40 Minutes to Develop Emotions (Pathos) Before Interviews
Part 2 of EPL Framework
“People naturally gravitate towards those who are similar to them and hire accordingly. Instead, it is better to have some framework for what determines culture fit.”
— Joyce Zhang Gray
Pathos in Interviews
Is this candidate a cultural fit?
Pathos in rhetoric is defined as the emotion of the speaker. The importance of this component can’t be overstated because people may forget what’s said to them, but they rarely forget the way it made them feel. Though other people’s perception of me may not always be in my control, I can be intentional in the energy, enthusiasm, and tone during the interview so as to leave a strong, positive impression of who I am.
During my interview experience, cultural fit often felt like a black box that represented how well a conversation went. One might say, every question in an interview is a variation of a question regarding who I was: “tell me about a time you failed” or “what role do you play in a team environment?” By reflecting on my own personal experiences and structuring them in a clear format, I made it my goal to be as relatable and unique as possible. My stories served as a bridge that connected my stories to company values, which gave myself the best chance of standing out as an individual and complementary team player.
EPL Framework Tasks
The task for this section is to generate 3 or 4 questions that relate to the emotions tied to their work, so you can empathize with the emotions of your work and your team. Research questions such as “what are the core values of the company’s product” or “how does their brand appeal to x demographics?” will take you to answers driven by both strategy and emotions. The goal is to be prepared and situationally aware for opportunities during the interview to share on your stories that are authentic, relevant and emotional for the employer to visualize you, as a unique human, on their team. Take a look at the four questions I came up with to guide my research:
This type of personal research allows for you to relate to the problems that team members may face on a daily basis and makes room for you to share your own experiences. I recommend the PARADE or STAR format in structuring (and remembering) your anecdotes.
Advice from an Employer
Joyce Zhang Gray is the Co-Founder and CEO of Alariss
The gut-check employers do when they establish fit, what is it? And how would you put into words what you’re inclined to evaluate for?
“Culture fit is one of the most important components for candidate evaluation, but it’s important that hiring managers not rely upon gut checks, those are prone to implicit bias and also why many companies tend to struggle with diversity. People naturally gravitate towards those who are similar to them and hire accordingly. Instead, it is better to have some framework for what determines culture fit.”
What is the framework you use to assess cultural fit?
“At Alariss, we look for culture fit and can internally rate candidates based upon attributes like:
- How much does this person seem to genuinely care about our mission and the people we seek to serve?
- Our company provides professional development, personal growth, and international collaboration. Does this person seem to prioritize those things as well?
- Does this person seem proactive and to have a demonstrated track record of a growth mindset coupled with initiative-taking and leadership? As a remote-only startup, we rely upon people to take initiative.
- Is this person a team player, who would go out of his/her way to help others and to create a positive work environment?”
Personal Example
Notice how each of my anecdotes are organized and their consistent structure serves to jog my memory while being flexible to answer a variety of questions. Take this time to draft these coherent stories after learning about the company to demonstrate cultural fit with both external understanding of the team environment and internal values that you live by.
Lastly, memorization was a huge hurdle for me prior to this framework. Ironically, my memorized answers also came off as scripted and nervous. Not every structure will work for everyone but the merit of the a structure is that the process of organizing your thoughts into the PARADE method will naturally make it engaging, concise and conversational. At the end of the day, everyone involved in an interview is human and the more you can find a way to connect with your interviewer on a human level, the stronger your candidacy is!
Review…
- 2 Hours: Persuasively Prepare for Any Interview
- Part 1. 40 Minutes to Develop Character (Ethos) Before Interviews
Continue to…
Special thanks to my friends, mentors and editors: Rui Lin Lin, Benjamin Palmer, Ivy Li, Darrell Huang, Kaitlin Zhang, Belicia Tan, Joyce Zhang, Anthony Gregorio, Dan O’Neil