Interview Tips: How Do You Earn Trust?

Summary

The article discusses the importance of demonstrating trustworthiness during a job interview, detailing various techniques interviewers use to assess a candidate's integrity and reliability.

Abstract

In the context of a job interview, particularly for a dream job, the article emphasizes that while competence is crucial, trustworthiness is equally, if not more, important. It acknowledges the challenges of evaluating trust in a single interview and mentions the use of additional tools like personality tests and gut feelings. Interviewers are advised to look for consistency in responses, honesty, and self-awareness in candidates. Visual cues such as facial expressions and body language also play a significant role in the assessment. The article suggests that giving trust initially can be more beneficial, as the consequences of betraying that trust are greater for the interviewee. It also notes that some companies conduct background checks and continuously monitor employees to ensure trustworthiness, advising candidates to either accept this or consider entrepreneurship.

Opinions

Trustworthiness is as critical as competence in job interviews, and without it, competence is irrelevant.
Interviewers use various techniques, such as asking the same question in different ways, to gauge consistency and truthfulness.
Honesty, even in admitting lack of knowledge, is seen as a positive trait that enhances trustworthiness.
Asking candidates about their team's behind-the-back discussions and biggest failures can reveal more about their character.
Visual cues like facial expressions and body language are subconsciously used by interviewers to assess candidates.
It is suggested that interviewers should give trust initially, as the interviewee has more to lose if they are untrustworthy.
The article acknowledges that some companies perform extensive background checks and ongoing monitoring of employees.
Candidates are encouraged to be comfortable with trust verification processes or to start their own business if they prefer to avoid such scrutiny.

The most important question in an interview — How do you earn trust? This post details what interviewers do to assess your trustworthiness

How do you earn trust in an interview? Photo from Pexels

Have you got an interview for your dream job? Congratulations, you need to now prepare for your interview. You need to prove that you are competent. But you need to prove you are trustworthy. Otherwise, your competence doesn’t matter.

Can we assess the trustworthiness of a person from one interview? We have been trying, it doesn’t always work. We are getting help with other tools (personality tests etc.). Gut feeling is still the most used tool to assess trustworthiness!

Interviewers use several techniques (consciously and subconsciously) to assess if the person has consistent answers to the same question asked in different ways.

I interview a lot. Some ways I would deduce

A candidate summarizes their career, and we go into details later on — I try to tie up the stories tie up and assess if it makes sense. E.g., If the candidate claims that they improved efficiency by 20% — I would ask how they did that. If their approach makes sense, it is most likely that they either did that or were involved close enough to do it again.

I’m looking for honesty — the more honest their response is, the more trust worth they are. So if a candidate says ‘I don’t know, but I’m keen to learn it,’ — that is a good answer. I then try to find what they didn’t know but learned recently.

I would ask — what would their team talk about them behind their back? — People usually tell more about themselves to these sorts of questions

I ask about their biggest failures — I don’t trust anyone who hasn’t had a failure.

We pick up more visual clues than we realize. Be it the facial expressions, the flow of speech, body language, the details in the responses, etc. I generally do interviews with another colleague or two to have a second opinion.

But beyond that — I give trust to people. If they aren’t trustworthy, they lose a lot more than you do. If you hire them, and they are bad — you have a problem for a short period finding a replacement. They have a problem their entire life explaining why they were fired quickly. They have to live with the lie for the rest of their lives.

Note: Many companies never fully trust you! They do background and credit checks before you start! And many companies keep an eye on you throughout your entire career. Be OK with that, or start your own company!

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