Seven Steps to Successful Job Interviews 

By Adele M. Scheele, Ph.D.

Author

“Jumpstart Your Career in College “

 

For all of us who have to find a career, even just a job, are often our own worst enemies. We believe that if we're good, if we have great grades and experience, we'll be sought after. After all, since we've been automatically promoted every year in college just because we passed our professors' assignments, we assume work will be the same. We've learned system dependence along the way and confuse that with life. Nothing could be more different.

Interviewing, for example, is NOT a test. There are no right answers. You can't respond in only a few words and the multiple choice letter doesn't come close. Interviewing is an art. Successful interviewing lies in the way you relate, build a bond, establish a good fit. Employers need to know you. They have only a short time to figure out your qualifications. Beyond technical skills, they are hunting for people to hire who show leadership, initiative, motivation, goals, and personality that matches theirs. They ask questions to get quick snapshots of you in comparison to others to make their choice. Therefore each answer you give has to fulfill what they are searching for: someone they can trust with their clients and services. In other words, someone just like them. Therefore, you have to present your education, character, personality and demonstrate through examples that you select that you are their best candidate-that you are, indeed, just like them.

Here are my strategies to land the job offer:

1. Learn who they are. Research the company, its top officers, its products, services, and ratings through their website, trade magazines, newsletters, and industry associations.

2. Rehearse your interview script. Don't go unprepared, without having practiced your answers and questions out loud beforehand. Get coaching for best answers and tips for looking comfortable in an interview - smiling, making eye-contact, opening and closing lines.

3. Practice answers to questions that you can assume they will ask , such as:

· Tell us about yourself.

· Why should we hire you?

· What is your career goal?

· Do you have experience for this job?

· What are examples of your leadership?

· What have you learned from your failures?

4. Prepare to explain your resume; don't assume they have even read it. Tell what you enjoyed learning in class, what projects mattered, which professors were mentors, what part-time jobs and interviews taught you.

5. Describe your work experience in positive terms. Don't complain but think

about what you learned and what you contributed, even if you had a terrible

time with a supervisor. Rather than blame others, shift the focus to what worked.

6. Participate in the interview as if it were a dance. Don't be passive. You have to make time during the session to “sell” yourself. Great achievers don't shrink from explaining themselves; they take time to elaborate on their past projects and make their interviewers feel smart and involved. Don't leave the dynamics of the interview up to the interviewer. Do your part by preparing a list of your own past successes, challenges you've met, coups you've pulled off, new ideas you thought up and implemented; teams you've worked on or formed; budgets you were responsible for.

The above is an excerpt from The Last Job Search Guide You'll Ever Need: How to Find and Get the Job or Internship of Your Dreams, which is available for sale for $19.85 in our bookstore or $27.00 at Amazon.com but for free to those who subscriber to our free career newsletter. This hot new book contains job search secrets of the most experienced, most knowledgeable and most respected career experts. Learn career planning, job hunting tools and tactics, interviewing, cover letter and resume writing (lots of samples!), networking, and how to find an internship. Written by 149 career experts. To receive a free copy, subscribe to our free career newsletter.

Career Videos