The odds are very high that you could be eliminated from consideration for jobs based on your answer (or, more likely, your lack of a good answer) to one or more of the interview questions or issues we bring up here. None of us is perfect. We all have things about ourselves and our past that could be or will be a problem fro some employers. You may have “too much” or “too little” education or training or gaps in your work history; you may be “too old” or “too young” or have other characteristics that concern some employers. Some of these things you can’t change, but it is your responsibility to make these matters less of an issue in a decision to hire you over someone else.
We mentioned earlier that about 80 percent of all people who get interviews do not, according to employer surveys, do a good job in answering one or more interview questions. These problem questions vary for each person and depend on your situation. The job seeker’s inability to answer these problem questions is a very big obstacle in the job search and has kept many god people from getting jobs they are perfectly capable of handling. They didn’t get those jobs because they failed to convince employers that they had the skills and other characteristics to do the job. In many cases they left employers with a sense that there was an unresolved problem. That is to say that the job seekers would have gotten the job offer if they had done better in the interview.
One of the difficulties with problem questions is that the employer often does not ask these questions in a clear way, or doe not ask them at all. For example, if you live a long distance from the employer’s job site, the interviewer may be wondering why you would be willing to commute daily to a distant location. His concern may be that you would leave once you found a job closer to home. The interviewer may never directly ask you about working so far away from home, so you would not have the opportunity to address his concern, and that job is likely to go to someone else. It is not fair, but that is the way it is.
So the issue here is not your ability to do the job, rather the issue is your ability to communicate clearly that you can and will do the job well. The following text helps you quickly identify problem questions an employer may pose about your particular situation and gives you some ways to handle them in a truthful and positive way.
Turn Your Negative into a Positive
So let’s assume that you are concerned that you might be unfairly discriminated against and you are reasonably well-qualified for the job you seek. First, understand that highly qualified people with no apparent problems often are unable to obtain jobs after many interviews. The labor market can be very competitive, and others may get the jobs simply because they have better qualifications. In addition, less-qualified people often get offers simply because they do well in the interview. Because you can’t easily change your personal situation, you need to improve your interview skills to give you an edge.
