“I don’t know why I am not getting hired.” Connor said.
Unlike many of Career Counseling Connecticut’s clients, Connor had a career vision and the experience in the field of interest to get past applicant tracking systems. He was also good at job searching. He had 12 interviews for different job positions. He often got by phone screen interviews. But he did make it past the first non-recruiter interview.
When Connor and I started talking, I could not see obvious challenges. He was likable. He presented well. He knew his stuff.
Then, we went into role play…. wow… I now met “Interview Connor”. This has happened before. The person that I knew from working in other aspects of the job search had a different persona when they interviewed.
Halting speech. Odd ticks. Stranger tone of voice. Less natural.
The “how” one gets better could also be explained as if we were in acting class. I help train our clients on the lines they will use (verbal content) but then really work on how they will deliver the content (non-verbal). The latter is an area where most people have very little idea regarding how they appear to others.