Conquer with confidence

Last week we saw that it wasn't about "what you got but your ability to give me what I need" that was crucial to get a great job. We discussed two very simple things, "Get the Inside Scoop" and "Know your hiring manager" that will help you score more points that most of your competition for that job. Now let's dive into other important bits of cracking job interviews.

Examples/Samples/Stories
Whatever may be the job description, there are activities listed in it. You need to ready examples and stories from your experience to showcase how you can perform such an activity. A great story doesn't just convey what you know, it conveys how you know what you know, what's your execution style, who you work with, how you collaborate, and what all can you bring to the table. Also, hiring managers tend to pick up follow-up questions from your story, which you can confidently answer.

For example, if you want to say "I am marketing an IT product for the company that helped sales go from fivemillion dollars to 10 million dollars in three quarters"; you may say it with a backdrop/story and add the right contexts and name names; for example, "My team and I did five million dollars business via advertisement revenues from www.mamanames.com and our blog, my boss "VP of Marketing" asked us to come up with a plan to boost our sales by 100 per cent and directed us about a social media and influencer marketing strategy, I was tasked with the execution bit, I created a three-month plan with a $5000 dollar budget to target the blah blah blah customer segments...in the end, it was successful and we raised the sales to 10 million dollars".

Another example, if you want to say "I am a web developer, I have done user experience and UI designing for several web portals"; you may want to say "I have dealt with several UI/UX projects, I'll pick the most challenging one to help you understand my contributions. Around last year, the company www.progress.com decided to come up with a style guide and provide a consistent experience across all the web portals. I along with my Product Manager and five other team members prepared a style guide overnight and in an Agile product development fashion, completed the tasks of blah blah blah. We faced blah blah blah challenges...We worked with the builds team to deploy the cloud and on-premise build."

Pace your speech
Statistically, most seasoned professionals speak slowly or they pace themselves in such a way that their point is made clear. Also, we tend to speak in a calm and composed manner whenever we are in control.
Listen, think, and reply! Go slow! Request a minute to collect your thoughts!

Rookies, on the other hand, speak really fast and do not pause appropriately. It is hard to understand them and it gives away within five minutes of the interview how you aren't such a seasoned professional.
Know the difference between industry terms and lingos. Your interviewer doesn't have the same background as you. Especially, in the technology sector, your boss may not be of the same background as you.

Use industry terms, and not proprietary lingos. Showcase your understanding of how well you connect with the industry.

If you don't know any industry term that the interviewer is talking about, ask for what it means and try to correlate it to your existing work environment. I say this because even hiring managers do make the mistake of asking questions that only they can understand. Get the bare minimum things right.

Dress for the occasion and be on time
If the interview is at a bar/cafe, casual it is!
If at an office, do as the employees as the office do!

Body language: Maintain eye contact and talk to the interviewer(s). Also, don't just address one of the interviewers, address all of them. Scan everyone in the room when answering.

Follow-up: Ask follow-up questions
Cliché: When asked why do you want this job? Why looking for a change? or other such questions, don't dodge it. The interviewers know when you dodge questions with a template answer.

Good luck with your interviews. I hope you organically develop the above capabilities and use them wisely in your interviews. You could contact The Hans India to connect with me and I'll be happy to volunteer to help you with your job interview preparations.