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Sometimes when you land a job interview, you end up talking with someone who might not be the best interviewer. Whether you get a taciturn interviewer or an inexperienced manager who focuses on the wrong things, knowing how to handle the rogue person on the other side of the table can be essential to landing the job.
This post originally appeared on The Muse.
So, the question is: How do you get a bad meeting back on the right track? Here's a three-step plan for preventing an ill-prepared interviewer from derailing your shot at a job.
So, the interviewer starts off with something off-the-wall, like "If you were an animal, which one would you be?" or "So, you know that competition is a huge part of this role, right?"
Don't panic just yet. Sometimes, hiring managers like to ask odd questions to try and get at something very specific to their company culture. Since it can be hard to tell whether they're just novice interviewers or mad genius interviewers, try to smile, relax, and go with the flow at the beginning of an interview.
The ability to think on your feet has a strong correlation to how prepared you are to begin with, so make sure you're doing your homework before each meeting. Review common interview questions, prepare a few stories for behavioral questions, and do some sleuthing on what technical questions you might get. It's not possible to be ready for everything (especially a bad interviewer), but being generally prepared will help you get through the beginning before you try to help them refocus on the big picture.
At some point, red flags will start going up, and you'll know it's time to rein this interviewer in. He or she might be spending way too much time—think 20 minutes out of a 30 minute phone screen—explaining what the position entails rather than asking you about your experience. Or the meeting might seem to be too focused on that one time you biked across Europe instead of your ability to do the job. To get the interviewer refocused on your qualifications, try asking questions or statements like:
These will be easy to get in if the interviewer has run out of questions, but trickier if he or she is just asking the wrong questions. Try tucking in one of these at the end of your response as a way to conclude your answer. For example, "...and that was my most meaningful leadership experience in college. Is there anything I can tell you about my more recent experience to help you figure out if I'm a good fit for the company?"
Hopefully, your attempts to steer the conversation will be successful, but if all else fails, you still have one more shot. Once you're finally given the floor to ask your own questions about the position toward the end of the interview, ask your thoughtful final questions and wrap up with something that summarizes your qualifications for the role. It might sound something like this:
"Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! I'd love to take this final opportunity to reiterate my fit for the position. Based on our conversation, I know you're looking for someone who knows her way around data, takes initiative, and thrives in a team setting. My three years of experience in economic consulting gave me ample opportunity to really shine in these areas, and I'd love to bring these skills and traits to your company."
Having a less-than-ideal interviewer can really mess with your head. Keep calm and take the lead. Of course, you shouldn't have to be the one leading the conversation, but if you want the job—you'll do what you need to do.
3 Steps for Dealing With a Truly Terrible Interviewer | The Muse
Lily Zhang serves as a Career Development Specialist at MIT where she works with a range of students from undergraduates to PhDs on how to reach their career aspirations. When she's not indulging in a new book or video game, she's thinking about, talking about, or writing about careers. Follow her musings on Twitter @lzhng.
Image by Akarakingdoms (Shutterstock). Want to see your work on Lifehacker? Email Andy.
iPhone/Android: It’s been a long time since the Google-owned Snapseed photo editing app got an update, but today it gets a bunch of handy new features in both the Android and iPhone versions.
New features in the update include a lens blur, tonal contrast, and glamour glow filters. It also adds in brush tools and spot repair for more precise editing. Perhaps most importantly, you can now use “stacks,” which gives you a set of non-destructive editing so you can edit and re-edit images as you need.
Snapseed (Free) | Google Play
Snapseed (Free) | iTunes App Store
Mac: Facebook's new Messenger app for browsers is great, but if you'd prefer a more standalone app, Messenger for Mac is exactly what you're looking for.
Messenger for Mac simply pulls out the Messenger web app and turns it into a dedicated app. It looks just like Messenger, but works on its own without needing a browser open. It's also free and open-source, so you can tinker around with it as you want.
Messenger for Mac (Free)
We’ve seen plenty of collections of different programming classes and resources before, but Hackr.io mixes things up a bit by allowing users to submit their own picks and vote up others.
The resources here cover everything from C++ to Google Analytics. The point is to gather together as many resources as possible in one place, which you can also add to if you want. It’s a great starting point if you’re looking for tutorials or just to share the knowledge you already have.
So you'd like to take up running, but you live on a mountain. Or maybe you already jog in a nice flat place, but want to tackle some trails or a hilly race. Here's how to train your mind and your legs to power up even the steepest slopes.
This is my first tip because it is the most versatile one, and you can put it to use today. Go out for that hilly run, but when you get to a hill, just walk it. You'll get up the hill and, if you walk fast, you'll still be giving yourself an aerobic workout. Mission accomplished.
Does this seem like cheating? It's not. Anything that helps you run longer, farther, or more often is a training tool. Trail runners and ultramarathoners often plan to walk as part of their strategy for long races and steep hills.
As you get better at hills, keep this strategy in your back pocket for occasional use. Maybe you can run up half the hill and walk the rest. Maybe you'll run the first nine hills and walk the tenth. Better than staying home to protect your pride, right?
When you're ready to tackle hills, there is a right way to do it. You might have a vision in your head of a strong runner powering up hills at full speed, but you don't want to sprint up and be any more exhausted than you need to be. (Don't totally lose that vision, though—imagining yourself meeting challenges with strength is a powerful tool.)
But the reality is that you have to step a little smaller and use slightly different form than when you're running on the flat. You'll slow down; that's the reality of running hills, no matter how easy some people make it look. Here are the important points:
With good form, hills become more of a doable chore than an insurmountable obstacle. The more you run hills, the more comfortable you'll feel on them.
That's right, you're going to pick a big scary hill and run it more than once, on purpose. Many runners dedicate a workout to hills every week, or at least a couple times a month. Consider an alternating schedule: designate a speed/strength day that takes the form of speedwork one week and hills the next.Here are a few ways you can train on hills:
Long hills: Pick a moderately steep hill that's long enough you can run up it for a minute or more. Before you tackle the hill, go ahead and warm up by running an easy 5-10 minutes on flat or comfortable ground. Run uphill for 30 seconds, then walk downhill and keep walking for a total of 2-3 minutes before starting the next repeat. (You can also do longer repeats; see the chart here for suggested times.) Bring cones or designate landmarks so you don't have to measure the distance every time, but can turn off your brain and just run from cone to cone.
The first time you try this, aim for four repeats, and remember to go easy enough on the first repeat that you'll have enough energy left for the other three. Add a repeat every workout until you're running 8 or more.
Short hill sprints: These are quick, but can be tough on your body, so don't be too eager to do a ton all at once. Try them at the end of an easy run. Pick a hill, the steeper the better, and sprint up at top speed for 8-10 seconds. Take a minute to walk and recover, then do it again. Two of those are enough for your first day. Over time, build up to 10 in a row. Here's some more information about building hill sprints into your training program.
Stair climbing, like on stadium bleachers, isn't a true hill workout but can give you some of the same advantages: you're still working your lungs and legs, but can't adjust your stride the same way you would outdoors. This is a great alternative if you live in a flat part of the country, or if the weather is bad but you know a good indoor staircase. (Pittsburgh's 36-floor Cathedral of Learning, for example, is a popular workout spot for runners and hikers.)
Hill training can also benefit your running on the flat, because it builds endurance and makes you practice good form. Remember about standing tall and picking up your knees? The muscles that help you do that on the hills are also valuable for overall running form.
It also, of course, helps on hills in real life. When I ran the Pittsburgh half-marathon, I was pretty pooped around mile 11, but perked up after a water stop and suddenly got confused: how is it that I'm running but everyone around me is walking? It took a moment to dawn on me: oh, this is "that big hill at mile 12" everybody was talking about! Thanks to my hill repeats, I'd barely noticed it.
Photos by Nick, Matt Brown, Robin McConnell, Stanislav Sedov.
Vitals is a new blog from Lifehacker all about health and fitness. Follow us on Twitter here.
In the coming months, we'll be releasing a new batch of freshly-graduated adults into the world. If you could give them one piece of advice about what lies ahead, what would it be?
My oldest is graduating high school this year, so this is a subject I've been giving some thought. College is more expensive than ever and other options are becoming increasingly attractive. The job market is still poor. But whether it's about college, the workplace, or anything else to help them in their upcoming adventures, we'd like to hear your best tips.
Image by Charline Tetlyevsky.
