What’s the Point of an Interview?

You sent a resume with your entire work history, related skills and qualifications, educational background, list of certifications, and any other details that might be even slightly relevant or impressive to the employer. Not only that, but you even wrote a cover letter explaining why all of these things make you the best candidate for the position and why you want the position. What more could an employer possibly want to know about you? I mean, what’s the point of having an interview if you’ve already supplied all of this information?

To answer this question, think about all of the information that an employer can gather during (but not before!) an interview. How confident is he? Does he have good interpersonal skills? Is he a likable person that will mesh well with our company culture? Could I trust this person to interact with my biggest clients? Does this person have a professional demeanor that fits well with the company’s expectation of professionalism? Does he seem passionate about the position? Questions like these are the reason for conducting an interview. An interview allows an employer to determine if the candidate has the soft skills–such as communication skills, charisma, confidence, motivation, social skills, and others–required to be successful in the position.

And this is why adding a video resume to your job seeker application gives you such an edge over other candidates. In doing so, you’re able to show off all of these soft skills before the interview. For example, if an employer is looking to hire a first grade teacher, it’s important that the new hire not only have the required certifications, licenses, and experience to do so, but it is also extremely important for the new hire to have a gentle yet authoritative personality that would work well with this particular bunch of first graders. If you can show an employer this personality before the interview, you’ll only be giving the employer another reason to invite you to an in-person interview.

If you’re interested in taking the next step towards success in your job search, visit www.jobma.com to sign up for a free job seeker account and start creating your video resume today!