This question can save your job interview when an employer seems bored

By Nick Corcodilos

NPR, April 30, 2019.

Ask the Headhunter®

Question: How can you re-capture an interviewer’s interest when they start to seem bored during an interview?

Nick Corcodilos: The answer is simple, but following through might not be so easy.

What any good interviewer really wants is a job candidate who is worth hiring!

When the manager seems bored, it’s because you’re both discussing everything except that critical topic. So try this.

Ask the manager: “Would you like me to show how your company will profit from hiring me?”

Then be ready to do it. It’s a tall order, and it requires a lot of preparation before you show up at the interview. But, if you can’t deliver on this, do you really have any business asking for the job?

Briefly outline your understanding of the problems and challenges the manager is facing. Ask for guidance as you do this. After all, if you get hired, your boss will give you exactly that kind of guidance so you can do your job properly!

Then outline the steps you’d take to tackle those problems and challenges. I think that will wake up any bored manager — or they’re not worth working for! Who wants to work for a company whose managers don’t care how their employees contribute to profitability?

Please remember that “profit” can be defined in different ways, depending on the business: more financial profit, more efficiency, more customer satisfaction, etc. You must figure out what profit means to each employer.

Nick Corcodilos started headhunting in Silicon Valley in 1979 and has answered over 30,000 questions from the Ask The Headhunter community.