<p>From teaching job interview skills I have learned there are two types of honesty used by candidates. I call them "simple honesty" and "brutal honesty." </p><p>Simple honesty is fact-based. Fact-based translates into being truthful about experiences, competencies, and qualifications whether its in developing résumés and cover letters, or answering direct questions during an interview. </p><p>Brutal honesty on the other hand is feeling-based. Or, more accurately stated, guilt-based. This later form of honesty translates into job candidates talking way beyond the point of any question being asked. As a result, too often this later person offers unsolicited information  that amounts to "tattling on themselves".</p><p>When put on the spot, for example with questions that beg for a negative response, usually in the form of some negative experience from their work past - the wallower, as I've come to call them - responds by identifying the problem with explicit care, sometimes dramatizing their experience, sometimes reliving it right in front of the interviewer.</p><p>Since I video tape mock interviews with my clients, then invite them to provide their own critique before mine, I have had clients, who chose to be brutally honest, point out to me that they were "just being honest." </p><p>The worst part for the wallower is that they don't recognize that their story has backfired until they find themselves having to answer questions on subjects they didn't want to discuss. The problem then becomes that since they introduced the subject - unwittingly perhaps but they did it - the interviewer can now ask any question they want based on the subject matter the wallower just opened for them.</p><p>To change from offering brutally honest responses to more simply honest responses I have come up with a three letter trigger, "PNP",  (Positive - Negative - Positive). This formula offers a simply way of remembering to never end a job interview story about one of your experiences on a negative chord. </p><p>It also is a way of applying the phrase "stuff happens". We all have had to deal with negative work situations from time to time.  And even if the interviewer asks about these negative situations or your worst weakness, they really don't want to hear about them. An interviewer's real objective is to understand you! Do you dwell on problems and issues, or do you focus on getting to solution or resolution? And, do you have the appropriate human relations skills to get along in the environment they would be asking you to work in? </p><p>To put yourself in the category of those who are solution oriented remember, when answering any question that seems to require a negative response, simply think, PNP: </p><p>1. Start your response with a Positive statement, </p><p>2. Interject the Negative news in a matter-of-fact way, lightly or narratively and </p><p>3. Finish your statement with a Positive point. Perhaps by stating something you gained or learned as a result of the situation. </p><p>Using the PNP response can offer an opportunity to point out your problem solving skills or your ability to community well with others. Or it may simply help you to point out that - because of what ever the  experience - you are now more competent, more confident about handling problems/people/situations on the job. </p><p>It's an easy formula. Practice using it then apply it during your next job interview opportunity. Positive-Negative-Positive! Its catchy, its memorable, and it works. </p> 2008-10-31T06:49:11Z -15.8762 475 2112 true 17 20367 simple-honesty-vs-brutal-honesty 0 2008-11-05T23:05:49Z 2008-11-05T23:05:49Z

From teaching job interview skills I have learned there are two types of honesty used by candidates. "Simple honesty" and "brutal honesty." The later translates into candidates talking way beyond the questions being asked. To experience simple honesty. Think "PNP"...

0 2009-02-24T09:46:54Z