Post meeting insights: How to approach interviews

Four ideas to help you have better interviews.

1. Come prepared.
Before any meeting do the advance work of understanding yourself and what you offer this particular opportunity. This is of course in addition to understanding everything you can about them and their wants and needs. If luck is where preparation meets opportunity, the better you prepare the better your odds of getting lucky.

2. Be Present.
The past and the future only matter as they relate to the present. The opportunity at hand, the problems at hand, the people in front of you (and their wants and needs) are the only things that matter. Listen and be.

3. Accept self.
Your Mom probably told you this: It's better to be rejected as who you are then be accepted as who you aren't.  The "perfect" candidate/job match doesn't exist. Each of us offers tradeoffs to an employer. (Every value proposition is a mix of what you will and won't do and how it compares to the next best alternative.) Those that reject you are just helping you understand your offer or evidence better. Learn from it, thank them, and move on.

4. Detach from outcome.
Finding the right alignment between your personality, skills, and experience and a particular organizations culture, position, and problems takes more than a massive about of effort. It takes time. Let go of any particular interview outcome and keep your attention focused on improving your process or your offer.