Ultimately, a successful interview strategy comes down to addressing issues head-on and controlling your narrative, in order to present a compelling professional story that’s both honest and positive. So how can a candidate position themselves in the best possible light?
☔EMPLOYMENT GAP – An unexplained lengthy employment gap between roles is the most common red flag. This may lead to recruiters assuming the worst i.e., struggling to land jobs in the past, potentially indicating poor performance or some other shortcoming.
✔️STRATEGY – Rather than leaving the recruiter to assume, fill gaps with genuine interruptions to job history due to time off to care for yourself or a family member, parental leaves, education or re-skilling, recession or other external factors, pandemic lay-off, or a switch to a consultant or contractor role.
☔JOB HOPPING – Having multiple jobs in a short period of time is another red flag I’ve seen repeatedly. With this in mind, recruiters may wonder, can this candidate sustain commitment to a single job or organization? Are there any persistent performance issues?
✔️STRATEGY – If you have bounced between multiple positions, emphasize how the experience of working alongside different leadership styles has accelerated your professional growth and learning. Focus on your accomplishments in each role rather than your time in the role. Show how your exposure to best practices in different types of organizations, as well as the experience you gained from working across industries, enriched your knowledge and skills.
☔UNPLANNED EXITS – Unplanned or involuntary exits are another potential landmine in the job search process. In general, hiring managers prefer candidates who are already employed & will likely assume that a talented candidate wouldn’t leave their previous position without another lined up. This leaves them with assumptions about whether you resigned, were laid off, or were fired?
✔️STRATEGY – If this is true for you consider leaving the blame behind you even if you may still harbor bitter feelings. Instead, focus on explaining what did you learn? what relationships did you build? what goals did you accomplish? Articulate these to your prospective employer’s needs, and they will infer that the previous company did not support you in these ways. If you were fired, address it head-on rather than blame game or victimhood.
Regardless of your qualifications, either one of these can make employers wary of taking a chance on you, hence pre-empting these assumptions on your resume beforehand will help you get shortlisted for the role.
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