Credibility
To interview effectively, you must convey your credibility. You accomplish this by showing that you are truthful, sincere, and genuine. The great benefit of credibility is that, once it's established, whatever you say from that point on tends to be believed. In fact, what you say will be believed unless you give the employer a reason to doubt you. That's why you should do nothing to jeopardize your credibility. Consider, for example, how you might answer the question, "What is your biggest weakness?" Once you lose your credibility, everything you said before and everything you say after will come under greater scrutiny and there will always be an element of doubt about you. This is not the way to start a relationship. So do everything possible to establish credibility, and then do nothing to lose it.
Project and Sell a Winning Personality
On a conscious and subconscious level, employers will be evaluating your personality and asking, "Do I like this person and will we work well together?" When considering two people with equal qualifications, the one with the most pleasing personality will always be hired. A job is similar to marriage-the two of you may "live" together for many years. Work will be a lot more enjoyable if you like and respect each other.
Your goal during the interview is to reveal as many positive at tributes as possible. While your competitors are busy merely describing their technical strengths, you will be selling your personality skills as well as your technical skills.
Sell Exposure
If you know you lack certain skills or experience, look for ways to sell your exposure. In an interview your order of priority is:
- Sell the experience you have that is identical or nearly identical to what is being sought;
- Sell your related or similar experience; and
- Sell exposure.
People don't get hired because of their exposure to certain skills, but exposure can tip the balance scale just enough to make the difference. When all you have to sell is exposure to a skill, do not apologize. Rather, move straight ahead and make the most out of what you have to offer.
Safe Answers
Base your answers on what you have already learned about the job and your prospective boss. Say you have twenty strengths that you are prepared to discuss during an interview, but you quickly realize that four of them would simply not sell you in this particular job with this particular supervisor. Naturally you would choose not to mention those four, but would sell the other sixteen at every opportunity. That is safe and prudent.
You may be a person who relishes independence on the job. Yet when asked what your job-related needs are, you might choose not to mention this because you have sensed that this employer likes to maintain close contact with employees.
Sell Yourself at Every Opportunity
One principle in interviewing is to always go for it. When the job you are interviewing for is fully described, and it seems to be less than what you really want, go for the offer anyway. People often consciously or unconsciously sabotage one's own efforts, and as a result, don't get asked back for a second interview. Sabotaging your efforts means that, somehow, you have failed to do your best. Consciously or unconsciously, your answers are not as sharp, not as well thought out, the zip in your voice is missing. The interviewer picks up on these cues.
You might indicate at the end of the interview that the job is not a good match. If you are highly interested in the company, however, or would especially like to work for this person, say so. There may be nothing else available right now, but the perfect job could materialize during the next six months, and you might be the prime candidate. If the person is impressed, she may refer you to someone else in the company who could use your talents. There is always the possibility that the job could be changed to suit you better. None of these positive things can happen if you stop selling yourself or fail to respond as best you can.
Show What You Can Do For Them
One of the biggest turnoffs for employers is the candidate who seems self-centered and cares only about what the company can do for him or her. Employment is certainly a two-way street and there must be give and take, but during the interview the emphasis must he on how you can benefit the organization.
Answering Ambiguous Questions
Employers often ask questions that can be interpreted in more than one way. Examples could be, "What is the biggest mistake you ever made?" or "What was the biggest crisis you ever experienced?" In both, it is unclear whether the employer wants job-related experiences or personal experiences. It is better not to ask for clarification. Take a direction that is easier for you, safer, or will show you in a better light. Take, for example, the question about your biggest mistake. It may be easiest and wisest to simply mention a personal experience. The employer can always come back and ask the question again if more information is desired. But at least you gave an honest answer. Usually, if you give a good answer, the person will be satisfied and will go on to the next question.
Excite an Employer
You can genuinely get an employer excited about you. You do so by demonstrating that you can do any or all of the following:
- make money for the organization;
- save money for the organization;
- solve problems the employer is facing; and
- reduce the level of stress and pressure the employer is under.
Strange Questions
Sometimes you'll get questions which are really hard to prepare for, such as, "If you were an animal, which animal would you like to be?" Don't panic with this type of question. Clearly, there is no right or wrong answer. The interviewer is observing you to see how you handle unusual things. Don't over analyze it. In this case, you would simply think of an animal and explain why you would like to be that animal.
A client of mine was once asked to take the recruiter through a typical day at work. He was asked how he knew what to do, how he knew it was time to go home, how he felt when people doubted him, and what types of people intimidated him. Because these are unusual questions, it is impossible to prepare for them. You need to be so well-prepared and knowledgeable about yourself that you will always be able to come up with a good response, even to questions you didn't anticipate.
Attitudes
How you approach an interview and the attitudes you adopt will have a tremendous impact on your success at interviewing. There are three attitudes that can destroy your interviewing effectiveness: being apologetic or defensive, providing inappropriate information, and expressing anti-business feelings.
Know How to Deal With Probing Questions
The key to handling probing questions is to eliminate the necessity of being asked such questions. Probes occur because the interviewer is not satisfied with the information obtained. The interviewer may follow up with another question simply because the answer was incomplete, or because the interviewer believes you may be withholding something. Your challenge is to provide enough information to satisfy the interviewer, but not supply so much information that it hurts you. Probing questions might arise around such issues as your weak nesses, why you were terminated, or why you've had four jobs in the last five years. Clearly, you can't score points with questions like these, so the tendency is to provide an extremely brief answer. If interviewers suspect you're avoiding something, however, they often go for the jugular. An interviewer could ask three or four additional probing questions and use up 10-15 precious minutes doing it.
Several approaches can help you pre-empt probing questions. For example, you should know in advance what questions could potentially hurt you. If you were recently fired, you know what the difficult question will be. When you've decided which questions might hurt you, practice your responses. Avoid sounding evasive, anxious, or defensive in your answers. Provide enough information to satisfy a normal person. Share things which you feel the person might be able to relate to.
