coming across as 'too serious' in job interviews

[thunderbee]

Hello,
I wonder if anyone here could advise, or has experience of something similar?

I lost my relatively senior role in November as the company shed a significant number of staff to stay afloat, and I have been lucky enough to get a few interviews elsewhere over the last few months, but no job offers so far.

The feedback from my last two interviews was that I fitted the bill in terms of experience and skills, but that I came across as very serious/earnest and that the interviewers wondered whether I have a sense of humour! and I've found it really hard to work out what I could do about this. I mean, job interviews are serious stuff, and cracking jokes or being flippant to a panel online just seems to me to be a really bad idea.

I don't work in a creative sector, I'm not applying to be a stand up comedian (!), and the roles that I'm applying for are pretty senior management level - lots of strategic stuff. In none of the jobs has GSOH been part of the person spec...I do smile lots, and try to be relaxed and exude warmth as far as you can across a screen. And I genuinely do have a sense of humour!

Does anyone have any tips, or anyone here a recruiter who can tell me what I'm doing wrong, and how I could approach remedying this?

Thanks for any help or ideas anyone can give; I need to crack getting another role pretty soon before the savings run dry...

How are you at small talk? Do you make sure you have questions to ask the panel at the end? Do you show yourself as authentic through your answers and actions? Also, this one shouldn't be the case but do you know enough about the teams/organisations to know if you would 'fit'? Are you reaching out to vacancy holders before applying and informally introducing yourself and asking questions (not seen as appropriate in all areas, but necessary in others)?

Thank you Dinosauraddict, that's good food for thought. In one case I had a half hour informal chat ahead of the interview with the person who would be my line manager. I thought it went well; he was pleasant, I was pleasant (I think!), and we discussed some interesting stuff. I don't generally reach out before the actual interview, as this feels quite pushy, but I think I show myself as authentic on the day. I am quite values driven and focused; I don't tend to waffle and tend to give quite structured answers when I'm thinking out loud in answer to questions - maybe that's what comes across as serious.

Small talk - I'm fine at this in real life, enjoy it, but I do find it a bit more challenging on screen. I do have questions to ask panels at the end, but they are not humourous or light hearted, so maybe I could do a bit more there to show a more relaxed persona.

But I think maybe you are right, perhaps the feedback is predominantly a way of saying that my fit to the working culture doesn't feel quite right to the panel; I had taken it a bit literally, and maybe the feedback is more about that?

You could be strategic and show more personality through one of your answers. If they ask one of those standard questions e.g. 'Can you think of a time when you made a mistake and had to put it right?' instead of talking about an office incident, I find one from my personal life - a sporting accident or mishap - one that shows an ability to tell an amusing anecdote and stay cheerful in adversity but that also shows you are a person who has a zest for life outside work. So long as the majority of your answers are work-based, taking one off in a more personal direction can show them who you are. (I do work in a creative field, though, so there may be more flexibility there.)

Interviews are formal but I’ve always cracked a little joke or made a lighthearted comment. 99% of the time the panel laugh and it eases some tension.

I had one interview where none of them cracked a smile and one panel member was gazing out the window. I decided there and then I didn’t want to work there!

@amusedbush

Interviews are formal but I’ve always cracked a little joke or made a lighthearted comment. 99% of the time the panel laugh and it eases some tension.

I had one interview where none of them cracked a smile and one panel member was gazing out the window. I decided there and then I didn’t want to work there!

Me too amused, I usually find a little light humour goes down fine, usually a little niche quip about a notoriously tricky piece of legislation in my field or something like that, not going to get me to headlining the Apollo or anything but a polite titter is usually raised by the panel and maybe they write down on their little sheets 'is human' or similar . I don't think that's inappropriate in a formal atmosphere at all, cracking dirty jokes or making 'that's what she said' type innuendo definitely not but a little safe humour usually fine!

One time though I was sat on a hard plastic school chair in the corridor outside the interview room waiting for the panel to finish with the previous candidate, I couldn't hear exactly what was being said but they were all absolutely roaring with laughter, you could hear huge guffaws all the way down the corridor, she must have been absolutely hilarious, they were having a whale of a time! I went in after her and found them very dry, absolutely stony faced and serious my whole interview - not even my very best material got them to crack a chuckle - tough crowd . Unsurprisingly I didn't get the job

They have to say something uncontroversial in their feedback. I’m not sure i would read too much into it.
If they could have said ‘the first choice candidate had more relevant experience ‘, they would have. I’d read it as you were up there with the top candidate, and they had to split a hair to decide who to offer the job to. Keep going. You sound great.

Thank you so much everyone, it's past midnight on a Saturday and look at you all giving such great advice. I'm really grateful - it actually has made me think about this a bit differently; there's definitely more I could do to make myself come across as a decent person to work with, and not just a set of strategic answers. I love the interview anecdotes too!
Was feeling quite stressed about this as it felt more like an assessment of my personality as defective, but you have given me great ideas and put it into perspective, and I understand a bit better now how I could approach this better.
Just need another interview now to put this into practice, fingers crossed! Thank you all again x

Id guess, if your more Borg when giving responses and not giving any emotions then it can come across as cold or icy, I guess even if the roles are ment to be professional, they are still people, and some have different versions of seriousness, so I guess the small talk and influence possibly may help.

A book id recommend is Dale Carnegie how to win friends and influence people, may be a good read

To be honest, I think there is a lot of bonkers feedback out there right now, probably because there are so many qualified candidates. It's really flipped from a sellers' to a buyers' market. I'd personally never give feedback around a person's 'seriousness' unless that was something I was measuring in the interview, like a behavioural or values based question. If you aren't specifically asking about it then you're not giving the candidate the chance to display it!

I very much suspect this feedback means 'you really ticked all the boxes but we found someone to do it for 10k less but we can't tell you that because you'll do us for age discrimination.'

You do you.