Come Recommended: Ella Fitzgerald is called the “queen of jazz vocals.” In a recorded concert in 1960, she was to sing “Mack the Knife,” a pop and jazz standard that everyone in the audience knew. Listen carefully to the recording. You can hear her voice her doubts about knowing the complete song. A job interview is a performance, and the interview success is a result of a great performance. A savvy job candidate is well aware of this.
5 comments:
I think this is a fun article about job interviews, although the article didn't bring any new tips to the table on how interview at a job, it did have a nice little style to support its main point of confidence. It did a great job of showing that confidence is difference than arrogance and that a person can still be confidant even when they are not prepared. Now not all of us are Ella Fitzgeralds however, confidence is still are important skill to have, job interviews are just an example, there are a great deal more times when we should have confidence and aspire to be like Ella Fitzgerald.
This article falls short for me because it doesn't address how to deal with the amount of courage that one has to have to perform/improvise on the spot in front of unknown people. It does well to state the similarities between her performance and job interviews, and lists the known important parts like preparation, continuing through mistakes and finishing strong; but what about the level of confidence or personality that is required to even achieve that good interview. One key factor that Ella had for her which some interviewees don't have is experience. Ella could sings rings around any song; however job interviews are new and the people that you are interviewing with are unfamiliar. That plays a large part.
This article was a great guide. These meta-skills are so incredibly important. This information as well as articles on resume and cover letter presentation are a great place to get an idea of the traps one can easily fall into. Interviewing anywhere is a nerve wracking experience, and having these kinds of suggestions is always a nice place to begin. I put reading things like this and asking questions to colleagues and peers right at the top of the prepare, prepare, prepare step.
I think some of the points in this article are good, but I hate the metaphor. It just doesn't translate for me, since a performance of a well-known song is very different than an interview where they could throw anything at you. It's impossible to memorize what you're going to say for an interview (well, ok, not impossible, but if you do, it will be awful and you'll sound like a robot). A performance of a song should be memorized, and then added to. An interviewee needs to be able to have the general outline of what they would say to potential questions and adjust from there. An interview is like improv; a song performance is not improv.
Absolutely. This reminds me of the Shop Layout pitch that we just presented in TD1 and how Professor Boevers told us that it is important whenever you are pitching something (and in an interview you are pitching yourself), that you must be able to recognize the moment in which the person you are speaking to will never be agree with a certain argument and act quickly to save yourself and take focus away from the conflict. Improvising in times of great stress are what makes people capable of maximizing good opportunities whenever they are most at their unexpected.
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