The final interview is scheduled.  The interview process has stretched from days to weeks to months.  As the candidate you are anxious for closure.  Frustration has seeped into the interview equation.  By the time the final interview phase comes around your emotions can shift from, “I want this,” to “let’s get this over with,” to “make up your mind already!”

As a recruiter what advice can I give you?  My advice is to keep doing what you have been doing that has gotten you to this point.

Even when the process drags on whatever you have been doing in your interviews has moved you forward in the interview process.  At the final interviews the hiring manager expects the same interest level and enthusiasm for the position and the company as you demonstrated in the initial interview.  Letting frustration with the process show at this phase can result in rejection.  You won’t have a decision to make as you won’t receive an offer.

I am not suggesting you be someone you aren’t or be insincere.  Be yourself.  Be enthusiastically you.  The final phase is not the time to let your frustration with the process show.

I’ll give you an extreme example of how frustration with the process led to failure to receive an offer.  I know a Senior Vice President who missed out on a position he wanted.  The final day of interviews dragged into late afternoon.  The company had arranged for a driver to take him back to the airport for a return trip home.  He got into the car and shared with the driver his frustration with the day and the process.  In addition to delivering his rider to the airport the driver’s job included reporting back to the company what the candidate shared with him during the trip.

The Senior Vice President received no job offer from the company.  He could not undo the damage that had been done during the ride to the airport.  He learned a very costly lesson about keeping his frustration with the process in check.

You can’t decide if you want the job if you don’t receive an offer.  Getting the offer gives you the choice.  If you are successfully moving forward in the interviewing process then no matter how slow it is going keep doing what you are doing as it is working.

Suzanne Travers

PhoneInterviewBootCamp.com