Learning Job Interview Skills from Actors

People comfortably tell you that every job interview is an audition. Well, yeah, sure. But few people tell you how an actor gets past the audition to get the part. Here’s a few lessons from a famous acting book that just might help.

For one hot, humid summer in the late 1980s, while on a consulting contract, I sublet an apartment a few blocks from Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. The apartment had many virtues, but top among them was that the couple who ordinarily lived in the one-bedroom apartment were working actors; we got the place because they were off in New York state doing summer stock. The apartment was chock-full of books, floor to ceiling, on subjects far outside my techie knowledge, such as books of plays and acting techniques. I expanded my reading list quite a bit that summer. And in so doing, I learned a few valuable lessons that helped me in my career.

Among the books I pawed through was Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part by Michael Shurtleff, who was casting director for lots of movies and Broadway shows you know. During a phone conversation with a friend, last week, I found myself explaining how Shurtleff’s advice to actors — 12 “guideposts” — had helped me as a writer. But after re-reading the book, at a distance of 25 years, I realized how useful his advice is for people enduring the job interview process. Particularly software developers, I think, because programmers often prefer logic over emotion, and so much of the job search process is an emotional one. What else do you think, “We’re looking for someone who will ‘fit in'” means?

So I’ve pulled a few bits of advice out of Audition that might help you as you search for a job or a contract position. These are only a small sample, though. While much of the book probably isn’t relevant for convincing someone of your Java expertise (such as how much attention to pay to stage directions), a surprising amount of the book is useful to anyone who’s trying to “get the gig.” As Bob Fosse wrote in the introduction, “After all, isn’t a business interview an audition in a way? Isn’t a first date? In today’s world everything seems like some sort of long audition to me.”

For example, Shurtleff tells actors not to worry about what the auditors want. (In this context, “auditors” are the people listening to the actor’s scene reading.) “They may have Someone Glorious in mind, but that has to be eventually translated into the reality of a living, breathing human actor. It will probably be far from what the creators had in mind when they started out. It could be you.” As evidence, Shurtleff explains that when he worked on the film, The Graduate, director Mike Nichols knew exactly what he wanted: “a new young James Stewart, tall, basketball player, Eastern Ivy League college-type fellow.” You already know whom he chose, months later: Dustin Hoffman. To riff off Shurtleff’s two morals: always interview for everything, if they allow you, even if you think you’re wrong for it; and whomever the interviewers say they’re looking for can change into someone totally opposite, if they think you’re talented and interested and committed.

He also has useful advice about nervousness. “Most actors come into the interview situation wearing a thick mask, spending their energies to protect themselves. It’s rough interviewing someone who is determined to keep himself hidden. It’s a lot harder to interview than it is to be interviewed. If you would keep that in mind — the rough job the interviewer has — you might be able to relax a bit more and be more helpful. Try a little empathy. … Why don’t you try being interested in the interviewer? I would sure help break the ice.” That’s certainly been true for me; the best gigs I’ve ever gotten happened after I really connected with the person with whom I interviewed, and I bet that’s true for you, too. (I once spent an hour and a half on the phone in the initial phone call. My husband, who’d been in the other room, said, “That couldn’t have been your interview. There was too much laughter.” I got the gig; in addition to it being a great job, I became friends with my boss.) If you relax enough to get to know the people you’ll be working with, you also have a better chance of discovering if this is a place you want to work, not just a place from which you’d like to collect a check.

And, of course, there’s the issue of persistence. If you think it’s tough getting a job as a software developer, imagine how hard it is for actors, where only a tiny percentage can earn a living doing what they love most. (In my youth, I dated a Broadway actor, so I observed this close-up.) In his opinion, most actors fail not to lack of talent but because of a lack of drive or discipline, or they’re literal rather than truly imaginative. Also, he says, actors are victimized by their limitations and prejudices, and are ruled by their negative side. People do argue awfully hard to keep their limitations. Personally, I’m amazed by how often someone won’t even send in their résumé because they lack one item on the Wanted list; Mom taught me, “Let people do their own refusing.” Shurtleff shared a story about the then-young Ben Vereen trying out for Pippin despite the fact that the original part was called “Old Man.” Vereen turned in a sensational audition, Shurtleff says. “The role was enlarged and rewritten for Ben Vereen. He walked off with the show.”

I’m not saying that the company will create a programming job that uses every one of your technical skills or exploits your management abilities. But if you decide not to apply for a job because it calls for a college degree you don’t have, you certainly won’t get the position.

I could go on, and cite his anecdotes about how poorly Robert DeNiro interviewed and a way-too-long-to-quote story about Barbra Streisand’s willingness to take a risk. But I think you’ll enjoy reading the book on your own — even if you aren’t looking for a job at all.