It may be time to get some outside perspective on your interviewing skills and style. It is difficult to know what you are doing or not doing in interviews that is not getting the second interview without very direct feedback.
If you can invest in a session with a career coach, ask the coach to do some mock interviewing with you so that you can get coaching on how well you are presenting yourself. If a session with a career coach is not a possibility, brainstorm individuals in your life with professional experience (preferably those who have hired people) who could offer constructive criticism and encouragement. Share with them specific details about your past interviews and ask them for interviewing tips and also to conduct a mock interview.
Be very open to receiving direct and honest feedback, even if it stings your ego a little. In order to get to that second interview, you have to be willing to rehearse and redirect.
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Could you not go to a school counselor just as easily? They would like to hear success stories from their graduates! It also boosts the success of the school.
One of the things I loved about my schooling at BYU was that they had a specific class designed to practice interviewing skills. It had such an impact on me that it eventually led to a career in the field. School counselors, old professors, etc are good places to start. What about the responses to the questions? Did you you feel adequately prepared? Are you able to apply actual situations in response to questions aked?
There are several things you can do in this situation:
1. Call the company you last interviewed and ask. Some companies are not going to respond in the least bit, but some will and may be able to offer some insight on where you fell short. Sometimes, it is just not a fit. If that is the case, thank them. That saved you a lot of trouble!
2. Look at the details. The way your resume looks and is presented. Your penmanship on your application. The way you answered questions. The lack of true experience or knowledge of the job itself. How organized and relevant is your resume to position applied for? Is the experience listed going to make you shine?
3. Don't lie. This may throw you off a bit, but I have interviewed people often who lie because they think they are giving me the answers they want me to hear. Sometimes they are not lies per se, but again, they are fixed responses they think I want to hear.
Don't assume you know anything about what you think they want to hear.
You don't.
Period.
Be you. Besides, what if you did get the second interview and eventually the job based on the fake you? You won't even last!
4. Move on. Don't let it cause you to go into a pit of despair. Kind of like baseball. I have never heard of a baseball team that has won all 162 games in the year. The Phillies didn't win the World Series this year by winning every game. Sometimes failure causes us to go in with a dismal attitude, causing a repeated failure. If the Phillies had dragged their feet about every loss they had last year they would never have done what they did this year! They know how to play the mental game and they don't let a loss effect them. Tomorrow is another interview. Get it done!
5. Be confident. It amazes me how many people are not that confident about what they have done. One of my best interviews was a manager I interviewed from Wal-Mart. He had worked hard, dreamed big, and was not happy, and saw no growth. But his confidence and attitude was outstanding. You could tell he was not happy about his situation, but I did not feel that this was having any effect on what he was determined to acheive. Today he is a good friend and is one of the best reps on our sales floor. Do not sell yourself short!
1. Never hire anyone to teach, coach, mentor, or otherwise help you with your ability to interview. If you are willing to throw money away on that snake oil, then, maybe you would not be the employee I would hire.
2. That being said, there are hundreds upon hundreds of free resources available to you with simple key word searches or at your local library.
3. What you really need to focus on is that the first interview is a sales call. Your are selling yourself to the interviewer, and they have lots and lots of choices.
4. Know that there is a difference between "telling" and "selling", you should be able to clearly demonstrate how you will accomplish one or more of the following: make money for the company, save money for the company, improve process' for the company.
5. Believe in what you say regarding number 4, because if you don't, I will.
Interviewing can be hard, with leaner organizational structures, companies are under pressure to make every hire count, so go in prepared to demonstate why you are their best choice.
Most medium to large companies use their HR to "pre screen". These interviews tend to be more behavioral as line interviews are more technical. So in essense you may be getting thru or stuck because of how you respond to questions about how you interact with others, deal with pressure or follow rules....HR executives usually assume you have the base line skills for the job...sometimes they focus on competencies that are meaningful to the business...so if the company is all about "team" do you collaborate, if its a rough and tumble company- can you handle intensity and harshness...With all this said, if you research the companies culture and read the body language when you walk in the door you will probably have and extra six inches in the door to the next interview...
I agree in part with Jimmy about saving your $ on a coach...and the telling vs selling...In the end be confident and positive!!!
PS - I am the head of global HR for a multinational so I am talking from the inside...not guessing on this...
First of all, there are clear strategies that can be used to land a job. However, that doesn't mean that you actually will enjoy that position once you are hired. Be very careful when it comes to career counselors and others who offer strategies on acing interviews. The key is to dissect the corporate culture and fully grasp the job description and make an informed decision on whether you really want the position or company.
Caveat Emptor! There are some really horrible places to work and most would be better served working in fast food in the interim. That is, if you can find a fast food position. Take your time and do not fall for any unethical hiring practices by manipulative corporate managers and incompetent human resource agents whose job is to protect the company from workers who want to be treated fairly and not as indentured servants.
There are so many ways to apporaoach an interview. I agree that you have to put your best foot forward. I am in a similar predicament I can get pass the HR people with the strategies offered by career counselors etc. Its the technical part that I can not get past. I work in "IT" and once you get to the techies its a whole different ball game. It has been my experience that people will hire people who can fit in with existing personnel.i remember tron,commodore64,atari etc but i was not a "computer geek". These days these guys are major gamers who eat sleep World of Warcraft etc .Its hard to fit in with these types sometimes.At the end of the day the "game" is all mental and you have to come up with a way to work past the obstacles
I used to be a career counselor and now I work as a recruiter at VMware, and I have conducted many interviews in my time. My best advise to candidates are that non-verbal cues are just as important as verbal ones. Make sure that you make eye contact with your interviewers; have a firm handshake; dress appropriately; and be confident of who you are and how your tone is (without sounding arrogant). As for the content, it is extremely important to do some background research on the company you are interviewing with to not only know about them, but to also know why you would be a good fit for that company. Remember that hiring is a 2 way street, and they want to make sure that you are happy there as well. Interviewers gauge how enthusiastic you are as well, and they want to determine if you genuinely want to be at their company vs. any other job. I would recommend you videotape yourself doing a mock interview and then watch yourself to get the most honest feedback. It definitely doesn't hurt to seek constructive criticism from a place where you obtained a 1st round interview but not a second round interview so that you can improve for next time.
Ask for feedback at the end of the interview! "Regardless of the outcome of this interview, how could I have interviewed better?"
You have a captive audience. If you wait until later to call for feedback, it is too late and your chances of getting an answer back anything beyond "we didn't feel you were right for the role" decreases dramatically.
If this makes the interviewer squeamish, you weren't going to get the job anyway.
I learned a very crucial lesson from this feedback. As a new graduate I came out of the gates swinging talking about how ambitious I was and how I wanted to learn about how all aspects of the business worked and wanted to set the world on fire and be a leader. But this is not what employers want. They want someone who wants to do that specific job and will stay in the role for a long time. Training is an immense cost to employers in time and energy and they are afraid of getting someone up to speed just to turn around and have to train someone new.