BewhoIthinktheywantmetobeitis.

After endless hours of personal sweat and toil laboring to perfect your resume, the opportunity of a lifetime is within your grasp. The company that you have always dreamed of working for has singled out your resume (they obviously recognize a masterpiece when they see one) and decided to call you in for an interview.

During the interview your handshake is firm, your posture flawless, and you answer every question in a very professional and direct manner. The interviewer tells you that you besides being impressed that you have memorized the company’s mission statement you have the experience and skills that they are looking for.

A slight smile starts to peak at the corner of your mouth as you wait in exuberant silence, fully expecting the next words you hear to be “welcome aboard”, but instead she thanks you for coming in today and informs you that someone will get back with you.

What happened?!! You studied the company website for hours and practiced every answer you gave for a week. Unfortunately, like many job seekers, you fell victim to a bad case of BewhoIthinktheywantmetobeitis.

Interviewers, whether they are managers or human resource personnel have one goal during an interview and that is trying to discover how your resume translates into reality. Does your personality and work ethic fit the company culture? Will you be able to effectively contribute and work with their existing staff?

These are questions that no matter how perfect your posture is or how firm of a handshake you have, will answer. Remember organizations cull through hundreds even thousands of resumes to find each handful of candidates that have the combination of skill and experience they are looking for.

Thanks to your resume, they already know a great deal about your accomplishments and your abilities, what they really want to know during an interview, is who you are and how you will fit into their working environment.

Being professional is always a good practice but being rigid and mechanical isn’t. Taking time to consider the question asked and giving a thoughtful answer is wise but regurgitating memorized answers to questions you think they might ask, makes you seem robotic.

Your goal during an interview shouldn’t be to impress the interviewer by quoting their mission statement, or to prove how much you know about their company; it should be to show them how great of an addition to their team you will be.

Being seen as bright, articulate and confident is a lot easier to accomplish when you are being yourself, because unlike the short week you spent practicing for the interview, you’ve had all of your life to practice being you.