Interview prep is as significant as your resume when you’re trying to get a job. Hiring managers conduct hundreds of interviews throughout their careers. Your unpreparedness will be easily spotted by these managers as soon as you enter the interview room.
Thea Kelley has extensive experience in career coaching. She also authored Get That Job! The Quick and Complete Guide to a Winning Interview. She recently conversed with me and was kind enough to open up on prepping for an interview:
1. Be Real
Don’t prepare for an interview as though it is a car crash impact that you are bracing yourself for. As a candidate, just prepare for a conversation. Hiring managers can tell how guarded you are immediately you enter the interview room. This isn’t a great first impression.
Kelley states that it’s crucial for the interviewer to feel as though he or she is connecting with you as a person. Even as you let your guard down, you should still refrain from speaking as though you are a job-seeking machine. Learn to be confident during interviews.
Kelley dislikes the use of terms such as ‘I possess the ability…’. For crying out loud, who even talks like that in an interview?
2. Simplify Your Language
Using a few industry jargons to show how knowledgable you are is okay. However, don’t memorize large vocabularies that will seem unnatural when you use them. If possible, try answering questions with the simplest and more direct language.
I fancy the use of a recorder with coaching clients. This enables them to hear how they speak, their grammar, and tone. Correction measures can be instituted, if need be, once they’ve heard themselves speak. During an interview, all aspects of your presentation will be scrutinized. Close attention is required when practising.
3. Showcase Your Emotional Intelligence
Kelley says that emotions can be helpful during job interviews.
You can demonstrate how passionate and enthusiastic you are by simply telling stories. Using a little appropriate humour can go a long way rather than bluntly answering questions. The interviewer can easily envision being with you in the same office for eight hours every day.
4. Relax
According to Kelley, world-class athletes pocketing millions of dollars use their time to master relaxation techniques. You can go ahead and learn these techniques before going for an interview. Kelley recommends imagining yourself being interviewed. Your responses to this visualized interview need to be authentic.
5. Narrate Vivid Stories For You To Be Unforgettable
Narrate stories for you to build connections with interviewers in ways data can’t. Conversation and relationships are fostered by stories rather than an interrogative session. Stories can also help you manoeuvre around the interviewer’s questions while still generating a conversation.
Kelley maintains that your expertise or fit won’t simply be displayed by a list of attributes. You should be able to illustrate the relevance of your experience. Your qualifications seem real to the interviewer once you start offering vivid and concrete examples.
Interviewing isn’t all about passing a test. It should be about capturing the imagination of the interviewer, being real, and establishing connections.
