Even business leaders can stumble in job interviews.
Matthew Siegel, a principal in Korn Ferry’s executive search practice, told Business Insider he sees the same interview missteps fairly often. Also a former C-suite executive himself, he interviews multiple candidates a day for top jobs at companies ranging from private-equity-backed businesses to Fortune 50 corporations.
Here are five common mistakes that Siegel said executives make while in the hot seat and how he recommends avoiding them, whether you’re a seasoned leader or just starting out.
They recite their résumés
Most executives have navigated several career moves, but they often fail to explain what drove those decisions, Siegel said. Instead, they simply regurgitate their résumé or offer a generic answer, such as that they changed jobs because they were recruited or wanted more responsibility.
What’s missing, he explained, is the human story of what motivated them to move on. Perhaps they wanted to build a skill they have not yet developed, enter a new industry, or leave after a leadership change altered the culture. Siegel said those details help turn a career chronology into a compelling narrative about who the candidate is and why they made certain choices.
“There’s a difference between giving examples and telling a story,” said Siegel. “A story has an emotional component.”
They get lost in the weeds
Executives sometimes rush to prove their expertise in job interviews by diving into technical details, particularly when trying to compensate for a perceived gap in their résumé, such as limited experience in an industry they’re looking to enter, Siegel said.
That instinct can backfire. Rather than reinforce credibility, he said, it can make candidates seem more like subject-matter experts than strategic leaders capable of advising a CEO or board.
It’s understandable that executives want to demonstrate their command of the details. But Siegel said interviewers form impressions as they listen, and diving into the weeds too soon can leave them questioning whether a candidate is a big-picture thinker.
“We’re all human, and everyone is making judgments as they process information,” he said.
They don’t address shortcomings
No candidate checks every box, yet some try to gloss over areas where their background or expertise doesn’t fully align with a job specification, which can make them seem less self-aware, said Siegel.
He described interviewing a CEO candidate who lacked experience in an area that mattered for the role. Before Siegel or his colleagues could raise it, the executive flagged it himself.
This demonstrated that the person had studied the position, understood why he was being considered, and conducted an honest assessment of how his background aligned with the company’s needs, Siegel said.
“Acknowledging and moving on from it demonstrates maturity,” he said. “You don’t have to dwell on it.”
Candidates can also address a shortcoming by explaining how they would build a team of people with complementary strengths, Siegel said. Great leaders recognize they don’t possess every skill themselves, so describing how a candidate has done that before — or would do so in a new role — can demonstrate an understanding of the position and its strategic context.
They can’t show how they got here
Senior leaders sometimes compress their careers into a list of titles and, in doing so, omit experiences that shaped their character and skills, said Siegel.
He described a finance executive who compressed the first 15 years of his career in airline operations into a single résumé bullet. Only after probing did Siegel learn that the executive had led teams in a high-pressure, logistically complex environment — experience that made him a more compelling candidate, even if it did not neatly match his current role or the one he was seeking.
Early jobs, promotions, and time spent leading outside an executive’s specialty can help explain how they rose to where they are today, said Siegel.
“They all add to who someone is as a person,” he said.
They don’t know what they want next
One question Siegel asks nearly every candidate is some version of: “What’s your dream job?” He said it’s surprising how many accomplished executives don’t have a clear answer, and that a fuzzy one can suggest they haven’t done enough thinking about what motivates them or what they want from their next chapter.
By contrast, a sincere, well-thought-out response can help a candidate avoid making a bad career move. Siegel pointed to a marketing executive who said she wanted to work more closely with consumer brands after spending much of her career at business-to-business companies. That conversation helped both sides realize the role they were discussing — another B2B position — probably wasn’t a good match.
“The worst thing you can do is try to be something you’re not or try to do something you don’t really want to do,” said Siegel. “Then you end up in the role and leave after six months because it’s not the right fit. Nobody wants that.”
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