Wow Them at Your Next Interview!

Posted by in Career Advice


Job interviews can be a wonderful opportunity to market your unique skills and experience. Sure, they can be stressful and cause all sorts of anxiety, but they are a crucial step in the hiring process. Because you're only given one chance to impress a hiring manager, being able to handle the nervousness and present yourself in the best light possible is so important.

 

According to Harvard Business Review, there are several things that you can do to maximize your efforts and wow an interviewer. Here are a few of them:

 

Be prepared – Before going on an interview, you should research the company and have some ideas about where the company is headed and how you see yourself fitting in or helping them reach their goals. If possible, you should even research specific job-related challenges and have a plan to cope with them. It's also a good idea to prepare your answers for some of the more commonly asked interview questions so that you won't end up rambling and forget to mention important points.

 

Have a strategy – Having a strategy is crucial during an interview. From the moment the interview is scheduled, you should be thinking about why you are the right person for the job and why they should hire you. Use your key points to create your marketing pitch. Once you have a strategy in place, the success of your interview won't be dependent on luck.

 

Don't just be yourself – So many of my friends say that when they go on an interview, they simply try to be themselves and answer questions honestly, without having anything planned. It sounds like a good idea, but during a job interview, no one expects you to be yourself. I'm not saying that you should pretend to be someone else, I'm only suggesting that you try to be the best version of yourself. Muster up all of your excitement and enthusiasm and allow the interviewer to see who you are at your best.

 

Plan your first 30 seconds – There's no way to know about the interviewer's personality or they way that you will react to them before the interview. By planning out your first 30 seconds, you can get things off to a good start. This will prevent you from having jitters and will calm your nerves.

 

Be flexible – Interviews can take place almost anywhere. Sometimes there is only one other person in the room and other times, you'll be interviewing with a panel of people. Try to remain flexible and roll with whatever happens. Pay attention to the interviewer and, if things take a wrong turn, try to put them back on track.

 

Know when it's not going well – I think that everyone has had an interview that didn't go well. When you begin to feel it happening, try to adjust your approach and redirect the conversation. Don't take it personally or spend the rest of your time agonizing over mistakes. Instead, let it go and say something like, “I'm not sure that I'm giving you what you need.”. By judging the interviewer's reaction, you can take steps to turn it around.

 

Job interviews aren't difficult, they simply require a well thought out strategy. With preparation and a game plan, you can improve your chances at landing the job and impress a hiring manager with your enthusiasm and professionalism.

 

What do you do to prepare for an interview? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

 

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  • Melissa Kennedy
    Melissa Kennedy
    Thanks for the feedback, Judith and Ilona.
  • Judith M
    Judith M
    I think this was all good advice.
  •  Ilona J
    Ilona J
    Thank you.  Very thoughtful!
  • Melissa Kennedy
    Melissa Kennedy
    @Beth - It stinks when that happens. Although, in some industries, it happens more than others, don't be discouraged. If nothing else, it was good practice.@Mary - Sometimes the chemistry is just off. It's hard to say why. Maybe the interviewer is inexperienced or they just aren't into you. Sometimes, you just aren't able to charm them. It happens to the best of us and I just take it as a sign that it wasn't the right job and move forward.
  • William B
    William B
    Always good to hear different way of explaining job interview situations.It was very helpful.
  • Beth S
    Beth S
    There is a lot of great information for preparing for interviews and questions that are generally asked. I have experienced a situation before where I was completely prepared, and had great answers to the questions and my qualifications and experience was more than suffice but the interviewer already knew that anyone that interviewed for that position wasn't going to get it no matter how good he/she was due to the fact this person wanted their friend to have the position. To me that is completely unfair and people like that should not be hiring material esp. when its clearly biased.
  • Alice M
    Alice M
    I think that what happened to  Mary was probably due to an inexperienced interviewer. I think that Melissa suggestion for establishing a sales pitch/strategy is a great idea. Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot. Imagine if you were the hiring manager, what you would use to pick out a candidate.
  • Mary F
    Mary F
    I had an interview where I could tell things weren't going well, and I kept asking, "Is this the information you are looking for?"  They responded that it was great, but I could tell that I wasn't the person they wanted.At this point, I wanted to just say, "Look, obviously I'm not the kind of person you are looking for, so why don't I quit wasting your time and mine."I have told myself that that is a sure way not  to get the job, but I get tired of trying to figure out what the interviewers want.I tend to think that part of the problem with a poor interview is that the interviewers don't know how to communicate their needs or let you know early on in the interview that you don't fit their profile.All the advice in the world won't help if you just don't fit the mold, and the interviewers don't know how to end the interview politely.Our society (for all its uproar about being "PC") has lost its ability to speak frankly, and with manners.
  • Melissa Kennedy
    Melissa Kennedy
    Thanks @Nathaniel for the comment!
  • Nathaniel W
    Nathaniel W
    This make a lot of sense i like it thank Melissa

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