Gender inequality for interviews?

I have been asked yet again how well women interview from across the HR profession, compared to their male peers. Unfortunately there was no hesitation in my answer which was "poorly".

Just for clarity, I am referencing professionals in senior posts within the HR community including regional or global HR Directors and HR Vice Presidents and Heads of specialist functions who are living and working in a multitude of countries around the world.

Interestingly though, I notice this disparity more in western countries rather than eastern or emerging countries.  So maybe we have some cultural hang-ups at play here.

Don’t get me wrong.  I have an equal respect for men and women in the HR community.  I have no grudge to bear.  I have an equal number of female and male friends and professional contacts. But men, in my experience, typically interview better than their female counterparts.

There’s no obvious reason for it, especially in the HR profession.  I mean, these people are conducting interviews regularly perhaps on a daily basis.  They’re constantly coaching others on how to conduct interviews and how to be interviewed successfully. But men sell themselves.  And women sell themselves short.

What do you have to do to stand out in an interview?

A woman once said to me “…I’m busy getting on with the job, achieving results, working hard and without fuss, and of course it will be noticed.  Why would I need to shout about it?” And therein lies the problem.

You may have had a great reputation with your last/current employer.  You may have been the “go to” solutions expert.  You may have been the best in your organisation.  But whilst I'm a perceptive interviewer, I’m not a mind reader.  And I don’t know about any of these things unless you tell me.

I don’t need you to boast.  You don’t need to make up things to impress me.  You do however need to be very clear about what exactly you’ve done, you’ve contributed, and you’ve achieved.  I need demonstrable evidence that you have the capability and/or competencies to do the new job. This is not the time for false modesty. Definitely not a time to be shy.

You’ll probably be talking about ‘we’ and not ‘I’ as your describe your project implementations and initiatives.  But talking about the team’s achievements rather than your own leads me, as the interviewer, wondering what the heck your personal contribution was.  I want to hire you, not your team, so I want to hear about you. What did you design? What did you initiate? What business problem did you see that no-one else had and what successful solution did you offer up?

Stereo-typically, a number of female HR executives still gravitate towards softer examples of achievements whereas male peers gravitate towards commercial examples with numbers attached for context. When I’m being told that your greatest achievement is increasing employee engagement because you coached a Director to be a more inclusive leader to people vs you increased engagement by 20% which directly improved productivity resulting in an organic sales increase of $2 million within 12 months….can you guess which answer will have my attention?

There is an old saying that “the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the grease”. A variation of this applies for any interview scenario.  If you can sell yourself to me, you give me the confidence that 1. you really can do the job, 2. you are a leader and creator rather than just an implementer, and 3. you can sell yourself to a new set of stakeholders who don’t know you from Adam (or Eve).

Keeping quiet about your work responsibilities and achievements will inhibit your chances of success at interview.  You have to learn to be your own champion.  It's food for thought…