Once your resume is completed you will feel more confident and ready to present yourself during the interview. The onus of responsibility is on you to prove you are qualified and talented and have potential to bring value to the company. Most people are not as skilled at interviewing as they would like to be. They either have little interviewing experience because their career path has not required it or they have not spent the required time preparing and practicing. Good news - interviewing is a skill that can be built and developed.
Now is the time to adopt a marketing perspective to professionally and personally engage those who will assess your candidacy for a job with their company or organization. To effectively “brand” yourself, you have to know how to articulate your “features” and “benefits”. Although your language needs to align with your resume, it will not be enough to restate what is already in your resume. You will need to know yourself well and provide more detail, examples, illustrations and perspective and develop interest for the interviewer.
As with any product or service, you must be able to confidently speak to your “features” - education, training, skills, expertise, competencies, talent, knowledge, experience, values and style. You must be able to proudly speak to the “benefits” of your earlier experience – accomplishments, achievements, broadened perspective, solutions, contributions, results, impact and relationships. You should be objective about your challenges or gaps in education, experience and skills so that you can address them professionally, and without apology, should you be asked.
In the brief period of the scheduled interview, you are challenged with quickly building the foundation of a relationship, gaining the interest and trust of your interviewers, and convincing them that the package you offer will make you the viable, strong and desirable candidate for the position they hope to fill. Beyond the basics they will be assessing your confidence, listening and critical thinking skills, detail orientation, follow through, interpersonal skills, ability to work independently or as part of a team, time management, and other qualities for which they place a high value. At the end of the interview, they will be asking themselves and the team - can he/she do the job (skills), will he/she do the job (motivation) and will he/she fit well with the existing team. Candidates are also assessing for their "likeability".
With personal skilled coaching, dedicated practice and honest constructive feedback you will be prepared for the following:
- Information or networking interviews
- Recruitment or qualifying employment interviews
- Formal or informal one-to-one job interviews
- Telephone, video or Skype interviews
- Panel interviews
- Group interviews
- Round robin or sequential interviews
- Situational interviews
- Behavioral interviews
- Structured or unstructured interviews
- Approval or "blessing" interviews
- Job fair interviews
- Public (restaurant) interviews
You are usually asked to tell the interviewers about yourself as the interview begins. You need to be prepared with strong questions and a closing message that states your interest in pursuing next steps as the interview closes.
Knowing that the company wants to hire the right employee and the employee want to "hire" the right employer you are charged with doing your own assessment. Will this be the right company, job, team, manager and environment? Do I have enough information to assess if this is the right step in my career?
It is valuable to practice, debrief, evaluate, and assess. I am an honest, skilled interviewing coach who can help you build your skills, confidence and effectiveness and navigate this journey.