The other day I attended an interview and was asked why I applied for the role. Not an unusual question, I know, but it disarmed me and I answered perhaps too honestly. I said, "Actually, I nearly didn't." That opened up a line of questioning that I am not sure the interviewers expected to take, through which I had to bare a little more of myself than I would normally do in an interview.
As I walked out of the interview, as is so often the case, I couldn't read how things went. It was a short one, compared to most I have done recently. After flying interstate, I only spent 45 minutes with the interviewers. I am not sure what that means, how I was perceived, or if there was even any point to the interview.
It got me to thinking, is honesty really the best policy? Or is it a policy that has an optimal time and place for use. In this instance, I wonder if my honesty may have hurt my chances of the job. I could have just reeled off the standard answers that they would expect for that question. You know the ones - the culture, the portfolio, the challenge, the opportunity. All of those things would have been true to an extent, but they weren't enough to make me apply for the role.
The truth of why I applied, I think, was more compelling. I had an initial visceral reaction to reading the job advert that said, 'You don't want to apply for that role'. I found myself thinking, "But that description sounds a lot like what I have done in the past. In fact, it is probably the closest thing to your experiences that you are likely to come across. So why are you afraid?"
I won't bore you with my ongoing internal dialogue and decision making process about applying for that role. What I wonder is, by being honest about myself in a situation where people have a limited time to assess whether I am 'fit for their purpose', did I create a doubts that have led them to discount me from further considerations? I don't know the answer to this. Maybe one day I will get the chance to ask those interviewers what their response to my honesty was. Whether they are honest about their response may depend on the time and place that I ask them.
P.S. The day after posting an article from HBR landed in my inbox that addresses some of my questions and concerns and offers an alternative solution.
How to Deflect Difficult Questions in an Interview or Negotiation
