Career Advice Career Guidance and Counselling

The tell-tale signs your job interview went well

Nothing quite beats that feeling when you walk out of an interview room. That is, until you start to wonder how the interview actually went.

This limbo period following your interview is tough, and you may be second guessing how you performed. You can, however, consider the following signs as to how your interview went and make an educated guess.

You were in the interview for longer than expected: your recruiter may have specified how long the interview would last. If you were in the interview for this amount of time or longer, it’s a good sign.

If the interview felt conversational, this is also good. You more than likely built up a good rapport with the interviewer and demonstrated strong interpersonal skills.

If you were told what you would be doing in this role, take it as a positive sign. By this, I mean that the interviewer said things like “in this role, you would be expected to…” as opposed to “the successful candidate would…”

As you answered their questions and spoke about yourself, did you feel like the interviewer was interested? If the interviewer seemed engaged, good.

If your questions were answered in full, take heart. On a similar note, because the interviewer wanted you to be sold on the opportunity, the interviewer would have been eager to provide full answers to all of your questions.

If you were introduced to a director or C-suite executive, then this is a sign that the interviewer knows these people will need to sign off the final hiring decision.

If the hiring manager told you what the next stage would be (ie, a second interview), this is cause for optimism.

When you spoke to your recruiter afterwards, did they provide you with positive feedback?

 If the organisation took it upon themselves to give good feedback to the recruiter shortly afterwards, then this implies that, yes, they have to continue interviewing other candidates, but they want you to know that your chances are strong.

 


This article appeared in the Classified Post print edition as Promising signs.