Being unemployed, for many job seekers, creates its own barrier when attending a job interview.
Applicants often feel that being unemployed puts them at a disadvantage.
The reason for this unnecessary fear is the negative associations attached to the stereotype:
- Laziness
- Unemployable
- Lacking the required skills
The truth is, employers, in the main, do not have bias based of whether an applicant is employed or unemployed.
Instead, the interview panel score applicants based on their ability to meet the job criteria, highlighted by their perceived level of sector knowledge and industry experience.
Employers are aware of the reasons for being currently unemployed, which can include:
- Career gap
- Redundancy
- Change in career
- Leaving education
- Contract end/short-term contract of employment
Even so, the interview question ‘where are you working at the moment?’ or ‘who is your current employer?’ can be a tricky question to answer.
This article will help guide an unemployed job applicant through the steps required to give a strong answer when asked ‘where do you work?’
Preparing an interview answer
The ‘where are you working’ question can be asked in two settings:
- As part of the structured job interview process
- Informally, at the interview start
It doesn’t matter when or how the interview question is asked, what is important is the applicants response.
Interview anxiety
The anxiety of being asked a curveball interview question is the emotional turmoil it creates.
What the mind focuses on the body feels.
If an applicant is worried about the ‘unemployment’ question, their nervousness and anxiety will effect the whole job interview process; answers will be short and snappy, lacking detail. Communication will be mumbled and use of filler words will be high. Nervous twitches and lack of eye contact result in broken rapport.
To reduce job interview anxiety, the applicants focus needs to be directed onto their achievements during the unemployment period.
Preparing answers that highlight skills and knowledge gained while being unemployed.
This could be in the form of accredited courses, CPD or volunteering. Many career professionals have side hustle and part time businesses or can show leadership skills from being on the board of their child’s school.
What is important is the direction of the mind. The brain can only consciously focus on one thing at a time, direct this focus strengths as a positive focus is the pathway to confidence.
4 Tips for answering the unemployment question
Tip 1 – give the reason for being unemployed.
Being made redundant isn’t a negative. By stating the reason for the company, you previously worked at, making redundancies gives context. Humans like to have reasons, they find them reassuring. Without a reason, people will guess which is when an unconscious bias can come into play.
The ‘context’ strategy is required for all reasons for being unemployed. If a career professional choose to leave a job, an explanation, stated is a positive, is required. This could include: being a carer for a ill relative, to gain a new industry recognised qualification, or to gain a life skill by (travelling the world)
Tip 2 – share lessons learnt
Time off work has one key advantage, the career professional gets the opportunity to reflect on their career choices. Keeping the positive ‘frame’ going, applicants can state how having time out of work allowed them to reflect on their ideal career and company. During this period the applicant can state how they had time to research organisations to find a company with the right values, and how this is the reason why the applied for this role.
Tip 3 – what can the applicant offer?
All job interviews are designed to predict the interviewee’s potential job performance. It is important, therefore, for the candidate to state clearly what added value they can bring to the organisation. The first of the three rules for a successful job interview is ‘identifying the job criteria’. All answers, promotional points and interview stories must reference the job criteria for the advertised position. In short, applicants need to tell the interview panel that they possess the required knowledge and experience for the role.
Tip 4 – avoid focusing on unemployment
Any interview question can be reframed. If an interviewer asks about a weakness, the applicant can reframe their answer to talk about lessons learned. The ‘reframe’ can be utilised with the ‘unemployment’ question. Instead of focusing on why the applicant is unemployed focus the answer on what the candidate can bring to the team.
Attitude is king in the interview.
Confident and charismatic applicants do better than nervous and unsure interviewees.
Stating how the ‘unemployment’ period was a horrible and troubling time creates a different emotional connection between the applicant and employer than an answer that happily states ‘this was the best thing that could have happened to me’.
However an answer is framed, it is the applicants communication and non-verbal communication, the packaging of the answer, that will increase and decrease the allocated scores to the interview question.
Interviewers warm to applicants that look confident;
- positive body language
- strong eye contact
- warming smiling
- confident communicate; long descriptive answers, positive emotional words, strong diction, pace and volume.
Always remember – confidence builds trust.
Will you be asked about being unemployed?
In most structured job interviews there will be a pre-set of interview questions that all applicants are asked.
Generally speaking, there won’t be a ‘unemployment’ question.
Instead, interviewers will ask:
- ‘Tell me about yourself?’
- ‘Explain why you are suitable for this role?’
- ‘Why did you apply for this position?’
All of the above examples can lead to nervous applicants explaining why they are currently unemployed.
Research shows that anxious applicants are more likely to self-disclose weaknesses, including the referencing of being unemployed.
Take the lead from confident candidates who state all answers in the positive and reframe any negative follow-up questions so they are viewed in the best possible light.
