Over Spring Break, I had an interview for a small business in Harrisburg. It was a fairly standard interview and went pretty well. However, it was evident how much selling yourself is important in the job search. And how some of these sales techniques applied to my interview process. For example, Sandler’s Core Concept #2 is don’t spill your candy in the lobby. This means that you should be patient in presenting your sale so that you don’t show all that you can do and all of your expertise prematurely. During my interview, I was able to highlight some of my strengths right off of the bat through some of his questions. However, at the end, I was startled when he asked me why they should hire me above any other candidates. First of all, it was more forward than I was expecting, which started me off on a bad foot. However, as I tried to answer the question, I found myself repeating several things that I had said earlier. This left me trying to think of new things and trying not to just repeat what I had said before. The answer wasn’t very good. Lolz. However, this was a great lesson to me on the importance of not showing off all of your stuff right away. Don’t be like me. Don’t spill your candy in the lobby.

4 thoughts on “Don’t Spill Your Candy in the Lobby”
  1. I hadn’t thought of this as applying to interviews before, this was insightful. I’m curious how you could avoid spilling too much, since you can’t redirect questions or ask questions of your interviewer the same way as if you were making a regular sale. How do you answer questions without appearing dodgy or repetitive in an attempt to not spill your candy in the lobby?

  2. Very interesting post, I never thought this would apply to interviews, but you make a good point about not sharing everything about you in an interview, but rather let them know the good parts and why you are “perfect” for the job without giving away to much.

  3. I have never thought about Pink’s candy analogy in a interview type way before. I loved how you used your own personal example to help readers understand your point. It was also great how you learned from your experience and hopefully your next interview will go better for you.

  4. this is so cool how we can see so much of what we have learned take place in the real world. I’ve been seeing a lot of the concepts in my life.

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