The six-step process to nail your job interviews like a champion
Congratulations, you got an interview with a top company in your industry. What’s the best strategy to ensure that you interview like a champion? This six-step process has helped my coaching clients navigate even the most demanding interview process.
1. Beyond Research: Due Diligence
I encourage my clients to think of themselves as company stakeholders in their next job. After all, you spend most of your waking hours at work. You are contributing not only your valuable time (a perishable and nonrefundable commodity) but also your intellectual capital. Treat your research accordingly.
Learn as much as you can about the company, management team, financials, culture, competitors and the company’s opportunities and challenges. Is this the kind of place where you can do your best work?
2. Define the Problem You Are Solving
Go beyond what is written in the job description. The better you understand the problems that will be faced on the job, the better prepared you are to calibrate your interview responses and questions.
What is a day in the life like in this job? What are the top three priorities you would have me address if you decided to hire me? What would success look like in the first 90 days?
3. Define Your Scope and Impact
Is your next ideal opportunity a strategic level position? Are you an individual contributor, looking to move up to a frontline supervisor role? Define the level at which you will be most productive and satisfied. Prepare relevant success stories to back that up, so the interviewer has a clear picture of your potential fit within the organization.
4. Focus on Discovery and Exploration
Most candidates try to convince the hiring manager that they are the best candidate for the job. Your job is not to convince, but to determine if this is truly the best fit, technically and culturally, for you and the company. Approaching the interview as an authentic discovery and exploration process is a way to stand out. Ask openended questions about management style, values, culture and goals. My clients tell me that this approach frequently shifts the interview from a one-sided barrage of questions to an engaging dialogue about mutual fit. Remember “W.I.F.T.”
What’s in it for them? When you are asked what you are looking for in the next opportunity, remember, the need to fill the position is all about them. Think about how your values, leadership style and skill set might solve a problem for them, instead of talking about your next promotion.
Define Next Steps
One of the most frustrating things is the silence after a great interview. You can avoid this mystery most of the time by asking for a specific day and time to learn about next steps before you end the interview.
If the interviewer says he will get back to you in two weeks, take it a step further. Respectfully ask permission to follow up if things go beyond his stated deadline. Make it about convenience for him. Offer to take responsibility for this communication. This approach often works and can spare you much frustration.