I’ve been part of the recruitment process for a relatively high level appointment these last few weeks.
Forgive me not giving more details: it’s the usual stuff, confidentiality agreements so confidential I can't even mention them.
(Oops!)
All I can say is that it was near Cambridge, hence the pretty picture!
But what I can tell you is that there’s one fascinating lesson I’ve learnt from the process:
- How surprisingly few candidates for a top job take advantage of a golden opportunity
When you reach any sort of high-level, it’s completely standard to be asked to give a presentation in an interview.
The subject is provided in advance, and it’s usually five or 10 minutes’ duration.
Candidates are also clearly warned that if they go over the time, they will be asked to wind up.
Personally I prefer five minutes, as testing the ability of someone to tell a story in a brief period of time is always revealing.
Anyway, whatever the duration, a presentation is the one single part of an interview which the candidate can control.
Effectively the panel is handing that part of the interrogation over to them, and just sitting back and observing.
It’s their show.
Why then do so many candidates look a gift horse in the mouth…
Keep looking… keep right on looking...
And don’t grab their opportunity.
Of the five people we were seeing, guess how many went over the five minutes we allowed and had to be asked to wind up?
The answer is…
Wait for it…
Wait for it…
- Four
Yes, 4 out of 5, or 80% of our candidates didn’t manage to finish in their allocated time.
Which I found very surprising, to say the least.
Why mess up such an obvious opportunity?
Now, let me emphasise here:
Going over your time is not a fatal error.
I'm not that evil, honestly!
It doesn’t automatically mean the candidate won’t get the job.
We were looking at a whole range of performances and responses across the entirety of the hour long interview.
But it certainly is not a note in their favour, and even more importantly, as I might have said once or twice before here…
- It’s a big opportunity missed
Further, what does such an avoidable error say about the candidates' organisation skills, preparation and practice?
Which you might infer would then be translated to their performance in the position for which you’re interviewing.
It was also interesting that three of the four candidates who went over their time were flustered by being told so, and struggled to wind up naturally.
Their performance in the part of the interview which followed was, I think, impaired by the memory of that.
They struggled to concentrate and didn’t answer questions well for a few minutes, as they were obviously reflecting on how much missing the deadline would count against them.
Which makes not sticking to their time a double trouble.
So, how to ensure you never fall into this trap?
When I’m teaching public speaking and presentations, I always emphasise one of my favourite guidelines in the world of communication:
- Less is more
If you’re given a time limit, I recommend preparing 10% less.
If you’ve got five minutes, get ready with four and a half.
If it’s 10, prepare nine.
Why?
Because something will always happen.
You’ll pause for a couple of seconds to remember what you were going to say next.
A motorbike might roar past outside and cause a brief hiatus.
One of the panel could start coughing, and you have to wait for them to finish.
If you know you’re hard up against your time limit, that will fluster you.
Whereas if you have time to spare, you can continue to present calmly, confidently and authoritatively.
So my top tip here is to make sure that you're perfectly prepared...
Your timings are spot-on, and you really deliver in this one area which you know is coming and which - critically - you can control.
Finally, as for which of the candidates got the job…
I think you might not be surprised to learn that…
It was the one - the only one - who brought in their presentation on time.