Personal one-on-one interview coaching system

We will walk you step-by-step through the entire interview process.
Help you develop a powerful “message” that will differentiate you from your competition.
Walk you through the process of selecting the best responses for the most difficult asked questions, develop and refine your career strategy, and get the job you deserve.

Why and who needs interview coaching?

If you answered “Yes” to any of the following questions, you may consider interview coaching.

Your interview lasted less than 30 minutes and never got the job
You never receive a phone call for a second interview—much less a job offer
You are looking for a career change, and have little or no industry experience
You make it to the last interview—thinking you performed well in all your interviews—but did not get the job
You are not comfortable answering questions in-group settings
You have all the qualifications, experience, but you were never considered for a senior position
You know you can do the job, you will be a perfect fit for the position—but you are not offered the job after the interview
You haven’t interviewed in a while and want to brush up on rusty interview skills
You have a challenge (been fired or laid off, job-hopper image) you need to address

To really shine in an interview, you must create an interview setting that inspires trust and sets the stage for showcasing your qualifications.

An interview coach can help you overcome just about any such challenge by teaching you to clearly communicate your winning points.

Dear Job Seeker,

For most, going in for a job interview can be an intimidating experience, but I can help you change the way you handle interviews by changing the way you see yourself and the way the world looks back at you.

The employment meeting is an information gathering and sharing exercise based on employer needs and the solution candidate brings to the table. Most job candidates think they handle interviews well, but employment professional reveals otherwise, ranging from lack of confidence, effectively communicating their strengths (job skill, attitude, accomplishments, industry knowledge) to communication skills.

Over the years, I have interviewed hundreds of hiring mangers and job applicants alike and one thing that I feel separates a successful interview from the rest is when both parties (candidate and the employer) effectively communicate their differentiating factors from their competition.

Breakdown the employment meeting into its essential components and you will see that it is nothing more than an exchange of information. It is in this exchange of information lies the secret to a successful interview. “It is not only what you say, but the way you say it”.

In order for a candidate to land the best job and for employers to hire the best candidate each must convince the other that they are the best. Therefore, as a candidate, your challenge is to convince the hiring manager that you are the solution to his/her problems, and bring the competitive advantage that separates you from the competition.

Preparing for a job-winning interview is an exercise that requires the coordination and mobilization of all your assets (job skills, qualifications, accomplishments, tonality, physiology, and choice of words). You will learn the art of aligning your assets with your career goals, industry trends and most of all company’s mission, vision, and goals.

During our one-on-one extensive interview coaching sessions, you will learn the craft of refining your personal image, style, objectives and self-control based on an understanding of what is going on.

You will learn the process and develop an understanding of the role you and the hiring authorities play as the hiring sequence unfolds. We will share the tips and tricks that result in a successful job-winning strategy.

Specific topics:

Finding the job
Understanding the selection or the elimination process
Getting the interview
Styles of interviews—
1. Relaxed Style
2. Stress Style
3. One-on-one and Group Style
4. Telephone Style
5. Corporate Executive, Department Heads—Lunch or Dinning Style
Preparing for the interview
Appearing for the interview
Selling the invisible—making the human connection
Techniques and tips—how to establish a differentiating factor
Style and substance
Evaluating your interview process
Salary and benefits negotiations
Reading your audience and judging your chances
Following up after the interview
Accepting the offer—negotiating, declining or accepting
Over 100 most difficult questions you can be asked during an interview
How to ask probing questions
Closing techniques

Interviewing facts

The majority of the candidates invest their resources in their resume and attire. And yet, fancy resume and $3,000 suite don’t land jobs.
90% of job seekers lose a potential job offer after the interview.
There have been studies that have found that many hiring decisions are actually made in the first two minutes of the interview.
Interviewers know that they have to see beyond candidates nervous behavior and work to recognize and identify the best in the person, otherwise they may be missing out on great people who are not great at interviewing or selling themselves.
Your ability to influence the hiring decision isn’t limited to what can you do; third parties can also help e.g. a friend, an influential reference or what your current or previous employer has to say about you.

Good, bad and the ugly

In today’s highly competitive job market where corporations are spending more money than ever on sophisticated interviewing processes and on those who manage the hiring process. Corporations are incorporating various tools to attract the best of the best and refining their elimination process by utilizing tools such as psychological tests, assessment or skill tests, computerized screening systems and behavioral tests.

During these highly competitive, cut throat work environments job candidates must be more proactive, more sophisticated, and flexible in order to secure a job. Gone are the days when you could fill out a job application, casually cruising through a couple of interviews. In these challenging economic times, hiring managers are reluctant to leave anything to chance or hope that a candidate deserves a chance to prove him or herself. In my experience talking with hiring managers what I have learned is that corporations and local governments take the hiring process very seriously and the whole process has evolved into almost an exact science.

This is not good news for you. Your task has become more complex and involves not only convincing the hiring manager that you are the best fit for the job but in addition, it requires a systematic approach that aligns your qualifications, skills, aptitude, attitude, personality with companies philosophy, mission, goals and objectives.

There is hope…

Despite these tough economic times and a wide array of hurdles that you must overcome, there is still hope for those who are willing to accept the challenge and overcome their fear of rejection.

Remember, the interview process is a two-way street. Even during the worst economic times during the great depression when unemployment had reached over 25 percent, there were still companies who were hiring, 75 percent of the population was still employed. Even during tough economic times, there are still tremendous opportunities.
Most job candidates think of the interview in the wrong way. They think of it as a one-way street, as an interrogation where there personal and professional life is examined under a microscope and may be subjected to tough questioning and scrutiny.
I would like to change that by empowering you that you and only you are in charge of the interview process. I will show you how companies think and what are some of there biggest fears. Companies spend thousands sometime million of dollars trying to attract qualified candidates utilizing resources such as internal applicant tracking system, recruiting firms, and third party consulting firms. They have as much steak in losing a good candidate as you have in losing a good job.

List of no-no’s

There are rules, guidelines, and etiquettes that one must follow during an interview that is so important that failing to avoid them can hamper any chance you have of securing the job.

Being late (or not showing up at all)
Poor hygiene, grooming or inappropriate dress
Defensiveness, e.g. if asked, have you ever been criticized for your work? Or not accepting responsibility for your actions
Lack of preparation or knowledge of the job, industry or the company
Dishonesty or misrepresentation of qualifications on your resume
Lack of eye contact
Negativity, especially in discussing your past employers (your bosses or co-workers)
Lack of enthusiasm or interest in the job or the company
Asking about time off
Discussing salary or benefits before the job offer (you don’t want money to be the factor when the interviewer is still considering your qualifications whether you’re the best candidate for the position)

Understanding Corporate Culture

Understanding Corporate Culture — How it can help you in your interview process

Researching, understanding and aligning your career goals and efforts with prospective corporation culture can be the deal breaker and may help you establish the differentiating factor that can result in securing the job. It may also help prevent you from accepting a job that you may regret in a few months.

Every corporation has a culture, and corporations spend a tremendous amount of resources to define and maintain a certain culture.

The easiest way to think of corporate culture is that it is invisible energy guided by laws, policies, procedures and controls that provide an environment, which determines how people think, act, and work. Culture is powerful and invisible and its effects are far reaching.

The corporate culture determines company’s dress code, hours of operation, type of people they hire, work environment, industry segment, rules of moving up the ladder, chain of command, corporate governance, which translates into how the world views the corporation and its impact on corporate image and identity.

Every company has numerous corporate cultures and sub-cultures. For example, the Advertising department and the IT department may have very different cultures, which are both influenced by the overall corporate culture. It is common that many times these sub-cultures clash and provide a challenge for the Human Resources and executive managers to maintain balance.

Visible Culture:
Type of industry, size of the company, dress code, work conditions, and organizational structure.

Invisible Culture:
Corporate values, inter-departmental relations, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, controls, employee moral, attitude, employee training, benefits, and corporate vision and strategy.

Crafting concise, probing and targeted questions during the interview will not only reveal many hidden aspects of the job but can expose and give you an insight of the working condition in that company.

SIGNUP TODAY BY CALLING 1-502-214-4000 AND LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO ALIGN YOUR SKILLS AND CAREER GOALS WITH 21 CENTURY CORPORATE CULTURE AND INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING THE JOB.

Small Thing Make a Huge Difference

More often than not, are the small sometime invisible things that lead to a job offer or results in a rejection. Paying close attention to details is essential such as personal hygiene, extra copies of your resume, pen and pad to take notes, remembering the name of the interviewer and being on time.

Playing Games

Interviews have always included an element of game playing sometime full of surprises in which each party tries to outfox the other. Typically, a respondent tries to guess what information the interviewer is looking for and then gives the interviewer only that part of the information which is to his or her advantage, while down playing his or her weakness. The interviewer, on the other hand, is trying to brake through the respondent’s façade, often asking trick questions in order to get a picture that reveals the real person.

Interviewing an Overwhelming Process

No job search activity creates greater stress among candidates than interviewing. One has to master so many disciplines, know what to say, and how to say it and have a complete understanding of an employer’s needs. One has to package and demonstrate a well-choreographed message that exhibits research, writing, marketing, time management, organization, sales, communication and negotiating skills.

The Art of Questioning

Small Thing Make a Huge Difference

The Art of Questioning

Ask a teacher how he or she teaches and, chances are, the answer is, “By asking questions.” The questions and answers that do occur during an interview often take place in a bland, if not boring or bleak settings, where more often interviewer’s questions are meet only with responses from candidates at the “uh-umm” level. Even more sobering is the fact that a job candidate’s questions often go nowhere. They may request a copy of the job description or how soon would you make your hiring decision. But, once the reply is given, that is the end of the sequence.

Asking questions is a balancing act – it can be applied in ways that are both helpful and potentially harmful. This is where questioning becomes an “art.” The questioner must pay attention to the person’s body language, which reveals many things that words do not.

Extended stretches of questioning in which the information builds from facts toward insight or factual information rarely take place.

The very way in which we ask questions can undermine, rather than build, a shared spirit of investigation.

But simply posing a variety of questions hardly creates a climate for inquiry. An uneducated question can lead to embarrassment, rather than an inquire towards findings. They can leave a job candidate feeling exposed and stupid, and in worst case humiliated.

TIPS

Phrase your questions simply and clearly. Use words that are easy to understand.
Avoid clutter
Pause. Ask a question, and pause three to five seconds
Help expand and extend interviewer thinking

Examples:

“What makes you think that…?”
“Are you able to be more specific about…?”
“Can you tell me more about…?”
“What do you mean by…?”

Power of Effective Communication

Everyone has a unique style of communicating. Good communication skills require a high level of self-awareness. Developing a good understanding of your communication style will go a long way towards helping you to make a lasting impression on the interviewer. We see and perceive things based on visual, spoken and unspoken gestures, and react and form our opinion through preconceived notions and experiences we have experienced in our lives. By becoming more aware of how others perceive you, you can adapt more readily to their styles of communicating. This does not mean you have to act or present yourself differently, changing with every personality you meet. Instead, you can make another person more comfortable with you by selecting and emphasizing certain behaviors that fit within your personality and resonate with another.

There are three basic communication styles:

Aggressive
Passive
Assertive

Assertive Style:

Clearly, the assertive style is the one to strive for. Assertive communication is the ability to express positive and negative ideas and feelings in an open, honest and direct way. It recognizes our rights while still respecting the rights of others. It allows us to take responsibility for our actions and ourselves without judging or blaming other people. And it allows us to constructively confront and find a mutually satisfying solution where conflict exists.

Assertive communication is definitely NOT a lifestyle! It’s NOT a guarantee that you will GET what you want. It’s definitely NOT an acceptable style of communication with everyone, but at least it’s NOT being aggressive.
There are six main characteristics of assertive communication. These are:

Eye Contact
Body Posture
Gestures
Tone of Voice
Delivery
Content and Choice of Words

Assertiveness is a useful communication tool. Remember, others may perceive your sudden use of assertiveness as an act of aggression.

Aggressive Style:

Aggressive communication always involves manipulation. Aggressive people may attempt to make others do what they want by inducing guilt, using intimidation and control tactics. Covert or overt, they simply want our needs met – and right now!
There are certain times when aggressive style is essential such as:

When a decision has to be made quickly—It is easy to do the right thing, but to know what is right is the most difficult one—people who demonstrate strong (not necessarily right) judgment and make tough decision at times against common wisdom carry strong aggressive qualities, not to be confused with leadership qualities.

During emergencies—Certain decision require quick thinking under stressful situations. Ability to size up the situation and the ability to utilize all resources in order to achieve the required outcome.
When you know you’re right and that fact is crucial—Doing the right thing and holding people accountable.
Stimulating creativity—Challenging people to go beyond their limits.

You may have an aggressive style if:

You choose and make decisions for others.
You are brutally honest.
You are direct and forceful.
You are self enhancing and derogatory.
You’ll participate in a win-lose situation only if you’ll win.
You demand your own way.
You feel righteous, superior, and controlling.
Others feel humiliated, defensive, resentful and hurt around you.
Others view you as angry, vengeful, and distrustful and are fearful around you.

Passive Style:

Passive style suggests that you don’t like to rock the boat and play safe and avoid confrontation at all cost. Passiveness also has its critical applications:

when an issue is minor;
when the problems caused by the conflict are greater than the conflict itself;
when emotions are running high and it makes sense to take a break in order to calm down and regain perspective;
when your power is much lower than the other party’s;
when the other’s position is impossible to change for all practical purposes (i.e., government policies, etc.).

Remaining aware of your own communication style and fine-tuning it as time goes by gives you the best chance of success in business and life.

Successful job candidates – the ones who get hired do two things better than anyone else on both their resume and in the interview!

How to match your style to the interviewer’s

Before you can match your style to an interviewer, start delving into specifics and learning about the company, which is part of the “pre-interview” preparation process. Keep in mind that the “one-size-fits-all” interview approach never works.

Companies are like individuals, each has a unique environment, culture and operates under certain rules, by-laws and philosophy. Companies hire people who closely match and are compatible with their corporate culture philosophy. Human Resource managers spend a large portion of their efforts in developing and attracting individuals who directly contribute and enhance their corporate image.

Empower yourself by learning about the industry, competition, products, services, company history, mission and philosophy, all this will help you in developing an understanding and give you an insight into their hiring practices.

Such insight will help you shape your answers, and present your qualifications in a manner that will bring you closer to getting the job. Matching your style requires you to learn as much about the position you‘re interviewing—before you show up for any interview e.g. discipline and the level for which your qualifications are considered.

Observe and never show your feelings—Watch the interviewer’s body language

Yes, employers want to hire individuals who are results-oriented, have high energy, offer verifiable accomplishments, are driven, enthusiastic and believe in self improvement. But take time to look around whatever office or department you are visiting, pay attention to small things like if the office is clean, is everyone laid back or casually dresses? You many have to tone down your killer sales personality with your GQ attire. You can still crow about the results and how you can help them without scaring everyone.

Likewise, if you’re a little passive and reluctant to blow your own trumpet, an environment resembling the floor of the New York Stock Exchange may not be your cup of tea.

Gauge interviewer’s response to your answers and questions you are posing. Pay close attention to subtleties, if the interviewer is taking note, making eye contact, or showing signs or boredom or if he/she is hinting eagerness in filling the position. Listen to verbal clues and watch for body language, often a sign as to how you are doing and how the interviewer is doing.

Pay close attention to:

Lack of eye contact or shifting eyes

Often considered a token of low self-esteem. People communicate a lot through eye contact, including confidence levels, domination, emotions, etc.
Liars will consecutively look at you and look away from you a number of times.
People who look away while supposedly listening to you are thinking about something else.

Watch their head position

Overly tilted heads are a potential sign of sympathy. Alternatively, the person is trying to convince you of their honesty.
Lowered heads indicate a reason to hide something.
Cocked heads mean that they are confused or challenging you, depending on the eye, eyebrow, and mouth gestures.

Check their arms

People with crossed arms are closing themselves to social influence.
If someone rests their arms behind their neck, they are open to what is being discussed and interested in listening more.

Watch their feet

Slowly shifting weight usually means that someone is distracted, uncomfortable, or bored.

TIPS

It’s easy to spot a confident person; they will make prolonged eye contact and have a strong posture.
If people laugh excessively, it may be dishonest, or they just might be very naturally jovial, or just happy. Use your best judgment. Some people laugh out of nervousness.
Don’t isolate yourself by constantly examining body language when interacting with people. Otherwise, there is no reason to gain a social upper hand anyway. This is paralysis by analysis.
Watch the face, it will usually give off a quick involuntary and sometimes subconscious twitch when something happens that irritates, excites, or amuses them.
Mimicking your actions means that the person is comfortable around you.

Three Components to Successful Interviewing

Data Dissemination (Information we communicate)
Delivery (How we communicate the information)
Strategy (The manner in which we approach both)

Data Dissemination:

In most, if not all cases we all have to find work, we have to communicate and sell our skills and value in exchange for services, goods, benefits, perks and/or money. The purpose of data dissemination is to build a case for one’s skills and values.

Delivery:

People who interview successfully are the ones who are in tune with their inner self meaning, they exude confidence and have a masterful ability to summarize, articulate and deliver a perfect visual and auditory presentation that zeros-in on employers’ needs and paints a picture and a pathway of getting there. They leverage their likeability, interpersonal and communication skills in a simple yet powerful manner that creates a common bond and builds trust throughout the interview process.

No two individuals are alike and none of us came with a manual or a user guide. Yet, we all love to read other people. We all have a presence and emit a certain message, which differentiates us from each other. The ability to harness one’s presence and abilities and channel them in response to an employer’s needs is what helps people get hired and get promoted.

Strategy:

It is critical that all job candidates produce resumes that communicate key information that will sell them to prospective employers. In other words, your resume must clearly communicate your brand message, skills, work experience combined with your verifiable accomplishments that would secure job interviews and lead to a job offer.

Successful job candidates – the ones who get hired – do two things better than anyone
else on both their resume and in the interview!

They send the right message and deliver them in a powerful and compelling manner!

Preparing for the Interview

Your hard work sending out all those cover letters and résumés has finally paid off — you’ve been called in for a face-to-face job interview. Now what!

You start by preparing yourself for a phone or face-to-face interview. The better prepared you are beforehand, the better your chances are of differentiating yourself from the competition. Remember, one the most critical aspect in securing a job is establishing a differentiating factor, meaning “your personal, professional and job knowledge skills that will set you apart from other candidates“.

Now is the time to refine your message, practice your sales pitch, research the company, and rehearse your questions.

Refining or Developing Your Message

Easier said than done. Well, your message or I what I call is “Self Branding Statement” involves discovering your “Sweet Spot” e.g. if you are a sales professional with over ten years experience in business to business, relationship and direct sales in the pharmaceutical industry, your brand message can be something to the effect “ Pharmaceutical sales professional with verifiable accomplishments in turning around underperforming territories”.

Developing a brand message requires a clear, crisp yet powerful statement that speaks to the heart of the matter, in this case the job itself. You may have to answer many questions and go over your qualifications before a true message emerge.

You may know or think you know what the prospective employers is looking for in a new candidate. But, do you know the people that will influence that hiring decision, and in what ways they can sway the decision? Even in small companies, multiple people can and will influence a hiring decision. The bigger the corporation, typically the more influencers.

Start by asking yourself few simple questions, and write them down on a piece of paper.

Why are they hiring?

Why would they not hire me?

Do I have enough industry experience?

Do I know enough about the culture of the company?

Do I know enough about the company—products, services, competition, sales, profits, ratios, etc.?

How are your qualifications truly different than the competition?

Are there any challenges the company might be facing? E.g. gaining market share, positioning new products in the market place, losing business to the competition, effective project management, operations, or business restructuring. Whatever the case might be you must try to understand “Why are they hiring”.

Answering these questions will help you refine your message. Now you can understand why accurately and consistently developing a message that will influence the decision makers becomes complex. Different decision-makers or companies require different messages and they often want the message to address their business needs.

In today’s highly competitive job market it is not enough to just develop a clear message. In these tough wary business environment, you better be able to prove your claims by listing verifiable accomplishments. If you’re the best, tell why and who declared you the best.

Practice Your Sales Pitch

You’ve probably heard hundreds of sales pitches in your life. Some immediately captured your interest, while others were tuned out almost as soon as they began.

What made the difference? The most effective sales pitches were those that were well thought-out, articulated, and delivered in perfect tone with confidence. And even if you weren’t interested in that product or service at the beginning, it entered your comfort zone, yes “The Comfort Zone” and left you with a lingering thought and provided an answer to your problem or need.

Yes, it is all about meeting the needs and providing a solution to the problem—thus, alleviating the pain. In a nutshell, the entire interview is a process where the two parties try to find best possible solution for their needs and pain.

Prepare Several Pitches for Different Situations

Prepare your pitch for different situations, each tailored to the setting and audience. Here are two that you will likely need:

The in-person pitch—

Keep your pitch to less than a minute. Utilize your opening pitch with information that you would like the interviewer to know about you, things that he/she may not ask during the interview.

The phone pitch—

If you want to be successful over the phone, you must grab the interviewer’s attention right away. If you “smile when you dial” and sound upbeat, there’s a good chance you will have their attention.

Researching The Company

I consider research to be the most critical aspect both, before and during anyone’s job search. The quality of your research skills may make or break your job search. So, allocate extra time and put extra effort into your research skills. You’ll find that that research skills will not only help you in the next job interview but will expand your knowledge of the industry and may reveal some new possibilities.

If you know nothing about the industry, company, department, job description, requirements, location, regional cost of living, you may be at a disadvantage and may not be too effective in positioning your answers to any of the interviewer’s questions.

Broad Research:

Identify the Industry
Seek General Industry Information
Identify Trade Organizations, Publications & Trade Shows
Learn About the Consumers of the Product or Service
Determine the Legal Issues (any pending lawsuits)
Examine the Regulatory Issues of the Industry
Product and Service Reviews
Define the Type of Competition in the Industry
Examine the Geography of the Industry
Search the History of the Industry
Domestic and International Market

Job Specific Research:

Name and job title of the Interviewer
Direction to the office
Time of the interview—calculate traveling time during rush and regular traffic hours
If traveling by air check for any delays invest in renting a vehicle with GPS
Regional, national and international locations
If publicly traded, request or research financial statement
Read up on recent press releases
History of the company
Founder and present CEO’s name
Products and services—new products

If you need help, give us a call at 1-502-214-4000. Sometimes it takes an outsider to shine the right lights on the blind spots.

Rehearse your Questions

Once you have finished refining your message, created your sales pitch, and researched the company information it is time to put it all together and rehearse.

Practice will help you reduce interview anxiety, build confidence, identify deficiencies in areas that need improvement, and overall improve your interview skills. In many cases, you will receive important feedback about how you will sound during an interview.

Your voice is key during your interview. You should concentrate on projection, enunciation, and inflexion. All of these things will help you deliver your points in a compelling manner. Be authoritative in your speech. This will give you credibility with your audience. Here’s a tip: Read newspapers, books and magazines aloud. Watch and listen to the news anchors, reporters and notice how they speak and try to emulate them.

There are three basic things that you can do to ensure that your verbal messages are understood, and resonates time and time again.

Although somewhat obvious and deceptively simple, these are:

Understand the purpose of the presentation
Keep the message simple
Be prepared

Understand what you want to achievewith your presentation

I would like to bring you back to the importance of your message. It is vital that you really understand what you want to convey, who is your audience, in this case, your research about the company will really come in handy, and most of all that your message provides a solution and provides a pathway of getting there.

Choose your words carefully, words create impressions, images, and expectations. They bridge the gap between the physical and psychological worlds. They influence how we think, act, react, see and perceive things. Since actions are the result of our thoughts, there’s a powerful connection between the words we use and the results we get.

Think about these words:

Spend and invest. Would you like your bank to spend your money or invest it?
Problem and challenge. Do you consider tasks as problems or challenges?
Job and career. Are you looking for a job or a career?
Benefit and advantage. Would you rather people benefit from you or take advantage?
Opening and opportunity. Are you looking for an opening or an opportunity?
Break and chance. Do you prefer a chance over a break?
Team player and team member. Wouldn’t you rather have a team player than a member?

Poorly chosen words can kill enthusiasm, drive, and impact the final outcome. Well chosen ones can inspire, motivate, focus and channel people thinking towards a common goal. If you want to make a powerful first impression? Pay attention to your words.

Sharpen your verbal and nonverbal skills with your audience in mind. Plan a beginning, middle and an end. Timing is critical. In order to convert listeners into believers, you need to know why they should listen to you. Effective communication is all about “adding value to the sale”—in this case, the value or worth of what you are going to say and how the company will benefit by hiring your skills.

The KISS Principle – Keep it simple

I am sure you have heard of the kiss principle. I refer to three things.
Keep it Short and Simple
Keep it Sweet and Simple
Keep it Simple and Smart
When it comes to wording your message, keep it “Short“, “Sweet“ and “Smart“. In other words, keep it “Simple”. You’re giving your audience sound bites. They don’t need to and are usually not expecting to become experts on the subject as a result of hearing you talk.

Be prepared

Preparation is underrated, and without it, you will sound like an armature. In fact, it is one of the most important factors in determining the outcome of your interview. You need more than the “luck of the Irish” if you go in for an interview without preparation.

Prior to your interview, prepare answers to common questions the interviewer is likely to ask, such as Why are you looking for a job? I have twenty other applicants with similar qualifications, tell me why should I hire you? What should we expect during your first week at the job? and the ever-popular Tell me about yourself.

Step 1: Create a PowerPoint presentation.

I recommend creating a PowerPoint presentation by breaking down your experience into four main sections.
The Message
Professional Work History
Education
Personal Attributes
Allocate enough time for rehearsing your question, I suggest about a week, so the essential is not short-changed.

Set your PowerPoint slideshow presentation so that the slide show plays at a normal conversational pace. For your first few rehearsals, you will notice that you’re still quite dependent on looking at the slides as you practice, which is okay for now.

After a few repeated attempts and rehearsal, you will be more fluent in your delivery. Here’s a helpful tip: Don’t try to memorize your presentations, it is best to let your natural thought process drive the delivery of your presentation. Focus on the tone of your voice and pay close attention to your breathing pattern. You just need to hone it so that it sounds more polished.