Forged in Fire is a great analogy for a job interview.
Forged in Fire is a one-hour blacksmithing competition show where four contestants compete in three rounds to identify the Forged in Fire Champion. Each round involves sword and knife forging competitions. Professional and amateur blacksmiths compete in timed rounds to forge weapons within specific parameters. At the end of each round, the weapons that meet the required parameters are evaluated by a series of tests. Winners are chosen by meeting the design parameters, performance in the weapons tests, and overall ascetics in a tiebreaker.
What does this have to do with interviewing?
Interviews often involve 3-4 people competing for one position. Forged in Fire contestants often have a wide range of skills. Some are experienced professionals and others are hobbyists and enthusiasts. Much like real world interviews, the skill levels of the applicants can vary significantly. Resume interpretation, referrals, diversity goals, budgets, limited talent pools, and a wide range of factors can pit highly skilled against less experienced candidates. People also have strengths in different areas.
You may be surprised to know that the most skilled candidates don’t always come out ahead. For example, skilled candidates may be more likely to be overly confident and may appear arrogant, uninterested, or too expensive. The “best” (most technically skilled) candidate does not always win.
1. Always meet parameters
No amount of skill and experience can overcome a failure to meet parameters. Each stage of Forged in Fire involves specific parameters that must be met. Employers also have deal-breaker requirements. These may include a willingness to travel, relocation, work from home, willingness to be on-call, pay expectations, licenses, clean criminal record, etc. These requirements may be difficult to assess prior to the interview. Sometimes the Forged in Fire contestants will make last minute modifications to meet parameters. For example, welding on or removing metal to make length or some other creative solution to reach the next stage. The judges often see through these workarounds but sometime these tricks keep contestants in the game. Point being you should avoid getting called out for not meeting parameters. These interview requirements can often be negotiated after an offer has been made or further into the selection process. Avoid responding to these deal-breaker questions in absolutes and remain open to negotiation.
2. Never give up
Never give up. Forged in Fire contestants often get backed into a corner and forge ahead in the face of near certain failure. You never know what kind of issues the other contestants are dealing with. If you feel the interview heading into a tailspin take a breath, recover your composure, and forge ahead. Do your best to make up the distance later in the interview. Maybe you bombed a question. Maybe the interviewer appears to hate your guts. Never throw in the towel. It is almost heartbreaking as an interviewer when you see a candidate stumble and fail to recover.
3. Expect the unexpected
A certain amount of luck is involved but learn to make your own luck. Forged in Fire contestants work with materials that can behave in unexpected ways. How these metals respond to the forging process can be unpredictable. The most skilled blacksmiths know how to reduce the chance that things will go wrong and they identify and address issues early. This is a combination of experience and intelligence. When it comes to interviews, taking part in more interviews and having high emotional intelligence are a huge advantage.
There is a level of luck and unpredictability to every interview. Practice helps calm your nerves and helps you see patterns and warning signs. Reducing distractions and focusing on the interviewer will give you the ability to react better to unexpected situations, to better interpret how the interviewer is responding to your words and may help you course correct when things are starting to get off track. It is your responsibility to see when things are going wrong and course correct.
4. Manage your time
Don’t take your eyes off the clock. Time management is everything in Forged in Fire. There are many tasks to complete and losing track of time often leads to failure. Particularly in a structured interview, the interviewer has several core competencies that he or she has been assigned to assess. Talking too long on one topic may reduce their ability to fully assess all of the target competencies. Rarely does lengthy friendly conversations outweigh competency assessment.
The interview has been choreographed but you were not provided the script in advance. That often means up to 10 minutes for introductions, 5-6 questions, and 5-10 minutes for closeout and Q&A. That means keep your intro to 4-5 minutes, answer questions with 3–4-minute responses, be prepared to have a constructive closeout discussion, and target ending 5-10 minutes earlier than scheduled. Ending early allows the interviewer time to better review and document your discussion.
Tip: If your responses are only 1-2 minutes or if they are asking multiple questions on the same topic; you likely are not providing enough information to adequately assess your abilities. This would be like a Forged in Fire contestant finishing 15 minutes early and turning in a weapon that barely meets parameters. You have 3-4 minutes to respond to every question. Use that time wisely to prove your abilities.
5. Practice makes perfect
Forged in Fire rounds are often designed to test multiple specific skills. Each challenge involves techniques, materials, and tools. The contestants have no way to know which will be tested in advance. Those with prior experience using the techniques, materials, and tools do have an advantage. Nearly everyone ends up adapting some prior experience to attempt a new technique. How would you prepare to be on Forged in Fire? I would start by watching all the recorded episodes and practicing the commonly tested skills. Interviews are not much different.
The interviewer is trying to evaluate a specific set of competencies and skills. Some of these competencies and skills are common like teamwork, independence, customer service, leadership, drive, technical aptitude, ability to learn, and how you deal with change. The rest can be found in the job posting. These are skills unique to the company or position. Prepare and practice responses to these questions and learn how to adapt your prepared responses to the questions you are likely to encounter.
6. Stick to what you know best
Don’t try a new technique during a competition. Forged in Fire contestants often get in trouble when trying a difficult technique for the first time; either to show off or because the parameters require a new technique. Avoid talking about things you were not prepared to talk about in the interview. Don’t tell a story for the first time. Don’t let this be the first time you have used a whiteboard. Don’t be unfamiliar with the remote meeting software.
There are two points to consider here. Prepare your responses, learn to deliver these responses in a conversational manner, and learn to pivot to these responses from a wide range of questions. Also, practice being caught off guard. Your goal here is to impress the interviewer with your ability to recover from unexpected questions and to guide the conversation back to your comfort zone. Pause to think, ask them to repeat the question, repeat the question in your own words, and avoid going too far off script.
7. The devil is in the details
When all else fails the award goes to the best looking weapon. Many times the winner of Forged in Fire is decided based on feel and appearance. The most finished weapon wins. A roughly hewn and poorly polished weapon can perform well in testing. “It will kill”. Often master craftsmen are tripped up before reaching the finale round. Most episodes end in an ugly beast vs. a work of art at the showdown. The beast has more to prove to win. When it comes to interviews, I am not specifically talking about how you look.
Many factors contribute to final finish and appearance. How well you prepared for and performed in the interview is one factor. How well your resume is crafted and interpreted? How good are your references, networking, and company-specific knowledge? When it comes down to two finalists the smallest things can tip the scales. Yes you can get hired even when the interview is mediocre, when your resume is sub-par, when your references are limited, and when you were unprepared but those things do put you at a clear disadvantage.
8. Challenges progressively evolve
The final round in Forged in Fire becomes harder and more personalized. Contestants return to their home forges to complete a signature weapon modeled after an iconic weapon. Contestants use their own tools and forges to put their own unique spin on their finale weapon design. If you do encounter multiple interview rounds, you may find that subsequent rounds are more informal and less structured.
During early interview rounds you are likely to encounter recruiters and employees operating from a recommended or scripted set of questions. They want to give potential employees a similar interview experience. Subsequent hiring rounds may involve hiring managers and potential team members. Questions are likely to become less structured, more conversational, and may be more direct. The main recommendation here is not to be surprised when the format changes. It is almost like preparing for two interviews, where the initial interview will likely be structured and competency focused with subsequent rounds becoming more conversational and technical.
9. Reputation and personality matters
I have never seen a Forged in Fire contestant move forward based on reputation alone. There have been times where you can feel the judges and even competitors rooting for a fan favorite. What makes one contestant more endearing than another? For starters, a prior relationship with the judges or other competitors, a positive reputation in the blacksmith community, a positive attitude, a winning smile, overcoming obstacles, backstory, being the underdog, showing concern for others, and even helping the competition. This is a combination of the contestant’s backstory and our observed interactions between the contestant and others.
That positive energy can make a difference. In a real-world interview this personality effect is more pronounced. When you connect with an interviewer and they are rooting for you, the energy can be empowering. So network and get lots of rest prior, smile, maintain a positive energy level, and reveal enough of your personality and story to become a fan favorite.
10. No such thing as a bad interview
Learn from defeat. Even a master craftsman can wash out on an early round or get defeated by an amateur in the finale. One consistent message from those leaving the forge is that everyone leaves a better blacksmith, with new connections, and a renewed passion for weapon making. Many also remain hopeful that they will return to compete again in the future. Not getting a job after a good interview and possibly multiple rounds can be disappointing. Learn from those experiences, go back to your home forge, practice, and return as a stronger competitor. Getting turned down is rarely a closed door. More often it is an indicator of poor timing, poor alignment, and bad luck. Don’t take it personally and keep trying. Any company that called you in for an interview, especially if you made it through multiple rounds, is still a likely future employer. Just keep trying.