“I work for a financial services firm where I’ve been for the last five years. I’m now getting back into the swing of interviewing again and don’t feel I am doing a good job in relaying my skillsets. Although I am preparing for these roles, when I am asked a question, my responses tend to be all over the place.
I don’t feel I am helping the interviewer understand what I know and am really good at. A constant inner crow feeds my limiting beliefs around whether I am good enough and have enough value to bring to another organization.”
Job interview skills training to nail your next interview.
Struggling with clearly communicating your value and tailoring your responses to the questions being asked of you? When you are clear on how you want to be perceived, whether acing an interview or successfully “selling” your ideas, recommendations, proposals, in any work scenario, the how becomes easy. Managing the perception is where most people fall off and yet it’s how you can quickly be the author of your own career, designing a career that’s fulfilling and where you are growing. The following interview strategies will help you prepare for any question thrown your way where you will not feel thrown off-guard and in control of the story you want to depict of not just where you have been in your career, but what you can accomplish for them when they invest in you. Clarity is power, this gutsy blueprint will quickly raise your confidence level during any interview.
Before I dive in, I want to be sure you know about my career leadership audio course (it’s free); it’s designed to that show you how to communicate your value with confidence in any setting – interview, meeting, presentation you name it. Grab a notepad when listening – this 5-part audio series will walk you through all the ways you can sell yourself and be yourself, marketing your personal brand in your career, including finding new ways to grow your network authentically, without yucky “salesman-sy” tactics that can make you feel uncomfortable.
Job Interview: Communicate your Core Competencies
- Take that ideal job description and pull it apart, highlighting all of the areas which you feel fully aligned to, given your credentials – whether due to your experience, education, or skillsets. You want to highlight only what you intuitively feel you have ROCK-SOLID confidence around and can handle.
2. Take all of the items highlighted and roll them up into a single area of your core expertise and begin grouping these responsibilities into big chunks. For example, if five items all roll up to your Compliance and Auditing expertise put them inside that category. Once complete, you should be left with a few major “strength” themes, which support in your mind, why you are qualified for the role. Consider these categories your news headlines which you will kick into gear during the interview with storytelling described in the next step. Now consider which core and leadership competencies (shown above) fit inside those major strength themes.
Job Interview: Communicate with Storytelling
3. Take your “strength” themes and create stories around each of them. Your stories shouldn’t require memorization. Simply focus on a few themes (five at most) so that when you go into an interview you will be better able to speak to the theme through a story, and not get tripped upon the question. Somewhere their question should fit into one of your key themes. Now you can cherry-pick a story you have in your hip pocket, based on that question. Should they throw you a question you aren’t expecting, take a pregnant pause (this is a few seconds of silence which should feel uncomfortable and buy you time) and calmly go back to one of your themes again.
Job Interview: Use specific examples to communicate work experience
4. When sharing a story, be sure not to give them the textbook answer “Here’s what I would do in that situation…”. Instead you can say: “Let me share a story of how I handled that based on where I was at <insert situation>just last year doing <insert responsibilities you had>. This may not be the exact scenario they posed in their question – that’s ok. Your job is to tie it back because it fits in with the themes that you have already identified as your core competencies.
Job Interview: Communicate your Experience with Confidence
5. Lastly, set the intention of how you want to feel and what opportunity you ultimately want to create, before your interview with positive affirmations. These are self-empowering statements you repeat a few times a day to lock-in a confident mindset, such as
- I am responding confidently any question asked of me.
- I am sharing a powerful story when speaking of my experience.
- I am happy and excited to meet <insert interviewer’s name>.
You have the skills, know-how, and expertise or you wouldn’t be in the room. Often professionals struggle with “perfection paralysis”. If we don’t have everything figured out and all of our answers nailed down, we will freeze, rejecting ourselves in advance before anyone else has had the chance to. This is energy others will feel. Ninety percent of your success is based on how you show up in that room, not necessarily the words which you say.
Job Interview: Lead with an Impact and Improve Mindset
In your next interview, you will master your mindset when you go in there with some major themes wrapped around some stories that you are proud of which will raise your energy level and enthusiasm. Keep it naturally authentically you, don’t hold yourself back. Let them really see who you are and you will find your voice every time. Also, give yourself permission to learn from past interviews so you can strengthen your body as it walks through the process again – muscle memory must and will kick in. Make a mindset shift about where you are and where you want to be in three to six months from now. After every interview, you are easing back into the rhythm and flow, while also learning what the market demand is for your skillsets and in your industry. This is a discovery process as well where you have the opportunity to interview them as well. Lastly, before you leave the room be sure to leave them with the following question which should put you on their short-list of candidates.
If we were to fast-forward twelve months from now, what would have to happen for me to be successful in this role?
Listen closely and take notes immediately after your meeting closes so you can follow their response up in a personalized thank you note.
When you can effectively articulate your results authentically using your natural personality with powerful storytelling examples, interviewing for your next role or project becomes a no-brainer.
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