FAILED PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS!

Before they come to Harrison Careers, many of our clients have failed multiple interviews with companies they care about, and want to know how they can get much better at interviewing

This article contains advice for candidates who are not interview superstars, and who are looking for ways to improve their interview performance.

Below we include some ideas that you may have not thought of before – these go beyond simple “interview tips” and identify some crucial steps you can take to enhance your interview performance.

Here are several things you should do:

       1.  TOP 10 ACHIEVEMENTS.

Write down your top 10 achievements.

They must sound genuinely impressive.

What you were doing has to sound as if it was genuinely difficult. (If it wasn’t difficult, then the interviewer will not be particularly impressed.)

The general idea is that every time you open your mouth to answer, the interviewer should hear what you say and think to himself, “Wow, that’s actually pretty impressive”.

If you want more detailed guidance on exactly how to prepare your top 10 achievements, click HERE

       2.  KILLER QUESTIONS

We sometimes use a great trick to make other candidates look uninterested and unprepared, and therefore inferior. Here’s the trick:

If you know the name of your interviewer, you write a charming email before the interview like this: “Hi X, I am really looking forward to our interview on [DATE]. I read about you on LinkedIn and was interested to see that you [mention 2 or 3 things that interested you from their LinkedIn profile]. I wanted to mention a few questions I have about the role and the team. No worries if we don’t have time to cover them in the interview, but I thought it might be a good idea to write them down.”

Then you list 10-12 questions about this role, the more technical the better. The questions should come from the perspective of “How can I solve the business problems of this team?”

If you deliver outstanding questions, you will make yourself look great, and be the front-running candidate before you even walk into the interview room!

       3.  ELEVATOR PITCH

You need a 40-90 second elevator pitch that summarizes you as a candidate. You should deliver this as early in the interview as you can. Delivering your elevator pitch early ensures that you communicate who you are as a candidate – before your interviewer forms her own opinion. Your pitch should include what you have done and why you want to work in your chosen business area – and should be delivered with passion and enthusiasm.

       4.  ANNUAL REPORT

Download the annual report of the company you’re interviewing with, and read the first 10 or so pages that include the reports of people like the Chairman and the CEO (there may be others). During the interview, talk about how you were reading the annual report and found some things interesting, like AAA, BBB and CCC. Every interviewer is deeply impressed by a candidate who makes the effort to look at the annual report.

       5.  PRACTICE!!

You should practice interviewing with a friend, or better still, someone independent. You may think you have it all figured out – but I bet you don’t.

I personally see the benefit of interview practice more than most people, because in the last 20 years my company has conducted more than 10,000 interview coaching sessions. I am not exaggerating!

As I write this, one of my Harvard undergrad clients, who is an incredibly accomplished, articulate guy, has just completed his 34^th interview coaching session – and we are still diagnosing and fixing some interview weaknesses (mainly technical rather than competency).

If he can benefit from 34 hours of interview training, you could probably also use some interview practice yourself.

      6.  TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE

At final round, everyone is articulate, likeable, smart and hard working. It gets more competitive as you progress through the interview stages.

The best way you can stand out from other candidates is to have better technical knowledge than them. This is especially true at entry-level hiring, when few candidates are genuine experts in anything. Get technical!