Audit Job Interviews: Best Self or True Self?
We all have multiple ‘selves’ – just take a look at your social media identities in comparison to your LinkedIn profile! These many selves can all be genuine facets of the real ‘you’ – a healthy psychological modus, bringing to the fore, particular characteristics, to facilitate relationships and navigate your different stakeholder environments, as well as to ‘play’ and simply have fun. But which self do you show when you attend a job interview? The erudite, hard-working technophile? The extrovert enthusiast of all things team? The adventurous pioneer of the natural elements? The inner goth? The outer comic? I could go on… and these could truly all be part of the ‘real’ you, not just superficial facades. So, how can you harness these multiple selves to truly express who you are when tripping the recruitment boards?
The obvious, and the easy response, is to shape yourself to the job specification. Career coaches (including me) will advise you to identify key words, repeat them back liberally, in your interview responses, and use them as beacons to design narratives and provide anecdotes to support your mastery of these critical experiences, skills and competencies. Yes, of course, you should definitely do this; not only is it a helpful self-screening tool to map your career history to the requirements of the job, but it is also a strong preparation technique in articulating how you can match and excel in the role.
But…
While this method is a fundamental interview base, on its own it isn’t enough, and it does nothing to mitigate the risks of a ‘false positive’, otherwise known as a mismatched hire (be honest, while you might not have been mismatched yourself, I bet you can point to someone in your career history, who was just not quite right for the job). If you are being wholly led by the job spec alone, moulding your experiences and traits to match up, how do you give expression to those shifting selves, the multiple facets of your personality, the true you? Well you can’t - and this leaves you with the burden of living a single dimensional projection of yourself, and/or letting down your guard and risking a misfit situation.
All selves are important, but all selves are not equal.
But there is a more nuanced approach. Read on for our step-by-step guide to recognising, acknowledging and (even) leveraging your multiple selves.
- Start with the job spec. Not just the role description but look at the department, function, sector and what you can glean (through wider research) of the organisational culture itself.
- Look at yourself. How? Simply navigate your social media profiles and identities, and don’t forget to include LinkedIn, as well as your CV. Use a few descriptors to articulate the essence of each of these identities. Here’s a parred down version of mine as an example:
- LinkedIn, CV – scholarly, academic, audit/accounting industry specialist, innovative and research-led
- Facebook (yes I am quite old!) – passionate about travel, always on the move, jokey, slightly irreverent, liberal leaning
- X, Insta, Snapchat – as Facebook above (I don’t use any of these much), while I do use WhatsApp hourly, my group contributions fit my Facebook projection, with more evidence on the humour than the travel!
- Align your data! You’ve already collected a fair amount of resource from (1) and (2), so you now need to consolidate to create/portray a synergy of your best self and your true self. Another resource that might help you, is the Personal Values exercise. This is a technique which helps you articulate what is most important to you – at work, at home, in life in general. It can also be used to triangulate the data from (1) and (2), or in other words complete a sense-check. You can Google Personal Values or email me below for a copy of the tool.
- So What? Now What? You’ve got data, you’ve done some mapping, now it’s time to ask yourself, what are you trying to achieve? And the answer to that is balance: a fair representation of the best you, with the true you. The best you is the one that can answer the interviewers questions with tangible examples of highest quality technical experience, transferable skills and sharp competencies. The best you is tempered with the ‘true you’ – conveying a flavour of who you are, your interests and values, your style and personality. Notice the word, ‘flavour’. This is a chance for you to reflect something of your authentic self, which fits with, or adds, another dimension to your best work self. This is about intentional emphasis, rather than hiding or dumbing down.
- Test it out. I’ve talked before about the ‘elevator pitch’ – how you convey in a short conversation (30-60 seconds) something of your personality, skills, knowledge and unique selling points. Use the core points and key words of steps (1) to (4) to write your pitch, see how it sounds and feels, first to to yourself (aloud), and then to others - friends, family, or colleagues. The discipline of the 30 seconds is really helpful in condensing the best you and the true you, and getting you to focus (and critique) what really matters. You can then use this as a blueprint for what you want to ensure you convey at interview – both best and true!
Here's one I made earlier
I’m Dr Carol McLachlan FCA, a research-led career coach, with 20 years practical experience in audit and finance. I’m personally energised by change and love working with clients and orgs all over the world who are looking to innovate, individually or organisationally. I take a light approach, facilitating rather than advising, and often use humour to support learning and development. I only work bespoke, and I love leverage! So, my philosophy is that progress is not necessarily about turning professional lives and organisations upside down but about making the best of opportunities that are already there, often in plain sight, and creating small changes that can really make a big difference to achieving potential and maximising success.
What will yours say?
And don’t forget to email me if you would like a copy of the Personal Values exercise.