Visualizing Success in Job Interviews
Some interviewers do a good job and make sure they ask you
pertinent questions. However, most interviewers are not good at
interviewing and therefore will not ask you questions that will
let you provide information showing how you're qualified and can
do the job. A study by psychology professors Hunter & Schmidt in
"Psychology Today" found a typical employment interview is only
7 percent more accurate than flipping a coin. This is because
the typical interviewer doesn't know the right questions to ask
and makes a decision based on their "gut feeling" about a
candidate.
Unless you're dealing with an exceptional interviewer, which you
can usually determine rather quickly, you should take it upon
yourself to insure you find out what the employer is looking for
and convey how you can do the job. There are two important
things you need to accomplish in interviews: one is providing
the interviewer with factual information supporting the idea
that you are a good fit for the job; the other is for the
interviewer to connect with that logic on an emotional level.
Trial attorneys face a similar challenge when presenting their
case to a jury. They need to provide them with both factual
information and with an emotional connection to their version of
the story.
The most powerful way of creating an emotional connection is
through visualization. Just as a jury needs to visualize an
attorney's version of a story for them to have an emotional
connection with it, an interviewer needs to be able to visualize
you in the role they're hiring for, doing the tasks of the job.
The interviewer needs to see you doing those things and needs to
be able to visualize the outcomes. Helping someone visualize
your story can be done by using detailed descriptions of actions
and through appropriate use of hand gestures and body language.
To illustrate, instead of saying the person burglarized the
house, which is an abstract idea, a trial attorney would
describe the actions: John walked up the brick walkway at 8:00
pm on a moonlit evening, shattered the side window and climbed
into the house. The first way of explaining what happened just
gives an abstract idea which creates either no image in the
listener's mind, or just a vague image that they won't remember.
The second way provides a vivid image they can easily recall and
connect to. The attorney might even use some gestures and body
language when talking about walking up the steps or shattering
the window, which further reinforces the visual imagery.
"Lead with Need" One of the most common mantras in the sales
world is "Lead with Need." This means before you start blabbing
about how great you are, find out what the customer needs first.
Recruiters often describe jobs in terms of skills and education
required. These are really just symptoms of a person who could
be capable of doing the job but don't explain what is actually
involved. You need to dig deeper and find out from the recruiter
the specific tasks that need to be accomplished. Here are some
examples of specific tasks: - Migrate the office from Windows
2000 to Windows 2003 - Install the SAP enterprise software
system in all offices nationwide - Increase sales of our
photocopiers to the pharmaceutical industry by 25% over the next
9 months These are examples of deliverables - specific tasks
that need to be accomplished. Ask follow-up questions to be sure
you understand. Take notes when the interviewer is talking if
you like. One caveat if you take notes: Just make sure you're
coming across as being sincerely interested in the position and
not coming across as a salesman or manipulator.
Pitching Your Background & Visualizing Success: - Once you
understand what the job entails and what needs to be done, you
should mentally match the tasks with things you've done in the
past. - Start off talking about your strongest competencies,
tying one of the tasks to be accomplished with something you've
done successfully. - You could start off talking about the task
they need done, then talk about how you did something similar
before, then paint a picture of how you would do it for them,
including action words to help them visualize you actually doing
it. - Talk about symptoms of the success your efforts will
create. Could talk about a more productive workforce with people
spending more time talking to clients instead of doing
paperwork. This will help create visual images in the mind of
the interviewer that will help them remember you and make it
easier for them to see you as being successful in the position.
For example, if the employer needs to migrate their systems from
Windows 2000 to Windows 2003, you could first talk about how you
migrated a similar-sized company a couple years ago from Windows
NT to Windows 2000. You could talk about how you planned the
project, how many people were involved, and how the end-users'
productivity changed at the end (hopefully for the better). Then
talk about the steps you would go through to do it for them,
being as descriptive and visual as possible.