Over 4 interviews, candidates supported by job do obtain an offer 3 times more often than the average. It’s not luck. It’s a method. We tell you everything.
Sébastien, 47 years old, e-commerce director in a group retail. Great career path, great CV, great presence on LinkedIn. He’s been looking for 4 months. Zero conclusive feedback. First diagnosis: he has no pitch. He has a resume. It’s not the same thing.
2 months later, he had 4 interviews. He receives 2 offers. He negotiates. He chooses.
The difference? He finally understood what he was selling. And to whom.
1. Your Unique Insight: AI won’t steal it from you
Kevin Roberts, former boss of Saatchi & Saatchi, theorized in LoveMarks (2004) what separates a brand ordinary from a brand we love: brand essence. This concentration of irreducible identity. The emotional promise that makes everything else fit together.
For an executive looking for a job, it’s exactly the same thing.
Your Unique Insight is your personal brand essence. What you do better than anyone in your ecosystem. Not “I’m results-oriented” — everyone says that. But: “I am the only digital director of my generation to have led an e-commerce transformation in a context of LBO while rebuilding a team from scratch in 18 months.” That cannot be copied.
The problem ? 90% of candidates arrive for an interview with a CV, a LinkedIn and a pitch that tell three different stories. The recruiter is looking for only one thing: consistency. A common thread. A conviction.
✅ Do: Your CV, your LinkedIn and your 2-minute pitch should say exactly the same thing. Not the same sentence. The same story.
❌ Don’t: Adapt your pitch by changing your identity for each position. Adapt your angle, yes. Deny who you are, never.
2. Marx-style AssessFirst: scan before entering
Do you know AssessFirst? This is the tool that HR uses to profile you without your knowledge. Here’s how to turn the principle to your advantage — before you even enter the room.
The method: scan the company organization chart and identify the 3 people you will meet. Look for their common points: background before joining the company, common training or schools, shared companies in their histories.
For this, the jobdo.io teams use a Claude prompt tested in hundreds of interviews. Here it is — copy, paste, use:
“You are an expert in analyzing professional profiles. Here are the LinkedIn profiles of [Prénom NOM 1], [Prénom NOM 2] And [Prénom NOM 3]. Identifies the 3 most significant common points in their career paths: training, companies, sectors, transitions of career. Then suggest 2 angles of connection that I could activate naturally during the interview, without it seeming forced.”
What you’re looking for: common ground. Not to sycophancy. To create immediate recognition. Humans recruit those who look like them — it’s brutal, it’s proven, you might as well work at it.
✅ Do: Prepare a short anecdote that activates this common point naturally in the conversation.
❌ Don’t: Say “I saw on LinkedIn that you went through…” at the start of the interview. Stalker effect guaranteed.
3. Speak to everyone in their language — not yours
An interview is never a uniform monologue. It is a series of conversations with interlocutors who do not have the same fears, not the same criteria, not the same vocabulary.
HR ????????
Green and blue DISC profile. They want to know if you will fit in well. If you respect the processes. If you are reliable over time. Talk about corporate culture, collaboration, values, stability. Show that you want to build something together — and stay.
The CEO or the N+1 ????
Red DISC profile. He wants something concrete. Numbers. From delivery. “I generated XM€ of turnover, reduced the churn of Y%, restructured a team of Z people in 6 months.” No adverbs. Facts. Measurable impacts. The CEO does not manage intentions, he manages results.
THE CIO or the tech referent ????
Special case in 2025. Many are stuck with AI. They know that the world is changing quickly and that their stack from yesterday may already be obsolete. Don’t impress them with jargon. Reassure them of your ability to learn quickly, to structure the implementation, to work with technical teams without bypassing them.
What is common to all: a terrible fear of making a mistake
Recruiting means betting 6 months of minimum salary on a person. It’s a real, assumed, visible risk. Each of your interlocutors is afraid of betting on the wrong person — in credibility, in energy, sometimes in position.
Your role in the interview: reassure each of them. Not seduce them. Reassure them.
4. 3 golden rules that no one respects
Short. Simple. Decisive.
• Don’t talk too much. 60/40 rule: the recruiter should speak 60% of the time, you 40%. If you talk anymore, you are drowning. The best interviews are the ones where you asked the right questions — not the ones where you said everything.
• Prepare just one question — the right one. Not “what are the prospects for development?” (this is the question from someone who is already thinking about leaving). The real question, the one that shows you’ve worked on the subject: “The position was created or vacated — what went wrong before?” Silence guaranteed. And immediate respect.
• Address everyone in the room. Including the person who doesn’t speak. Including the one looking at her phone. Look, first name if you have it, direct inclusion in the conversation. The decisions of recruitment are often taken behind closed doors, and it is often the one who has been ignored who vetoes them.
5. The base that everyone forgets: the desire to want!
We can optimize the pitch, prepare the interlocutors, work on non-verbal skills, master the DISC. But if you haven’t worked on what you really want to do beforehand, it shows. In interviews, energy doesn’t lie.
The common base of all your contacts – HR, CEO, IT department – is the mission of the company and the reality of the position. If it’s not aligned with what you really want to build, you’re in the wrong place.
The data is clear: over 4 interviews, candidates who apply this method increase their chances of getting an offer by 3. But the method does not replace the desire. She amplifies it.
Bonus ???? hello Sébastien!
It’s June 1st and today he starts his new job in his native region, in a beautiful mid-sized company. What more could you ask for? This is exactly why we do this job.
Great Bonus ???? Shut up!
Do you know the famous “Shut up, Elkabbach” — everyone believes in it, everyone cites the scene, but it never existed. Some recruitment advice is exactly the same: urban legends recycled by people who haven’t recruited for 10 years, or who have never gotten their hands dirty. My advice: move on.*
* Ref: INA / Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, “Shut up Elkabbach!”, Flammarion, 1992.
