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When Is It OK to Discuss Your Personal Life During the Interview Process?

Read any article on applying for jobs and you’ll probably come across one key suggestion: Be yourself.

So if you are supposed to be yourself, is it okay to go into details about your personal life? Isn’t that what you would do in the course of a normal interaction with someone?

While you do want to connect with various hiring managers, you also don’t want to overshare or sound like you are bragging or complaining about your life. A good strategy is to vary the amount of personal information you share based on the stage you are at in the interview process.

Submitting an Application

When you are submitting an application, resume and cover letter for review, you should keep the tone highly professional and avoid sharing much in the way of personal information, unless the job posting specifically instructs you to do otherwise.

The one exception might be if you are applying to an out-of-town job and you are planning to move. In this situation, you should try to reassure a hiring manager that you have connections in the area, you are planning on moving there anyway and your life-changing move isn’t based solely on their hiring decision.

During the Interview

If you’ve made it to the interview, congratulations, you can relax a little bit. However, you still need to remember: You don’t have a job offer just yet.

One of the big things to avoid in the job interview is talking about how much the job would improve your personal or professional situation. Hiring managers aren’t in the charity business. Their job is to bring talented, hardworking people on board, not lend a helping hand to someone in need.

During the interview, it’s okay to reveal small details that might make a personal connection to your interviewers or the company’s culture, like how you snowboard on weekends.

You can also ask questions about company culture and flexible schedule arrangements that might hint at personal details. In revealing these small details, it’s important to maintain your professionalism and not tip your hand in a way that might raise a red flag. For instance, if asking about workplace flexibility, you should stop short of saying a flexible schedule would “really be great because it would help save on daycare expenses.”

Negotiating the offer

The best time to bring up a personal situation, like a new pregnancy, is after an offer has been made. Furthermore, research has show that requests are more likely to be granted if they are brought up at the start of a conversation. So, don’t beat around the bush when an offer is on the table.

The one thing you need to be wary of is asking for something that most people in that position don’t get. So, if the company says a flexible schedule isn’t generally offered for the position, don’t make that a condition for accepting the job offer.

At Career Concepts, we help job seekers with every part of their process, from applying to accepting an offer. If you’d like a consultation, please contact our team today.

Blog published date

Feb 08, 2017
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