How to Ace your interview
The similarity between sport and interviews
Typically within the sporting arena one competitor isn’t beaten by another. The loser is often beaten by himself whilst the winner triumphs in the internal battle with himself. Jack Nicklaus (the best guy before Tiger Woods!) said that he didn’t win golf tournaments he just waited for the other guys to lose them!
An interview is just the same
There are two battles to have with yourself prior to an interview, win them and increase your chance of success.
Battle one: Preparation
Failing to prepare thoroughly is one of the biggest reasons for failure at interview. The most successful people in the world don’t “wing it” – they plan their goals and review them daily.
But here is the good news, getting prepared is easy
You don’t need to be an expert; in fact that could be just as off putting for an interviewer as being unprepared. That said you should know the following :
What is the correct name of the company?
How do they make a profit?
The passion of the business? (Their website or a catch phrase should help because every little helps doesn’t it?)
Who are the company’s main competitors? Gain an appreciation of how their competition may be stronger (and what your company could do about it)
Has the company been in the news recently? If so, why?
Once you have this basic understanding, (which will take no longer than 30 minutes research on Google) the job description and the purpose of the role will make more sense – and so will you, when you confidently answer the questions in your interview!
Remember, talking endlessly about your past achievements will not cut it. Your interviewer will want to discuss the job, the company, what’s currently challenging that company and the opportunity that now exists and how recruiting you is going to benefit the company.
Anxiety
Ok, we all get scared at interviews. A few nerves are good; they show you care. But we want to avoid complete debilitation – don’t we?
Being prepared will give your confidence a massive boost and so will a little bit of positive thinking. You must not defeat yourself by allowing your “negative” self to play the tapes (in your mind) of when you last messed up! This is the equivalent of the golfer facing a shot over the water, who prepares for the shot by remembering the last time he hit this shot into the water! Guess what? He’ll do the same again because that’s what your mind has just told your body to do. Don’t worry if you don’t play golf, we’ve all got examples in our life when we’ve focused all our emotional energy on what we didn’t want to happen and brought it into effect.
So it’s crucial that you develop a positive self-image. "Belief is the thermostat that regulates what we achieve in life" (The Magic of Thinking Big, David J. Schwartz). Remember that because we are what we think about, you can set your thermostat to whatever temperature you like!
If this all sounds a little be too airy fairy for you (it does for most people because we’ve all been told that things are just meant to be or not meant to be) hang in there. Spend the night before your interview playing the positive tapes in your mind – the ones where you confidently walk into the interview room (free of anxiety), ask great questions and give equally brilliant answers to the very nice person who is interviewing you!
If you fill your mind with positive thoughts about how your interview will proceed, you’ll achieve this confident persona in the interview - learn to prepare thoroughly and then to trust yourself.
A great way to do this is to relax and speak first
Do your best to get the interviewer talking by asking questions about the things you weren’t able to find answers to in your research. This will be really easy if you’ve done your research. Most company websites will post news updates, so all you’ll need to do is pick a story and a sensible question relating to this story and ask the question as you walk towards the interview room.
If you are good at your job you can be good at interviewing too – we absolutely promise you. Remember your biggest opponent is yourself. Don’t defeat yourself by failing to prepare or by letting anxiety undermine the positive self-image you have developed. Don’t compete with yourself. Get prepared and take control.
Time to start standing out?
