151. Get Hired: How the Right Communication Can Advance Your Career with Andrew Seaman
- Aisha Washington
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
Landing a job depends on more than having the right credentials. Candidates must also make their experience understandable, relevant, and memorable to the people making hiring decisions. In this conversation, Andrew Seaman examines how communication shapes nearly every stage of a career—from a recruiter’s first look at an online profile to the questions a candidate asks at the end of an interview.
His central message is that career communication should be active and intentional. A strong candidate does not merely list accomplishments and hope an employer recognizes their significance. They build connections, prepare useful stories, respond thoughtfully in the moment, and explain how their experience can solve the employer’s problems. These habits matter during a job search, but they also support professional growth long after someone is hired.
Your Professional Presence Begins Before the Interview
An employer’s impression of a candidate often starts well before a formal conversation. A LinkedIn profile, public posts, comments, and other visible activity can collectively show what a person understands, values, and wants to contribute.
Seaman encourages professionals to treat their online presence as a living representation of their interests rather than a static digital résumé. Posting about developments in an industry, sharing thoughtful observations about one’s work, or discussing genuine professional interests can help others understand what the person brings to a community.
Consistency matters more than constant self-promotion. Useful participation might include explaining a lesson learned from a project, adding context to an industry discussion, or asking a question that moves a conversation forward. When commenting on someone else’s post, the aim should be to contribute—not simply to become visible.
This distinction is important because professional communities can recognize the difference between engagement and opportunism. A comment that introduces a relevant example or perspective demonstrates both expertise and generosity. Repetitive praise or unrelated self-advertising rarely does.
Online credibility is also shaped by tone. A polished profile cannot fully compensate for careless, combative, or dismissive interactions elsewhere. The broader pattern of a person’s digital behavior communicates how they may behave as a colleague.
Think of Networking as Concentric Circles
Networking can feel artificial when it is treated as a race to collect contacts. Seaman offers a more practical model: imagine a career as a series of concentric circles.
The innermost circle includes people already close to your work—current and former colleagues, classmates, collaborators, managers, and mentors. A wider circle contains people across your organization or the broader workforce. Beyond that is the professional community connected by a field, craft, or shared interest.
This framework makes networking less intimidating because it begins with relationships that already exist. Career growth does not always require approaching influential strangers. Reconnecting with a former teammate, participating in an internal community, or exchanging ideas with another practitioner can create meaningful opportunities.
Each circle can support a different form of development. Close contacts may offer detailed feedback because they know your work. People in adjacent roles can expose you to new career paths. A larger professional community can reveal trends, emerging skills, and opportunities outside your immediate environment.
The healthiest networks are reciprocal. Professionals should not appear only when they need an introduction or referral. Sharing information, recognizing others’ work, and maintaining occasional contact create relationships that can endure beyond a single job search.
Interviewing Is a Skill, Not a Personality Test
Seaman emphasizes that interviewing improves through preparation and repetition. Even accomplished professionals may struggle to discuss their work under pressure if they have not practiced translating experience into concise, relevant stories.
Candidates can prepare by studying the organization and the role, then identifying several themes they want the interviewer to remember. Those themes might include leadership during uncertainty, cross-functional collaboration, technical judgment, customer empathy, or the ability to learn quickly.
The next step is to assemble concrete examples that support those themes. A useful collection should include successes, setbacks, difficult decisions, conflicts, and moments of growth. Preparing multiple examples reduces the temptation to force one familiar story into every answer.
Preparation, however, should not become a memorized performance. Interviews can take unexpected turns, and candidates must remain present enough to answer the question actually being asked. The goal is to know one’s evidence well while retaining the flexibility to adapt it.
Employers share responsibility for interview quality. Seaman argues that hiring managers should learn how to conduct effective interviews rather than assume the ability comes automatically with managerial authority. A strong interview is a two-way conversation that helps both parties evaluate the match. It should not be a monologue about the vacancy or an obstacle course of disconnected questions.
Connect Every Example to the Employer’s Needs
A candidate may tell an impressive story and still leave the interviewer wondering why it matters. Communication becomes persuasive when the candidate explicitly links an example to the requirements of the position.
That link should not be left to inference. After describing a project, candidates can briefly state what the experience demonstrates and how the lesson applies to the prospective role. This final step converts biography into evidence.
For example, leading a delayed project is not relevant merely because it was difficult. Its value may lie in how the candidate clarified ownership, communicated risk, negotiated priorities, or rebuilt trust. Naming that relevance helps the interviewer understand the transferable capability.
This practice is especially valuable for career changers. Their previous job titles may not resemble the target role, but their underlying skills can still fit. By connecting the dots, they give the employer a clear interpretation rather than expecting a recruiter to reconstruct the argument.
The same principle applies to résumé writing. Seaman recommends using a strong summary near the top to establish the reader’s frame of reference. A concise summary can identify the candidate’s professional identity, strongest qualifications, and intended direction before the reader encounters the detailed chronology.
Use Attention, Desire, and Direction
One framework discussed in the conversation is the ADD method: Attention, Desire, and Direction. It offers a simple way to organize communication so that an audience can follow and remember it.
First, gain attention by beginning with what is most relevant to the listener. In a job-search context, that could be a pressing business need, an unusual accomplishment, or a clear statement of professional value.
Next, create desire by showing why the information matters. Evidence, specificity, and a connection to the organization’s priorities help the listener see the potential benefit.
Finally, provide direction. Make the next step or central takeaway clear. In an interview answer, direction might mean explaining how the experience prepares you for the role. In a networking message, it might be a focused request for a short conversation rather than a vague appeal for help.
ADD is useful because career communication often fails through poor structure rather than weak substance. Candidates may possess excellent experience but bury the important point beneath background details. A deliberate sequence helps the audience understand both the message and its purpose.
The Interview Includes Every Interaction
Candidates sometimes treat only the scheduled interview as evaluative. In practice, their responsiveness, punctuality, preparation, and treatment of others can all affect the hiring process.
Seaman advises paying attention to the complete experience. A thoughtful response to a scheduling email communicates reliability. Arriving prepared shows respect. Listening carefully and adjusting to the conversation demonstrates presence. These signals help an employer imagine what it would be like to work with the person.
Presence also means noticing what the moment requires. A candidate who is committed to delivering a rehearsed answer may miss an interviewer’s concern or fail to recognize an opportunity for a deeper conversation. Strategic communication is not simply executing a script; it involves listening, interpreting, and responding.
When the interviewer asks whether the candidate has questions, the answer should be more ambitious than “No.” This moment can reveal judgment and curiosity. One option is to ask about the most difficult aspects of the position or the concerns that could prevent someone from succeeding. Another is to ask what the interviewer wishes they had understood before joining the organization.
Questions like these can uncover expectations that do not appear in the job description. They also help the candidate assess the employer rather than treating any offer as an unquestioned victory.
Follow Up by Continuing the Conversation
A thank-you note is most effective when it builds on a genuine connection established during the interview. Instead of sending a generic expression of gratitude, candidates can mention a specific topic, reinforce a relevant qualification, or respond to an issue raised during the discussion.
Follow-up can also repair an imperfect moment. If a candidate realizes that an answer was unclear, omitted an important example, or created a misunderstanding, a concise email offers an opportunity to clarify the point. The message should add value without trying to replay the entire interview.
This approach reframes follow-up as continuity rather than ceremony. The candidate is not merely complying with etiquette; they are demonstrating attention and strengthening the professional exchange.
Timing and tone remain important. A useful note is prompt, specific, and restrained. Excessive messages or pressure for an immediate decision can undermine the positive impression the candidate hopes to preserve.
Authenticity, Truth, and Humor Build Trust
The discussion points to Walter Cronkite as an example of a communicator admired for steadiness and commitment to journalism, particularly during difficult moments. The example reinforces a broader idea: credibility depends on how a person shows up when the stakes are high.
Seaman identifies genuineness, truthfulness, and humor as foundational ingredients in effective communication. Authenticity helps communication feel human rather than manufactured. Truthfulness provides the trust on which professional relationships depend. Humor, used carefully, can reduce tension and create connection.
Humor is not a license to perform or provoke. In the workplace, it works best when it grows naturally from the speaker’s personality and respects the people present. Without authenticity and honesty, humor can feel manipulative. Without awareness of context, it can distract or alienate.
Candidates do not need to become entertainers. They do need to communicate as recognizable people. Appropriate warmth, curiosity, and lightness can make an exchange more memorable while allowing competence to remain at the center.
Take an Active Role in Your Career
The ideas throughout the conversation converge on four qualities: authenticity, presence, connection, and responsiveness. Together, they describe a professional who understands their own value while remaining attentive to other people’s needs.
Taking an active role means curating an honest professional presence, investing in relationships before needing assistance, practicing interviews, preparing evidence, and asking questions that improve mutual understanding. It also means adapting when a conversation changes rather than clinging to a predetermined script.
None of these practices guarantees a particular job. They do, however, give candidates greater influence over how their experience is understood. The right communication cannot replace capability, but it can prevent capability from remaining invisible—and help turn a hiring process into the beginning of a durable professional relationship.
