When recruiting for senior-level positions, especially in technology, employers are not solely focussing on your past experience and technical background; modern companies are also observing your attitudes and profile, looking for specific examples of past successes and chemistry between you and your potential new colleagues. We understand some stages can be tough, so we have listed 3 common mistakes you should avoid when interviewing for an executive-level position, suggesting some ideas that will help you land that dream job.  

1. Answer questions accurately 

If you’re moving to final interviewing stages, you can be confident that your background is well-aligned with the experiences that interviewers are looking for. In such stages, you need to think carefully about the examples you will pick to answer the questions you might be asked. Some candidates mistakenly repeat their career trajectory, hoping that this will give interviewers enough material to satisfy their curiosity. This usually works against you, as repetitive answers to different questions will can make you sound long winded and will make interviewers uncertain about your capacity of handling requests. 

A simple way to address this problem is to mention your trajectory in early stages of the interviewing process, so you can refer to this in later stages without needing to go into it in great detail. For instance, if you’re speaking with a VP or a Director who wasn’t in the previous meeting, you can briefly mention the technology and aspects that you have worked with, then rapidly return to the question. If the interviewer isn't technical, you can politely ask them if they are familiar with the terms that you’re explaining, suggesting some extra background when necessary. Just keep it short and simple, giving them the space to ask more. 

2. Align yourself with the business 

Often when approached by headhunters or recruiters, experienced professionals are likely to summarise their career progress and the elements that make them so highly skilled in their relevant disciplines. Whilst we encourage candidates to speak about themselves and their relevant achievements, late interviewing stages aren’t all about your background, you also need to get hiring managers excited about what you can bring to the company and the goals you’re capable of achieving. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if it means you can better apply your knowledge to the corporate strategy.  

Whether you’re actively applying for jobs or being approached by a recruiter, make sure you research the company in-depth, citing their goals, projects and your potential contributions to those projects. An easy way to make it more personal is simply by using the company name during the interview and sounding familiar with their priorities and long term goals. You can also bring previous work experiences into discussion, highlighting similarities between the approaches the company had adopted in the past, and the solutions you suggested in previous projects. Remember: hiring decisions often come down to cultural fit and chemistry, so the more your mindset bonds with the interviewers, the better.  

3. Be self aware 

Finally, a mistake to make sure you avoid. It doesn’t matter how many years of experience you have under your belt, interviewers will constantly ask themselves ‘can they actually do the job?’ and need to be adamant that you’re capable of the role. To make sure they have all the details about your experience and abilities, you will likely be questioned and even tested about your knowledge. In these circumstances, it can be natural to get defensive and react with slightly passive-aggressive responses (sometimes unbeknown to yourself) that might cause the wrong impression.  

This is fully behavioral and requires good self-control, but when interviewing, we suggest that you remember that whilst you might be well-known elsewhere, your interviewer is just getting to know you and don’t have that same level of knowledge yet. You can also address this during the interview by referring to projects you have discussed in earlier stages, perhaps by saying, ‘I had a good conversation with Jonathan earlier about a similar project when I addressed a similar project issue’ - this will not only give them a reference point to touch base with other interviewers/colleagues, but will also give them some light background on projects you have worked on previously, without getting bogged down in the details.  

 About Oliver Parks

Oliver Parks offers search-based recruitment solutions to the technology sector, specialising in ERP, CRM, e-commerce, Business Intelligence, Mobile Development. Data Science & Engineering, Cloud Computing, Web Development, Content Management and Cyber Security. The firm’s multilingual consultants operate in narrowly-defined niche market segments, enabling them to gain extensive knowledge of the people and companies operating in each technology.  Oliver Parks has a proven track-record with more than 100,000 candidates worldwide and more than 300 clients globally.