Many job seekers fail to secure positions due to many factors, a common one being poor performances at job interviews. Invitations to attend interviews in the first place are rare, so job seekers especially entry position candidates cannot afford to waste opportunities. An athlete is as good as his preparation and strategies, same goes for interviewees. Below are some ways to ensure that interviewees ace their interviews.
Preparations
While your resume will get you in the door, your performance at the interview will keep you in the building. Preparation for interviews can be both mental and physical. Job seekers get worked up to the point that they feel they’re prepping for major surgery or headed to court to face a judge. Instead of seeing an interview as a daunting task, interviewees should consider interviews as a simple conversation between two people. Then there’s the physical aspect to preparation, knowledge as they say is power and a key to success and gathering knowledge will require research. Researching the company and what they actually do should be a given but learning a bit more about potential interviewers will go a long way to making the interview a lot easier. It is imperative that you appear confident and knowledgeable, dressing professionally and paying attention to personal hygiene will go a long way to portray confidence.
Appear Confident
A negative mindset will kill faster than a germ – Dr. Tony Jiminez. A negative mindset will pilfer into a demeanor and a good interviewer will be able to sense that. Going into an interview with a positive mindset will costs nothing, a negative mindset however can cost the entire interview. Appear confident, even if you aren’t, it is perfectly normal to be nervous before an interview, it is important to make sure your nerves aren’t visible. Suppress your fears and don’t appear timid to your future employer, give a firm handshake, make eye contact and convey good manners at your interview. Appearing confident is a lot easier when you know what it is that you’re talking about, meaning you are more confident when you are prepared.
Turn negatives into positives – Sell it to me, don’t say it to me
Think of an interview as a sales pitch, with yourself as the commodity. You are trying to get your interviewer to choose you over the rest of the other interviews they have lined up. It is important to prepare answers to negative questions that might arise. This will keep you from getting caught off-guard if they are eventually asked. Think about qualities that can be potentially negative and a way to put a positive spin on them, do not try to seem evasive of these question as this will quickly raise a red flag to your employer. Always answer question about your perceived weaknesses with honesty and self-awareness, discuss situations where those seemingly negative qualities have served you well during your job. Refocus the emphasis of the conversation to the qualities that you know to be important to the functioning of the company with which you are interviewing, if you’ve learned from your research that the company regularly requires its employees to take the lead on group projects, you can discuss your leadership qualities and situations you’ve put these trait to use.
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