Little Known Ways to Impress Your Interviewer

Your Hard Work Paid Off

Congratulations!

You’re in the door. You applied for that dream job, meticulously filled out reams of application forms and spellchecked your CV upwards of fifty times. The Powers That Be have deemed your application noteworthy, and your potential future employers want to meet with you. Your hard work paid off.

However, it won’t be long until the initial feeling of gratification slowly turns to trepidation and eventually you begin to sweat at the realisation that you have to face an interview.

Make a Good First Impression

Whether you view an interview as dramatically as the above description (or whether you’re just feeling a little puzzled about why you haven’t been having much luck in interviews so far) there are a few things everyone should keep in mind when making that initial impression. You may be someone who thrives in an interview scenario – or someone who crumbles – but either way interviewing well can be viewed as a skill in itself that everybody can succeed at.

Be Prepared

First and foremost, you need to be prepared.

Read up on the company and the position, but more importantly read up on yourself! It is important that you show the company that you care enough about the potential offer to research the firm and the part you would play within. However, the company does not need you to remind them of what they do: they need you to clearly associate your skill set to their company needs. Understand how your academic or professional history to date has prepared you for this opportunity. When speaking about your CV (whether informally or through structured questions), be sure to emphasise the relevant experience to the role in question.

Also, be prepared to show how experience that could be viewed as irrelevant to the role has provided you with transferable skills that you can bring into this new position. Have confident answers to any gap or irregularity – they are not trying to trip you up, merely understand your thought process behind the decisions you have made to date.  Highlight areas where you have excelled in any aspect of life to set you aside from the pack. Modesty is an admirable trait, yet it has no place in an interview setting! Prepare for a range of competency questions on your CV and the duties entailed for this opportunity and you will not be thrown off guard.

Body Language

You can have all the relevant experience in the world – and at interview stage you most likely do, as on paper you fit the bill. But the whole point of an interview is to assess how your character and personality could fit into this position and the company overall. Some top tips:

  • Dress smartly – better to be overdressed than under dressed.
  • When the interviewer walks in, stand up!
  • Shake their hand firmly and with a purpose (that purpose being to show confidence in your ability to get the job, not the purpose of doing any permanent nerve damage from squeezing…).
  • Maintain eye contact throughout the interview as it shows that you are confident in your abilities – even if internally your interview jitters are frantic!
  • Articulate your point clearly and display driven enthusiasm for the opportunity.
  • Sit up straight at all times – your mother was right all along – and try to keep fidgeting and other nervous ticks out of the room.

You have now impressed with your intellect, experience and calm confidence, and had an opportunity to show some of your genuine personality.

A Perfect Fit

An interview is the perfect opportunity to view if the personality of both parties fit together and ascertain if this could potentially be a win-win situation for all involved.

You could be spending a significant portion of your week with this company, so this will be much more enjoyable if you treat the situation as a conversation with both sides being honest about their needs and wants.

They have made time to interview you – therefore you more than likely have what it takes, so to finish up with an overused yet undeniable phrase: Just be Yourself!

~

Clíodhna Lynch | Azon
Clíodhna Lynch is Azon’s consultant for Financial Services.
Get in touch with her now via clynch@azon.dev.perpetualdigital.ie.

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