Guide to Executive Job Interviews: The How-To’s, Why’s and Best Practices

Whether you’re in interviews now, or you’ve been reading about them or experienced the process in the past, you know how challenging it can be to ace job interviews.

There’s so much involved with nailing interviews – from preparing for them, to performing well in them, to following up, to landing or not landing the job. Along the way, lots of things can go wrong for a variety of reasons.

I’ve pulled together a number of resources to help you do it right. Click on any of the headings below to take you right to that section:

How To Prepare for Your Job Interviews

Take care of the basics first

Pay Special Attention to Executive Recruiters

Get found by recruiters
Reach out to recruiters yourself
Things that can go wrong with recruiters
Get recruiters to keep sending you interviewing opportunities

Why You May Not Be Getting Job Interviews

How To Nail Your Job Interviews

Understand Which Qualities Will Get You Hired

What To Do BEFORE Your Job Interviews Start

Do some in depth research on the company
Review your resume and other materials
Prepare and rehearse your answers to questions they may ask
Prepare the questions YOU will ask your interviewer(s)
Practice power posing to boost confidence
Prepare your professional references

Special Prep For Virtual Job Interviews

What To Do When You’re in Job Interviews

What To Do After Job Interviews

When to follow-up

Things To Watch Out for in Job Interviews

What If You Did Everything Right in Your Job Interviews, But You Still Don’t Get the Job?

How To Prepare for Your Job Interviews

Being well prepared, in the ways I’ve outlined below, will help you in ways beyond nailing your interviews, including helping you network better.

Take care of the basics first

I’ve written about this many times. Before prepping for actual interviews, you need to start by laying a solid foundation for your job search

Get the following things in place for when employers and their hiring professionals start looking into you as a possible candidate:

• Target specific employers who need your expertise for specific problems they have
• Research your target employers to align your value proposition with what these employers need
• Build an enticing personal brand that generates chemistry for you
• Create vibrant personal marketing communications (resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letters, bio, etc.) that position you as a good hiring choice
• Be visible and active on LinkedIn
• Build a solid “clean” online presence with diverse search results for “your name”
• Create a robust networking strategy that keeps you connected to people who can help you meet your career goals

With the above things set, you’ll be on the right track to secure more interviews and to best prepare yourself to interview well.

Pay Special Attention to Executive Recruiters

The bulk of your job search efforts should focus on networking your way into the hidden or unadvertised jobs at your target companies.

But successful executive job search relies also on strong relationships with the right recruiters.

Get found by recruiters

You need to make it easy for recruiters to find you when they’re looking for talent.

The places they use to source candidates include:

• LinkedIn
• Referrals from existing candidates
• Job board posting responses
• Resume submissions
• Various social media
• Career fairs

The vast majority of recruiters use social recruiting to source and assess candidates.

They scrutinize potential candidates’ social networks and social media activity to qualify them, or rule them out.

Initially, to find candidates they typically search LinkedIn using relevant keywords and keyword phrases.

When your LinkedIn profile contains the keywords they search on, your profile will appear higher in results if it contains enough of those keywords and it otherwise meets LinkedIn’s algorithm for search.

To qualify candidates they have identified, they will Google each one’s name and see what they find across the search results.

. . . And they’ll probably dig deep, doing advanced searches and reviewing many pages of search results.

Anything posted on social media accounts and elsewhere online that is open to the public will be visible to them, and they’ll take it all into account when deciding whether someone will be invited to interview.

Reach out to recruiters yourself

You could sit patiently waiting for recruiters to contact you, but that could prolong your job search considerably.

And you may not hear from enough of the right recruiters.

It makes more sense to reach out yourself to the right recruiters in your niche.

Start with LinkedIn, the social network designed for job search and career. Recruiters are all over the place on LinkedIn, looking for candidates like you.

To find recruiters on LinkedIn:

• Re-connect via LinkedIn with the executive recruiters you’ve used in the past
• Ask your network(s) for recommendations
• Search LinkedIn for executive recruiters

Once you’ve found recruiters you want to work with, send them a LinkedIn InMail.

As expected, your initial outreach to recruiters should include a brief explanation of why you’re contacting them.

Here’s what goes into InMails that get the attention they deserve:

• Lay out a clear objective, request, or call to action
• Provide a brief outline of your qualifications
• Explain what you have to offer, without overselling
• Describe how you will help the employer solve specific problems
• Carefully proofread for any errors

Avoid questions like these:

• Can you help me find a job?
• Do you have any job openings that fit my profile?
• Can you review my resume and send me your edits / feedback / suggestions?
• Can you please send me John Doe’s email address / phone number?
• Do you know anyone at Acme Company?
• Can you endorse / recommend me?

Things that can go wrong with recruiters

According to Omer Molad, CEO/Founder of recruiting company Vervoe, here are 8 things recruiters might like to tell candidates . . . but can’t:

1. “We could have gone higher if you had negotiated.”
2. “Don’t go overboard with buzzwords — we can tell.”
3. “You never had a chance after that bad first impression.”
4. “Your references weren’t very flattering.”
5. “I back-channeled you, and found out the truth.”
6. “We already gave the job to an in-house employee.”
7. “Your last few social media posts were deal-breakers.”
8. “The team is dragging its feet waiting for another candidate’s response.”

Get recruiters to keep sending you interviewing opportunities

To encourage recruiters to keep sending opportunities and interviews your way, here are 8 tips for working with them:

✅ Treat them like you would any other networking contact. Build a relationship with them first (and stay in touch with them) – before asking for their help.

✅ Get an introduction or referral to a trusted recruiter from someone in your network.

✅ Because recruiters mostly source candidates via social networks, be sure your LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking profiles are SEO-friendly (Search Engine Optimization), to make you more visible and findable to them.

✅ Interact with recruiters and build effective virtual relationships with them via LinkedIn, Twitter and the other social networks where they hang out.

✅ Also try to meet them in person, so they’ll get to know you as a person, not just a candidate. This will help them remember you better, too, when good-fit opportunities come their way.

✅ Stay in touch with your recruiter, but not too often. Many appreciate emails over phone calls. Communication is essential when your situation changes (i.e., another job offer pending).

✅ If a recruiter contacts you about an opportunity that is not of interest, offer to assist them with referrals or to be a resource for them in the future.

✅ To eliminate some of the frustration of working with recruiters, always ask them:

• How their process works
• What happens when you send your resume to them
• What you should expect from them in terms of follow up or actions

Why You May Not Be Getting Job Interviews

There are many possible reasons why you’re not landing interviews.

Job search expert Alison Doyle lists some things about you or what you did that can keep you from getting interviews:

• Your qualifications don’t match up with what they’re looking for
• You made mistakes on your application
• You’re overqualified
• You have employment gaps
• Your social media presence is unprofessional
• You’re an out-of-town candidate

And sometimes, she notes, you weren’t selected for an interview for reasons that have nothing to do with you. It’s the company itself:

• The job was put on hold
• Too much else is going on at the company
• The company has rethought its need
• They hired an internal candidate
• Another applicant had strong recommendations
• You applied too late

How To Nail Your Job Interviews

Let’s take a look at what you should be doing before, during and after interviews.

Understand Which Qualities Will Get You Hired

A curious thing can happen when you’re in an interview, according to founder and CEO of Human Workplace Liz Ryan in a FastCompany article :

“If you read the job ads, you’d think that employers are strictly looking for people with very specific types of experience.” But “once you get to a job interview, the whole picture changes. Employers are looking for qualities in their new hires that are never listed in the job ad.”

Judith Humphrey, Founder of the Humphrey Group, says in the same article that if you exhibit these 6 qualities you’ll appeal to most any hiring professional interviewing you:

Authenticity

Believe in yourself and show your genuine qualities that will serve you well in that desired position.

Positivity

Let them know what you love about their company and what inspires you about the job and their culture. Using words like “absolutely” and “astonishing” will go over well, but words like “terrible” and “awful” can mark you as a negative person.

Confidence

Confidence comes from focus and deep preparation, and knowing that the job is a good fit for you.

Passion

People are drawn to those who are upbeat, enthusiastic and energetic. Show your enthusiasm for the company and the job. Talk about your passion for the work you do and how you contribute to the world.

Impact

As you tell the interviewer about your past accomplishments, go beyond explaining the work you did. Tell them what impact your actions had on the company. How did you turn a challenge into a win?

Gratitude

Write thank you notes to anyone who has helped you with your career goals, including each person who interviewed you and anyone in your network who helped. Handwritten notes will have a significant impact, but email is also okay.

What To Do BEFORE Your Job Interviews Start

We’ve already covered some of the initial work you should do, but here’s some more:

Do some in depth research on the company

If you’re working with a recruiter, ask them for all the information they can provide on the company and the position.

Contact the prospective employer to get specifics on the position you are interviewing for or ask for company literature.

Review the company website.

Google the company name and products related to the position you’re seeking.

Google the names of your interviewers to read up about them and find a few points of interest to break the ice at the beginning of the interview.

LinkedIn offers a whole host of ways to do your research.

Tap your own network. Tell them which companies you’re targeting and ask if they have connections they’ll share, see if they know a potential interviewer, and ask them for insider information about the company and job opportunity you’re seeking.

Review your resume and other materials

Interviewers may ask you to talk about ANY of the items appearing on your resume, LinkedIn profile and other personal marketing materials. Review these materials carefully and be sure you’re ready to provide more details on everything included in all of them.

Remember to print out and bring to interviews several copies of the resume and anything else you sent them beforehand.

Develop career success stories

Storytelling is the best way to describe contributions you’ve made to past employers that will resonate with future employers.

Develop career success stories to provide evidence of your brand and what you will do for the company.

Use the Challenge – Actions – Results (or similar) exercise. Use your practiced stories to deal with behavioral-based questions, such as “Tell me about a time when you . . .”

Here’s how it works:

CHALLENGE

What was the specific CHALLENGE (or Situation) facing the company and/or your team? Were you/the company facing particularly difficult odds with this situation? What were the stakes?

ACTION(s)

What specific ACTION(s) did you take to meet the challenge and improve things (whatever the goal was or whatever needed turning around)?

RESULT(s)

What were the long and short term RESULT(s) that positively impacted the company? Did you meet the goal, improve things, and/or turn around the situation? How long did it take to see the results? Monetize the results and/or use metrics whenever possible – NUMBERS TALK!

Create your stories around your answers to the questions listed below under “questions they may ask”. Have several of these stories at-the-ready for interviews.

Interviewers will probably want to know how you adapted to the pandemic and helped your company weather the challenges:

• Were you laid off or unemployed because of Covid?
• Did you work remotely?
• How well did you adapt to the changes?
• What new skills did you learn?

Be ready to describe the new technologies and new strategies you’ve learned that will be valuable to them.

Prepare and rehearse your answers to questions they may ask

Here are 15 common interview questions and conversation prompts:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Where do you see yourself in five years?
• What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
• Why should we hire you?
• Why do you want to work here?
• What do you know about us?
• How do people describe you?
• Why do you want this job?
• Why do you want to leave your current job?
• When can you start?
• How did you find this job?
• Why did you quit your last job?
• Why were you fired?
• Explain your gap in employment
• Do you have any questions?

You’d better have a response to the last item. Your questions will help you learn more about the company, its leadership and culture, and the job you’re seeking. And having intelligent questions to ask will position you as someone extremely interested in the organization.

After all, the interview process is all about you and the company assessing each other for good fit. This is part of your due diligence. Now is the time to find out if this job and company are really right for you.

Prepare the questions YOU will ask your interviewer(s)

It’s okay to bring a written list with you for reference, but review your questions to ask several times in advance. If you can ask some of them without referring to your written list, you’ll come off as well-prepared.

• What does your best-fit candidate look like?
• Why is the position open?
• What responsibilities in this job are really going to define success for this person?
• What skills and qualities will be most important in this position?
• If there’s a job description, may I see a copy of it?
• What will my first assignment be?
• What are the prospects for growth and advancement?
• [If this is a short-term consulting gig] How long do you expect the project to last?
• Any major changes coming internally that I should know about?
• Where do you see this division/company in the next five years?
• How can I demonstrate that I’m a good fit for this position?
• What do you (the interviewer) like and not like about working here?
• [As things are wrapping up] What are the next steps? I’m very interested in this position, will you consider me for further interviews? When will I hear from you? May I touch base in a week to see how things are moving along?

Practice power posing to boost confidence

Along with knowing how to answer their questions and ask your own, you need to look and act the part.

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy described a simple, 2-minute preparatory ritual in a TED talk to boost confidence before going into a stressful situation, such as an in-person interview — power posing.

The ritual involves adopting stances associated with confidence, power and achievement — chest lifted, head held high, arms either up or propped on the hips.

Determine what kind of pose works best to rev you up.

Then, just before the interview, take 2 minutes in private (find an empty room or even a bathroom) to do your power pose, and get your confidence hormones to kick in.

Prepare your professional references

If you haven’t already provided the company with your references, you may be bringing your list to the interview, along with your resume.

Let your references know who you’re interviewing with and when, so they’ll be prepared to say what you need them to say when they’re contacted for a recommendation.

Send your references the same personal marketing materials you sent to interviewers (resume, bio, LinkedIn profile, etc.), so they’ll be on the same page.

Special Prep For Virtual Job Interviews

Be ready for the various types of virtual interviews you may need to navigate:

• Videoconferencing interview
• One-way video or virtual interview
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) interview
• Text-based interview
• Phone interview

Here are 20 things you need to know, do and master for virtual interviews, from Career Directors International:

• Test your technology.
• Check your WiFi.
• Listen to your voice.
• Smile.
• Record yourself in advance to see how you come across physically.
• Keep water by your side.
• Watch the time.
• Tell the interviewer when you’re pausing.
• Look at the camera, not the screen.
• Don’t slouch, yawn, or fidget.
• Stage your office or workspace.
• Check the lighting.
• Check your on-screen appearance.
• Avoid visual and noise distractions.
• Dress professionally.
• Be yourself.
• Have your story/pitch ready.
• End on a positive note.
• Don’t forget to send a thank you!
• Create a cheat sheet to refer to.

What To Do When You’re in Job Interviews

Here are 3 important elements to acing your job interviews:

Break the Ice

Be ready to greet your interviewer(s) with a firm handshake and pleasant, upbeat comment, like:

• “It’s a pleasure to meet you” or
• “Thank you for this opportunity” or
• “I’ve been looking forward to talking with you“.

Use your before-interview research into the company, industry and/or the interviewers themselves to have a question ready to ask them. Something that will immediately engage them and impress them that you cared enough to find out about them.

Look around their office and find some item to comment about – a photo, diploma, award, etc.

Brand the Interview

Reinforce your brand throughout the interview. Be sure the interviewer knows what your pivotal strengths, passions, drivers, and personal attributes are.

Let them know what differentiates you from the other candidates they’re talking with.

You should have composed and rehearsed a brand-reinforcing response to the dreaded “Tell me about yourself” query that often leads their questioning.

Be comfortable enough with your answer that you can instill emotion into it, to give a feel for your personality.

For instance, instead of saying

“I’ve been leading global business development in consumer goods for over 20 years”,

Try something like this:

“For more than 20 years I’ve been steering new vision and multiplying profit growth for consumer goods startups and multi-billion dollar global brands. I helped [company name] generate record-breaking double-digit revenue and market share in record-breaking time.”

Then be ready to back up your statement with specific examples – tell your story.

Tell Your Story

Whenever possible, insert one of your career success stories (noted above) into the conversation as you answer their questions.

In your prep work, you will have determined several areas of expertise you want to be sure to let them know about, around which you’ve build stories. Make sure you get those into the conversation, whether or not you’re directly asked about them.

You might say something like:

“I thought you’d be interested to know how I was able to XYZ for my company. Here’s how I did it”.

What To Do After Job Interviews

Send thank you notes to everyone you spoke with.

Did you know that most job seekers do NOT send thank you notes? Those who DO send them stay top-of-mind with employers and impress them with their thoughtfulness.

I often hear stories about job seekers who didn’t get the job, but sent thank you notes, and eventually landed the job when the first hire didn’t work out. Employers were that impressed by the fact that they had sent thank you notes.

Sending a hand-written, snail-mailed thank you is the best way. Use this as another opportunity to reinforce your brand and good-fit qualities for the job and the company.

When to follow-up

Ronnie Ann Himmel of WorkToTheWise has this advice:

Show you have patience and professionalism by waiting at least a week — or better yet two (depending on the type of job) — before you follow-up after the thank you note.

When you do follow up, make it short and sweet, unless you have something new and relevant to add. And keep that short too.

Folks you are waiting to hear back from may get over a hundred e-mails a day — many requiring immediate action. So if they don’t respond to you right away (or at all) … it’s NOT about you.

Companies can take weeks just to interview the first round of candidates — plus there are internal decision-making processes that take lots of time.

Some companies have policies about not responding at all to follow-up contacts. There are legal implications such as when responses are misconstrued by the candidate. And so these companies wait instead until an offer was made and accepted. Again this is not about YOU.

After the thank you and additional follow-up, wait at least 2 weeks before checking your status again. Unless they tell you to call on a specific date. Or to just wait until they get back to you.

If there is even a chance you might get the job, the employer remembers you – really! If there’s no chance … no amount of calling will help.

Things To Watch Out for in Job Interviews

As you move through the interview process, don’t overlook interview red flags.

Remember that interviewing is a two-way street. You should be assessing them just as much as they’re assessing you.

You don’t want to end up in a job that doesn’t work for you.

There are a number of signs to watch out for, before you accept the job offer. They could indicate a company that isn’t run well or has an undesirable atmosphere or company culture.

But keep one thing in mind: Not all interviewers are particularly good at interviewing.

If you are sitting across from someone who drones on, doesn’t ask you many questions or doesn’t prompt you to speak, don’t fault the company.

Instead, always be ready to interject important points yourself using storytelling, that you’ve rehearsed beforehand.

Here are some job interview red flags to watch out for:

• Lack of clarity or consistency in answers to your questions
• Bait and switch with the job they’re describing vs. the one they advertised
• Inappropriate questions or comments
• Constant rescheduling and disorganization
• Disrespecting others
• Values conflict
• Resistance to change (even if they say they want change)
• Excessive number of interviews or drawn-out interview process

What If You Did Everything Right in Your Job Interviews, But You Still Don’t Get the Job?

Here’s an all too typical scenario. You have an interview or two and:

• You’re not called back for another,
• You hear that they’ve chosen another candidate or
• You don’t hear again from them.

What’s happening here? Why aren’t you landing the job?

Something must be happening during or after interviews that’s keeping you from landing the job.

If it’s not your performance during the interview, it could be one of these two things:

1. They’ve found a better qualified candidate
2. Your references are bad-mouthing you, so they’ve disqualified you

You can’t do anything about the first problem. But, if they inform you of this, you can let them know that you’d like them to keep you in mind if something else that’s a good fit for you opens up. Do this in a thank you note.

If your references are bad-mouthing you, you’ve lost your chance for this job, but you CAN do something about it for future job opportunities.

To head this problem off at the pass, before you do any more interviewing, you need someone to help you qualify your references.

I recommend that you have Allison & Taylor, a professional reference checking service, do the work.