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You have presented your
resume, manicured it to match the job you seek, had your initial
contact by phone or mail, and now you are preparing yourself
for your job interview. A job interview may take from thirty
minutes to an hour or more, each hiring decision maker handles
it to match their own needs. But since the interview may affect
your career for years to come, you will want to do your best
to sell yourself during the time you have with the decision
maker. You will want to take the time prior to your interview
to prepare, in order to do your best.
Knowing in advance how you will handle
key questions will raise your confidence level in the interview
itself. You will sound confident because your answers will
be delivered in a confident and knowledgeable manner. Your
goal – impress the decision maker that you are the best
candidate for the job. In order to do that, you will have
to present your experience and qualifications in a manner
that make sense to everyone concerned, and in a way that solves
their problems.
To do it in the same way a trained salesperson
uses sales techniques to close the sale, you will want to
present your credentials in a solutions oriented manner. Don’t
be concerned if you don’t feel you have a sales personality.
Sales aren’t always a process of personality. More often
than not sales are a matter of need and solution to that need.
In this case, you will present your credentials in a way that
will solve the problem the hiring agent is seeking to resolve
by filling the job. So your job is to prepare for the interview
so you can present your credentials to match their need, and
to learn how to do “discovery”, to expose the
issues the interviewer is seeking to solve.
DISCOVERY
Discovery is just another way of saying:
“What’s the primary reason you are trying to fill
this position now?” Or, “What issues are you trying
to solve by filling this position?” Or, “What
primary skills are you seeking for the person you will hire
into this position, and why those skills?” Each of those
questions leads your interviewer into an open ended discussion
of what solutions they are seeking, by explaining the issues
they face. Once you know that, you present your experiences
in a way that solves those issues and highlights the skills
you possess and they seek.
You likely will not know in advance how
the interviewer will answer your discovery questions, so you
may think there is no way to prepare in advance to answer
them accurately. That is inaccurate. The best way to prepare
for your interview is by writing out a list of the primary
areas of skills and responsibility that reflect your experience.
Use your resume and common sense for those key areas. After
writing that list, write out a simple one sentence statement
that reflects your strategy for managing each area. Then write
out one or two real-life examples of how you applied that
strategy to each area of endeavor. Where possible, quantify,
apply numbers to your examples. Don't be too elaborate. By
writing out your answers your brain will hold on to them so
you can parrot back those answers and examples as required
in an interview situation
Follow this advice and you will find out
how much more confidence you feel while in a job interview
situation. Don’t hope you do well in an interview, control
the results by preparing yourself to do your best. Present
your credentials and experiences as a solution to the job
interviewer's immediate employment issues. Do that, and you
will increase your odds of finding a career position instead
of just another job.
Mark Baber has 20 years
experience as an Executive Search recruiter.
Mark is Recruit Consultant to http://www.JobNewsRadio.com
where Jobseekers access 2 Million job transactions, and can
submit their Resumes Free and have them distributed freely
to Employers they choose by industry, vocation, City or Region.
Mark is also Consultant to http://www.smarthiredirect.com
, a low cost, effective recruit, hiring and job applicant
tracking system for recruiters, HR staff and employers at
all levels.
Or, for one-on-one job search assistance
submit your resume directly to Mark via: http://www.recruit-services.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Baber
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