Sweating the Details
by Jeremy McCarty, CEO, VentureLoop
Several years ago, when I first entered the recruiting industry, I
interviewed a candidate from a large CPA firm who began sweating five
minutes into the interview. I noticed beads of sweat slowly dripping
from the top of his head and rolling down his forehead and face. He
didn’t wipe away the sweat and didn’t say anything about it. I could
hardly focus on the interview as this poor gentleman seemed to have
sprung a slow leak in my office.
As a novice recruiter, I had no idea what to do. Should I say something? Is it even legal for me to say something? So I just finished the interview and never mentioned the sweating issue to the candidate, nor did he wipe his face or mention it either. Fortunately, the candidate also interviewed with a more experienced recruiter in my office two days later. When the individual began sweating again, my colleague stopped the interview and offered some great counsel to this candidate.
First, she asked him if he knew that he was beginning to sweat. The candidate acknowledged that he got nervous during interviews, felt his head heat up like Vesuvius, and sweat would begin a slow march down his head. He was too embarrassed about the issue to say or do anything about it during interviews. The recruiter then told him that he would be much better off getting this issue on the table before even starting an interview. She said to tell the interviewer in a confident but light-hearted manner that he sometimes gets flush during interviews and might pad his brow with a handkerchief during the discussion.
The interesting thing is that once the candidate began taking that advice, he had less of a problem with sweating. Much of the issue stemmed from the anxiety he felt over the probability that he was going to start sweating and not be able to control it. As soon as he put the issue on the table, the anxiety subsided.
If something about you or your work history could be overly distracting during an interview, then be up front about it with the interviewer so that they don’t focus on that issue and forget everything else about you. It could be a biological issue like sweating, or it might be the fact that you were fired from your last job. Be open and honest in a professional manner, and you will diffuse the distraction and be able to focus on the interview. Otherwise, you risk spending an hour with an interviewer and have them only be able remember one thing when you’re done: sweat.