Think about the last time you took part in a sport, whether it was golf or tennis or bowling. Or played bridge. You were per-forming there, too, and yet you were being yourself. You were playing a role, whether of golfer, tennis player, bowler, or bridge player.
A job interview is a game because it represents a reality within a reality. It has rules. It asks the people involved with it to play certain roles. The person who interviews you is a person, not an interviewer: he or she is playing the role of interviewer. And you are not a job candidate: you are a person who, in this particular situation, is playing the role of job candidate.
Appreciate the job interview situation in these role-playing terms, and it will help you immeasurably when it comes to presenting the best side of yourself in an interview. Understand the game. Understand the role you must play in it. You're not faking or being insincere when you play this role the way it should be played. The game, after all, is real-and so must the role you play in it be.
The best way to play this role is to be the person the role calls for. Who gets the job? Our surveys show that the single most influential factor in the job interview situation is not your experience or your qualification, but your personality-how you present yourself during the interview. How you look, how you communicate your ideas, how well you listen, how much enthusiasm you generate.
You have a personality, for better or worse, and it's not a fixed personality. I know boisterous people who are often subdued, and I know painfully shy people who, under the right set of circumstances, can become outlandishly outgoing. You have a great deal of range within your own personality. Chances are you don't have to change anything about yourself when you go into a job interview: you simply have to present the best and most saleable side of that personality.
How Role Playing Can Work for You
If you don't already have one, buy or get hold of a cassette tape recorder. You can probably get one for $25 or even less. Don't worry too much about the sound quality: you're not going to be recording any piano concertos on it. (If you own or have access to a video camera and playback machine, that's even better.)
Once you get it, conduct this little experiment. Find a quiet spot in your house and pretend for a moment that you're on a job interview and you are asked, as often happens at such interviews, to "tell us something about yourself." Turn the tape recorder on and talk into it for three or four minutes, free associating as you go.
Now play it back and listen. Really listen. What if you didn't know the person whose voice you're listening to? What conclusions would you draw about this person, based on the comments alone? Would you consider the person sure of himself or herself, perceptive, articulates? If your answer is definitely yes, you probably have no problem presenting yourself. My guess, though, is that you'll be a little disappointed by what you hear.
Don't be. Unless you have special training or are in a field that requires you to be "on" a lot of the time, there's no reason why you should be especially impressive or effective at "selling yourself." Don't be dismayed. You have time to get better at it.
Now I'd like you to try the same exercise again, but this time, I want you to play a role. I want you to play the role of a confident person. It doesn't matter whether you are or aren't a confident person. You know what confidence is and what a confident person sounds like: behave like one into the tape recorder.
Overdo it
When you play the tape back a second time, you're going to be surprised. You will sound confident. What's more, you should be able to recognize a difference between the confidence level of certain things you say and the confidence level of other things.
Do one more thing. Think for a moment about all the points that, in your judgment, make you the best candidate to be hired. Write them down. In fact, go back to the notes you used in drafting your resume. Once you have a half-dozen or so of these qualities, talk them into the tape recorder, mentioning the quality first-i.e., "I'm a very hard worker"-and then saying a few words to back the statement up.
Now play it back and evaluate it. How believable did you sound? If you were an interviewer and this tape were all you had to judge by, how would you evaluate the person you're listening to? Just as important, what might you do to make that person more believable?
Working with a tape recorder in this way does wonders. I know because I've used one myself in preparing for television and radio appearances. I don't memorize anything. I simply interview myself. I ask questions; I give answers. Then I listen and evaluate myself.
Rehearse your part in the job interview. When you're alone in your car, answer questions aloud-with or without a tape recorder. Take your time; be as articulate as you can.
The beauty of this approach is that you are making the changes consistent with your personality and consistent with what you're comfortable with. But don't force it. Be yourself- just a more convincing, confident, and articulate version of yourself.
