Job Interview Tips

Many years ago when I hated what I was doing for a living I was encouraged by my career coach to write 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 a ton of interview questions to learn answers to. The big problem with this is that an interview is not an interrogation. It's a conversation. To make it that way you need to come armed. Arm yourself with a multitude of small stories about both your business life and your 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 have your stories rehearsed and ready to go.

This is especially great for the competency-based interview that's 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".

Half of a competency-based interview will focus on your job skills. The other half on your behavioral competencies. The interviewer 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.

Here is What a Company Wants to Find Out About You:

1. Are you an asset or liability, in other words, will you either make money or save money for the company.

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 loners or prima donnas)

The best way to do that is to take the initiative and have several personal stories that you can tell. Spend maybe a half minute to 90 seconds on each.

You may want to start by developing your stories around these areas:

Several times where you either made money or saved money for your current or previous company.

Focus on a crisis or two in your life or job and how you responded or recovered from it.

A time where you functioned as a part of a team and what that contribution was.

A time in your career or job where you had to deal with stress.

A time in your job where you provided successful leadership or a sense of direction.

The failures you faced in your job and how you overcame them.

The seminal events that happened during your career that caused 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!