Personality and motivation, two key assets in the recruitment interview. By Claude d'Estais (MBA.91)

Taking the time to hone in on the different ways you can approach your personality and motivations is essential when preparing for a recruitment interview. These two dimensions are at the heart of your recruiter's decision. 

Two closely related levers 

Expressing your motivation well means going beyond "I'm interested", which focuses on what the company will bring you and not on what you will bring to the company. Expressing your motivation well means linking it to the company, i.e. to what you are going to bring to the company by going beyond the strict contribution of your skills. To do this, you often have to refer to your driving forces, i.e. elements of your personality. Bear in mind, if you are in an Anglo-Saxon context, that your recruiter, even if he or she is very interested in your personality, cannot address these subjects on his or her own, given the extremely strict regulatory and legislative framework in the United States regarding discriminatory practices. It is therefore up to you to subtly address the elements of your personality that characterise you.

Let your personality speak for itself 

"Getting your personality to speak for itself is not a skill that is generally sought after in business. So you need to mentalise and prepare yourself carefully to overcome any obstacles you may feel. Try to explain, when you present one of your major achievements, how you were accompanied by your personality. So, next to the results you have achieved, indicate how your personality has helped you to achieve your goal. Generally speaking, your recruiter is looking for overall coherence between your background, your personality and your motivations. By presenting them with this type of information, you will allow them to see that you are a person who is comfortable with your personality and above all that you are not hiding anything from them! 

Highlight your motivation 

Your motivation is an essential element for your recruiter. Your involvement in the process reveals this. It is always a bad idea for a headhunter or a recruitment manager to introduce a candidate into the process who is going to drop out. Having a clear picture of your motivations can in some cases lead your recruiter to redefine the scope of the job or even to review the package.

Project your motivation throughout the interview 

Ask good questions throughout the interview. With an operational person, keep in mind Michael Porter's five forces model. From this framework you should be able to construct relevant questions about the strategy, organisation and ambitions of the company you are applying to. With an HR person, be more interested in the history of the company, its values, its DNA. Finally, of course, if necessary, use the company's news.

Claude d'Estais (MBA.91)

A graduate of IEP Paris and holder of an MBA from HEC, Claude has been coaching executives and senior managers in professional transition since 2010, after a career in HR within international groups and as a partner in a headhunting firm. She is the author of S'entraîner à l'entretien de recrutement (même à la dernière minute!), published in 2017 by Eyrolles. 

Claude is one of the HEC Life Project experts, find our next workshops in the AGENDA.