As any job seeker can tell you, there is a job
interview and there is THE job interview. THE job
interview is for the dream job, the one that you have
been going to school to prepare for, the one that you
have been taking internships to learn about, the one
that you really want. For THE job interview, simply
preparing is not going to be enough. Put it this way,
if you would iron your shirt for a job interview, then
you would go out and buy a new suit for THE job
interview. Luckily, preparing for the interview is
more or les the same as preparing for any job
interview. The steps are the same. Depending on how
determined to get the job you are, the level of effort
that you put into the steps will certainly be higher.
One good mental construct to keep in mind when you
prepare for the job interview is the imaginary
scenario of an employee asked to interview for his or
her current job. Imagine the strategic and effective
way that employee would be able to answer the job
interview questions. He or she would know the required
skill set, and would have plenty of the exact required
experience to speak about. He or she would know what
the desired results of the job were, and have several
examples of achieving that result to show off. He or
she would know what characteristics and attributes the
corporate culture values, and would have stories of
exhibiting those characteristics to tell. At the end
of the job interview, it’s unlikely that the
interviewer would be able to find a more qualified
candidate than the person who already has that job.
More Strategies for the Job Interview
As you prepare for the job interview, this concept
should be your ideal goal. Though it’s not likely that
you can amass the specific job knowledge of a current
employee, you can learn about the job duties, the
desired results and the valued characteristics. When
you know them, think of the kinds of examples from
your job and personal history that you would use to
prove that you have accomplished those job duties,
have achieved those results, and have exhibited those
characteristics. Those are going to the key points
that you want to make in the job interview. When the
interviewer asks you questions designed to elicit the
information that he or she is interested in, your
response with these examples and stories will provide
just that.
As a rule of thumb, the job interview answers that you
give in the form of a story tend to be the most
memorable, vivid and relevant to the interviewer. It
helps if you tell the story in a way that makes the
situation, the actions you take and the results you
achieve all as similar as possible to the target job.
Being able to do this effectively is, after all, why
you did all the research that you did.
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