When you’re feeling panicky about interviews, there’s no way to find out whether you’ll be nailing it or not. It’s hard to bring out your best when nervous. So the first step to acing that face-to-face with your employers is to weed out the jitters. But how will you do that? Here are some tips by Resume 4 Dummies:
1. It isn’t about you
Remember that you are being interviewed so that the employer will know whether you will be worth the hire or not. So make sure that you are putting their interests first during those few minutes. Don’t think that it is a celebrity interview where they do all the job to bring out the best in you. You are the one who will tell them how you can contribute to the company and why you are the best pick among the big bunch. Be more sympathetic with the needs of your employer. Then you can present yourself as the solution.
2. Project an avatar
An avatar is something you want to be in front of your prospective employer. It’s more like a role-playing game. Just be careful in choosing what will be your avatar. Do you think your employers need a smart and streetwise marketer? Or do you think they want a highly engaging and social one? Whichever you pick, be a good one. Think of how this avatar should act and react in your situation, imagine the way they speak, and then mimic it. If you just focus on the role-playing game, you will forget being nervous and answer the questions the way you should. Or at least, the way they think you should.
3. Psyche up
Learn to be gracious. Resume for dummies tells that the secret of psyching up is absorbing the situation of the one who will interview you, not yours. When your focus is on what’s happening to you, you will tend to get more nervous and consequently blow up your chance of getting hired. You should not prepare minutes before the interview. It will only ruin your days of preparation and practicing in front of the mirror.
4. Expect the cliché questions to come up
But never give the cliché responses. The least they want to hear from you is a too-rehearsed, too-safe, and cliché answer that won’t win you a cookie. Remember the same principle here: being just qualified is not enough. You need to outstand. Your answers need to be notable enough to create a lasting mark on their memories.
5. Tie up
Whether you think you nailed it or you blew it up, you should ask for a communication means right after the interview. Ask them if you can add them to LinkedIn and be updated. This may not be the ultimate way to win a job. However, the connection may play a bigger role later on.
6. Never lie
Fill your interviews with lies and embellishments and you’re sure to be professionally dead. Being an absolute whooper pays off maybe in the short term. However, your employers will surely find out sometime after. Resume for dummies spills that hiring managers have the knack for smelling lies. So don’t attempt to lie. Being truthful adds up to your points.
