Is there a specific job that you want? Have you thought that there may be specific skills that are required for that job? There is a way you should approach an interview for any specific job but first you need to know the job you want. Let us first look at the general interview skills that you need to posses which is like a recap of what we have been looking at in previous articles:
- Research the job and the company
- Match their requirements to your skills
- Rehearse your answers out loud
- Be genuine
- Be positive
- Look the part
If you have seeking a job and you've been invited for interview and are feeling nervous first congratulate yourself on getting that far. The only thing you should be thinking of is that they wouldn't be interviewing you if they didn't think potentially that you could do the job. But how are you going to demonstrate that you are the candidate they should choose above the rest?
You have very few minutes to tell a panel and convince them that you can do the job. Depending on the employer and the number of interviews or other schedules, your time should be very limited. A good interview should take more than 1 hour but other HR executives can rash it through due to other commitments. It also depends on the position applied for example a tea girl cannot be interviewed the same duration as an MD.
There are THREE main criteria against which you will be judged:
- Can you do the job? Your capability to perform the job comes into question at this moment. The panel may even ask you this question and they may combine a few factors like the way you behave before, during and after the interview while assessing your career development, skills, and achievements, intellectual and physical capabilities.
- Will you do the job? This is a futuristic and dependant kind of question. It all relates with your motivation. What drives you to the job, why did you apply for it? This may depend on so many factors like attitude and motivation. The panel will do this by assessing your interest, enthusiasm, work ethic, energy level and availability. Demonstrate all this if you really want a job.
- Do you fit in? At this point we will encourage you to have past knowledge on something called insider information. Get a friend or someone you may know in the organization and learn from them. When you go to Rome behave like the Romans. The panel will know easily if you fit in by looking at your communication style, values, dress and appearance to see if you will work well within that particular team and organization.
All interview questions from the panel basically will centre on these three critical areas. If a panel is careful and made of professionals, you will detect easily where they are headed.
How can you demonstrate that you are the ideal candidate?
Preparation, preparation, preparation. There is no other way.
About 83% of all candidates are insufficiently prepared for an interview. Most candidates have done some preparation but maybe they haven't practiced out loud or have skipped over the bits they have found most difficult. As a result, they are unable to talk confidently about their career achievements and find themselves getting tied in knots as they struggle to say what they mean. Prepare your answers, appear articulate and organized. Ensure that you get across to the employer the things that you want them to know about you.
In every interview, tour focus should be to get the job and thus I want to point out two specific areas you should be careful about:
1. Tricky Interview Questions: "Tell us about yourself" is probably the first tricky question that will come your way among others. The answer to this question determines how you will respond to other tricky questions. Please look at an early article where we tackled tricky questions in an interview. In the above question for example you should concentrate on the aspects of your career development that are relevant to this job. Do not talk about any personal/family details. “What are your weaknesses?” is another tricky one. Here talk about a lesson you've learnt from experience e.g. how you've grown in confidence in dealing with difficult customers or a new software package.
2. Image: Whether you like it or not, an interviewer will be strongly influenced by your image as to whether they think you will fit in within the organization. You need to look smart, well-groomed and up to date. It is worth taking advice and getting feedback on this in order to get it right.
This advice above may seem general but it mainly concentrates when you want a specific job. Just apply it in your area of specialty and you will succeed. Whether it is an Accounting job, IT, Engineering or any other you need to look the part. Act like a professional already in the field.
Ever heard of a phrase, ‘Fake it till you make it’? Pretend to be what you want whether in an interview or out of it.
We at HCC wish you all the best.
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