What is the best way to sell yourself during a job interview? What are the interview pitfalls that we should avoid.
An interview conversation is about a transaction that involves selling a product or a service and in this case the product or a service is YOU.
And I am certain, being a job aspirant, you would have heard this one-line umpteen times.
You have to sell yourself?
Haven’t you?
But why to sell yourself?
It’s a good question and let me try to bring a perspective.
There are hundreds of applicants applying for the same role/job and perhaps out of those hundreds of applicants only a handful were chosen to meet the interviewer to further gauge their skills in line with what is expected from them.
And now from those handful of applicants, only one or two would go further to the final round or perhaps land with a job.
Makes sense?
Now, let’s talk about another pertinent question.
How?
That’s a million-dollar question.
Having spent more than twenty years in the corporate world and hired more than 1000 resources across various roles I undertook, conducting more than 4000 interviews in this span, I bring to you deeper insights, the right perspective and some unmatched tips that can certainly help you in positioning yourself the way you should be to ace an interview, or in other words, sell yourself.
Let’s check this example.
'I bring on the table many strengths that can help me be successful at work. Firstly, I have strong work ethics that enables me to meet my deadlines well ahead of my schedule. I enjoy feeling that sense of accomplishment which comes with doing a job well and on time.’
It’s a great answer or a selling strategy, but something is amiss. Can you figure out what?
It has a lot of ‘I’ in it and it appears that there is too much focus given to self, ignoring a critical point – i.e., ‘THEM’
The first rule of selling is – It is about THEM – about the buyer, about the audience, about the organization and the one who has the purchasing power.
There is no harm in bringing a bit of I, which is natural, but during the interview, you have to make it appear (directly or in a subtle way) that it is about them, and not you. And that’s the kind of mindset you would need before you start preparing for it.
Think about what you see on TV, or all around you – advertisements. They are never about the products or services, they are about you, what can they offer you?
A convenience, a good sleep, a great experience, a pleasurable drive, an amazing taste, once in a lifetime vacation, a happy moment, etc.
Think about it.
A car company won’t say – Hey! Buy more of our cars because we want to sell more cars. They would never do it, because it will never work, it has never worked that way for anyone.
They would always focus on YOU, their potential customers, buyers, and offer you a promise – an experience, a driving pleasure or convenience and so on.
So for these sellers, you see you become the most important entity in the whole ecosystem for sellers. And these sellers can go to any length knowing about you.
A lot of money is being pumped by these so big organizations just to understand what customer needs and wants are. The whole market research industry is based on this one fact – What customer really wants and needs?
I am sure you are with me and getting the point I am trying to make here.
So, it is not about you, “ITS ABOUT THEM”
Read it a few times, let it percolate down your mind, from conscious to subconscious and stay there. Because once you have this mindset, all your actions will be directed towards that one single point.
So now you understand that “It is about THEM” what would you do next, when you start preparing for your interview. Here is some food for thought.
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Will you go for the interview without knowing about THEM?
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Will you prepare your answers without learning about THEM?
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Will you answer questions that lacks THEM?
I guess I have made my point.
What I am trying here is to bring to your awareness the single most important point – When you are preparing for an interview, you should integrate “THEM” into it.
You can’t sell yourself effectively without first understanding your audience and what they need and expect from you.
And as I said earlier, step one is to shift your mindset into thinking about everything from the company/organization’s perspective. Here is a list of questions to get your started on that mindset.
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What can you do for THEM?
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How can you help THEM in the problems they may be facing?
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What values can you bring on the table for THEM?
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How can your skills be beneficial to THEM?
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What are THEIR goals, objectives, vision, mission?
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What are THEIR focus areas?
And so on.
Learn about THEM as much as you can. And that will propel your preparation miles ahead in the interview process and give you a smooth landing spot during the conversation.
Organization websites, news about them, recent rewards and awards, mergers and acquisitions, new launches, a lot of information is already available in public domain, make a good use of it to prepare for the interview.
But ensure that you don’t get overwhelmed with so much of information. Keep a right balance and take a judgmental call on which info will be helpful and which won’t be in your preparation.
Create a cheat-sheet or some kind of a fact sheet and write down top 10-15 important facts about the organization. Observe closely how the website is organized, what kind of color combinations is being used.
Every piece of information will give you clues about the organization and its culture. Grab them with both hands and make full use of it in your preparation.
You can also take help from external resources to get in-depth analysis of the financials of the organization.
And one bonus advice for selling yourself – Dress for Success. I will cover that in more detail in another blog-post, keep on writing and keep on sharing.
Happy Job Hunting
