HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CONFIDENCE BEFORE A JOB INTERVIEW
Today I to share with you 5 tips that will help you become more confident, than you have ever been, on any interview, at any time in your life, so you can totally ace your next job interview.
One of the most common problems I hear from my clients is they get very nervous right before a job interview. Their palms are sweaty, their heart is racing and they are at a loss for words. They feel the intense pressure of all those interviewers starring down at them. Do you know what I’m talking about?
And when interviewers start asking you question after question, your nerves take over and you start rambling on endlessly until you don’t even know what you are saying anymore or you are so nervous that you can’t utter up one single word. Do you know what I mean?
We’ve all been there.
This is not the first time I’ve made videos on confidence, but I’ll tell you this, confidence is simply knowing that you will come up with the right answer when the pressure is on and when you need it the most. Confidence is just a culmination of all your past experiences coming together to push you through an event.
To be confident in a job interview, you have to know what you’re talking about. You can’t just show up for an interview, know nothing about the job and expect to impress them. To strengthen your confidence before your next interview, ask yourself,
“Why did that employer call me? Why did they invite me to an interview?”
It’s because they see potential in you. They see that you have the experience to help them solve their problems so they can grow. The interview is simply a discussion to learn and discover how you can help them.
Are you with me so far?
Then, take that to the next level and ask yourself,
“What have I done in my past jobs that helped my employers solve their problems and grow?
What have I done to improve things in my last job?
What have I done to contribute to my team members to help them grow?
When you start thinking about all the great things you have done, this will raise your confidence level so you can talk about all the things you can do for them in this job.
The better you get at something, the easier it becomes. Repetition is the mother of skill. So on your next interview use this phrase to strengthen and focus your confidence:
Repeat after me: “Because I have done these things in my last job, here is how I can do these things for you in this job.”
When you connect the dots for them by applying this simple formula, you can’t help but feel good about yourself and the value you can bring to an employer.
Let’s move on to number 2, influence.
A wise man once said that everything you want in this world is either owned or controlled by someone else.
So for starters you need to know what it is that you want. Not just a job, but specifically what kind of job, where at, what you will be doing, who you will be working for. etc.
you need to answer all of these questions for yourself so you have a clear target of what to aim for.
The only way you are going to convince the hiring manager to hire you is through persuasion and influence. This does not mean using unethical persuasion tactics like manipulation. The easiest way to persuade and influence someone, like a hiring manager, is to build rapport with them.
You build rapport by being like them, engaging them, understanding them, understanding their pains, problems and troubles. And then showing them that you understand what they need.
And when you can say, “So Mr. Employer, it sounds like you are struggling in reducing your manufacturing costs by 3% for blue widgets.”
And when they come back and say, “Yah, that’s right, you know understand us.” You have just built rapport and are in a stronger position to influence them by saying, “In my last job, we needed to reduce costs of red widgets by 7% and this is what we did to solve them.”
Now think about it for a minute. Who are they going to want to hire now? Someone else, or someone like you who understands them?
That’s the art of influence. And this works everywhere, not just in job interviews. When you build rapport with anyone, that person is more likely to give you what you are asking for.
Next one, number 3 is framing. This is a continuation from step 2, influence.
Every time you answer a behavioral question, you know the kind that start off like, “tell me about a time…”
You don’t want to just sum up your answer in a single statement like, “Yah, that happened before, this is what I did.” A response like that saps out all the excitement and drama from your answer and falls flat.
Without framing your answer, you will end up giving a weak and unconvincing response.
So when the hiring manager says, “Tell me about a time when you solved a difficult problem that no one else could.”
Start off by framing your answer, weave some drama and excitement in it before you tell them how you solved the problem.
Give them the details on the situation and how terrible it would have been if you didn’t solve this problem.
Then lead them into the Action of what you did. By this time they should be wondering if you were going to succeed or not, just like the main character in a movie who is fighting against the bad guy.
And then lead into the result of how everything worked out and how you saved the day.
Now you look awesome, but to take it one step further and for added rapport building, tell them a story they can relate to so they feel connected to your story in some way.
Next one, number 4. Stories sell, so make sure you have extra stories to share.
You might answer one of their questions perfectly and start patting yourself on the back for a job well done, and then the interviewer says, “that’s great, can you give me another example of how you did that?” This is where most candidates lose it in the interview and never recover.
Look back through all your experiences and create stories for how you solved problems as a leader, through communication, teambuilding, technical expertise, mentoring, etc.
This way, you can answer questions about how you solved problems in different areas of your job instead of just one. It’s good to have a few example stories for common behavioral questions.
It’s not hard; because you are just talking about your experiences. This is stuff you did.
The hard part is re-remembering them all, so before your next interview, write down in detail everything you did on three projects from start to finish. Writing things on paper recommits them to your memory is a much stronger way.
this will refresh your mind on your experiences and you’ll be in a strong position to talk about them on your next interview.
And number 5, see it, believe it, and visualize it.
The brain does not know the difference between what you imagine and reality.
So every day, leading up to your interview start of by visualizing yourself in this role, working for this company, and doing this job.
approach this interview like you already have the job, like you already work there.
Imagine yourself carrying on a good conversation with the hiring manager, while effortlessly answering these questions and all the while building a strong rapport with them.
See them laughing with you, see them congratulating you, see yourself being a solution to their problems.
See yourself as the hero. Hear them saying, “wow, you really know what you are talking about.”
Hear them asking you questions where you give awesome answers. Hear them asking “When can you start?”
Visualization really works.
Football players see themselves catching the ball and scoring a touchdown. Baseball players see themselves swinging and making contact with the ball. Stage performers visualize the audience cheering.
Doing this visualization exercise conditions your mind and puts you in a peak state so that you not only feel like you are at your best, but you believe it and there is nothing that can stop you.
That is how you build and focus your confidence.
So there you are my friend, my five best tips on how to condition yourself to be confident on your next job interview.
