(in no particular order)
You’re already worth ££££s!!!
In 2020, it costs an employer on average, £3k to recruit someone into a role. If you have been invited to an interview, accept that your success in being shortlisted means that the interviewing panel will have already seen value in you on paper. Approaching an interview believing and proving that you are worth every penny of that spend will have an impact on how you perform at the interview. Remember: They wouldn’t have brought you this far if they didn’t find you worth a £3000 risk!
Unfair recruitment
If at any point you feel that you have been unfairly treated or discriminated against, go straight onto the ACAS website for further advice.
Confidence
Interviewees often forget this: the company needs you, just as much, or even more so, than you need the company. Sometimes, interviewees attend interviews with a kind of desperation for the job. If the interviewee has been applying for jobs for some time now and has faced rejection after rejection, they might also bring that sense of defeatism into their interview performance. Trust me, recruiters can sense if you are simply desperate for *any* job at this stage. Approach your interview believing you are there to fill in the gap that they really need filled in – in other words, that they need you, and you’re there to help them out! Due to what is essentially a power-shift, this approach and attitude will boost your confidence massively in an interview and will help you perform to your best.
The company/organisation have a mission and a purpose to fulfil. How much have you bought into / are you invested in their vision? Are you entirely sure that their values align with yours? If so, don’t be afraid to briefly drop elements of that part of yourself into the interview. In fact, if this company/organisation is geared toward fulfilling a purpose that you strongly resonate with and are yourself passionate about, don’t be afraid to show your passion and enthusiasm for their goals. Passion speaks for a lot in interviews, and some of the best recruiters do recruit on potential more than experience, provided the passion and drive to excel in achieving the mission and purpose is there. However, if you aren’t that passionate about the employer’s mission, then please, don’t fake it. It comes across badly at interviews. P.S. this often triple-ticks the ‘company research’ box.
Be confident but not arrogant or cocky.
Interview content
Answer the questions the interviewer is asking you. This is very important. This requires first that you listen very carefully to their question, deciphering what information the interviewer is wanting from you. For example, if you are asked the question ‘What did you learn from that experience?’, telling them how you learned something isn’t answering the question. You need to provide the employer evidence that you meet their criteria. Waffling on with irrelevant information will not only set your chances of landing the role back, but it will also take up precious time you need to ask your own questions.
If the interviewer is asking you to retell lived experiences of a certain situation or scenario, then start off with the experiences that you feel highlight your value the most in their eyes. The job description will reveal to you what that is! Usually, employers will most value the experience you gained in a work capacity. If you’re lacking that level of experience, then go through your voluntary and community-based experiences, finally giving personal experiences – being very mindful of how much and what you are revealing about yourself and your private life.
If you are not recruited…
Always ask for feedback.
DO something with that feedback. Learn from it. Write down what you learned from the interview and the whole process. What did you learn about the process itself? What did you learn about the company/industry? What did you learn about the people involved? What did you learn about yourself? What needs to change?
Once you’ve put down your lessons in writing, let the interview GO. Take from that whole experience what you need to take from it and move on. Failure to do this is only setting yourself up for self-sabotage. Take these learnings into a reflection activity. Or even bring them to a career coach, who can help you decide what decisions you have to make moving forward. As a saying goes: Everything in life happens as a lesson or as a blessing. My advice is: just strive to transform all your work-related lessons into a hope-filled blessing.
If you are recruited…
Still, write down everything your learned. You learn as much from your successes as you learn from your trials. Sure, you don’t grow as much from success as you grow through trial and failure, but that doesn’t mean you don’t learn something. Put it down in writing because this contributes toward your personal and professional development reviews and planning.
I’m Claz, a Life & Career Coach working with individuals as well as organisations, accredited in the UK. You can contact me through my website www.touchofclarity.com and sign up to my workshops on my Eventbrite Page. I am also a holistic massage & wellbeing therapist based in West London and treatments can be booked on my scheduling site.
Touch of Clarity 