6 different Interview tips you may not have thought of…

As everyone knows, it takes literally the bat of an eye-lid to make a first impression when meeting your potential new employer – so you don’t have much time to waste.

A quick zoom up and down and they’ve done the once over of your appearance and of course we all know about the classic body language tips of keeping up the eye contact and giving a firm, but not crushing, hand-shake.

However, if you’re still not getting called back to sign that contract, then maybe, just maybe, you should take another good look at yourself…from a different angle.

BE AWARE OF YOURSELF

With my many years spent in the fashion and TV industry, you quickly become slightly self-critical and aware of the message you give out to others. Actors record their performances and sit back to understand how they can improve or be more believable in their role, not unlike a professional sportsman who regularly records his matches and analyses every step, to improve  performances.

Now I’m not saying you’re acting a part in an interview, but what I am saying is that maybe doing a bit of analysing is not such a bad thing after all.

How many people have I met who think they are walking tall, looking totally confident and positive.. but in fact, they walk in hunched-over with a flat expression on their face ?

The best thing to do about this is ask a neutral person, someone at work or a fellow student, someone who has no real history with you like parents or partner, who would probably be totally biased anyway.
Ask these people to be honest and say what they think of you, what they find annoying and their first impression of you.
What’s important here is their feedback. If it isn’t what you expected, then that’s great because you now have the power to actively change tiny things that could be beneficial in the long run.

BE IN THE MOMENT

When I conduct my interview coaching sessions, there are not really any distractions around. The camera is close up to the person and so you get a relatively strong impression of who you’re dealing with and whether they’re nervous, distracted, or relaxed and being themselves.

To me though, when someone is nervous, it can be the same as them being distracted. Why ? Because they’re thinking more about – « Heeeelp I’m nervous …or oh no I won’t know the answer to this one…and yikes, was that answer ok… ?? »

They are in fact not engaged with you. They are not really 100% with you and therefore it’s pretty difficult to build a rapport with a person like that.

People who get jobs are the ones who can engage with others quickly and easily – proving at the same time they’ll find it simple to quickly engage with a team and clients.

BE THE MIRROR OF SUCCESS

Imagine a person who is successful. Imagine how they talk, how they walk & how convincing they are in their attitude.

In a way it’s all about playing the part (oh no ..here she goes about acting again..) Well you know what.. ? Maybe it is.
A successful actor convinces people of the character and really, at the end of the day, you need to be able to convince people you can do the job. We’re all nervous and have doubts in our minds, but it’s the one’s that can overcome it by seeing a positive outcome and mirroring it (Physchological mirroring) who are convincing and win the game in the end.

Think about Julia Roberts when she played Erin Brokovitch. How lost and awkward was she in the beginning compared with who she became in the end.

Believe in yourself and then look successful – be convincing – walk your talk!

BE LIKABLE

At the end of the day, people are successful because other people like them.
People will come to your restaurant, buy their supplies from you or go to you as a dentist, because they like you.
There is a lot of competition out there and so in the end it’s the human factor that comes through, especially in the hiring game.
Think of i tfrom their side, their worries being : Will my clients like him ? Will my team like him ? Do I really want to have this person around me for the next 2, 3 or 10 years ?

So think about your work-place or University….
Who would you pick to be a part of your next business team ? The guy who’s always moaning and slumped at his desk… or the guy who brings you beers on Friday at 4pm, for example!

BE TRUSTWORTHY

Many companies will ask you questions about your ethics for work and confidentiality etc. How trustworthy you are is massively important to future collaborations and people tend to sense this pretty quickly too. New research revealed humans make judgments on someone’s trustworthiness within the first 500 milliseconds of hearing their voice. Oh yes… that fast!
A simple “Hello” is enough for most of us to determine whether someone’s trustworthy, dominant or none of the above.

So together with likeability – trust of course goes hand-in-hand.

Why? Because, who do we give jobs to? People we like and trust. People give jobs to friends.
I would therefore advise any job-seeker to seriously work on their relationship skills, at least as much if not more, than actually looking for jobs.
Psychologically, you have to create that feeling of trust when you walk into the room for the interview.

Many recruiters talk about getting « a feeling » from someone when they walk into an interview.

Well, you know what ? Those don’t come from the hard technical skills, they’re in fact the soft skills of EQ and you need to start being successful at giving out a good feeling to others.

BE A WINNER

When people train for sports they visualise the positive outcome. They visualise shooting the penalty and the ball going into the back of the net. They see themselves ski-ing down the slalom course at over 100kmh. Just watch a skier with his eyes closed and concentrating right before the race!

So, next time you start to fill your head with negative thoughts before you go in, see the positive outcome and remember the time when you gave excellent and coherent answers and you got the job.
BTW, if you’ve ever asked for feedback in an interview, make sure it’s from one you got – and not one you didn’t get !!

About the Author:
Gillian Lana is an experienced International Career and Interview Coach and works with some of the top Private Universities in the world, coaching graduates to find employment. She also works individually online with people from all over the world, so if you’d like to have some help and positive support to launch your career, get in touch: info@gillianlana.com