Whether you`re unemployed or your current job sucks, you apparently aren’t reading this because you have your own business or your job sends you on tropical vacations four times a year.
If you’re in the market hunting for a job, or afraid things will get messy in the next interview, then these six tips will help you persuade, convince and, hopefully, land the job of your dream. Just make sure you pass your drug test (kidding :d) and thank me when you get the job.
1. Do your homework
You have to be on top of your game and be prepared to respond to questions you may find difficult and to talk about yourself in highly personal terms. As Charlie Gibbs, author of How to Answer Hard Interview Questions writes, “You can never over-prepare before you go for an interview.” According to Gibbs, and other interview experts, every minute you spend in preparing as an investment in your potential career.
He suggests that, besides checking their LinkedIn profiles, you should also make sure you read as many web pages as possible on the company’s website and jot down all key points as you come across them. What you’re looking for here is information about their products, markets, and employee numbers.
Gibbs also encourages that, if the company was large enough, you should call up their public relations department and ask them to send any brochures or marketing documents that they have to better form an opinion about your future employer.
2. The 5-Point Agenda
Robin Ryan, author of 60 Seconds & You`re Hired has a method she calls the 5-Point Agenda by which you can keep the interview focused on your strengths and, at the same time, keep the employer interested.
“The 5 Point Agenda is a predetermined analysis in which you select your five most marketable points and repeatedly illustrate these points throughout the interview process,” writes Ryan.
How to build your agenda is so simple. Firs, you should examine your previous work experience and list all major responsibilities, accomplishments you shared with past employers as well as any special strengths or skills. Second, use your network to get as much information as possible about your interviewer, or future employer, and position.
Finally, highlight the major skills and experiences that are most important to your employer, and compile them in a list to have a 5-point agenda of the topics you want the interview to revolve around.
3. The 60 Second Sell
The 60 Second Sell is another complementary tool used by Ryan to start her interviews with a bang. She urges interviewees to summarize, and memorize their 5-point Agendas in a few, contracted, sentences that they can share with the employer in less than 60 seconds.
“Most interviews are over before they ever really get started. What should you do to avoid this trap? Immediately capture the employer’s attention and get him tuned in to you as a true top-notch candidate. You need to open the interview by using your 60 Second Sell. Typically the first question you are asked in an interview is Tell me about yourself,” she wrote. This short summary is perfect anytime they ask questions like:
- Tell me about yourself?
- Why should I hire you?
- What are your strengths?
- What makes you think you are qualified for this job?
- What makes you think you will succeed in this position?
- Why do you want this job?
4. Friend or Foe
The first thing you must do in an interview, according to behavioral Expert, and bestselling author, Vanessa Van Edwards, is to the interviewer that you`re a friend, not a foe. “The easiest way to do this is by showing the universal friendship gesture which is, showing your hands. In other words, angling your shoulder forward and putting your hand out,” Van Edwards continues.
Author of Captivate: Use Science to Succeed with People, also encourages that you don`t use your phone while waiting for the interview because the process of bending down to check your newsfeed can put you into a defeated body language which doesn’t give a good first impression. Instead, you should keep your shoulders down and broad so when they first see you, they see a confident person.
5. Warm up your voice
To impress in an interview, and other day-to-day conversations, your voice should project both confidence and warmth. Christine K. Jahnke, author of The Well-Spoken Woman: Your Guide to Looking and Sounding Your Best, believes the quality of one`s voice is the most overlooked element in human conversations.
She encourages that you lower the tone of your voice in order to give more meaning to what you say since a lower tone sounds more substantive, and makes what you’re talking about sounds more important. You can use this short warm up to add more depth to your words.
6. Think Abundance
Regardless how lucrative this job may seem, or how much you need the money, you should remind yourself that there are many good jobs out there that you perfectly fit for. If you let fear of missing out be in charge, it will cripple you, make you feel insecure and you won`t give the right impression.
Enthusiasm is one thing and feeling your life will end, your kids will starve and your wife will leave you if you don’t land this job is another.
Originally published at goodmenproject.com