Interviewing got you all stressed out? Keep these 3 interview tricks - my best 3 interview tricks! - in mind as you prepare for interviews and during your interviews to keep you saying all the right things.
Interview season is upon us! Most companies ramp up hiring around this time. Once hiring managers get settled in from the turn of the new year, they quickly move candidates through the interview process in an effort to secure top talent immediately and kick off the year strong.
Not getting the interviews you want? You can download my FREE Ultimate Job Search Strategy Playbook: 14 Proven Strategies to Get a Better Job Faster. And definitely share it your friends who have been at their search for more than 3 months. It's time for a new approach!
When you're preparing for interviews, you're learning about the company, learning about the people, learning about the top interview questions you might be asked, but here's my approach - and what my clients think of as a trick - to be able to confidently answer any interview question in a way that feels like the "right" answer and is music to your interviewer's ears:
Understand the pain points around your position.
Understand what would make you invaluable to the position.
Understand any objections there may be to you filling the position.
Once you practice these 3 interview hacks, you'll be able to speak right to the heart of the position, embody all the hard and soft skills required, and stand apart from other candidates. You will NAIL your interview!
1. Understand the pain points around your position.
Each person who interviews you in the interview process is looking for something slightly different, but the theme is: What are you, the interviewee, going to do for me to make my life easier in this job?
For example, if you are interviewing with a team member on your level, they want to know you aren't going to come in and make their job harder by not being proactive or identifying problems without solutions.
If you are interviewing with someone from a completely different team, they want to experience what it might be like to collaborate with you. For instance, if you're being hired as a Product Manager, how are you going to partner with marketing so you each can be successful in your role.
Once you understand what's important to that particular interviewer, you can demonstrate how you fit in and fit in well. Better than other candidates.
2. Understand what would make you invaluable to the position.
Yes, you absolutely need to show you can do the main requirements of the role at hand and do them well, but then there's that little something extra.
What do you bring to the table that might be different from others with similar experience? Couple that with knowing how that's important to someone being successful - you being successful - in the role for which you're interviewing.
For example, if you're applying for an agency job, demonstrating that you understand the client side because you've been the client before is your edge.
If you're applying for a sales job, but in an entirely new organization that's 10 people or less, you'll need to demonstrate that you don't expect the one marketing person to feed you everything you need to hit your quotas. You are resourceful and will make it happen with or without marketing's help...but in line with marketing's brand guidelines and best practices, of course.
Remember, the focus is on the extra magic you bring in relation to what's relevant for the role for which you're interviewing. Leave the completely out-of-left-field skills out of the narrative.
3. Understand any objections there may be to you filling the role.
Just like you want to know what makes you special and desirable so you can showcase those qualities and your value, you want to know where your weaknesses lie. A weakness or lack of experience in a certain area could be an objection.
For example, your interviewer might be worried about hiring you for a social media manager role when you haven't had experience running social media content on TikTok yet. No problem! You can speak about how you started a brand on Pinterest, learning the platform from the ground up on your own so quickly the rest of the team only noticed the positive engagement and month over month growth in conversions. Before you even ever get asked about your experience - of lack thereof - with TikTok.
Imagine not having to spend 10 minutes talking about an issue you're dreading discussing? By knowing potential objections, you have the ability to counter those objections before those objections are ever brought up. Doing so will steer the interview.
And guess what? You have the ability to steer the interview where you want it go!
BONUS: Understand the organization's core values and operating principles.
Embody those core values and operating principles around every turn. Layer them in to every answer. Allow your interviewers to close their eyes and picturing you working there, slaying it!
When you truly understand what's required of you in the role for which you're interviewing and what's going to get your potential future manager and team fired up to extend an offer, you have the building blocks to answer ANY interview question. With ease. With confidence. With clarity. With the "right" answer.
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✨ Think you've been doing all of this and are still not getting the offers you want? Email me at heather@shatterandshine.com for 1:1 interview coaching.
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