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At the Interview,
Don't Answer Questions
Also: How To Get a Job Offer
From Every Interview, Job Interview Preparation
- What Employers Are Looking For, Ten Tips to a
Job Winning
Interview
Do you hate it when an interview
seems like an interrogation? The best way to
avoid that is by telling your own stories
instead. Here's how to do that.
Many years ago when I hated what I was doing
for a living I was encouraged by my career coach
to write down several short stories about times
and events in my life where I influenced the
outcome. I was stumped at first, but after a few
days, I came up with over 15 pages of stories of
times in my life where I influenced the outcome
and either grew myself and/or bettered the
existence of either myself or others around me.
So
what does this have to do with a job interview?
If you read other books on job interviews,
you'll notice they feed you lists of interview
questions to learn answers to. An interview is
not an interrogation, however, it's a
conversation. To make it that way you need to
come armed with a multitude of small stories
about both your business and personal life.
When you go into an interview, you need to
leave your nerves at the door. The best way to
prepare is to be yourself. The best way to be
yourself is to tell your own story (or stories).
So before the interview have your stories ready
to go.
This is especially great for the
competency-based interview being used more
today. In a traditional interview, the
interviewer will ask you questions focused on
whether you have the skills and knowledge needed
to do the job. A competency-based interview goes
further by asking you additional questions about
your character and personal attributes that can
better determine whether you fit their corporate
culture. These are called "behavioral
competencies".
A competency-based interviewer will spend
about half the interview on your job skills, and
about half on your behavioral competencies. He
or she will be looking for evidence of how you
have acted in real situations in the past. So
having your stories ready to go plays very well
for this type of interview.
2. Are you a team player? Will you fit into
the corporate hierarchy or be like sand in the
gears? Can you take and give (if appropriate)
orders?
3. Will you fit into the company culture?
They don't want prima donnas.
The best way to do that is to take the
initiative and have several personal stories
that you can tell, taking maybe 30 to 90 seconds
each.
You may want to start by developing
your stories around these areas:
A. Times where you either made money or saved
money for your current or previous company.
B. A crisis in your life or job and how you
responded or recovered from it.
C. A time where you functioned as part of a
team and what your contribution was.
D. A time in your career or job where you had
to overcome stress.
E. A time in your job where you provided
successful leadership or a sense of direction.
F. A failure that occurred in your job and
how did you overcome it.
G. Any seminal events happened during your
career to cause you to change direction and how
that worked out for you.
I want to emphasize that an interview should
not be an interrogation. It should be a
conversation between two equals. When you
accomplish this you come away a step closer to
your goal of landing the job you really want,
because
It's the conversation that
wins an interview, and
It's the conversation that
wins the job
To have a conversation ,
have your stories ready.
Also: How To Get a Job Offer
From Every Interview, Job Interview Preparation
- What Employers Are Looking For, Ten Tips to a
Job Winning
Interview
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publishers are welcome to reprint articles
found on Job Interview Advice as long as
the author's byline appears intact and the email
and web address are hyperlinked. In addition,
the phrase Source:
Job-Interview-Advice.net
should appear after the author's byline
and should be hyperlinked as well.
Joe Turner makes it easy to quickly land that
next job. Learn insider job search tips from
top recruiters. To claim your free 6-part
Recruiter Secrets Minicourse, visit
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Source:
Job-Interview-Advice.net
Interviewers always ask candidates to reveal their job
interview weakness. Don't get caught providing the wrong
answer.
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