Strategies to help your interview performance
Attending an interview is one of the most stressful things that you can do. Candidates have been know to get so anxious that they forget everything that they thought they had prepared. So make sure that you have prepared properly for your interview and that your skills are sharp!
Your potential employer will use a range of techniques to help them decide which person to recruit. However, the interview has a central role within their armoury. It is of immense importance that you do your best to improve your sales techniques in the ultimate sales arena – your job interview. It is often the candidate who sells themselves the best – not the best candidate – that gets the job.
Unclear wher to start on your interview preparation? Read on for some great tips that will help you in your quest for a new career. Execute the ones that seem sensible to you and your chances of success will undoubtedly rise!
Try to decide which question are more than likely to be asked in your interview. There are always a few favourites that will come up – at least as warm up questions. Develop structured answers to those questions. Remember to insert an intro, middle and end portion to each of your practice interview answers.
It’s also important that you work on speaking clearly. Make sure you don’t rush when speaking. This not only makes you look nervous, but it makes you difficult to understand. Spend some time working on making sure that you speak in a clear and confident manner.
Critical components of a good interview body language system are a high smile rate and maintaining strong eye contact. Practice achieving this in the mirror and then with friends and family members. They will help you to come across as honest, trustworthy and likeable.
Ensure that you practice, then practice and finally practice some more! Mirror interviews are a good way to start, if you are nervous. Then move on to talking to “real” people. Ask your family members, friends or work colleagues to help you. Ask them for feedback and listen carefully for any areas that you could improve.
Always answer honestly to any interview question that they throw at you. It may be tempting to embellish a fact or tell a “white lie”. However, this is a dangerous road to travel down as you are likely to give yourself away in either thought, word or deed. You will have to spend some intellectual energy ensuring that you successfully maintain the deception throughout the rest of your interview or interviews. You may also give it away later on. If the panel work out that you have lied – even just once – they will dismiss you from the contenders pile to the dismiss pile in a heartbeat.
The interview is essentially a chance for you to sell yourself. You need to work out your strategy for selling yourself before you step into the interview room. Your job is to leave that room with them drooling with the prospect of hiring you!