Interview, win-terview.  Jo Ouston offers some advice on the approach to job interviews for the mature candidate.

 
I’ve often been told by people in their fifties and sixties: “the interview went against me because of my age.”

But interviewers know the candidate’s age before the interview, so how can it have put them off? The truth is that the ‘age question’ isn’t the real issue. What matters is how the candidate handles it.

Interviews are not about facts. They’re about perceptions. The facts, including age, are known to everyone before you walk through the door. They must have been attractive to the interviewers, otherwise you wouldn’t be there. But as soon as the door swings open, things change. Now the facts have a new resonance, and how does age play in this?

As a Mature Times reader you’re older than most interviewers, and probably senior and more experienced too. But in the interview relationship, this isn’t something you want to be at the front of anyone’s mind. They’re not interviewing your ‘label’ or your status, they’re interviewing you.

It is desperately easy for someone with a lifetime’s experience, and recent and well-deserved senior status, to let that show through as a gap between themselves and the interviewer. You may have had people of your interviewers’ level reporting to you in your last job. In the interview that is more than irrelevant. It’s downright dangerous, because if it shows it throws the whole age issue into the wrong perspective.

Be interested, be enthusiastic, concentrating on the future (which is what they want you to help them create). Cite experience only when you understand the project in depth and so can make it relevant. Show how it can be built on. Do not patronise, instruct, or use ‘status language’ (‘as managing director my responsibility was …’).

Avoid nostalgia like the plague. And never mention the grandchildren.

Ten top tips for interview success

1. Research – the organisation, the people, the market, the competition, the assignment

2. Remember, they want you to be the right person (that’s why they’ve asked you)

3. Don’t dwell on the past

4. Sustain positive energy (but don’t mimic ‘youth’)

5. Listen, listen, listen

6. Answer from your strengths, always addressing the assignment’s needs

7. Don’t interrupt but don’t be afraid to ask questions

8. Prepare a Q & A based on your written application

9. Nothing hides wrinkles better than enthusiasm

10. You’re there for what you’re moving towards, not what you’re moving away from.