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If I Tell You, You'll Have to Kill Me
Sep 10, 2009
You want to be seen as smart in a job interview. But it better not come at the expense of your future boss or teammates.
Suppose you're interviewing for a dream job that calls for both intellectual chops and attention to detail. (Is there a job that doesn't?) Naturally, you're eager to impress.
While preparing, you found a non-trivial mistake in a document created by the team you're interviewing for. You might have spotted it in a research report, on a page from the company's Web site, even in a book your interviewer wrote. Do you find a way to mention it to demonstrate how much you're on the ball?
Zip Your Mouth
Don't you dare. No matter how diplomatic and non-judgmental you try to be, the risks simply outweigh any possible benefits. Even if you've seen hedge funds boast they only hire "geniuses" or people who "walk on water," don't be fooled - appearing arrogant or egotistical is the kiss of death for any job candidate. And that's exactly what you'd risk if you cited a mistake in your interviewer's work.
In an interview, "The goal is to get the job," notes Richard Lipstein, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search. After joining a company, don't hesitate to head off errors to improve your team's work quality. An interview, however, "is not the place to bring up an error that was made by your prospective boss," Lipstein says. (This assumes the error wasn't a misstatement that could cast doubt on the company's credibility - like an overly rosy account of its own performance. In that case, a candidate should make a considered decision whether to associate with that employer.)
Career coach Win Sheffield agrees. "I would stay clear of" mentioning the error, he says. "I can see no instance where it would be helpful for the person to know the mistake." Showing you're smart at someone else's expense is simply bad politics in any interview situation. Even when speaking of past supervisors and colleagues, Sheffield says a candidate being interviewed should always praise, never criticize: "Your boss was never wrong."
The bottom line, as summarized by another advisor: "Find some other way to show you're smart."
I agree to this, but again there is a 'However". And the probability of that however is around 25%. Prospective smart bosses will always choose smart employees and they would appreciate if you pointed out their mistake. It is also possible they might have done that mistake deliberately to test you. But if your prospective boss is mediocre, he will prefer to choose mediocre employees and never choose an outstanding employee. My observation has been that 25% of the interviewers are really very smart, and another 25% are really at the bottom of the smartness to become a company hiring manager. The remaining 50% are in between. So if you are really very smart, there is only 25% chance that you will meet the right hiring manager in which you can point out the mistake, and if you are really at the bottom of the candidates, there is also 25% chance that you will meet the right hiring manager and you will either not find the mistake or even if you find, you better not point that out. For in between cases, it depends whether it would help to point out or not. The bottom line is: it is up to you to judge what kind of hiring manager you have met and respond accordingly.
alakhns 11 Sep 2009
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