We’ve all been there. Got an interview you were pretty excited about but once sitting across from your new potential boss, you do one of three things. You blabber on incessantly due to nerves. You seem to have forgotten every single thing that would be pertinent to the job in which you’re interviewing. Or, you feel as if you’ve somehow exited your body while you desperately attempt to appear normal but you know it’s not working.
Some people are simply rockstars when it comes to interviews, while others consistently look like they’re being interviewed against their will. It doesn’t seem to matter how many interviews they have under their belt, they’re just a nervous quiet mess trying not to sweat through their shirt.
One woman found herself in the latter category of interviewees, but instead of having to continue her search on the nearest job board, she got the job. The CEO took to LinkedIn to explain why.
“DISASTER! So, I interviewed a highly recommended candidate. The interview was a nightmare. She was so nervous she could barely communicate. A deer in the headlight. She BOMBED miserably. Still I couldn’t get past my gut feeling she was the best candidate for the job,” Brigette Hyacinth, Founder and CEO of Leadership HQ reveals.
Hyacinth posted the note to the professional social media platform in an effort to reach other people in the position to hire people. The CEO wanted to make sure people weren’t overlooking potentially excellent candidates due to not performing well in the interview due to obvious nerves.
Depending on what’s going on in people’s lives, interviews can be high stakes. Someone could be a newly single parent interviewing for the first time in years. There could be a situation where someone may be on the brink of eviction or foreclosure and landing that job is a matter of keeping stable housing. Sometimes people are neurodivergent and may appear awkward or extremely nervous in the interview but be fantastic assets to the company.
Let’s not forget the subset of people that just interview poorly because of anxiety, sort of like people who test poorly due to test anxiety. There are a multitude of reasons that people could bomb an interview from excessive nerves. But not everybody gets past the interview to prove they are a good fit for the company.
Hyacinth writes, “I gambled and decided to give her a try and within 6 months, she was one of my top performers. Sometimes it’s hard to know a candidate’s full capabilities in a job interview.”
Other’s agreed with her assessment, while some gave their thoughts on the whole interview process.
“The interview process is so dated. On another note companies go on about wanting to to employ more neurodiverse people, yet they put autistic people through several stage interview processes where they have to speak to people they don’t know for a long length of time, that can be so draining for them. Wish this would change and go more off references, experience, and portfolio and not having a chat with the owner of the company that they will probably never speak to ever again,” one commenter shares.
One person said in part, “Couldn’t agree more! We need to adjust many of our outdated conventional ways and pay closer attention to attitude and engagement during the interview process. Just because someone could be crippled with anxiety during an interview doesn’t mean they couldn’t be an absolute rockstar if given an opportunity.”
In Hyacinth’s case, it turned out that she was right to give the nervous woman a try. Maybe in the future other hiring managers and CEOs will be willing to take a page out of her book to give the introverts a chance to shine in a position that may be perfect for them.