Blog Post: Executive Interview Strategies for Success

This post looks at executive behavioral patterns which are successful in the Executive Suite, but counterproductive when looking to change career positions.  At the end of this post you will find information for a free executive résumé guide, free executive networking and a free evaluation for Denver executives by John Heckers, an executive transition coach with over 28 years of experience in the Denver market.

By definition, executives are the most successful of employees.  As such, most executives share a “constellation” of traits which make them highly successful in an American corporate environment.

The very traits that make executives successful in their work lives, however, cause some challenges when they are changing career positions.  Today we’ll take a brief look at some strategies used by shrewd executive interviewers to throw executive candidates off and discover their temperaments.

Executives are “in command.”  Again, by definition, to be an executive is to be in command.  An executive, well, executes.  However, when searching for a job executives are in the “one down” position and someone else, usually someone with a lower rank on the executive hierarchy, is doing the initial interviewing.  This can be very problematic to the executive who is accustomed to being in power.

As an executive transition coach I give some of the most intense and unpleasant interview training possible to our clients.  The reason for this is simple.  Executive interviews are becoming increasingly difficult.  The advent of SarbOx and the new executive accountability rules have left boards scrambling for ways to weed out the wrong people and hire the right ones.  Of course, that desire is like the search for the Holy Grail.  It will not be found.  However, various consultants sell their wares to these companies with the (false) promise of a way to predict future executive behavior based on stress interviews.

One strategy to rattle an executive’s cage is to interrupt the executive again and again.  Executives are used to being heard, so they will typically “talk over” the interruption.  Bad choice.  This sets up a power struggle (which is what the canny interviewer is trying to do) where someone is a winner and someone is a loser.  The loser is the candidate for the job, regardless of who wins the battle of conversation.  When the interviewer wants to interrupt — let him (or her).  While some people may argue that this shows a wimpy executive, it is a much safer strategy than setting up the power struggle.  Interviewers who use this strategy don’t want to hire in a power struggle.  They want to hire someone who is a team player, is cooperative and knows when to defer to others.

Another strategy is to question the competence of the executive.  Most executives have a great deal of ego.  They have to in order to make it to the top.  But that ego must be balanced with humility or a tyrant is created.  If the interviewee gets very angry it shows a lack of emotional control.  If the interviewee gets defensive, it shows insecurity.  The correct way to handle this strategy is to admit that, from time to time, like everyone else, the interviewee has made mistakes, but go on to show how they were handled.

Executives, being in command, are not used to having to explain themselves.  They rarely have to do much explaining even to a board.  The board and the “C” level executives are usually all golfing buddies.  Most VP level employees don’t do much explaining, either.  Their superiors trust them to run their departments or divisions with very little supervision and even less fuss.  A VP level executive who is doing explaining is usually on the way out.

This gives a shrewd interviewer another strategy to stress the interviewee.  The interviewer will ask repeated follow-up questions, sometimes rapid-fire, to see if the interviewee gets curt, upset, or angry.  Doing so is the kiss of death.  But you’d be surprised how little it takes to get an angry response.

Yet another strategy is to ask questions that most executives feel are “beneath” them or are obvious from the résumé.  Again, the interviewer is looking to discomfit the interviewee.  The way to handle this, of course, is to answer all questions with equanimity.

 The very strengths of an executive are, therefore, used to throw him or her off.  It is almost “interview jujitsu.”  The very strength of the opponent is used to throw him or her to the ground.

 It pays for an executive to practice with someone who knows what they’re doing in executive interviewing before the actual interview day arrives…and practice a great deal.  I put my executive clients through a minimum of 15 hours of interview training.  This has gone as high as 60 hours for some very top level positions.

 No one can control everything in an interview.  The interviewer may not like your eye color, or the suit you’re wearing to the interview.  The goal is to control what you can control, eliminate mistakes, control your emotions, and balance your answers.  One key I like to tell my clients is to act as if the job is the least important thing in the world, but the interviewer is the most important person in the world.  This attitude works well in the vast majority of life situations.

John Heckers, MA, CPC, BCPC, is an executive transition and small business coach in Cherry Creek , CO .  He welcomes your questions and comments at jheckers@aol.com or 720.581.4301.  If you’d like a free résumé handbook, write at jheckers@aol.com, and put RESUME in the subject line.  We also have a monthly Free Executive Structured Networking Event on the second Monday of each month, usually in the Jobing.com community room.  For more information, please email John and put EVENT in the subject line.  For more information or questions on the executive interview, please call and I’ll be happy to get together with you.