Comment by epolanski
3 days ago
> An interview is a sales pitch for a product.
While I see your point, I as a candidate am absolutely transparent and honest about anything work-related, be it in the present or past.
To me the relationship employer-employee is very important, I spend more time working for a client/company during the week than I do with family and friends. Thus this time has to be spent in a mutually satisfying and healthy way.
Pitching and selling myself as anything different than I am does nothing but put me in uncomfortable positions.
This is true, but the degree of freedom that remains is what part of yourself do you wish to show at work.
I don't know anyone that shows their whole self in every situation, so some reservation/ choice is made implicitly. The discussion here is about an explicit choice, which must be maintained, at least for the most part.
And even then, there are appropriate and inappropriate times to bring up certain pieces of information.
For example, I’m not embarrassed about the fact that my mom died when I was young. But it would be deeply weird to open a job interview by saying, “Hi, I’m [name] and my mom died when I was young.”
I’m not hiding that information from employers. But maybe we should know one another a little better before I bring it up.