Put a smile on your face (It improves the timber of your voice)
I've found that standing for the interview calms the adrenaline a little
Allow the interviewer to guide the conversation and to ask most of the questions, but keep up your end of the conversation. This is especially important when the interviewer does not give you the openings you need to sell yourself. Always have a few intelligent questions prepared to save the situation:
“Why is the job open?”
“What will be the first projects I tackle?”
“What are the biggest challenges the department faces this year and what will be my role as a team member in tackling them?”
When you get a clear understand of an employer’s needs with questions like these, you can seize the opportunity to sell yourself appropriately:
“Then my experience in word processing should be a great help to you”
“I recently completed an accounting project just like that. I’d like to talk more about it when we meet.”
When you identify an employer’s imminent challenges and demonstrate how your skills can lessen the load, you portray yourself as properly focused with a problem-solving mentality. Everyone hires a problem solver.
You can also keep up your end of the conversation by giving verbal signals that you are engaged in it; you do this with occasional short interjections that don’t interrupt the employer’s flow but let him know you are paying attention. Comments like “That’s interesting!” “great!” “yes yes!”
2. Answer Questions:
Interview often starts with "Tell me a little about you." Your interviewer is mainly interested in your fit for this job. Cover the big picture first: degree, years in the field, a couple of achievements, recap your professional skills.
"I don't think you will be suitable because you lack...skill." If the statement is true, acknowledge it, then follow with an example of a similar skill you picked up quickly and apply with consummate skill: "Yes, I understand. When I joined my current company I knew nothing about... but I studied on my own and with the help of a mentor within the department I was up to speed in a matter of weeks. Given my proven ability to learn quickly and my willingness to invest my own tie, would you consider talking to me in more detail about this topic when we meet face-to-face?" With this type of response you are putting a positive spin on your shortcoming, which gives you a good shot at overcoming the objection. If you are successful in arranging a face-to-face interview, you will now have time to bone up on the subject and identify a sensible self-development program before you meet with the employers.
Under no circumstances, though should you ask about salary or benefits and vacation time; that come much later. Your single objective at this point is to meet fact-to-face; money is not an issue. If the interviewer brings up a direct question about how much you are earning, you can’t get around it, so be honest. On the other hand if you are asked how much you want, answer truthfully that at this point you don’t know enough about the company or the job to answer that question.
The telephone interview has come to an end when you are asked whether you have any question—perhaps, “What would you like to know about us?” This is a wind-down question, so it is a good opening to get some specific questions of your own answered that can advance your candidacy:
“What are the most immediate challenges of the job?
What are the most important projects of the first six months?
What skills and behaviors are most important to success on the job?”
By discovering answers to these questions now, you will have time before the face-to-face meeting to package your skills according to the needs at hand and to create an appropriate executive briefing for distribution with your resume to the different interviewers you meet.
If you have not already asked or been invited to meet the interviewer, now is the time to take the initiative. “It sounds like a very interesting opportunity, Dr Bard, and a situation where I could definitely make a contribution.”
When an invitation for an interview is extended there are practical matters that you need to clarify with a handful of simple questions that address the when, where and procedure:
“Would you tell me some of the critical areas you will discuss on Thursday?” The knowledge gained will help you to package and present yourself, and it will allow you time to bone up on any weak or rusty areas. This is also a good time to establish how long the meeting is expected to last, which will give you some idea of how to pace yourself.
Once the details are confirmed, finish with this request: “If I need any additional information before the interview, may I….” They will naturally agree. This allow you to call and it will also enable you to increase rapport. Don’t take too much advantage of it, though: One well-placed phone call that contains two or three considered questions will be appreciated.
In closing your conversation, take care to ascertain the correct spelling and pronunciation of the interviewer’s name. This shows your concern for the small but important things in life—and it will be noticed, particularly when the interviewer receives your follow-up thank-you note.
3. Five Secrets:
The first Secret: Ability and Suitability
When you can explain the work you do in clear, simple terms and demonstrate how that role fits into the overall efforts of the department
The Second Secret: Motivation
Employers are leery of people who can do the job but who want to do as little of it as possible. Identifying candidates motivated by a professional commitment to take the rough with the smooth, the rotten assignments with the plum ones, is a major consideration for any employer.
Think of a time when you did. Figure out how doing so helped your team and helped the company. Now rehearse the story until you can tell it in about ninety seconds. Show enthusiasm for your wok and profession, and your opportunity.
When it comes to a tightly run job race between equally qualified candidates, the offer will always go to the most enthusiastic contender. When you know a number of things about the company and a re clearly excited about the opportunity to become a member of the team, your visible motivation will tip the scales in your favor; this is because your enthusiasm is interpreted as an indicator of the energy you will put into your work.
The Third Secret: Manageability and Teamwork
There isn’t a manager in the world who enjoys the challenges caused by and unmanageable employee. Avoiding such problem is a major concern for managers, who develop a remarkable sixth sense when it comes to spotting and cutting out mavericks.
Manageability is defined in different ways: the ability to work alone; the ability to work with others; the ability to take direction and criticism when it is carefully and considerately given.
Such “manageability” considerations make a job interview tricky. Yes, you should certainly state your strongly held convictions—after all, you don’t want to appear wishy-washy—but you should do so only as long as they are professional in nature and relate to the job at hand.
Fourth Secret: Professional Behavior
Showing possession of these universally admired professional behaviors, and exhibiting them in action with illustrative examples you give in answers to tough interview questions, is you passport to success at any interview.
So why are you different?
Communication and Listening Skills: It refers to verbal and written skills along with technological know-how dress, and body language.
Goal Orientation: those who achieve concrete results with their actions and who constantly strive to get the job done, rather than just fill the time allotted for a particular task.
Willingness to be a Team Player: Employers look for employees who work for the common good and always keep the group’s goals and responsibilities in mind. Team players take pride in group achievement rather than personal aggrandizement, and they look for solutions rather than someone to blame.
Motivation and Energy: Motivation expresses itself in a commitment to the job and the profession, and eagerness to learn and grow professionally.
Analytical Skills: This includes being able to weigh the short- and long-term benefits of a proposed course of action against all its possible negative. It requires an understanding of how your job and your department fit into the overall goal of profitability.
Dedication and Reliability: The more you are engaged in your career; the more likely you are to join the inner circles, enhancing opportunities for advancement. Reliability requires following up on your actions, not relying on anyone else to ensure the job is done well, and keeping management informed every step of the way.
Determination: one doesn’t back off when a problem gets tough.
Confidence: it grows in the skills you have and in your ability to develop new ones.
Pride: Pride in yourself as a professional means always making sure the job is done to the best of your ability, this means paying attention to the details and to the time and cost constraints.
Integrity: It means always treating others equally with respect.
Efficiency:
Ability to follow procedure
The Fifth one: Everyone hires for the same Job
Regardless of profession, at some level we are all problem solvers.
State the problem
Isolate relevant background information
List your key quality
Recall the solution
Determine what the solution was worth
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