How to crush a job interview!

To listen to the audio version of this post – click the play button below:

We’ve all been there haven’t we? You have applied for a job that you really want, and really feel that you are suited for… there is just one problem, you must convince a panel of interviewers! That’s when your stomach churns over and you feel lost… Well – Let me tell you how to crush a job interview! I have been through many interviews, and importantly, from both sides of the table! This blog post will give you some tips and tricks I have picked up along the way which have worked for me and have impressed me when I have been interviewing too. I know the advice that will follow is good advice too, how? Because I have delivered training on this method and had great feedback that when people follow this advice, they get the jobs they apply for!

Stop and breathe…

OK, this is the hardest part, you may not realise it, but the stage that has the biggest impact on your likelihood of success has already begun, even if you haven’t applied for the job yet! You may well be at the beginning of your career, or be fresh out of university, but the key to getting this job you’re after is…….

Examples

Examples? – Here is a little secret that not many people will share with you, interviewers are rarely as expert as you think they are, they may know how to do the job, they may think they know what candidate type they need, but they are not psychological profilers or personality experts! As such they need you to make things easy for them, they need to know that you can do what you say you can do, and the only way to be sure is if you give credible, believable examples. So, here is what I want you to do, I want you to sit down with a note book and your CV and look back at your earliest memories that are relevant to the role you want. I’ll explain a little more about this later, but for now, just sit down and look at all the things you have done since leaving junior school. Clubs you’ve been in, part time jobs you’ve done, volunteer roles you’ve taken, qualifications you have achieved and of course, the actual jobs you’ve held too.

I have a unique set of skills…

Now think about the type of role you are applying for and think about the skills that might be necessary for that job, another top tip here is that unless you are talking about really specific technical work (like computer programmer for example) many jobs require a broad range of similar skills. In interview language, we call these ‘transferable skills’ and every employer will get excited if you can demonstrate them. Let’s have a look at a few… Each job will need certain things from you, and the interviewer will be looking for key words and phrases in your answers, many of these skills will overlap and are generic. By way of a few examples, jobs may often require that you:

• Can manage your time effectively
• Can prioritise your work effectively
• Can interact with other people, (successfully, including assertively and professionally)
• Can resolve conflicts between yourself and other people peacefully
• Can run a project effectively, on time and in budget,
• Can work in a team
• Can lead a team
• Have a strong work ethic
• Can show initiative, be creative and be innovative

Here is the kicker, anyone can say they are passionate and a great team player, but as an interviewer, I need to know if that is really the case. But the good news? It doesn’t take a great deal to convince me! Why? Because I’ll be interviewing lots of people, and I don’t really have time to challenge what you are saying in any great depth. I just need you to stand out from the others, that is the only thing you need to remember.

Let’s get confident

Confidence is key, and here is how you will have it. Getting back to your notepad and your CV, let’s carry on with our trip down memory lane. For each of the transferable skills you believe the interviewer is likely to be looking for (the role description and job advertisement are awesome resources to help you here) identify a time in your life (either professionally or personally) where you have demonstrated that skill. Something you have done, or been involved in, even if it was while you were at school or university, that would allow you to show you have done the thing they are looking for. Then, make a note of the activity, experience or task that you believe fulfils that example, and move on to the next skill. What we are doing here is firstly building your confidence, that yes, you can meet that selection criteria! You are the best person for this job! Now all we need to do is communicate that to the panel.

Being the best batsman on the day…

So, imagine, you are standing in front of a set of stumps playing cricket for your country, bat in hand, thousands of people in the stands looking at you, and an ace bowler lining up to deliver a knock out ball, straight at your stumps!

Drive the ball to the boundary!

That bowler is your interviewer, and that ball, is the question he’s about to ask! He is going to launch that ball at you with the intention of giving you every opportunity to show your worth! He is looking to get a list of perhaps a dozen candidates down to just one, and he does that by asking a series of questions designed to test you on each of the selection criteria. There is some really great news here! He is doing you a massive favour! He is giving you an opportunity to tell him what you want him to know! The question is nothing more than a framework for you to hang your information on. He is simply identifying the topic he wants you to talk about, but the secret here is, this is your chance to tell him how great you are – as simple as that! The question he has asked is almost irrelevant! Let’s say he has asked you what you believe is the best way of writing a press release. So, he’s bowled his spinner at you, and its hurtling towards your stumps! But hey, you know the basic steps to writing a press release to make it successful, and you feel a wave of relief pass over you, as you know you can answer the question. I guarantee you; you are not the only candidate who knows the steps to writing that press release. If you answer the question, using the textbook information you know to be correct, you are simply pushing that ball aside from your stumps, yes you survive the question…. But you didn’t hit the boundary, did you? We want to smash this ball into oblivion, so that you stand out from the crowd and really make an impression. But how?

A star is born…

To maximise on every question, you simply need to view them differently. Each question is your opportunity to show that you are the best. Of course, you need to give the initial answer to the question, to set yourself up for the real show, and that is you giving an anecdotal example of when you demonstrated the core skill they are looking for. It really doesn’t have to be the exact thing they asked, every question has at its core, a transferable skill. So, what is the best way of delivering your killer blow for every question? Using the industry standard S.T.A.R. method. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Activity and Result. This is a tried and tested technique that helps you organise your answer and takes the pressure off you, as if you follow it, you’ll cover all the important information. You start off by describing the situation that you found yourself in. You are giving the background here, briefly describing why the organisation you were working for needed a certain thing done, the difficulties that you were facing or the details of the problem that needed addressing. Next you describe the task that was set in front of you, the thing that needed to be achieved to address the situation you have already described. Perhaps you needed to sell a certain number of widgets in a certain amount of time, or you needed to performance manage a team of under motivated employees. You now move on to detailing the activity, in other words, what you did and how you did it. Go into some details here, and remember, what you are trying to do is sell yourself as the best person for this job. Regardless of the initial question, you are now telling the interviewer what you absolutely want them to know about you on the general topic that the question set you up to talk about. The final stage is where you give them the result! A couple of key points here. You are using this example to impress upon the interviewer that you have done either the thing they are asking about or something similar enough to show that you have the transferable skills to be able to have done it. Make sure it is a good result! If you really want to give the gold standard of answers here though, find a way that the result could have been (slightly) improved, without speaking too negatively about the actual result. Then using a phrase like, “if I were in that situation again” give some detail on how you would do it better next time. This shows self-reflection and growth and is the absolute holy grail of answers. Be careful not to criticise your original result too heavily though! Each time you give an example after a brief answer to the core question, you are driving that ball right into the stands… you are setting yourself apart from the others, you are shouting, ‘this isn’t theory! I have done this for real, and I’m great at it!’ You have made my life so easy for me as the interviewer, you have stopped me having to find a way of separating you from the last person that answered my question… you have made yourself stand out!

Available at Amazon.com

Now the real secret…

You are nervous right? Well you needn’t be. Sit down now, and really think of as many examples as you can for all the transferable skills that you may need, for any type of job you are interested in. Lay out your examples in the star format, in as much detail as you can. Remember, you can use the same example to demonstrate lots of different skills, too. After each example, write down all the types of skills that you can use that example for in a bullet point list.

Write it out long hand!

Now, learn them. Inside out and back to front. Learn them as though your life depends on it. Get your friends and colleagues to test you on them. If your friend says, “working in a team” you should be able to deliver your star-based example off by heart, without hesitation, and without referring to notes. Next, write down 5 or 10 things about yourself that you decide you absolutely must not leave the interview without making sure the interviewer knows! These things are points about you that you are proud of, like, ‘I am great at motivating people’ or things like that. Find the best examples you have written which illustrate those must say points and pair them up. Now, here is the secret, there is no longer any need to be nervous, because the interview is now just an opportunity for you to tell your new employer things you already know off by heart. All the questions represent are broad topics which allow you to select examples that you have already memorised. At the interview, you are simply choosing which ones to share with the panel. They are not really questions anymore, just opportunities for you to tell the interviewer something you have rehearsed a million times. Who cares what the questions are? You are in there to tell them what you want them to know! (If you struggle with public speaking, check out the Lets’s Work Healthy Shop where you can buy a hypnotherapy course provided by our partner site which really helps with this!)

Get involved

As you can see from the post, I am trying to give simple practical help wherever I can. I would love to hear your thoughts on the tips in this article, so it would be great if you could leave some comments below. Have you used STAR based interviewtechniques? Let me know below! I will be offering lots of pointers on this site as I develop the content and so let me know about anything you’d like me to cover too. I am also developing some great resources for leaders, and if you subscribe in the box at the top of this page, you’ll get FREE access to the new 32 page E-book, ‘New Leader Quick Start Guide’. If you want to establish yourself as a great leader and develop a creative motivated team, this E-book is for you! This post contains affiliate links. Please read our disclaimer for more info Until next time

See you for the next article!

Greg Bennett is a Public Health Professional and

Leadership Coach