An employment interview is a place to be liked. Unless you're likeable, you won't be hireable.
On my first day as an employment interviewer, I was warned to avoid the "halo effect." Twenty-five years later, I still can't tell you how to do this. The halo effect is a phenomenon that occurs when the interviewer identifies with the candidate. Once it happens, he or she can't do or say anything wrong. He or she is hopelessly hired. The halo effect gives you a psychological advantage that will zap any interviewer into submission within seconds.
As I wrote in How to Turn an Interview into a Job:
The formula for your ammunition is carefully secreted within the July 1979 issue of Psychology Today, If you want to learn its detailed ingredients, go directly to your local public library, find it, and turn to page 66. There it is: "People Who Read People," by Daniel Goleman. The ammunition is known as "pacing."
Pacing is an accepted psychological technique which has been developed to increase rapport with others. It stems from an even more powerful law of human motivation: WE LIKE PEOPLE WHO ARE LIKE OURSELVES. If you think about it, our entire hiring process is guided by this law. So is almost every other human decision we make about others, including voting, selection of spouses and friends, television and radio choices, product purchases, etc. For our highly specialized purpose, it means aligning yourself with the overworked and underpaid interviewer, and then leading (steering) him al most imperceptibly, but irresistibly, into extending the offer.
I use pacing all the time in court proceedings, administrative hearings, negotiations, and other difficult situations. You can win the ones you thought were lost if you know how to do it properly. I introduced the concept of pacing to placement services in my seminars.... It has been so effective in influencing hiring authorities, that many of them have incorporated the techniques... in their standard operating procedures. It even works over the telephone____ simply must have a common ground before you can move toward a mutual goal.*
Dennis Waitley stated in The Psychology of Winning:
Perhaps the most important key to the permanent enhancement of self-esteem is the practice of positive self talk. Every waking moment we must feed our subconscious self-images, positive thoughts about ourselves and our performances ... so relentlessly and vividly that our self-images are in time modified to conform to the new, higher standards.
Current research on the effect of words and images on the functions of the body offers amazing evidence of the power that words, spoken at random, can have on body functions monitored on bio-feedback equipment... that's why winners rarely "put themselves down" in actions or words.®
The list includes the most powerful words used by copy writers to sell goods and services. That's what you're doing, too. Selling yourself and your assistance to the highest bidder. Write copy that tells-and sells.
The best way to learn tie-down questioning techniques is the same way you rehearse your script for the interview. You write down all the tie-down lines you can use during the inter view, then read them into a tape recorder and play them back once or twice a day-every day-to implant them into your sub conscious. They'll pop out automatically when you need them. After about a week of this exercise, the tie-down technique will come naturally to you. You can begin your dialogue with a general question, such as:
"National Manufacturing leads the market with this product, doesn't it's
Then hone in for the win with questions such as:
"Wouldn't it be interesting to work for a supervisor like that?"
And, finally:
"Shouldn't I give notice?"
Remember: Overuse of questions will make you sound like you're auditioning for a game show rather than taking a screen test. Use them sparingly for best results.
Find an area of agreement, and lead slowly and carefully to the offer.
When you hear a positive comment, such as "This is the kind of experience we need," lean forward slightly in your seat, smile, and try one of these:
"My background fits this position very well." "We have a good match here." "This looks like a long-term situation." "I'm excited about the position." "Everything looks good."
These statements gently "close" the interviewer with class. He or she doesn't know and doesn't care whether you're using closing techniques. What matters is that you're a qualified candidate who knows how to perform on the set.
Over 65 percent of all candidates don't know how to handle a compliment. They're so ready to "overcome objections" that they're unprepared when a favorable response occurs. When the interviewer says something like, "These are really impressive credentials," you should look pleased, smile, and say, "Thank you. It's been great developing my career. I'd like to continue doing so at Training Dimensions."
It may not be easy, but it's essential. A successful interview is a positive performance. Remember what I said about the words used by winners? They work.
If you are negative, you "negate" yourself. The interviewer perceives you as a malcontent who will do the same in your new job. You're associated with your present (or former) employer's success or failure, too. You were there, weren't you? If it succeeded, what did you contribute? If it failed, why didn't you make it succeed? Even if your former employer was a loser, accentuate the positive.
