The Three Keys: How to Ace Your Next Job Interview

Years ago, I was referred to a professional outplacement service that helped unemployed workers get new jobs. It offered a kind of training and advice you get nowhere else — how to turn any interview into a job offer.

Their most important piece of advice was to understand that every interview, long or short, boils down to just three questions all recruiters and hiring managers are really trying to answer.

Many years later, when I eventually became a manager myself, I realized just how dead-on their advice was.

Here are those three essential questions. Be prepared to give good answers to these, and you’re hired.

1. Can You Do the Job?

This is about competence. You need to convince the interviewer that you have the skills, or can rapidly acquire the skills, needed to do the job and do it well. Before going into an interview, look closely at the job description and build a strong case that you have the knowledge, experience, and aptitude to fulfill those requirements. If there are some areas where you lack training, be prepared to explain how you can quickly come up to speed.

2. Will You Do the Job?

This is about attitude and motivation. It’s not enough to be able to do a job — plenty of people are perfectly able to do a job, but once they get hired start coming in late, or complain about what they are being asked to do, or do the job poorly out of plain laziness. You need to make it clear you are cooperative, eager to work, and responsible. Often this is the deciding factor. A person can come up short in skills, but if they project an eagerness and sense of responsibility may be given a chance to learn on the job.

3. Can We Stand You While You’re Doing the Job?

This is about being easy to get along with and being a positive social influence among the staff. You can completely dominate on those first two questions, but if you come across as someone others wouldn’t want to work with, you still won’t get the job. Generally, this is more about meeting a minimum standard of sociability, being pleasant, cooperative, and likable. That said, particularly when you’re dealing directly with the hiring manager, if you get a degree of natural rapport, it’s a big advantage. People want to work with people they like, and hiring managers are no exception.

You Don’t Have to Win 100% In All Three

Of course, anyone doing hiring would want all three questions to be answered in a screaming yes, but the reality is that job candidates are rarely perfect. They may be strong in competence and motivation, but seem introverted in personality; or they may be perfectly charming and highly motivated, but lack training; or perhaps they are competent and very pleasant, but seem unmotivated. Don’t feel intimidated by the need to be perfect in all three respects, just do your best.

Next Steps

The next time you get an interview, write down your ideal responses to the three questions above. Think ahead about what you want to say. If you’re fully prepared to make your case, you’re much more likely to get hired.

Lastly, put yourself in the shoes of the person hiring: would you want to hire you? Keep at it until you make the answer to that question a definite yes.