Today, I want to talk to you about why employers are not calling you back for job interviews.
It’s a crippling mistake that I see job seekers making over and over and over again. And the problem is they’re blending in; they’re looking like everyone else.
And when you look like everyone else, it makes it really difficult for an employer to distinguish you from somebody else. They don’t have anything to remember you by.
You have to think about it. When an employer brings in a group of people, let’s say 10 or maybe 20 different candidates, and interviews them for a job, and when they all look the same, it makes the employers’ job really difficult to decide who they should hire.
I mean, how do you pick someone from a pool of 20 people when everybody looks and sounds the same way? It’s difficult; it’s nearly impossible. And I see job seekers doing this over and over and over again.
And one of the problems is everybody does their research on the Internet and they look up how to answer a few questions, just probably like you’re doing right now. I mean, I wrote the book on answering interview questions, and a lot of people get that book.
But the problem is, some people who get that book, they look at the sample answers and they just change a couple of different things and they use that answer; whether it’s relevant to them or not and that that’s career suicide.
The whole point is to give answers that are specific and that are genuine to your interviewer. You don’t want to just give them something you read off the internet, because you’re going to sound like everybody else.
If you do pull an answer off the Internet, make sure that you understand what that answer means, and then you rebuild it from the ground up with your own experiences.
Now, this takes more work. I mean, it’s easy to blend in, and that’s why most people do it. And that’s why most people don’t get called back for job interviews.
But it’s harder to be creative, to be unique, and to stand out than the interview. And that’s why out of maybe 20 candidates, only one or two people actually reach that mark, and that’s why they get the job, and you don’t.
So, what I want to teach you is the importance of being yourself, being genuine in the interview. I mean, when you sit down with an employer to talk about a job, I want you to engage them. I want you to challenge them. I want you to talk to them like they’re a real person.
I don’t want you to visualize them as this large company. There are real people and they’re out there working for their company to recruit other people to come to work for them.
They want people who are genuine. They want people who can help them solve their own problems. They want people who can help them solve problems within the company.
And that’s what you want to convey that you are that kind of person; you’re genuine, you’re unique, and that you know something about them and you know how to help them solve their problems.
So, when you sit down for an interview, and you talk to an employer, treat them like a real person. Don’t feel that this interview is a big test. Be yourself, be genuine, look at them, smile at them, ask them questions.
If you just sit there and think that your only purpose there is to answer all of their questions for the next 60 minutes, then you’re going to look like everybody else and you may not even well waste your time.
Seriously! You need to go in and ask them questions too; talk to them. You want to give them something to remember you by. You know, whether you know whether it’s a laugh that you have, a smile on your face, something you said, somewhere you’ve been, give them something that makes you unique; something that you will stand out in their minds, so that a week from now, they’ll remember that guy or that girl like, “Hey, yeah. I remember them”.
You want to stick in their minds. And if you’re not sticking in their minds, you’re looking like everybody else and you’re wasting your time, you’re wasting their time, and you’re never going to hear back.
An interview is an open exchange of information. You go in there, you talk about the things that you’re good at doing, and that you like to do, and that you’d like to do it for them and they tell you what they’re looking for.
You see, if you can find some medium ground there to basically exchange services. They’re going to pay you for your services, but you have to meet them in the middle. You have to show them that you have what it takes.
And this is where most people fail. They think the interviews just a big test. They think they can just study some questions on the Internet, and if they answer all the questions right, they’ll get the job. That’s not how it works. It’s not that kind of a test.
They’re evaluating you, they’re evaluating your experiences, they’re evaluating your abilities, and you can’t really hide that.
So, in your next interview, go in there, be a real person, be genuine, smile, show them that you want to be there, challenge them, ask them questions, engage them in the interview.
Interview is a two-way street; two-way conversation. It’s not just you sitting there, answering questions. You need to ask them questions back. You need to bring them into the conversation.
A great strategy to use in an interview is to try get your employer to sell you on coming to work there. And a great way to do that is by asking them questions; challenge them. Ask them like, “What are some of the things that this company does to create a healthy work atmosphere?” or “What do you do to keep your employees motivated?” or “How do you stay ahead of your competition?”
Ask them those kind of questions; don’t ask them all those questions. I’m just giving you some examples. And the type of question is going to vary for the type of industry or company that you’re interviewing at, but ask them some questions that challenge them. And then they will try to answer that question and inherently, they’ll be selling you on the company. They’ll tell you why this is a good company, why it’s a great place to come to work and why you should want to come here too.
When you can get your interview or to start selling you on coming to work there, now it’s now it’s almost a done deal. Now, you can kind of just sit back and enjoy the ride a little bit while they’re selling you. And then you can go back and engage them and answer more questions and stuff like that.
But the whole point here is to be unique; don’t look like everyone else. You have to stand out in the interview. If you don’t stand out, you’ll look like everyone else and you’re just going to be sitting on the sidelines, scratching your head and wondering why no one is calling you back for a second job interview. It’s because you look like everyone else. And looking like everyone else is the worst thing you can do.
I mean, you might find comfort in doing what everyone else is doing, because we as a society, we feel that if we’re modeling someone else, we’re doing what they’re doing, we’re doing it the right way.
But in the job interview, you don’t want to look like everyone else. You want to be different. You want to stand out. You want to be unique and that’s how you win.
That’s how you win my friend. And you can do it. So, go out there in your next interview, and be unique; be who you are. Let the real you shine through in the interview. And I guarantee you’ll go so much farther in the interview process.
Take care my friend. We will see you in the next video. And an old friend of mine used to say, “If you don’t challenge yourself, you’re never going to get better”. I learned of that one a long time ago. So, do that and you will be great my friend. Take care, and I will see you in the next video.
