Transcript of video below: 3 Brilliant Tips to Succeed in a Job Interview
Today, I want to share with you my three very best tips that are going to guarantee interview success for you.
First thing, when you go into an interview, is you want to quantify your results when you’re talking about your accomplishments. So, let me tell you what I mean by that.
So, when you quantify your results, you’re saying exactly what you’ll do when they give you the job and you’re clearly separating yourself from your competition and you’re connecting with prospective employers and telling them exactly what they want to hear and that’s really the key.
When most people go into an interview, they don’t quantify their results, they just talk about that they’re really good, “I’m really good at sales, I’m really good at managing projects, I’m really good at analyzing reports” but they don’t tell an employer how they’ve done it. And that’s really the key; when you can tell someone how you’ve done something before and measure it.
So, for example, if you’re in sales, you don’t want to just say, “I’m really good at selling software, I’m really good at selling things”. You want to tell them what you’re good at doing, you want to tell them how much you’ve sold, how you’ve met quota, how you’ve received certain kinds of awards. Just walk them through your sales track record and show them that you’re a proven sales person.
Another example would be if you’re a project manager. Don’t just say, “I know how to manage projects”. You want to walk them through. Talk about the tools that you’ve used to manage projects, talk about the budgets that you’ve sat on projects, talk about how you reach certain milestones, walk them through the entire process. Tell them that you have developed projects, you’ve built projects, you’ve designed them on time, under budget and put dollar figures to those; that’s the quantifying part.
You want to put a number to something because it means a lot more when you hear that someone says, “I worked on projects with a million dollar budget and we met the project deadline and we did it on time and under budget”. Those are the kind of things employers want to hear and that’s why you want to quantify your results.
What most people say when they go into an interview is, “If I’m chosen for this position, my goals will be to meet and exceed the requirements for the position”.
Now if you think about that, what does that really say? It doesn’t say anything; that’s just a bunch of lip service. And you can really differentiate yourself from everybody else in the interview by quantifying your results.
Talk about specifics; don’t just say that you’re good at doing things. Talk about how you’ve done it before, what you’ve done, what the specifics were and if you can, put a number to it. It means so much more when you can put a number.
And don’t just use general numbers; don’t just say, “I’ve worked on a million dollar project”. If it was a $2.2 million project you worked on, then say $2.2 million. If it was a $50 thousand project, then say I’ve worked on a $50 thousand project. Put specific numbers to quantify your results and that will clearly separate you from your competition. Seriously! Do this.
Most people when they go in, they just get weak statements; weak experience statements, which they’re really not even experience statements, they’re just more like job skills. They’re saying you’re really good at doing this. But you need to do better than that because you’re going to be up against a whole bunch of other people who are competing for this job.
So, you need to differentiate yourself from everybody else and if you don’t do that, you’re not going to hear back. I guarantee it. If you don’t go in there and clearly differentiate yourself from everybody else by showing an employer what you can do, how you can do it and how you’ve done it before, you’re not going to go very far in the interview process and it’s going to take you a while to come out of this rut.
When you do all this, this is going to show that you’re a forward thinking individual and that you have a plan for this job. Most people don’t. Most people don’t have a plan. They just want the job. They just go in there and they hope and they pray that someone is going to feel sorry for them and give them the job. Now, wrong attitude. Go in there, show them why you are the right person for the job. Okay? Next one.
Never take silence as a sign that an employer is not interested in you.
I can’t tell you how many times I hear from people, they email me and they say, “Don I had an interview and I didn’t hear back. It’s been a week. What should I do? Are they not interested in me?”
I really don’t know. I’m not a fortune teller. I can’t really say for sure but I encourage you to not take the silence as a sign that they’re not interested in you.
A lot of things can happen. Companies are big and there’s a lot of things that are going on inside the company in their own internal structure and they don’t move as quickly as you would like them to. Maybe they said they’re going to get back with you in a week or two, but they didn’t. That doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in you. That’s not what that means at all. Maybe they’re still interviewing, maybe someone to have a vacation, maybe they had an internal emergency and they had to put this position on the side. You don’t really know.
So, the thing to do is to call them. Pick up the phone and call them and find out where they’re at. And the best way to do this is at the end of the interview, you want to ask them, you want to say, “When do you plan to make a decision about this position?”
Now, if they say within one or two weeks, now you know what their time frame is. So, if you don’t hear from them within one to two weeks, give them a call and say, “Hey, I know you said you planned to make a decision within two weeks, but I haven’t heard anything back; What is the status of the position?” and then they’ll tell you. And maybe they’ll say, “Oh, we had to put that on the back burner” or “Maybe we chose somebody else” that’s a possibility or maybe “You know what? We forgot about you” or “We lost your information” could be anything.
But the key here is don’t let that silence bring you down. Just because you didn’t hear from them, it doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in you. You need to continue the conversation. Call them up, e-mail them, find out what’s going on and that will make you feel better inside. Whether it’s good or bad; they’re either going to say, “We’re really not interested in you” or “Yes we are, but we’re just not ready to make a decision yet”.
So, call and find out what’s holding them up, what’s taking them so long and that will make you feel better inside and then you can move on with the next steps.
So, instead of sitting around on the sidelines and waiting, I encourage you to be proactive. Pick up the phone and call them or email them and find out what’s holding them up.
And when you pick up the phone and you call them, you’re also reaffirming your interest in working there.
Now, they know that when I call them up and like, “Hey, this is Don. I’m really interested in that job” they know that you’re genuinely interested. Because when they interview 10 or 20 people, they’re not sure who was interested and who is not. I mean, if all those people; all 20 people, they’re not all interested. Probably only half of those people are interested in the job and maybe 10 percent are super highly interested.
I encourage you to be one of those 10 percent. Be the really interested, be enthusiastic and show them this is the job you want. That’s actually the perfect lead into the next slide here; is enthusiasm.
You need to be enthusiastic about the job that you want.
If you just go in there and say, “Hi, I’m Don I’m really interested in this job. I’d like to work here. I think I’d be great.”
Would you really want to hire somebody with that kind of attitude? Put yourself in their position for a minute. Would you want to hire somebody with that type of attitude? I don’t think so. You want somebody that wants the job, that’s energetic about the job, that can do the job, they’ve already showed you that they can do with the job, they have quantified their results, they’ve followed up with you and now they’re showing you how enthusiastic they are.
So, how do you show or demonstrate enthusiasm.
I mean, it’s hard to teach enthusiasm; you can’t fake it. You just can’t fake being enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is your own personal level of interest in doing something for somebody or working for a company. It shows how excited you are to be there. The expressions on your face, the tone of your voice, your attentiveness; all of those things all rolled into one. That’s enthusiasm and you have to demonstrate that.
I’m trying to be enthusiastic when I make this video here for you and I’m being enthusiastic because I want to convey my point to you to show you that this is the level of intensity that you need to be at.
I think the root of enthusiasm is your level of confidence that you have in yourself. And when you’re confident in yourself and what you’re doing, your enthusiasm just naturally shines through. It just can’t help, it wants to get out and it wants to express itself.
Now, if you’re not overly excited or enthusiastic about this job, you’re probably not going to get it. And if you’re not enthusiastic about the job; maybe you have some internal fear of what this job is and that it’s going to be more of what you were doing before, then you just end up sabotaging yourself so you don’t get this job. I mean, self-sabotage is a whole another topic.
But if you’re not overly excited and enthusiastic about this job, something’s wrong. I mean, there’s something about this job that you don’t like and you have to ask yourself that question. I mean, you can’t just go in there and fake it. You can’t fake that you’re enthusiastic about this job and you really want it.
Maybe the root is that you need the money. You need the money for this job, you have to get it, you don’t care what the job is, you’re willing to just roll up your sleeves and do it.
That kind of attitude I admire, but it’s the wrong attitude to have. You can’t force yourself into a job, you can’t force yourself to be enthusiastic, you can’t force yourself to be happy doing something that maybe you don’t really want to be doing.
So, if you’re not enthusiastic about the job, ask yourself, “Why?” Just get yourself some pen and paper and write down the reasons that you like about this job and write down the reasons that you don’t. And if there’s more reasons about why you don’t want this job or there’s something you don’t like about it, maybe you shouldn’t do it, maybe you shouldn’t pursue it.
Because what ends up happening is when you start pursuing jobs that you really don’t want, you don’t get them and then it ends up lowering your confidence level. Because if you keep getting turned down by employers, that’s going to lower your confidence and it’s going to make it a lot harder for you to go and interview for jobs because you’re going to feel that nobody wants you. You’re going to feel that employers don’t want to hire you and it just keeps beating you down, beating you down; lower and lower and lower. And all along, it’s because you’re trying to force yourself into a position that you don’t really want to be in.
You need to want this job for more than just the money. I mean, the money is great, we have to have the money, but you really need to want the job because of what it is and the value that you can offer to this job; how you can help this company or whatever it is, how you can help this organization grow and meet their own needs.
And in return, they’re going to help you meet your own needs, they’re going to help you grow in your career, they’re going to pay you for it and you’re also going to grow.
But if you’re not enthusiastic about helping them, they’re not going to be interested in you. They’re not going to be enthusiastic about you.
The key here is when you’re enthusiastic and you demonstrate that you were the person for this job, you want it really bad, more than anybody and that you can do it, that level of excitement is going to attract an employer. It’s going to make them reach out to you and it’s going to make them convince you that you really should work here.
That’s what your enthusiasm is going to do. It’s going to make them attracted to you. And when they’re attracted to you and you’re attracted to them, that’s when the magic happens, that’s when the job offer rolls in, that’s when they see that you could help them meet their needs and you see that they can help you meet your needs. You have to have that mutual attraction there or it doesn’t work.
And that’s why you need enthusiasm. You need to be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is the root of everything in a job interview. I encourage you to be enthusiastic.
So, from the top; qualify your results, never take silence as a sign that someone’s not interested and be enthusiastic my friend. Be enthusiastic and this will change everything for you.
That’s all I have for you today. Thanks again for watching this video or if you’re listening to me on the podcast. Thank you. If you found it helpful, make sure you share it with your friends, like it and subscribe to my channel.
