So you’ve responded to every job posting under the sun, and you’ve finally gotten a call back for an interview. Now the panic sets in! What should you wear? What will they ask you? What will you ask them? Should you show up 5 minutes early? Or maybe 15? How the heck are you going to fool anyone into thinking you’re at all qualified?
Job interviews can be so nerve-wracking!
I remember my first round of interviews for “real” jobs when I was an undergrad. I bought a suit, spent time making up scenarios in which I had used my super-duper conflict resolution skills behind a pizza counter, and then spent a whole lot of time googling “weaknesses that are really strengths”!
I still get nervous when I get called in, but I’ve picked up some strategies that I find makes the whole thing a lot less daunting.
The single most important thing was to completely shift my perspective on what the interview is all about. Now they’re no longer interviewing me, I’m interviewing them! I thought interviews were all about me: my skills, my experience, my need to prove myself, and my ability to give the right answers to all their questions. The employer held the job and the power. Now I look at the situation differently. Rather than selling myself, I use a few strategies to get them to start selling me on the job.
Pretty much every interview starts of with: “So, tell me why you’re interested in this job.” It seems simple enough, but when I first starting interviewing, I absolutely dreaded this question. I’m interested in this job because you’re the only one that called me back for an interview! I’m interested in this job because it’s a job, and I need one! I’m interested in this job but I really have no clue what a “junior policy analyst” does and I never even heard about your organization until I sent in my résumé!
Now I usually try to pre-empt the question all together. Before they have an opportunity to ask me anything, I ask, “why do you think I’m a good fit for this position?” You did call me in, after all! Now the interview is off to a great start as I sit back and listen to the interviewer highlight my strengths. Once the interviewer has told me how great he thinks I am, I usually ask some variation of “can you tell me more about what I’ll be doing?” I ask "what I'll be doing" because I want the interviewer’s response to be in the form of “you’ll be doing X, Y, and Z” rather than, “well, if we hire you, you could be doing…” I want the employer to picture me in the job, and not just give me the job description.
In advance of my interview, I decide which points about myself I want to make absolute sure that I convey to them before I walk out the door, no matter what. These key points will be based on two things. First of all, I want to make sure I convey my most impressive skills or experience. Secondly, I want to make sure I link my strengths to what the interviewer is looking for.
Sure, maybe I haven’t done anything but work in a call centre, but “I spent much of my time at Company A responding to queries from the public by phone, which is relevant since you mentioned that my work will involve calling clients.” Are those two things really linked? Sure, I just told you my experience is relevant. Ok, I have no work experience other than babysitting, but “I am used to responding to demands in a fast-paced environment, because a hungry toddler will get you moving fast! I know that’s a skill that will be important when I’m working here.” It’s important. Really. I just told you so.
Then there are those interviews that are more structured. The kind where you’ll get questions like “tell me about a time that you had to manage competing priorities”. In those situations, I still refer to my list of key points and link it to the prospective job.
“I spent much of my time at Company A responding to queries from the public by phone. Since I was also responsible for cleaning the break room each day, it was important that I could effectively manage those competing priorities. I figured out that it was best to clean the break room at the end of my shift because that was getting close to dinner time when we didn’t receive many phone calls. That experience is relevant since you mentioned that my work will involve calling clients as well as organizing files, so I know that I can manage those priorities.”
Two simple tasks like answering phone calls and cleaning the break room might not seem like “competing priorities”, but it doesn’t matter. Work with what you’ve got! We have the tendency to undervalue our skills and experiences, but the language we use matters. I just told you they’re competing priorities, so that’s what they are. I just told you that I could effectively manage them, so I did. All my irrelevant experience suddenly is relevant because I said so.
I’ve made sure to mention all my key points and the interviewer asks, “do you have any questions?” If I don’t have anything else to ask about the actual job or company because all my questions were answered during the interview, I say, “I’d really like to hear about you!” I ask how long they’ve been with the company. I ask what they like about working there. I ask about their biggest stressors. Then I wrap it up: “Thank you so much for your time. It was great to hear your perspective about working at Company B. It’s a place I’d definitely like to work! When can I expect to hear from you?” Because after rocking that interview, I definitely expect to hear from you!
What interview questions really freak you out? Do you have any interview tips or tricks?
Now I wish I could go back and give kid-me a big hug and tell myself
that my friends wouldn't have minded, and it really wasn't even nearly
as bad as I thought. I wish I could go back and give my mom a big hug and thank her for what I learned even when she thought she had nothing to teach. I would thank her for showing me the importance of living within my means and avoiding debt. I would thank her for showing me how to save money on the frivolous to afford the things that mattered. I would thank her for showing me that experiences are more valuable than possessions. I would thank her for showing me that you can be generous to others, even when you have nothing for yourself. I would thank her for showing me how to give myself permission to spend money without feeling guilt when I started earning my own.
