Advice
The Interview Coaching Scam: Why Most Career Advice Will Actually Tank Your Chances
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Stop telling people to "just be themselves" in interviews. Seriously.
After seventeen years of hiring managers, department heads, and CEOs in Melbourne's corporate scene, I've watched thousands of brilliant candidates torpedo their chances because they followed some LinkedIn guru's advice about "authentic interviewing." The whole industry is backwards, and frankly, most interview coaches are doing more harm than good.
Here's what nobody wants to admit: interviews aren't about finding the best person for the job. They're about finding the person who interviews best. And those are two very different skill sets.
The Authenticity Myth That's Killing Careers
Last month, I sat in on interviews for a senior analyst position at a tech firm in Sydney. The hiring manager specifically requested I observe because their last three hires had been disasters—all "great interviews" who couldn't actually do the work. What I witnessed was a masterclass in how modern interview coaching has completely missed the point.
Candidate after candidate walked in spouting rehearsed stories about "challenges they overcame" and "times they demonstrated leadership." One woman spent fifteen minutes describing how she "leveraged synergistic solutions to optimise team dynamics." What she actually meant was she reorganised the filing system. Another bloke told us about his "passion for innovative problem-solving methodologies" when asked about his biggest strength. Mate, you're applying for a data entry role.
The successful candidate? She said, "I'm really good with spreadsheets, I don't mind repetitive work, and I'll probably ask you lots of questions for the first few weeks." Hired on the spot.
What Interview Coaches Get Wrong (And Why It Matters)
Most interview coaching focuses on performance rather than preparation. They'll teach you the STAR method, how to maintain eye contact, and fifty different ways to answer "Where do you see yourself in five years?" But they completely ignore the fundamental psychology of hiring decisions.
Research from the Australian Institute of Management shows that 67% of hiring decisions are made within the first seven minutes of an interview. Not seven minutes of answers—seven minutes of total interaction, including small talk. Yet most coaching programs spend weeks on crafting perfect responses to questions that might never get asked.
I've been guilty of this myself. Early in my consulting career, I used to drill clients on standard interview questions until they could recite answers like trained parrots. The results were mediocre at best. Candidates sounded polished but robotic, impressive but not memorable.
The breakthrough came when I started focusing on what actually matters: understanding the interviewer's real concerns and addressing them directly.
The Three Things Interviewers Actually Care About
Forget everything you've been told about interview questions. There are only three things any hiring manager genuinely wants to know:
Can you do the job? Not just technically, but practically. In the real world, with real constraints, real colleagues, and real deadlines.
Will you fit in? This isn't about being best mates with everyone. It's about whether you'll make their life easier or harder.
Are you going to stick around? Training new staff costs money. Replacing staff costs more money. They want to know you're not using this as a stepping stone to something else.
Everything else is just noise.
Why Traditional Practice Questions Are Useless
"Tell me about a time you dealt with conflict." "What's your biggest weakness?" "Why do you want to work here?"
These questions are theatre. Most experienced interviewers have moved beyond them because they generate rehearsed, meaningless responses. The best interviews I've witnessed feel more like conversations between colleagues discussing a shared challenge.
Smart interviewers ask questions like: "What would you do if the system crashed on your first day and nobody was around to help?" or "How would you explain this concept to someone who's never worked in our industry?"
These questions reveal how you actually think, not how well you've memorised answers.
The Real Skills Nobody Teaches
Research beyond the job description. Spend time understanding the company's actual challenges, not just their marketing spiel. What are their competitors doing? What industry trends might affect them? What recent changes have they announced? This information is usually freely available if you know where to look.
Companies like Canva and Atlassian regularly publish detailed blog posts about their internal processes, challenges, and goals. Use this information to frame your responses around their specific context.
Listen to what they're not saying. If they emphasise "fast-paced environment" multiple times, they're probably understaffed. If they mention "wearing many hats," the role probably lacks clear boundaries. If they stress "cultural fit," there might be personality conflicts within the team.
Ask questions that demonstrate insight. Don't ask about company culture—you can research that online. Ask about specific challenges the team is facing, how success is measured in the role, or what previous people in the position struggled with.
The Counter-Intuitive Truth About Weaknesses
Everyone knows the weakness question is coming, and everyone gives the same recycled answers about being "too much of a perfectionist" or "caring too much about quality." It's insulting to everyone's intelligence.
Here's a radical approach: mention an actual weakness and explain how you manage it. I once had a candidate say, "I'm terrible at remembering names, so I always write them down immediately and try to use them three times in conversation." That's honest, practical, and shows self-awareness.
The interviewer's follow-up question revealed the real purpose: "How do you handle situations where you don't know something?" They weren't looking for perfection; they wanted to understand problem-solving approach.
What Actually Works (Based on Real Results)
After tracking outcomes for over 200 clients, here's what consistently works:
Prepare stories that demonstrate judgment, not just achievement. Anyone can recite their accomplishments. Few people can articulate why they made specific decisions and what they learned from the outcomes.
Practice explaining complex concepts simply. This skill translates across every industry and role level. If you can make complicated things understandable, you can probably handle whatever they throw at you.
Develop genuine curiosity about their business. This isn't about flattery—it's about demonstrating the type of engagement you'll bring to the role.
The transformation in client success rates was immediate and dramatic. Instead of perfectly polished robots, interviewers met engaged professionals who could think on their feet.
The Questions You Should Be Asking Them
Most candidates waste their question time on information easily found online. "What's the company culture like?" "What opportunities are there for advancement?" Basic stuff that suggests minimal preparation.
Try these instead:
"What would someone need to accomplish in this role for you to consider their first year a success?"
"What's the biggest challenge facing the team right now?"
"What do you wish you'd known when you started in this company?"
These questions shift the dynamic. You're no longer just a candidate seeking approval—you're a potential colleague exploring mutual fit.
When Experience Doesn't Match Expectations
This is where most interview coaching completely fails people. They assume you'll be perfectly qualified for every role you pursue. In reality, career changes, industry transitions, and stretch opportunities are increasingly common.
The key isn't pretending you have experience you don't have. It's demonstrating transferable thinking and learning agility.
I worked with a client transitioning from teaching to corporate training. Instead of focusing on curriculum development (which interviewers might not understand), we emphasised her ability to quickly assess audience needs, adapt content in real-time, and measure engagement. Same skills, different context.
The Follow-Up Strategy Nobody Uses
Most people send generic thank-you emails that add no value. "Thank you for your time, I'm very interested in the position, please let me know if you need anything else."
Waste of everyone's time.
Instead, reference something specific from the conversation and provide additional value. If they mentioned a challenge with customer retention, send an article about innovative retention strategies. If they're implementing new software, share a resource about change management.
This approach accomplishes two things: it demonstrates you were actively listening, and it gives them a reason to respond.
The Hard Truth About Rejection
Most interview rejection has nothing to do with your qualifications or performance. Sometimes they've already decided on an internal candidate. Sometimes the role gets restructured. Sometimes the hiring manager changes their mind about what they actually need.
You'll never know the real reason, and asking for feedback rarely provides useful information. The best response is to maintain professionalism and stay connected. Today's "no" might become tomorrow's referral.
What This Means for Your Next Interview
Stop trying to be the perfect candidate. Start trying to be the right candidate.
Understand that interviews are conversations between people trying to solve a mutual problem. Approach them with genuine curiosity about whether this opportunity aligns with your goals, not just whether you can convince them to hire you.
Prepare for scenarios, not just questions. Think through how you'd approach common challenges in the role, what information you'd need to be successful, and what questions you'd ask in your first few weeks.
Most importantly, remember that the best interviews happen when both parties forget they're in an interview. That only happens when the conversation feels authentic, relevant, and mutually beneficial.
The companies worth working for want to hire people who can think, not people who can perform. Focus on demonstrating the former, and you'll never need to worry about the latter.
The interview coaching industry has got it backwards. Success isn't about perfect answers—it's about asking better questions. Stop practicing responses and start developing insights.
Your next interview should feel like a conversation between colleagues, not a performance review. Make that shift, and everything else becomes much simpler.