CONVINCING THEM YOU’RE RIGHT FOR THE JOB

Highly effective interviewees are not born with interview skills; rather, they teach themselves
what to say, how to say it and how to behave during an interview.
Common interview mistakes
Here are some common interview mistakes:
 Failing to express oneself clearly.
 Not being aware of one’s body language.
 Failing to control those nerves
 Failing to give appropriate examples.
 Trying too hard to please the interviewer
There’s nothing wrong with you
A great place to start is to ask: ‘What does it take to convince the interviewer that you’re the
best person for the job?’ The answer to this question can best be summarised in four parts:
 correct preparation;
 knowing the things that are important to interviewers;
 practising your answers;
 perseverance.
Correct preparation
We’ve all heard people boast that they’ve never prepared for an interview in their lives and
have done all right. Whilst this boast may not be an idle one, closer inspection will usually
reveal that these people were:
 lucky—that is, in the right place at the right time;
 well connected;
 working in a favourable labour market where there was a huge demand for employees
coupled with low supply;
 applying for jobs well within their comfort zone—that is, not stretching themselves to
improve their position; or
 applying for jobs internally and competing mainly against external candidates.
The case for preparation
There are three additional reasons that make the case for interview preparation even more
compelling:
 Interviews are rare events, thus making them unfamiliar and awkward.
 Many people find it very difficult to sell themselves at interviews.
  In most interviews, coming second isn’t good enough. It’s not just a matter of
performing well; it’s also a matter of beating everyone else.
What is incorrect preparation?
Incorrect preparation is any preparation that will not optimise your performance at an
interview. At best, they can give you an insight into what may constitute a good answer; at
worst, they simply lead you astray. In the vast majority of cases, there’s no such thing as a
single answer to a question.
Advantages of preparation
Taking the time to correctly prepare for an interview will:
 improve your confidence levels;
 assist you in answering questions succinctly, as opposed to taking forever to make a
simple point;
 help you know what to say and how to say it;
 assist you in handling difficult questions;
 help you avoid saying things that will make a negative impression;
 improve your rapport-building skills.
Knowing the things that are important to interviewers
In fact, nearly all good interview questions boil down to these three key generic questions:
 Can you do the job?
 Are you the sort of person they can work with?
 How motivated are you?
There are two significant benefits in knowing that interviewers are keenly interested in these
three generic questions. First, it guides you in the preparation of your answer. Second, it
provides a useful way to deal with questions at the actual interview.

Practice
Once you’ve prepared your answers, you need to sit down and practise them as much as you
can. The more you practise, the better you’ll be.
Practising your answers aloud
That’s because the human brain distinguishes between talking and thinking and you need to
stimulate the talking part of your brain.
Get some feedback
You can increase your chances of getting honest feedback by making interviewers feel as
comfortable as possible. You can do this by:
a) assuring them that you only want five minutes of their time; and
b) telling them that the only reason you’re seeking feedback is to improve future interview
performance.
Mock interviews
An effective way to conduct mock interviews is to get into role and stay in it for the entire
interview. No distractions, no small talk and especially no starting again.
 If possible, avoid providing the questions to your helpers
 Give them lots of questions and ask them to choose the ones they want.
 The important thing is to get yourself used to answering unexpected questions.
Perseverance
 The worst thing you can do when setting out to improve your interview performance is
give up because it all seems too hard.
 And if you don’t believe in yourself, others usually don’t believe in you either—not a
great place to be when you’re trying to convince interviewers to believe in your
abilities.
 You don’t have to be a chronic quitter or burdened with low self-esteem to give up on
working on your interview skills.
Suggested activity: Neurolinguistic programming
People often quit because they associate negative feelings with what they’re doing. If you can
make yourself feel good about the process of improving your interview skills, then there’s a
good chance that quitting will be the last thing on your mind. Next time you feel like quitting,
you might like to find a quiet spot and take the following steps:
 Close your eyes and imagine yourself performing extremely well in an interview.
 Keep on repeating this exercise until you capture that feeling of excitement.
 Once you’ve captured that feeling, the next step is to recreate it when you need it—in
other words, when you feel like quitting.