Do you get a pain in your stomach when you are scheduled to go on an interview? Do you have trouble sleeping the night before? Are you worried that spinach salad you ate last night is going to find its way into your smile?
Let's talk about three ways to put your mind at ease and rid yourself of the anxiety you may experience before interviewing. There are three proven strategies I will share and challenge you to implement during your next interview. The three strategies are:
1. Reframing your view and management of the interview.
2. Ensuring your story is heard.
3. Summarizing the meeting and discussing next steps.
First, from this point forward, you will no longer refer to interviews as an interview. Why? The reason you meet with a recruiter or hiring manager is to have a meeting. What is the purpose of that meeting? You are a solution provider that is meeting with one or more professionals to identify the business needs of a potential employer; and you are the solution. You need to be a detective, asking questions and uncovering the business needs of your client (potential employer). Answers to the following questions will help you uncover your client's business needs and help you position yourself as the solution:
- Why is this role important to this department? To the company?
- What does the company expect the person in this role to accomplish in the first 90 days? Six months? One year?
- What challenges do you expect the new person in this role will face?
Second, let's make sure your story gets heard. There is nothing worse than participating in a business meeting where you feel sweat beading up on your eyebrow after a lengthy interrogation. Regardless of the interviewing experience of the people in the room, the most important task during the interview is the make sure your story gets heard. How? Well, there are three simple steps to this strategy:
1. In preparation for the meeting, summarize your work-related accomplishments.
2. During the meeting, listen intently to fully understand the answers to YOUR questions above.
3. When answering questions during the meeting, make sure your answers are based on HOW your accomplishments WILL help your potential employer using a specific format: SOAR.
How can you ensure you SOAR during the interview? Make sure the explanations of every solution you provide to a prospective employer's business needs includes the:
Situation - an example of HOW you have faced and overcome similar challenges in the past.
Objectives - describe the objectives and goals associated with the situation.
Actions - explain the actions YOU specifically took in order to see the situation resolved.
Results - describe the results of your actions in tangible, bottom-line terms. Explain internally: how you saved the company money, saved time, increased efficiency, effectiveness, or profitability. Explain externally: how you increased client satisfaction, marketability or market share.
Third, after the person or people in the meeting are through asking questions, be sure to summarize what you understand to be the business needs of the prospective employer. Ask the person or people you are meeting with: (A) Is there is anything else you need to know about the role in order to be successful? (B) Is there anything else THEY need from YOU in order to assist them in making a hiring decision? Then, recap what you understand using the following steps:
1. Recap the priorities of the role based on the business needs described.
2. Summarize how you have successfully overcome those situations in the past OR how you look forward to applying what you have learned during similar situations.
3. Ask the person or people you are meeting what else you can provide in order to help with the hiring decision.
4. Then, ask what you should expect next during the interview process.
Final Thoughts: Now you have a plan and a simple process to prepare you for your next meeting. Preparation and practice will be the keys to your success. Please make time to prepare and practice your new process with a friend. The more you practice and receive feedback on how you present yourself before your next meeting, the closer you will be to finding that ideal career. Relax, and smile, because you now have the tools required to overcome your anxieties and feel comfortable talking about a topic you know best: yourself.
Let's talk about three ways to put your mind at ease and rid yourself of the anxiety you may experience before interviewing. There are three proven strategies I will share and challenge you to implement during your next interview. The three strategies are:
1. Reframing your view and management of the interview.
2. Ensuring your story is heard.
3. Summarizing the meeting and discussing next steps.
First, from this point forward, you will no longer refer to interviews as an interview. Why? The reason you meet with a recruiter or hiring manager is to have a meeting. What is the purpose of that meeting? You are a solution provider that is meeting with one or more professionals to identify the business needs of a potential employer; and you are the solution. You need to be a detective, asking questions and uncovering the business needs of your client (potential employer). Answers to the following questions will help you uncover your client's business needs and help you position yourself as the solution:
- Why is this role important to this department? To the company?
- What does the company expect the person in this role to accomplish in the first 90 days? Six months? One year?
- What challenges do you expect the new person in this role will face?
Second, let's make sure your story gets heard. There is nothing worse than participating in a business meeting where you feel sweat beading up on your eyebrow after a lengthy interrogation. Regardless of the interviewing experience of the people in the room, the most important task during the interview is the make sure your story gets heard. How? Well, there are three simple steps to this strategy:
1. In preparation for the meeting, summarize your work-related accomplishments.
2. During the meeting, listen intently to fully understand the answers to YOUR questions above.
3. When answering questions during the meeting, make sure your answers are based on HOW your accomplishments WILL help your potential employer using a specific format: SOAR.
How can you ensure you SOAR during the interview? Make sure the explanations of every solution you provide to a prospective employer's business needs includes the:
Situation - an example of HOW you have faced and overcome similar challenges in the past.
Objectives - describe the objectives and goals associated with the situation.
Actions - explain the actions YOU specifically took in order to see the situation resolved.
Results - describe the results of your actions in tangible, bottom-line terms. Explain internally: how you saved the company money, saved time, increased efficiency, effectiveness, or profitability. Explain externally: how you increased client satisfaction, marketability or market share.
Third, after the person or people in the meeting are through asking questions, be sure to summarize what you understand to be the business needs of the prospective employer. Ask the person or people you are meeting with: (A) Is there is anything else you need to know about the role in order to be successful? (B) Is there anything else THEY need from YOU in order to assist them in making a hiring decision? Then, recap what you understand using the following steps:
1. Recap the priorities of the role based on the business needs described.
2. Summarize how you have successfully overcome those situations in the past OR how you look forward to applying what you have learned during similar situations.
3. Ask the person or people you are meeting what else you can provide in order to help with the hiring decision.
4. Then, ask what you should expect next during the interview process.
Final Thoughts: Now you have a plan and a simple process to prepare you for your next meeting. Preparation and practice will be the keys to your success. Please make time to prepare and practice your new process with a friend. The more you practice and receive feedback on how you present yourself before your next meeting, the closer you will be to finding that ideal career. Relax, and smile, because you now have the tools required to overcome your anxieties and feel comfortable talking about a topic you know best: yourself.
