What can you, the talent, do to stand out during your interview? How can you ensure that the interviewer sees your value and can convey that you are the best choice for the position?
First, let’s take a moment to examine the view from the interviewer’s perspective.
Many of our clients ask for help in streamlining their recruiting processes. Here’s what we tell them is wrong:
- Candidates aren’t being screened for alignment with company values
- Candidates aren’t being asked enough self-revealing questions
- Recruiters aren’t using rapport techniques to powerfully put candidates at ease—which would result in them revealing who they are
A job interview is a candidate’s “Rock Star Moment”—they’re showing you their best face, so it’s up to the recruiter to ensure that it’s an accurate face, a face we can rely on, a face that is honest.
Are you ready to show your best ‘true’ face to stand out above the rest? Here are 10 tips to rock your interview.
Who Are You?
Time to dive deep into who you are and why you want this position. Ask yourself:
1. What is your mission in life and why would working with this company help you achieve it?
2. What is the most important thing in life? How will you ensure you honor it through your work?
3. Use our powerful Outcome Frame to discover why you truly want this position. Is this position in alignment with who you are? Do you only want a paycheck or do you share the vision of the company?
It doesn’t matter if you are being interviewed by a recruiter, the HR Manager or the CEO – these tips will empower you to nail your interview and shine like a rock star. To prep be sure you:
4. Know the company’s mission, vision, values and drill down so you know which elements resonate with you the most. How have you demonstrated these elements in your previous work and life experiences?
5. Embrace and demonstrate a ‘tribal mentality’. We define a tribal mentality as: we’re all in this together, every person contributes and matters, each individual brings unique gifts to the collective.
6. Are ready to discuss what you are like on your bad days. Yes this is your rock star moment, but let’s be honest – you’re human and need to be transparent too.
During The Interview
7. Speak their language so they experience you as similar to them: (read: meta programs)
8. Give them what they crave: listen for requests for safety, belonging, mattering—then serve up what they want
9. Give them some “same as”: mirror their body posture/gestures, vocal tone/pace/pitch, key words, sensory system
10. Bring them a visual aid showing that you understand their challenges and you have some strategies/solutions in mind. A mind map, 3-6-9-12 month draft accomplishments list, a series of thoughtful value-added questions, some sort of leave-behind that shows you’ve put a lot of thought into how you’ll make a difference will cause you to stand out powerfully. You can bet the vast majority of other candidates won’t have invested this degree of energy and heart!
After The Interview
Of course the first thing is to send a hand written thank you note. It’s polite, it’s essential, be sure to do it! Next anchor the experience: during your interview notice what they like (art? dogs? etc) then send a thoughtful thank you gift—something they’ll feel good about since it is specific to them, and something that they’ll keep in sight (coffee table book, cool item for desk). Anchor your brand with this item. For instance if you’re interviewing for a marketing role and the topic of advertising and what makes it compelling comes up, and if the interviewer says they love old bill board ads, you could send them a coffee table book on this topic.
One last tip: offer to take on the scheduling of your reference calls. Making it easy for the interviewer to talk with your current or previous supervisors, direct reports and peers shows you honor and value the interviewer’s time.
Good Luck!
