What 4 simple strategies could make your interview up to 85% more effective?
Does how you perform in an interview even matter?
If you dread being interviewed, then take heart: you’re not alone. Just consider these statistics:
92% of people view interviews as a stressful ordeal.
74% of job-seekers lose sleep over whether or not they’ll be able to answer difficult questions, advertise their strengths, and address their weaknesses.
Almost ⅓ of Americans would rather go to the doctor, the dentist, or on a first date, than be interviewed.
In light of these common fears, does how you perform in an interview even matter? Absolutely!
In fact, in a study of 102 business and engineering job-seekers, those who performed the best on their interviews, were rated 59% more favorably by potential employers, and were 85% more likely to be considered suitable for hiring.
As our guest expert, business coach and former reality TV producer Dominique Anders, reminded us: “Perhaps you won’t get this job, and that’s OK. But even if you don’t get hired, just being interviewed lets you share your story and expand your network. Don’t see the interview as a life-or-death ordeal. Instead, re-frame the interview as a chance to explore possibilities. Once you re-frame the interview as a conversation about possibilities, you’ll relax, and you can connect with your interviewer.”
Strategy #1: Put your interviewer at ease.
To put your interviewer at ease, build rapport.
But what is rapport? Let’s define rapport as using empathy and friendliness to build connection and to facilitate communication. Isn’t building connection and facilitating communication exactly what we aim for in an interview?
Not only does rapport help your interviewer feel more comfortable with you — but more importantly, rapport helps you feel more comfortable with your interviewer. And once you feel more comfortable with your interviewer, you’ll feel less nervous, more confident, and more able to discern whether or not this position is right for you.
To build rapport, try these 3 tips:
Consider what you’re wearing. Does it match the culture, formality, and vibe of your potential employer? What message does your outfit’s color send? (In a survey of 2,099 hiring managers, the colors picked as most professional were blue (23%) and black (15%). Psychologists say that blue conveys teamwork, while black conveys leadership.)
Consider how to greet your interviewer. In the wake of Covid-19, does your interviewer prefer to shake hands, elbow bump, or nod? Be mentally prepared for the various options, and then follow your interviewer’s lead.
Observe your interviewer’s body language, and then mirror it back. If your interviewer’s energetic and gestures a lot, then lean forward, and express a high energy level too. On the other hand, if your interviewer’s very quiet and serious, then lean back, project a calm demeanor, and speak a little more slowly than normal.
Dominique put it this way: “It’s not about you, or how you sound, or what your hair looks like. So forget about yourself, and instead focus on your audience.” When you build rapport, you’re doing just that.
Strategy #2: Connect with your interviewer.
There are 2 rules in hiring:
People hire people they like.
Re-read Rule #1.
As funny as this sounds, reality bears it out. In fact, in a study of 72 elite law firms, investment banks, and consulting firms, 80% of hiring managers said that like-ability was their most important criteria.
The hiring managers expressed this as the “stranded in the airport” test: “Would I want to be stuck in an airport in Minneapolis in a snowstorm with them? And if I’m on a business trip for 2 days and I have to have dinner with them, is [this] the kind of person I enjoy hanging [out] with? …. [Yes] you have to [meet the] basic criteria, [like] skills and smarts … but if they meet that test, [like-ability] is the most important for me.”
To pass the “stranded in the airport” test, remember that all humans evaluate each other based on 2 criteria:
Warmth: Do I like you?
Competence: Are you good at what you do?
Consider the chart above. The sweet spot is warmth plus competence.
To demonstrate warmth, don’t be afraid to show your personality and to talk about your outside interests. (As Dominique suggested, be ready for questions like: “What do you do outside of work? How are you a leader in your own life?”)
When you share your personality and your outside interests, you communicate that you’re a real person, and you help the interviewer reach the magic conclusion: “I like you” (warmth) plus “I believe that you’re good at what you do” (competence).
Strategy #3: Make your interviewer’s life easier or better.
As a reality TV producer, Dominique learned 3 lessons:
If you’re not excited, don’t expect your audience to be. You need to be your own hype-man/hype-woman.
You need to spell out to your audience what’s in it for them.
Keep it simple. Don’t assume that your audience will want to read between the lines; they shouldn’t have to. Why should they care? What’s in it for them? It’s your job to spell it out.
To spell out to your audience — the interviewer — what’s in it for them, just answer this question: How can you make your interviewer’s life easier or better?
As you answer this question, remember that humans think in stories. (In fact, cognitive psychologists say that we’re 22 times more likely to remember a fact, when it’s wrapped in a story.) So brainstorm 3-5 stories you can share that illustrate why hiring you would make the interviewer’s life easier or better.
I coach my clients to tell their stories using the “STAR” framework:
S = Scene. Set the scene.
T = Trouble. Describe the trouble. What was the challenge, difficulty, or problem?
A = Achievements. What did you achieve or accomplish? How did you do that?
R = Results. What happened as a result? How were things easier or better because of what you’d done?
When you tell your story, remember to include quantifiable metrics, numbers, or percentages. For example, instead of saying, “I was responsible for overseeing employee productivity,” try this instead: “I created and tracked 5 productivity benchmarks so that I could monitor, manage, and coach employees on how to be more productive. This approach increased employee productivity by 7% compared with last year.”
Adding data to your story satisfies both left-brain and right-brain thinkers, and it gives your interviewer quantifiable metrics for why hiring you would make their life easier or better.
Strategy #4: Help solve the problem that keeps your interviewer up at night.
One priority drives every hiring manager: “What’s in this for me?”
And the grand-slam answer to “What’s in this for me?” is: “This candidate can help solve the problem that keeps me up at night.”
But how can you guess what keeps your interviewer up at night? By doing your due diligence.
Start by researching the interviewer. Check Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. Additionally, don’t forget to search for any publicly available news articles, press releases, or industry presentations about or by your interviewer.
But don’t stop there. Research the company. If this company is publicly traded, then you have access to a goldmine of information that just the top 0.016% of job-seekers access. What goldmine is that? The company’s publicly available investor presentations, quarterly conference-call transcripts, financial press releases, and annual reports. (To find these, check the company’s website for a tab marked “Investor Relations,” or search the SEC’s Edgar database.)
As you do your research, ask yourself:
Is this company profitable? Which lines of business turn a profit? Which under-deliver?
What are this company’s biggest business, financial, or market-driven challenges?
What does this company say about how it treats employees?
What is this company’s vision for its future? What is its strategy to get there?
Lori Blackman, president of DNL Global, said that “the strongest candidates are the ones that dig into annual reports.” Why is that? Because the company’s annual report lets you answer this question: How can you help solve the problem that keeps the interviewer up at night?
And finally …
Dominique concluded that, while being interviewed might never be a picnic, we can redefine how we see it. Supposed that you re-frame the interview as a conversation about possibilities. How would that mindset help you share your story, connect with your interviewer, expand your network, and advance your career?
One last note: for 20+ years, we’ve helped clients advance their careers, both through business coaching, as well as through award-winning resume & LinkedIn profile writing. How can we help you?