The Great Resignation has seen many of us look for new jobs. One aspect that many people struggle with - and for good reason - is interviews.
You typically have an hour (maybe less) to convince the other person you have what is needed to be hired.
You may have done all the prep in the world, but how you articulate and answer the questions is important.
Here we look at three tips that can help you.
1. Structure your answer.
For questions such as "Why this company?" "Why should we hire you?" "What are you looking for in this role?", chances are you have more than one reason to give.
If so, it's worth making that clear as you open your answer.
For example: "There are four reasons I really want to join this company. The most important being.... Secondly... Thirdly... And finally, because...". This is a great way of helping your interviewer keep up with you, rather than listing off a number of reasons without any indication you are about to do so.
2. Use the STAR method.
For competency questions such as "When was a time you..." or "Describe a situation where..." it's very tempting to dive immediately into the results of what you did.
However, that lacks giving justice to what happened, because you miss out giving the interviewer any context or background.
Instead, use the STAR method for these types of questions.
S - What was the situation you were in?
T - What was the task you were met with?
A - What was the action you took to meet this?
R - What was the result of what you did?
Rather than rushing immediately to "R" and the results, you are more likely to help the interviewer better understand the scenario and your role in it.
3. Repeat back the question.
No matter how much preparation you do, chances are there are going to be questions that you may not have considered ahead of time.
In these cases, it's easy to quickly rush and answer the first thing that comes to mind.
Instead, pause and buy time.
A great way of doing this is repeating back the question in another way, asking the interviewer to confirm you have understood it properly.
This means a) you demonstrate it's important to you to understand first (a great skill to demonstrate in itself) and b) you can gather your thoughts before answering.
How we can help
These are just basic three tips for interviewing - there are many more that can help you, based on the type of interview, the role and the company you have been invited to.
At HelpMePresent, we help our clients in situations just like these - whether it's interview practice, or presenting back a case study question.
Good presenting and communication skills are essentially in many areas of life. Including landing your dream job. Get in touch to learn more.
HelpMePresent is the tutoring of presenting. We offer flexible, accessible sessions that can be easily booked. Drop us a line or click here to book now.