We have conducted thousands of interviews. Over time, we have learned that highly accomplished professionals, and beginners alike, may share a similar feeling of nervousness, going in to an interview. It isn’t something you do every day.

There are various skills of active listening, practicing empathy, and using open-ended questions as techniques to conduct a successful interview.

Beyond these learned abilities, there is something more important: the character of the person being interviewed.

A person’s genuine character needs to shine through the haze of questions and answers; when it does, there is a different kind of communication happening between the interviewer and the person being interviewed.

Character is a fundamental building block of career progress; it is difficult to counterfeit, and someone looking for evidence of it will readily recognize it in another person.

Key to any successful interview is to be who you are, make the human connection through being friendly, smiling, and engaged, listening actively, being positive, and asking good questions.

Character communicates to others through poise, confidence, empathy, and expressed values and principles.

It is evident in both a candidate’s track record and career accomplishments.

As with leadership, you know it when you see it.

“Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.” – Aristotle