Too many interviewees approach the job interview anxious because of the possibility of being asked a tough question that would create an awkward situation. The good news is that you do not have to go through your interviews this way. Now is the time to turn your reactive approach to interviewing into a proactive strategy to find success in the interview.
Do Your Research
The first step to doing well in the interview is to do your research about the company and the position you are being interviewed for. This step provides the critical foundation for everything that follows. Without an awareness of the company and the position, you will truly be at a disadvantage during the interview.
When researching a firm, do not merely look at the clear and obvious points made about the company. Rather, look for interesting and less obvious talking points to bring up. For example:
Did the company recently open a new office somewhere?
Has the firm just started a new department?
Was the company recently mentioned in the media?
These kinds of points can prove to be very valuable during an interview. Bringing them up in a natural, logical and reasonable way will show that you have prepared for the interview. Otherwise, sticking them into a conversation just to get them in, looks phony and insincere, and will hurt you.
Find Out What They Are Looking For
Too many job applicants look at a job posting thinking about how they fit the description. Why not look at how the posting fits you? You can do this by figuring out what traits are sought by the job description. Do they want a diligent person who is organized? Perhaps they seem to focus on finding a flexible person who is innovative. Maybe they really seem to want someone who is willing to try new things in new ways. Whatever the skills sought, they are there. However, they are not there with a siren next to them. Rather, the skills are to be inferred from what is said during the interview and the impression created by what is said. Try using examples of experiences you have had in the past.
When you are asked "Tell me about yourself," you will tell one of those brief stories from past experiences that illustrate the particular skill in mind, yet never tell the interviewer this directly.
Planting the Seed in Their Mind
You do not want to come up with the connections between yourself and the job in question. Many people try to do this for half an hour and call that a job interview. Instead, you want to plant the ideas in the interviewer's mind that he or she is discovering the perfect candidate for this job. Many people think that the job interview is about showing the interviewer what a diamond in the rough you are. Actually, it is far better for you to plant the diamond in such a way that the interviewers cannot help but discover it for themselves and offer you the position.
Do not approach interviews the way many people do: fishing for a job. Rather, start approaching those interviews as a planter, placing the seeds of connection between the job offered and yourself in the mind of the interviewer, and then let them take all the credit for finding the next great employee for the company. The interviewer gets the credit and you get the job. Most job seekers will take that exchange any day of the week. =
To start the process, visit the SCDC in NVC 2-150.
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