The Peak Interview

New insights into the job interview process can give you an edge to win the interview and get the job. By the time you get to the job interview, the company has determined you are qualified for the job. But so are all the other interviewees. Your experience, skills, competencies, and abilities will not differentiate you. Your competition is just as qualified as you are. You need an edge. Great jazz soloists know that when they are playing a solo, they have to hit one or two peaks in...
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New insights into the job interview process can give you an edge to win the interview and get the job. By the time you get to the job interview, the company has determined you are qualified for the job. But so are all the other interviewees. Your experience, skills, competencies, and abilities will not differentiate you. Your competition is just as qualified as you are. You need an edge. Great jazz soloists know that when they are playing a solo, they have to hit one or two peaks in the body of the solo and end with a flourish. That's because people evaluate an experience based on its peaks (good or bad) and how the experience ended. The rest of the experience is remembered, but the evaluation of the experience is based on its peaks, and how it ends. This is called the 'Peak/End rule'. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman is credited with describing this rule. This insight had a big impact on the scientific side of the study of Economics. So much so that Daniel Kahneman won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics, despite being a psychologist who never took any economics courses. When people assess a past experience, they attend to two things above all: how it felt at the peak and whether it improved or worsened at the end. It is important to recognize that everything else isn't forgotten, it just isn't used in how we judge the quality of the experience. What that means is that we make decisions, not on a rational basis that fairly evaluates the whole experience, but rather on the peaks and especially on the ending. On this basis we can actually make choices that on a purely rational basis don't make sense. The Peak Interview shows you how to leverage this insight as you prepare for, and produce an outstanding interview. This insight can boost your chances of winning the job.