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Striking the Right Note at Interviews

Opera singers know all about auditions and how to take disappointment in their stride. Smart job-seekers should adopt the same attitude

If you’re the successful businessperson I suspect you are, you know a lot about a great many things. But if you’ve worked full-time in the business world for most of your adult life, I suspect that you have missed out on one of the best training experiences a corporate manager could ever have, and probably will never get. It’s one that most people, when asked “What are some of the best developmental experiences for managers?” wouldn’t think to mention.

I refer to operatic auditions. I’m lucky, because I’ve sung a trillion zillion of them. I’ve been fortunate enough to work for managers who indulged my need to sing opera, alongside my corporate assignments. Somehow, it all worked out, although I’ve missed a rehearsal here and there and probably a few corporate events and deadlines, too. But looking back, all those auditions provided an amazing training ground for corporate leadership, one that I wish all rising businesspeople could enjoy. Why do I say so?

Two reasons. First off, as my wise voice teacher, Winifred, once told me, you have no way to know what a conductor wants. You go out there, you say your name, and you sing your song. The conductor may love you, or may hate you. This love or hate may have everything or nothing to do with how you sound. You’ll be very unlikely to get any feedback apart from a cursory “No thanks” or a phone call offering you a part in the show, so you don’t wait for any. If it didn’t work out this time, no big thing: You just move on. BE YOURSELF.

If a director wants Corn Flakes and your sound is Rice Krispies, you aren’t getting hired. You can’t control that. So, while auditioning over and over and over, in gorgeous auditoriums and drafty church basements, you get really good at letting everything go and being yourself. There’s no point in trying to sound like the soprano sitting next to you: You have no idea whether the decisionmakers want someone more like you or like her. You just have to get up there and sing.

So auditioning often - which is the standard drill for singers everywhere - really makes you understand that the process isn’t about pleasing a certain person or being a certain way. You have your sound. You have your resume. You put it in front of them and sing your best—that’s all you can do.

This lesson has great applicability to job-seekers, who can tie themselves into knots trying to psychoanalyze every hiring manager and HR person they meet, and constructing answers and explanations that will appeal to them.

Forget it! You are you. They’ll like you or hate you, and you’ll find out soon enough. If it’s not the right fit, you’ll move on.

ON PITCH.

It goes without saying that you will be affable and gracious on each job interview. But in the best case, you will stay inside yourself, not stopping to wonder “What did he think of that answer?” and second-guessing yourself. Nor will you try to pretend to be more like what you think the company is looking for.

This ability to stay grounded isn’t only useful for job-seekers. Employees and managers could use that training, too. Which of us hasn’t had a senior leader ask us “What’s the status of that initiative?” or some other of-the-moment question, and instantly wondered, “What does he want me to say?”

When you get comfortable, over time, with being instantly on pitch, in sync with the piano, it truly becomes easier to resist coming up with something just because you think the questioner wants to hear it. It becomes second nature to let the chips fall where they may, and say what you feel in your gut.

THE ZEN OF TALK.

The other business wisdom that singers possess is the knowledge that the more auditions you have, the less important each one becomes. Volume is key. Every audition makes you stronger and more confident, and less worried about what other people think about you. After a while, it becomes really fun to audition, because you get to pick what you sing, and you get to sing it the way you want, rather than the way the conductor tells you to. Call it “performance-lite.”

Job-seekers who get really good at interviewing sometimes say the same thing: “I could do this for a living! Too bad I eventually have to take a job.” And just about the time they have this realization, they get an amazing offer—because they’re so comfortable just talking, chillin’ with the interviewer, not fretting and not trying to please anyone. This is the Zen aspect of interviewing, and of opera singing: when it’s good and it’s fun. You could sing, or you could talk and listen, forever.

I feel sorry for job-seekers who view every interview as a do-or-die proposition. It’s sad, because no one-hour meeting should be freighted so heavily. It’s just a meeting. Time will tell whether this is the right job for you, whether you’ll get an offer, or whether you would even want the job if it were offered. Interviewers who get shaky and flustered before each interview need to concentrate on securing more face-to-face meetings to lighten the emotional load on each interview.

PLANTING SEEDS.

Too many job-hunters focus on getting key interviews for plum assignments. This sounds like an obvious course of action. But if your emotional state ranges from exalted highs to crushing lows based on the progress of any one job opportunity, you’re putting too many eggs in too few baskets.

Singers go to more auditions than they can count. Singers know they won’t get cast in everything they try out for: They count on being not hired, most of the time. And they know that auditioning is like planting seeds—that singing for Mr. Lofty Conductor today is valuable, even if this role in this production isn’t the greatest match for their talents.

A singer knows that she won’t be in this auditorium when the lights are off and the auditions are all concluded, to hear Mr. Lofty Conductor possibly say: “That Liz Ryan—I like her voice. Obviously wrong for this show, but let’s keep her in mind for next season.” Singers never hear those comments. But they depend on them to deliver benefits down the road.

FIVE WAYS TO WIN.

I wish business professionals viewed interviewing and people-meeting in general in a similar light. Job-seekers should work to get as many face-to-face interviews as possible—not just interviews with top-brand companies for the very best jobs. Interviewing in and of itself is valuable. So, interview with headhunters. Interview with people who don’t have job openings. Interview as much as you can. When you interview in volume, you get these five benefits:

-Your answers to questions become more crisp and coherent.

-You become more comfortable with a range of situations (occasions when interviews start late, or when your interviewer is not the person you were prepared to meet, etc.)

-You put less pressure on yourself for each interview, and begin to view them all as learning experiences and networking opportunities.

-You refine your “story” , where you’ve been and what you’ve learned, so that it flows more easily and you can relax in the conversation. -You meet a lot of people, any one of whom could think of you at any moment for a position that has opened up.

NETWORKING PRACTICE.

Of course, the singers’ second lesson, the one about doing all the auditions you can, applies to employed businesspeople as well as to job-hunters. Corporate types are way, way behind the curve when it comes to extra-curricular networking. Entrepreneurs and service providers are light years ahead, because they depend on networking to make their businesses grow.

Meeting people is a skill, just like learning to sing a trill or mastering Italian diction. Learning to network effectively is a career asset, just like the trusted ability to hit a high C under trying circumstances. The more you do it, the better you get. Singers know they won’t sing perfectly every time, and they don’t sweat it. The more they get to sing, the higher the odds that they’ll sing beautifully the next time out.

Networking, of course, is just a form of interviewing that doesn’t revolve around a job opening. When you network with people, you’re asking them questions in order to learn about their lives at home and at work, developing relationships that may bear fruit for one or both of you over time. Like the audition that doesn’t lead to a role, the networking contact that can’t add any value for you today is still indescribably valuable, if you view your networking as a way of planting seeds for the future.

GET ON THE PHONE.

Here’s a concrete action step in case this singers’ advice is too nebulous for you. Imagine that you lived in Boulder, Colo. You call me up and say: “Liz, I read your column and you seem to have a clue about networking and job-hunting. Let’s have coffee.” Then you and I would get together and share some ideas.

Wherever you live, there’s someone (I know you can think of one or two likely candidates right now!) who could meet with you and help you with your job search or your professional path in general. You should call them right now. They’re ready to help you, and all you have to do is reach out.

Are you nervous? Don’t be. It’s your moment. You are the next Pavarotti or Renee Fleming. Look, the orchestra is tuning up. The conductor is stepping onto the podium. Now, sing!

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