You've prepared for your interview by doing research, networking with leaders, talking to friends and colleagues, and reading everything on Glassdoor about the company and job of your dreams. You have the mindset, professionalism, skills, education, experience, and culture fit for the role. You are set!
Interview day comes along and you are early, looking great in your suit, ready to conquer any question they may throw at you. You look at your watch, and the leader is 20 minutes late starting your interview. That's okay life is busy and things happen.
The interview starts and mid-way through that nervous feeling comes over you, and you have a pit in your throat because your intuition is yelling at you that there is absolutely no connection between you and your potential boss. This feeling causes nerves that you did not expect. You fumble to answer questions. Your thinking becomes distorted and things fizzle from there.
The interview ends and you sit in your car afterward dumbfounded. Questioning. Wondering. What on earth was that? How is it that after 3 rounds of amazing interviews this one, final one, with your potential boss, everything goes south?
You're driving home analyzing every question, answer, non-verbal gesture, facial expression, nuance, and all you can think about is how disconnected the human interaction was.
How did this occur? Why?
Sound familiar? The universe is trying to tell you something.
Would you want to work for someone who stated they have no personal life, who didn't really smile during the conversation, who is so worried about "metrics and accountability" that the human element seems to have been lost? NOT ME! And, I hope not you either.
Listen to the universe. Follow your gut. Bless and Release. It was not the right fit! This was not your dream job! In fact, it may have turned out to be your worst nightmare.
I've been doing a lot of interview coaching lately. No matter how prepared you were, you would not be prepared to work for someone so disconnected. The connection comes first. Results, revenue, growth, productivity, efficient operations all increase when there is human connection. This is common sense, yet so many of my clients have commented on how disengaged the hiring leader seemed, or how preoccupied they appear with other "priorities" (i.e. answering texts, looking at their cell phones, watching people out the window as the interviewee is speaking).
If this has happened to you, my advice is to give the interviewer some slack and realize how busy their life must be. Kindness, an attitude of gratitude, and an understanding demeanor may mean more to them than you know.