Know The Secret to Beating Your Competition and Winning your Next Job to Interview Your Best

It's a long line

With our economy it is difficult to just get a job interview.  And, with so many applicants interviewing for the same spots, it is important to find a way to edge out the competition and win the job.

Luckily, there is a new and inexpensive resource for job seekers to use when preparing and presenting themselves at their next interview; the iBest Presentation.

The iBest Presentation, featured on InterviewBest.com, is an interview tool that assists job candidates to communicate their job specific qualifications and personal attributes during the job interview. Not only does it quickly and clearly show the interviewer how they fit each requirement, but also leaves a powerful impression of professionalism and enthusiasm for the job.

“It’s really designed to create a conversation,” said Eric Kramer career expert and creator of InterviewBest and the iBest Presentation. “The best interview you can have is a conversation rather than the typical interrogation.”

Kramer said that the design of the presentation is based on his belief that every interview is, essentially, a sales call. Therefore, Kramer said candidates should enter each interview with a sales style presentation that clearly answers the three main questions of all job interviews—can the candidate do the job well, are they motivated, and will they fit the company’s work environment.

The iBest Presentation

The iBest Presentation is a brief eight to ten pages in length, beginning with the requirements of the position and the candidate’s qualifications that directly match those requirements. The interviewer can read through the booklet to find the candidate’s personal strengths, career accomplishments, and a 30 and 60 day strategic action plan detailing the candidate’s initial goals. It finishes with a list of reasons the candidate should be hired and questions the candidate has for the interviewer.

How do I prepare?

When candidates walk into an interview, Kramer said only about 25 percent are fully prepared. He said that many do not do the necessary company research or prepare for difficult questioning. By creating the presentation, Kramer said applicants walk in with a clearer assessment of the job, the company, and how they specifically fulfill the requirements of the position.

Janice Bilotti, who successfully used the iBest Presentation while interviewing for a Customer Service Supervisor position at Jones Apparel Group, said that the presentation enabled her to be prepared for the interview in addition to keeping her thoughts organized during the interview.

“iBest helps to make sure you cover the most important things that you want to discuss,”
she said, “because now it’s right there in writing and it organizes you during the interview as well as beforehand.”

Bilotti introduced her presentation in the interview when the interviewer asked her to describe herself. Pulling out iBest, Bilotti said that she and the interviewer read through it, touching on the important points she felt the company needed to know about her qualifications.

“It keeps you focused,” she said. “It makes you talk about what you want to focus on when you’re having your interview with the company.”

Bilotti said that her presentation impressed both of the individuals who interviewed her, adding that she didn’t think they had seen anything like it before.

It's a win and a job

Bilotti got a call later that same day with a job offer.

In addition to the iBest Presentation, InterviewBest.com has information for anyone involved in the interview process including candidates and hiring managers. Information includes links and tips for things to do before, during, and after the interview. The site also includes information about how to conduct an interview and ways to improve the selection process.

To create an iBest Presentation, job-seekers can go to www.InterviewBest.com and find an easy-to-use program that automatically generates a presentation as they add text. Included are expert libraries with phrases or words suggested for use in presentations. These libraries make developing an iBest quick and efficient. Once the presentation is made, users can either print it at home or take it to a local office supply store for professional binding.

Bilotti said that she would use the iBest Presentation in any future interview due to the positive impact it had on her last one.

“…It sets you apart,” she said. “Very few people would even go to that point of having a presentation much less having one of this quality.”

Go to InterviewBest for a Free Trial of iBest

How to Kick it Up a Notch to Interview Your Best

Which One Are You?

You are competing against 12-15 other interviewees, are you different?

If you read about job interviews every day like I do you would quickly realize that most of the advice is really elementary including:

• Good handshake
• Eye contact
• Be on time
• Dress right
• Don’t chew gum
• Be ready to answer questions

All good suggestions,  but way too elementary to win an interview in this competitive environment. So here are some things you can do to really improve your interviewing.

Your interview is a sales call be prepared to sell
An interview is a sales call; be a sales person. Like any good sales person, do a needs analysis (research) about the company and hiring manager, understand the value you will contribute to the company, and be assertive about selling yourself in the interview. An interview will only be a question and answer interrogation if you let it happen. Go in with the mindset of any good sales person, you have important information to communicate and you won’t leave without telling your story. There is no reason to be pushy or arrogant, but being assertive is a great quality in any employee.

Pay attention to how sales people sell things to you. What works what does not? Read information and books about selling. You don’t need to be a professional sales person, but you should develop a sales orientation to kick your interviews up a notch.

Be a Presenter
When is the last time you were in a sales situation and the sales person did not have a prepared sales presentation? Be prepared to do a brief focused presentation in your interview, even if you have not been asked to prepare a presentation for the interview. Your presentation should focus on how you meet the job requirements and why you are an excellent candidate. (Go to www.interviewbest.com for comprehensive interview presentation information). Just preparing to present will kick your interview up a notch.

Communicate your personal brand
Personal branding has become important for career management. What is your personal brand? Your brand is what people think and feel about you and it is what  makes you successful on the job. Determine what it is and be sure to talk about your brand in the interview. If you have successfully communicated your brand, when you leave the interview the interviewers will have your brand words in their mind. “That guy Joe is a really analytical team leader who is persistent and customer focused. We could use a person like him.”

Prepare a Strategic Action Plan
Companies are all about performance. Tell them what you will achieve in the first 30 and 60 days to provide value to the company. A Strategic Action Plan displays knowledge about the company, the industry, the job and communicates interest and motivation. Think of it as the implementation part of your sales presentation. Don’t worry about being 100% accuarate just presenting a plan will kick your performance up a notch.

Prepare success stories
People love to hear stories. Stories capture the imagination and stir emotions. Prepare stories of when you were at your best in you career and your life. Use these stories as responses to the questions you are asked in the interview. Question “Have you ever had to work with a challenging client?” Tell a story including what was the situation, what did you have to overcome, what actions did you take and what was the outcome. Don’t take more than two minutes to tell your story.

Many people ask me, “Are many job candidates doing these things?” My answer is “absolutely not” However, the candidates that are find themselves impressing hiring managers, acing interviews, and landing jobs!

Kick Your Interview Up a Notch

Why Your Brain Keeps You From Interviewing Your Best

We are all walking around with primitive brains more suited for surviving in caves than managing the demands of the 21st century (including interviews).

One of the things our primitive brain does is that when we get stressed it narrows our thinking. When extremely stressed we can only think of one of two things-fight or flight. However, even under lower levels of stress we lose full access to our creativity, memory, problem-solving skills, humor, and interpersonal skills. Here is some proof-have you ever been in a situation where you were in a heated or stressful discussion and the moment you leave the room you bang yourself on the forehead and say to yourself  “I should have said…” The moment you left the room you calmed down a bit, your thinking expanded, and you remembered what you could have said. I just spoke with a client that when driving home remembered a lot of things he wished he had said in his interview.

Interviews are stressful situations. Even if you do a great job of preparation, you will be nervous and your thinking will be diminished; know it plan for it. Here are a some suggestions for overcoming your primitive brain:

Remember this

Prepare a list of reminders:
On a pad of paper write down the things you want to remember in the interview. Include things like smile, good eye contact, no ums, take a deep breath, and don’t fidget. Also include a list of questions to ask, a list of accomplishments, a reminder to ask for a business card, and the interviewer’s name(s). As you take notes on the pad you will see your reminders and remember to follow them.

Take a deep breath
Swami’s have know for centuries that good breath control leads to calm. During your interview, about every 5 minutes, take a good deep diaphragmatic breath. This will calm you down and improve your thinking. Put this on your pad as one of the things to remember.

Slow down your answers
An interview is not a timed test. You do not have to have immediate answers for every question. Slow down and take some time to formulate your answers. By slowing down you will be less stressed and will think more clearly.

Shift your position
When under stress many people tend to tense their muscles which raises their heart beat. By shifting your position you will relax your muscles and you will calm down.

Smile
When your facial muscles are smiling it causes a calming effect. So smile in your interview. This will also invite the interviewer to smile and help relax her.

Prepare an interview presentation
The best way to support your primitive brain is to have a written presentation to use during your interview. An interview presentation will insure you communicate all the information the interviewer needs to know about you to make a well informed hiring decision. Because all the information is written, none of it will be forgotten and you will be more confidant and relaxed.

You primitive brain does a couple of other unhelpful things including focusing on the negative and assuming the worst in the face of uncertainty. So you probably did better in your interview than you think and just because you haven’t heard yet it does not mean you did not get the job.

Help your brain with an interview presentation

How to Establish Rapport and Interview Your Best

Build rapport

The first challenge of any job interview is establishing rapport with the interviewer. Rapport can be described as the feeling you experience when you are with someone you intuitively like. People only hire people they like; rapport is critical.

How do you establish rapport in a job interview?

Here are some of the common things-
Be on time
The first tactic may seem obvious but it is critical…be on time. If you are late to the interview you have destroyed the foundation for rapport. Be there 15 minutes before the appointment.

Eye contact
Look the interviewer in the eye. Eye contact establishes a connection and a trust. I am not suggesting a stalking type stare but do look the person in the eye for 2-8 seconds and then look away and then back again.

Smile
Be sure to smile. Smiles are contagious and will set a tone of friendliness and connection.

Be yourself
Be yourself be relaxed. This may be a challenge in an interview situation but keep in mind an interview is two human beings meeting one another. Treat the interview as an opportunity to meet someone and get to know them. This shifts the context and helps to develop rapport. Also, being authentically yourself communicates honesty.

These are a bit more advanced
Be observant
Look at the interviewer and and the surroundings, really observe them. What do you learn about them from what you observe. By paying attention to the interviewer you tune into their world and become more open and sensitive to them as a person. This will be communicated in your attitude and verbal/non-verbal communication.

Be tribal
Human beings are basically tribal. We tend to like and trust members of our own tribes. Fortunately human tribes are very broad and include almost any connection. Search for a commonality that will put you in their tribe. The commonality can be geographic, interests, sports, hobbies, schools, prior jobs, etc. etc. Almost anything will do to establish a tribal connection. However caution; avoid discussing anything that will put you in another tribe so politics and religion are areas to avoid.

Ask questions, listen, and communicate understanding
When you ask questions really listen and understand. It is helpful to echo the answer just to be sure you understand and to let the interviewer know you are tuned in. “Am I correct that you are saying that the company is very family friendly but at the same time focuses on performance?” Being heard and understood is very appealing to human beings and fosters rapport. Listen particularly carefully for the interviewer’s goals and concerns, position, expectations and needs.

Be relaxed be confidant
Recent research shows that emotions are contagious. Come into an interview nervous with low confidence and the interviewer will sense it. Anxiety (fear) and low confidence inhibits rapport. The one best way to increase confidence and reduce anxiety is to be well prepared.

Be curious
This is the most critical element in establishing rapport. Be genuinely curious about the interviewer as a person. I am not suggesting you ask about personal issues; an interview should be professionally focused. Find out how the interviewer came to their position, what they like about their job and the company, their challenges on the job, their professional goals, their management style. It is important to be genuinely curious. If you ask questions as an “interview technique” you will not come across as genuine and you will be perceived as less honest.

Establishing rapport is essential to being selected for a position. As mentioned above, the most important part of establishing rapport is being open, curious, and genuinely interested in establishing a relationship with the interviewer.

Using an interview presentation will help you be confidant and establish rapport

Prepare Prepare Prepare to Interview your Best

The key is not the will to win…..everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.
Bobby Knight Texas Tech Men’s Basketball Coach

Research on interviewing behaviors shows that 78% of all people that interview just “wing” the interview. People applying for lower level positions do not think they need to prepare while people applying for upper level positions think they know all they need to know about the industry, trends, the position etc. As a result, most job candidates appear unmotivated, disinterested and are unable to clearly state how their background, skills, and experience match the job requirements.

Comprehensive preparation covers two topic areas 1- The company in context of the industry and 2- the specific position.

1-Researching the company has become far easier with all the information you can find on the Internet. The obvious place to start is the company’s web site which will provide the company’s view of itself (hint- read press releases they typically contain the latest information the company wants you to know). It is equally important to read news articles, industry magazines, and other sources of independent information. You can even go to www.vault.com to read what ex-employees say about the company. The information you learn about the industry and the company are particularly important as you formulate questions to ask the interviewer. The questions you ask should display a keen knowledge of the company and the industry.

2-Finding good, solid, helpful information about the position itself is more difficult. Typically, job requirements are poorly defined and include nebulous statements such as “good communication skills” or “team player” or “able to work independently”. The best job requirements are specific task or experience based statements that enable a candidate to specifically match their background and skills to the requirements. For example, “Ability to use XYZ computer program to develop direct mail marketing materials” or “5 years experience applying federal regulatory requirements in the pharmaceutical industry.” These requirements are specific and a candidate can state definitively how they have acquired the skills or experience required to do the task.

Other entries in this blog detail how an interview is a sales call. As a salesperson, it is incumbent upon you during interview preparation to uncover the position requirements. Like any salesperson, you should be asking good probing questions to learn the requirements. Possible questions include:

* What are three or four “must have” qualifications for a person to be selected for this position?
* What criteria will you use to make your hiring decision?
* What skill sets are required to be successful in this position
* What are the most important personal characteristics for a person in this position?
* What are the major responsibilities of this position?
* What is the highest priority for the person in this position?
* What are the important issues that need to be addressed immediately?
* What does a typical day look like for a person in this position?

These questions should be asked as part of the interview preparation not at the end of the interview. The answers to these questions will enable you to prepare the content they want to present during the interview. By the way, just asking these questions often impresses interviewers or internal HR recruiters. In addition, if you are working with an external recruiter the recruiter should have the answers to these questions.

The answers to these questions are best provided by the hiring manager, however other interviewers, the job posting, the HR recruiter, external recruiter, company employees, and information on the company web site are also valuable sources of information.

Here is a radical idea – prior to the interview call the hiring manager and say this, “I am preparing for our interview next week and I would like to ask you a couple of questions about the position so I can be well prepared for the interview. Do you have a few minutes to discuss the position?” What hiring manager would not be impressed and willing to spend the time to help a motivated and interested candidate?

In a recent discussion with a fellow psychologist, he stated the fear of rejection results in job candidates not fully committing to the interview and a symptom of not committing is not preparing. He stated, if a candidate does not prepare and they don’t get the job they can rationalize it by saying they were really not interested and if they had been they would have put more time into preparing. The fear of rejection lives in all of us, for some more strongly than others. Do not let fear of rejection get in the way of preparing for an interview.