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Speak simply
Don’t adopt elaborated or excessively technical language; the most recommendable thing is to use a simple and concrete language that can be understood by people with different specialization. Don’t use technical slang. If it is necessary in any case, when you use this type of words, give a brief explanation of it and then use it as it should.
Make the task easier for your interviewer
The interview is a relation between two people. If the interviewee answers questions in a precise and brief way, if they centers their conversation on the important and - as we have already mentioned - in that we understand are the interests of the interviewer, in other words, “if we are the most adequate person for the position”, but not said with words but suggested with our speech about the experience and knowledge, in this way, we are helping the interviewer to make their job easier and this will benefit us, in a certain way.
Rule out the wrong positions
You should rule out all of those position that “have nothing to do with you”. You could tell me: “How can you say that when I am unemployed?” I am saying it for your benefit; if, when reading and analyzing the information about the position, your profile and capacity don’t fit with the vacant position, even when the job may seem interesting, you should rule it out. You will waste your time attending this type of interviews. You should learn to choose which ones to attend and which ones not. Nick Corcodilos (Corcodilos, Nick A., Ask the headhunter, reinventing the interview to win the job. A plume book, Penguin Book, New York, 1997), states two interesting concepts in relation with this topic: take the control of the interview showing the value each one has for the other. In order to do it, he proposes an exercise called what is your value?
We suggest you to follow the line of this author, doing an exercise about calculating or showing your added value to the position based on your history and experience. On the chart “How to determine “your” added value” we took some basic questions thinking on an interviewee of a managing level or of intermediate leadership. The mentioned questions vary if we are talking about a young professional, a secretary or a general manager. With this guide, the reader will be able to prepare their own list of questions.
HOW TO DETERMINE “YOUR” ADDED VALUE
You should be able to explain the work you do so the rest can understand it. Try to answer:
What product or service does your company sell? How is it, compared with the competition? What do you and your group provide for the company’s objectives? What are the capacities you value in your people? What training actions do you evaluate for your team? How do you manage your team in order to assure the fulfillment of objectives? How do you communicate results? How do you manage your expense budget? How would you prepare a presentation of your sector to eventual company buyers?
The other interesting concept the author proposes is to make the work during the interview that we have called as making the work during the definite interview. We talk about this a little further on.
Taking control of the interview is a figured concept already, the interviewee doesn’t control the interview, the person who really fixes the times is the interviewer. Then, how can we take control of the interview? In my opinion, only in one way: gaining the other’s interest and in order to do it, you should fix the interest of the interviewer about your history according to the profile their is looking for.
The interviewer’s challenge is to find the most adequate candidate for the position
Doing the work during the definite interview (the one that defines the hiring of the candidate and is normally done with the future boss)
What is DOING THE WORK? You do the work during the interview solving some problems the employer really has at that moment and that are the origin of the search.
As you know, you will go through several instances of interviews during the selection process. As we saw in the introduction, there is a preliminary interview that can be made by an advisor or directly by someone from the Human Resources area; a second interview and the direct interview with the person in charge of the position to fill; generally the direct boss; this is interview is usually called definite interview because once the candidate reached that point, overcoming the first rounds of the interview, they will “win the position or not” in this interview. This is why it is called definite, even when there is still another instance at the end of the process with the final offer.
Now we present you two methods in order to “win” the definite interview. But be careful: the two following methods to do the work in the interview should be used when the interview is with your future boss. They were not thought to be used with an advisor, a headhunter or the person responsible of the Human Resources area of the company.
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