Interviewing is hard – really hard. It’s hard for a reason. In a way it’s like dating with strangers for one of the most important activities of your life—getting a job that pays well, is satisfying, and provides one with a sense of responsibility and fruitfulness in your chosen path.

But this applies both ways. Imagine being an interviewer for a company. This individual has the obscene task of wading through perhaps hundreds of candidates for a position in a short amount of time. Other than Human Resources, this individual probably has a day job that has nothing to do with interviewing. And yet, they are charged with the responsibility of finding good people to bring on as a member of the team. They most likely will not be formally trained to do so. Indeed, the vast majority of corporate jobs are screened first by Human Resources and then passed to a mid-level manager with industry experience, but no formal training in interviewing.

This presents a paradox. Your future now relies on your ability to communicate what you know best and transcribe that information into the interview process that may or may not be formally constrained by rules. Granted, companies are required by law to not ask certain questions regarding age, or religion, or even family details for that matter. But beyond those core rules, the game can become very abstract in a hurry.

In many ways, interviewing is like playing jazz music. All music is bound by certain rules like tempo, style, cadence, feeling, and vision. But Jazz is unique in the sense that once those base rules are laid down, once you get into the swing of things, imagination and creativity come into play. Ask Dizzy Gillespie if he knew how to read music and the answer would be, “yes, absolutely.” But then he’d fire back and say, “After a while, once the piece gets moving, it doesn't really matter anymore. I read the audience.”

Interviewing is very much the same thing. Interviewing is more art than science. By art, I mean that of the four major components of a fully-fledged interview process: 1) Fit interview; 2) Skills interview; 3) Face-to-face (F2F) interviews; and 4) Follow-up interviews/calls, only skills interviews take on any kind of real structure. The rest of the interviews require one to dig deep into their toolbox of soft-skills and read the context, the personality of the person on the other end of the phone or across the table from you. Once you understand this concept, then it’s easy to ask oneself: “Why are they asking this versus what they are asking?”

That, in itself can be frightening. Many interviewees don’t spend much time thinking about these concepts, because the vast majority don't have to do this on a day-to-day basis. Some do, to be sure. But the vast majority need not pay attention. Interviewing is frightening because for a few hours out of your life you are asked to consider, process, and take action on a concept that you may or may not have had a lot of time to think about.

Jazz is a perfect metaphor for interviewing because even though a set is written down, each time the band plays it, it can be different. It’s different each time because the audience that night is different and the band knows to play to the audience, not the notes.

So, what does this mean for you as an interviewee? It means the best way to prepare for an interview is to have notes and practice those notes. But remember, the audience can and will change. Your job during this period is to read the audience and play the notes accordingly.