You’re probably saying, “But Corey, I have had so many great job interview experiences and have found hiring managers to be professional and knowledgeable.” No you’re not!

The truth is hiring managers are insanely busy people who work in a department that does not generate revenue for the  companies they work for.  What I mean is, HR professionals are hired by a company to do their bidding, offer advice (that is not always taken), improve the processes and employee experience, payroll benefits, immigration and if they have time hire, onboard, train and answer any questions you may have. They don’t have a lot of time for your job interview.

Now factor in that they are recruiting for dozens of positions and receiving 100’s of resumes – daily.  Yeah, they’re busy as hell.  BUT does that give them the right to mislead and lie to you in your job interview?

Just like you lie to hiring managers in your job interview in your quest to tell them what they want to hear and be chosen for the job.  Hiring managers lie too.  They lie to tap dance around sticky topics like age and employment discrimination and the fact that leading you on is easier for them. They can avoid you forever and never have to have a hard conversation that makes them feel all icky or mean.

If you are one of the millions of over 40, unemployed and frustrated out there by HR Pros giving bad advice, here are just a few of the lies I am sure you have already heard in a job interview and what they really mean.

1. We are concerned that you won’t fit in with our culture. Translation: You’re too old.
2. You are overqualified and we are afraid you won’t be challenged enough. Translation: You’re too old
3. You don’t have enough recent experience. Translation: You have been unemployed too long.
4. We’re not actually hiring right now, we’re just testing the market to see what talent is out there. The Holy Grail of Hiring manager lies.  I don’t like you for many reasons and instead of being honest I’m going to feed you a line of crap so you’ll just go away.
5. And my personal favorite, drum roll please.  Not enough top line fiscal experience!  Awesome.  I have no idea what it means and I am sure the hiring manager that used it didn’t either, but how can you argue with it?

But there is something you can do to combat this epidemic, take back control, ace your next job interview and chose your next job.  The answer begins and ends with you.

If you refuse to play the game and stop interviewing to be chosen or as I say stop telling hiring managers what you think they want to hear in your job interview and START approaching your job interviews to have the choice to choose the job when offered to you.  Once you start telling hiring managers what you want them to hear or stop interviewing and start negotiating in your job interview a few amazing thing will happen.

If you get hired, you will always get hired to do what you want to do.

If you don’t get hired you will always know why.  The job they were offering did not offer you what you want to do.

I’d love to hear the worst excuses you have heard from hiring managers about why they chose not to hire you after a job interview.  Be Fearless and share your stories, leave a comment so others no they are not alone.

Tags: job interview