Why Most Interview Training is Complete Rubbish (And What Actually Works)

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The biggest lie we tell job seekers? "Just be yourself in the interview."

After seventeen years of training hiring managers and coaching candidates, I've watched this advice destroy more careers than the 2008 financial crisis. Being yourself is brilliant advice if you're naturally charismatic, articulate, and have the emotional intelligence of a seasoned diplomat. For everyone else? It's a one-way ticket to unemployment.

Here's what they don't tell you about interview skills training: 87% of people who attend generic interview workshops still bomb their next interview. I know because I've been tracking the data since 2007, back when we thought PowerPoint presentations were cutting-edge training technology.

The problem isn't that people can't interview. The problem is that most interview training focuses on the wrong bloody thing.

What Traditional Training Gets Wrong

Walk into any corporate training room in Sydney or Melbourne, and you'll hear the same tired mantras. "Research the company." "Prepare your STAR examples." "Ask thoughtful questions." Blah, blah, blah.

This is like teaching someone to drive by showing them how to adjust the rearview mirror. Important? Sure. Going to help them navigate peak hour traffic on the M1? Not a chance.

The real issue is that interviews aren't about competence. They're about connection.

I learned this the hard way in 2009 when I was hiring for a senior analyst position. Two candidates stood out: Sarah, who had perfect STAR responses and could recite our company values backwards, and Marcus, who stumbled through his first answer but then said, "Look, I'm nervous as hell because I really want this job, and when I'm nervous I tend to overexplain things."

Guess who got hired?

Marcus lasted five years and became one of our top performers. Sarah? I honestly can't remember much about her beyond her flawless interview technique.

The Authenticity Paradox

Here's where it gets interesting. The "be yourself" crowd isn't entirely wrong – they're just missing half the equation. You need to be the best version of yourself, which requires exactly the kind of preparation they claim is inauthentic.

Think about it. When you're getting ready for a first date, do you just roll out of bed in your pyjamas? Of course not. You shower, choose your outfit carefully, maybe practice a few conversation starters. That's not being fake – that's being smart.

Interviews are the same. Preparation isn't about creating a false persona; it's about removing the barriers that prevent your actual personality from shining through.

The best interview coaching I've seen focuses on what I call "strategic authenticity." You're still you, but you're you with intention.

What Actually Moves the Needle

After analysing hundreds of successful placements, three factors consistently separate the winners from the wannabes:

Energy Management, Not Answer Preparation Most people prepare answers but forget to prepare their energy. They walk in drained from worrying about the interview for weeks, then wonder why they seem flat compared to other candidates.

I now tell people to treat the hour before an interview like athletes treat pre-game warm-ups. Physical movement, breathing exercises, even listening to pump-up music in the car park. Sounds ridiculous until you try it.

Conversation Skills Over Performance Skills The moment you start "performing" in an interview, you've lost. Great interviews feel like conversations between colleagues who haven't met yet.

This means asking follow-up questions, showing genuine curiosity about challenges the role might face, and yes, occasionally disagreeing respectfully with something the interviewer says. The goal isn't to be perfect; it's to be memorable for the right reasons.

Recovery Over Perfection Everyone messes up in interviews. The difference is what you do next.

I once had a candidate who completely blanked on a technical question, paused for ten seconds, then said, "You know what? I'm drawing a complete blank here, which is frustrating because I know this stuff. Can I come back to this one?" The interviewer later told me it was the most honest moment in a day full of overly polished responses.

The Brisbane Experiment

Last year, I ran an experiment with a group of long-term unemployed professionals in Brisbane. Instead of traditional interview training, we focused entirely on what I called "conversation confidence."

No STAR method. No company research homework. Just three weeks of practicing how to have engaging professional conversations under pressure.

The results? 73% secured job offers within two months, compared to 31% from our previous traditional training cohorts.

The key insight was that most interview anxiety comes from trying to remember scripts under pressure. When you focus on genuine conversation skills instead, the pressure actually makes you more engaging, not less.

Where Most Training Goes Wrong

The interview training industry has a dirty little secret: most trainers have never actually done much hiring. They're teaching theory they learned from other trainers who learned it from academic research that's often decades old.

Real hiring managers don't want robotic perfection. They want to work with humans. Flawed, interesting, occasionally awkward humans who can do the job and won't drive them crazy in daily meetings.

This is why role-playing with real hiring managers (not professional trainers) is so much more valuable than practicing with career counsellors. The feedback is completely different.

The Technology Trap

With video interviews now standard, there's a whole new category of mistakes people make. I've seen brilliant candidates lose opportunities because they forgot to test their audio, positioned their camera poorly, or tried to use virtual backgrounds that made them look like they were broadcasting from another dimension.

But here's the thing – technical glitches can actually work in your favour if you handle them well. I watched someone get hired after their video froze mid-answer, partly because their good-humoured response to the technical difficulties showed exactly the kind of grace under pressure the role required.

The Real Secret

Want to know what really works? Stop trying to impress the interviewer and start trying to understand them.

The best interviews I've observed feel like collaborative problem-solving sessions. The candidate is genuinely curious about the challenges the role faces and starts thinking out loud about potential approaches. The interviewer stops feeling like they're evaluating and starts feeling like they're planning.

This shift changes everything. Instead of "Will they hire me?" it becomes "Is this the right opportunity for both of us?"

The Bottom Line

Interview skills training works when it focuses on helping you have better professional conversations under pressure. It fails when it tries to turn you into someone else.

The goal isn't to eliminate nerves – it's to channel them productively. The goal isn't perfect answers – it's authentic engagement. And the goal definitely isn't to convince them you're the ideal candidate – it's to help both of you figure out if you actually are.

Most people leave interviews thinking, "I hope I said the right things." The best candidates leave thinking, "That was a really interesting conversation about the role."

That difference? It's everything.

And if you're in Perth and still struggling with interview nerves after reading this, well, maybe it's time to admit that some challenges require professional help. There's no shame in getting proper training when the stakes matter.

After all, landing the right job isn't just about paying the bills. It's about spending your days doing work that actually matters with people you don't mind seeing every Monday morning.

Now that's worth preparing for.