be a waste of time.” The short-term gratification: Extra time to do something else and the time required to seriously practice has been conveniently avoided. Voilà.

Here is another popular rationale jobseekers tell themselves: “Practicing for job interviews is an excellent idea, but the position may not be the right opportunity for me. Therefore I need to wait for the right opportunity before exerting the extra effort.” The short-term gratification: No effort required, self-imposed expectations lowered, and the notion of potential failure temporar­ily avoided.

Both examples represent beautiful rationalizations but nonetheless flawed. Honing the skill­set and rehearsing for job interviews is an enormous, time-consuming challenge that can easily consume several weeks. If it were as easy as popping a pill to get rid of a headache, a whole lot more jobseekers would opt to do it.

Confronting reality can be a scary proposition, which accounts for why many avoid it. When an individual does not like the avail­able options—including the obvious or long-term solution—the individual tends to ignore or deny the problem. Thus, by denying the problem, it leaves nothing to fix, and thereby eliminat­ing the painful inconvenience.

Copyrighted © 2015 by Robert James with Confidential Résumé Writing