Here are some ideas to consider and drill when you’re preparing for an interview. This is based on some of the things often explored in a Performance Session with me.
Do your due diligence
Firstly, do your due diligence. By this I mean make sure you ‘work the Google on the internet machine’ to glean as much information on the company you’re planning to interview for. See if you can uncover in broad brush-strokes the way they like to do things. If you are fortunate enough to know someone working for the firm, now’s the time to buy them a coffee/beer to quiz the life out of them. do this, make a couple of notes, with the caveat that this is just one person (albeit on the inside) with potentially wrong or skewed views. Look at the company’s corporate promotional material – see if you can see the style of offices and if possible what they look like (I’ll explain why later in the post).
Read the brief then see it from their perspective
Read the Job brief and any additional documentation several times. Once you’ve drawn your own conclusions, spend a moment imagining yourself as someone at the company who’s been tasked with hiring for the position. You might want to do this a couple of times – i.e. once for someone directly leading the team you’ll be in, and once for someone who’s in H.R. and scanning for the kind of things they look for – given the type of company it is.
Then any other people who’ll be present – obviously only if you have access to this information.
Now run a little mental movie where you are imagining you are these people (one by one obviously), and actually take on their posture as you imagine it and their beliefs, values etc. as they ‘interview’ you, looking for the kinds of traits, behaviours and experience that the company employer is looking for in an ideal candidate.
Of course this isn’t going to be terribly accurate, but it’s at least a loose framework for you to build up some responses from. This shouldn’t take more than a minute or two.
Modelling out your high performance self
Back to the mental movie screen.
See the company office reception and lobby (this is where knowing the style of office and decor allows for a more accurate representation). See that version of you walk in and take your seat. Being the best version of yourself, the you that’ll be calm yet reactive under pressure, and with all the other traits you know you’ll need – and those that the brief outlines. You’ll then want to play the movie where you’re seeing yourself interviewed as that most resourceful version of yourself, getting the responses you want, and being the person that automatically and authentically responds in a resourceful and impressive way.
You’ll see yourself answering objections smoothly and well, just being brilliant, resourceful and competent.
See this montage of the interview right through to a successful end point.
There’s of course much more I cover in the sessions than this, but this would be a great starting point for you.
To recap:
Doing these things will hopefully help you be how you want to be, not how your negativity thinks it will go down, with you choking up, stuttering and coming out with stilted waffle and nonsense.
Good luck, and get in touch to see if I can help you – and to tell me how you did after applying this info!