Scribd
Upload
24 views

Great Interviews Arise From Careful Groundwork. You Can Ace Your Next Interview If You

1. Carefully prepare for interviews by meditating to reduce anxiety and practicing interview questions with others. 2. Be yourself while also demonstrating your skills, qualifications, and fit for the role through examples from your background. 3. Follow up the interview with a thoughtful thank you letter that highlights your strengths and value to the potential employer.

Uploaded by

srinivas ma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
24 views

Great Interviews Arise From Careful Groundwork. You Can Ace Your Next Interview If You

1. Carefully prepare for interviews by meditating to reduce anxiety and practicing interview questions with others. 2. Be yourself while also demonstrating your skills, qualifications, and fit for the role through examples from your background. 3. Follow up the interview with a thoughtful thank you letter that highlights your strengths and value to the potential employer.

Uploaded by

srinivas ma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Great interviews arise from careful groundwork.

You can ace your next


interview if you:
1. Enter into a state of relaxed concentration. This is the state from which great
basketball players or Olympic skaters operate. You'll need to quiet the
negative self chatter in your head through meditation or visualization prior to
sitting down in the meeting. You'll focus on the present moment and will be
less apt to experience lapses in concentration, nervousness, self-doubt and
self-condemnation. 
2. Act spontaneous, but be well prepared. Be your authentic self, professional
yet real. Engage in true conversation with your interviewer, resting on the
preparation you did prior to coming to the meeting. Conduct several trial runs
with another person simulating the interview before it actually occurs. It's the
same as anticipating the questions you'll be asked on a final exam. 
3. Set goals for the interview. It is your job to leave the meeting feeling secure
that the interviewer knows as much as he or she possibly can about your
skills, abilities, experience and achievements. If you sense there are
misconceptions, clear them up before leaving. If the interviewer doesn't get
around to asking you important questions, pose them yourself
(diplomatically) and answer them. Don't leave the meeting without getting
your own questions answered so that you have a clear idea of what you would
be getting yourself into. If possible, try to get further interviews, especially
with other key players. 
4. Know the question behind the question. Ultimately, every question boils down
to, "Why should we hire you?" Be sure you answer that completely. If there is
a question about your meeting deadlines, consider whether the interviewer is
probing delicately about your personal life, careful not to ask you whether
your family responsibilities will interfere with your work. Find away to address
fears if you sense they are present. 
5. Follow up with an effective "thank you" letter. Don't write this letter lightly. It
is another opportunity to market yourself. Find some areas discussed in the
meeting and expand upon them in your letter. Writing a letter after a meeting
is a very minimum. Standing out among the other candidates will occur if you
thoughtfully consider this follow up letter as an additional interview in which
you get to do all the talking. Propose useful ideas that demonstrate your
added value to the team. 
6. Consider the interviewer's agenda. Much is on the shoulders of the
interviewer. He or she has the responsibility of hiring the right candidate.
Your ability to do the job will need to be justified. "Are there additional pluses
here?" "Will this person fit the culture of this organization?" These as well as
other questions will be heavily on the interviewer's mind. Find ways to
demonstrate your qualities above and beyond just doing the job. 
7. Expect to answer the question, "Tell me about yourself." This is a pet question
of prepared and even unprepared interviewers. Everything you include should
answer the question, "Why should we hire you?" Carefully prepare your
answer to include examples of achievements from your work life that closely
match the elements of the job before you. Obviously, you'll want to know as
much about the job description as you can before you respond to the
question. 
8. Watch those nonverbal clues. Experts estimate that words express only 30%
to 35% of what people actually communicate; facial expressions and body
movements and actions convey the rest. Make and keep eye contact. Walk
and sit with a confident air. Lean toward an interviewer to show interest and
enthusiasm. Speak with a well-modulated voice that supports appropriate
excitement for the opportunity before you. 
9. Be smart about money questions. Don't fall into the trap of telling the
interviewer your financial expectations. You may be asking for too little or too
much money and in each case ruin your chances of being offered the job.
Instead, ask what salary range the job falls in. Attempt to postpone a money
discussion until you have a better understanding of the scope of
responsibilities of the job. 
10. Don't hang out your dirty laundry. Be careful not to bare your soul and tell
tales that are inappropriate or beyond the scope of the interview. State your
previous experience in the most positive terms. Even if you disagreed with a
former employer, express your enthusiasm for earlier situations as much as
you can. Whenever you speak negatively about another person or situation in
which you were directly involved, you run the risk (early in the relationship)
of appearing like a troubled person who may have difficulty working with
others. 

You might also like