How To Answer The Interview Question Tell Me About Yourself

How to Answer The Interview Question Tell Me About Yourself

One of the most common asked questions in interviews, normally asked at the beginning of an interview, this question gives you the opportunity to deliver a short statement about your experiences and skills relevant to the job position you are applying for.

Start with a “selling” line that will highlight your main strength and/or achievement
Keep each point brief as you can explain each point again in more detail throughout the interview
You want to interest the interviewer and get them to want to know more about you
End this answer with a reason why you’re looking for a new job

“I’ve been working in Sales for 8 years. I have a great understanding of selling insurance to the public and businesses. My innovative sale techniques have increased profits by 25% year on year for the past 3 years. I am now ready for a new challenge and with your company having a great reputation, I believe this is the opportunity I have been waiting to apply for”

This is an extract from the Interview E-Book “Tricky Questions, Killer Answers – over 50 interview questions and answers”

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February 27, 2013December 12, 2020

8 Almost Illegal Ways To Pass The job Interview

Not for the faint-hearted, these 8 techniques will get you ahead of the interview game, but all will be lost if you’re found out, so keep these interview secrets to yourself!

Only the strongest survive, use these 8 almost illegal ways to pass your next job interview, but remember to leave your morals, guilt and niceties at the door.

The 007 Approach

This technique works best for promotional job interviews. Buy a 007 type of listening advice from any of the hundreds of online gadget shops and sneak one into the manager’s office/meeting room.

When the manager and HR team meet to discuss the interview criteria, listen in and use this inside information to prepare your interview answers.

Like a spy undercover, this inside information will help you play the character the interviewers will want to promote.

Wet the Seat

This childhood prank of wetting a friends pants to make them look silly in the playground works just as well in the job interview.

All you have to do is take a small bottle of water into the interview waiting area.

Once sat down poor the water onto the other seat, when the second interviewee comes in and sits down, his wet pants will make him look more frightened than he already is.

Pick Up Artist

You need to use some more 007 skills to follow and monitor the interviewer’s activities, what you are looking for here, is the interviewer’s partner.

Once the partner is located, follow them undercover of course, around for a few days to find out where they hang out.

Armed with this knowledge, create a chance meeting and turn the charm on, but most important get the partner talking. Pick-up artists will compliment, question and build on what others say to create intrigue and strong rapport.

Utilise these techniques, and at some point, the faithful partner will discuss their beloved, explore this and find out what the interviewer likes and loves, discover their charterer, hobbies and taste.

The more you keep the partner talking the more inside information you will uncover.

This inside information is key to building rapport, as people like people who are like them, in the interview when asked “tell me a little about yourself” you can parrot phrase what their partner told you, if they’re a football fan, tell them that you are a football fan, if they like art, explain how yoru a big art fan, just don’t mention that you fancy their partner – that’s the one commonality that bound to break not create rapport

Buy Your Way In

When applying for position in an established company, one thing you know is true is that hundreds of other past applicants have written an interview-winning application form.

Offer these people money for a copy of their application form (go on industry forums and do this anonymously) edit the application form and wait for the job interview.

Pay to Work

I know this one sounds crazy, but the crazy ones work really well.

Approach a company offer to pay them £400 to work for their company for free – who could refuse this?

With the condition that if they think you’re a good worker at the end of the week they have to employ you, if not they keep the £400.

For this, to work you need to approach a company that is looking to hire new staff.

Don’t Take Sweets From Strangers

We have all fallen for the joke sweet prank as a child; you excitedly take the offered sweet only to hear the laughter from your classmates as unknown to you, your teeth are now blackened.

When waiting in the reception area, as a friendly jester offer a sweet to your fellow interviewees…it wasn’t your fault that you child must of hidden a joke sweet in among the others.

Remember the interviewer will make an opinion about the interviewee on their first impression, which will be highly negative for your competition with the un-brushed blackened teeth…at an interview!!

Steal a Car

Don’t worry you don’t need to steal a car. But what you can do, is arrive early for your job interview and wait in the car park.

When you see another interviewee arrive make a mental note of the make, model and colour of their vehicle and interviewees are always easy to spot.

Leave it for ten minutes and then go into the interview reception area, as you say hello to the other interviewees ask if anyone has a (state the make, model and colour – don’t use the registration because when they find out that their car is fine you don’t want them questioning you ) because it looks like someone has broken in, the panicky interviewee will run out of the office only to find that it must have been a similar car to his that was vandalized.

As he returns, the interviewer sees the flushed interviewee arriving late for the interview tut tut no-one likes a late interviewee

Bad Advice

Interviewees love to chat between themselves to reduce their nerves and help the waiting time to pass away quickly. Use this time, to ask if they had researched the company, which most will reply yes.

Tell them in your research you found that the company really values A, B and C and this is part of the company criteria. You can go to say your not sure when you will mention this key criterion, maybe in your opening statement or when they ask the question what do you know about us?

And then leave it there, the trick here is the key criteria is the exact opposite to what the company requires, even if the interviewee has researched the company themselves panic will set in, because they won’t be certain if they have overlooked this valuable piece of information, and when they mention this during the interview they will break rapport instantly.

February 21, 2013December 18, 2020

Can I Go To College Even though I Dropped Out of School

Every UK school leaver (even if you dropped out of school) is entitled to a free college place, but entry to certain college depends on your GCSE results.

If you sat your GCSEs and gained 5 A-Cs in the core subjects (including Bs in the subjects you want to study at A-Level), generally you can access most college course (course such as Art may require you to have a portfolio of work)

If you left with no GCSE due to, as an example an illness you can access a college course to re-sit your GCSE exams – but only certain college offer GCSE re-sits.

In some colleges if you completed some but not all your GCSE examinations, you may be able to sit your A-Levels and complete a GCSE course alongside it. In most circumstances the college will ask you to complete an assessment to check your academic level.

I Dropped Out of School with NO GCSEs

If you didn’t sit any GCSE’s or if you didn’t gain 5 GCSEs A-C, you can still apply for and attend college. Depending on your GCSE results, depends on the course level you can attend.

Generally speaking, but this various on the college if you have 2 x C/D GCSE grades you can start a level 2 course, 4 x E/F’s GCSEs means you can start a level 1 course and if you have no GCSEs you can apply for the various “entry” course available at most colleges.

You are entitled to a FREE education

But all school leaver age students are entitled to a free education if you are 18 yrs old or under. For university courses a student loan is available.

This means everyone will have to be in some form of education until they are 18 yrs old, for many this may well be college but for others, this could be an apprenticeship.

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January 29, 2013

Taking Care of Work

Nearly all of us have a need to work. Not all of us work to meet a financial need.

The nature of work changes significantly through our lives. During our education, work is progressive. As soon as we can show we can do something to the required standard, we are moved on to something else.

It comes as shock to find in our first job that as soon as we can show competence in doing something, we are left to repeat it over and over again. Some people find themselves doing mind-numbing repetitive work for months, years or even a lifetime.

stressed out

Yet others manage to have absorbing, challenging work which stimulates them and which they are content to do right up to traditional retirement age, and beyond. What is more they are usually rewarded better for that work both in terms of money and feeling fulfilled.

How have they done this? It is usually because they have followed a progression in their work which was rarely planned but unrolled in front of them.

The path would have been different for each of them but there would be certain common ingredients.

A common thread emerges however. This is progress to greater and greater independence in the work they do. In the articles below and in our learning programmes, we show people how to turn routine work in a job into a career. This career will lead to a wider horizon and more choices. Usually at some point people these people will move from a large organisation to one where they have much more freedom. This may be a smaller existing organisation or to working for themselves.

Beyond that, depending on their situation and non-financial needs, they may well then find themselves building an organisation where they have complete control. Starting and running your own business from scratch in the commercial sector may only be for a brave minority. However, today there are many other options, including many in the public and voluntary sectors.

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January 29, 2013January 29, 2013

Turn Your Job into a Career

For many young people today, the biggest Career challenge seems to be getting onto the employment ladder in the first place.

We are often brought up with the limiting belief that the longer you stay in education the better employment prospects you will have. This is not always true, as many graduates who leave education and find it hard to secure employment, sometimes this is due to their grades or attitude and in many other cases because they picked the wrong subject!

workplace

The wrong subject

With university fee’s increasing, you don’t want to spend thousands of pounds on a course designed to secure you a career, which half way though you realise “it isn’t for me”

You can get good careers advice, but the key is to find your passion and then get paid for doing it – what is it that really gets your juices flowing? Helping people, complex sums, creating a masterpiece, performing to thousands? You need to ask yourself what will make me wake up every day and shout “yes I’m going to work”

We are all excited about different things, your passion is personal to you and I would add, Once you know your passion, it is easy to find the route to your career.

What if I get it wrong?

Einstein failed his exams and later became the figurehead of geniuses throughout history. Richard Branson was bankrupt and is now a successful billionaire. Elton John took a risk, walking out half way through a concert with his band as he knew that his real desire was to be a successful solo singer.

To have a successful career you first need to know what you are passionate about and then you can ask yourself “what is the best way for you to achieve your career goal?”

Apart from certain professions such as medicine and law, higher level education qualifications do not necessarily open the door to desirable employment opportunities.

I personally know several very successful business people, who quit university to pursue their dreams and they all had two things in common “passion” and the belief that they would “succeed”

Career Planning

Once you know your passion, you need to plan your career path, for some this will be through education, for others their path will be through apprenticeships and employment and for some they will do it by themselves.

It’s not about which career path you choose, it is about identifying each of the steps needed to be taken along the way and committing to your goal, as some days it will be harder to do this than others.

You need to plan the steps from the YOU now to the successful future YOU- How can you become successful? What do you need to learn? What experiences do you need? What resources will help you?

As an example someone choosing to work instead of attend college, may have a goal to own their own hairdressing business – for this they know they need learn about business, become a competent hairdresser and have financial backing.

To do this, they may first gain a hairdressing job, working at the bottom rung of the ladder cleaning up hair and making cups of tea. For some young people completing these “boring” task is an insult, thinking “this duty is beneath me- why should I do it?” Whereas the successful young person with a career plan, knows that one day they will have their own business, and everything they are doing, seeing and hearing is helping them to become a better future hairdresser and business professional and I would add, this is often seen by others as you having a “good attitude” which results in them offering you more responsibility and the chance to learn new hairdressing skills, further supporting your long term career goal.

What is a good attitude?

So what is a ‘Good attitude’? The short answer is that it is a positive approach to the work situation. (As Jim Rohn says, the guy who whistles as he hauls out the trash is worth at least 10cents an hour more.) Show as a Pull quote. Employers say they are always looking for people who:

Are prepared to take that bit more responsibility
Look for better ways of doing their work
Look for extra work they can do a part of their existing job

While the official policy of most employers is to encourage talent and initiative to rise through the ranks, it usually doesn’t feel like that if you are working at the bottom of the hierarchy.

As the employee, you need to look at each task as a learning opportunity, asking “what am I learning from this experience?” “How can I use this experience to achieve my career goal?” “How can I make this task more exciting?” and “How can I be the best at this task?”

Once you start asking these questions to all task, you will be quickly become known as a good worker, with a good attitude and when the opportunity arises to move up the career ladder you can take it, often with the positive support of your previous employers.

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January 25, 2013

How To Download My Free Tricky Questions Killer Answers E-book

Hot To Download My Free Tricky Questions Killer Answers E-Book

the 73 rules

After buying The 73 Rules for Influencing the Interview using Psychology, NLP and Hypnotic Persuasion Techniques you can download a FREE copy of the Interview E-Book, Tricky Questions, Killer Answers – over 50 Interview Questions and Answers.

To download your FREE e-book click this link: Tricky Questions, Killer Answers – FREE Download and enter the code found in The 73 Rules for Influencing the Interview book PAGE 115

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January 24, 2013January 24, 2013

Is the Objective Obsolete?

The objective is obsolete. These days due to the high number of applicants for every signal position, employers only want a maximum of a two page resume, which in the scheme of things isn’t enough to sell yourself while recording all of your employment history.

The objective takes up to much space, which once deleted, can now be used to sell your unique selling point. Still the employer needs to know the position you are applying for, so the key here is to add the objective on to the covering letter and let the resume to be used only to record your key selling points.

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January 6, 2013November 12, 2020

How To use sales Psychology in Job Interviews

How to Use Sales Psychology in Job Interviews

The New book The 73 Rules for Influencing the Interview using Psychology, NLP and Hypnotic Persuasion Techniques teaches you how to sell yourself in the job interview.

You can now download chapter one on Sales Psychology for FREE by clicking this link below to download your free extract.

Influencing the Interview – FREE EXTRACT Chapter One

The book is now available to buy on Amazon

Which of the 73 Techniques did you like best? How will you use the hypnotic language patterns to pass your job interview? LIKE US on Facebook and add your comments and questions.

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January 3, 2013April 28, 2013

Workplace Influence; Internal and External Motivation

Employees are motivated and influenced in different ways, one way is through internal or external references (or meta-frames for all you NLP-ers)

For some employees they are motivated externally, they need a ‘pat on the back’ or colleagues and managers to tell them that they did a good job. External motivated workers need to see the smile or their customers face and they buzz from meeting their targets. By gaining external praise these employees know they have done a good job which motivates them to work harder.

At the opposite axis, internal motivated people don’t need or want the ‘pat on the back’ because they know when they have done a good job, they don’t need to see a customers smile, or a chart representing how well they are doing. Internal people just know ‘know’ when they have done well and that’s all the praise they need. Even when a manger says you’re not doing well, the internally motivated employee will be unconvinced unless they agree with them.

Two chefs bake cakes, one internally motivated and one externally motivated. The internal chef will know he has done a good job he can just tell, if a customer leaves part of the cake after only one bite the internal chef won’t care as he knows this is the best cake he has made. The external chef may like his cake, but the proof will be all the empty plates he sees around him and the thanks he receives from his satisfied customers. Without this external reference he may worry about his ability and at the extreme never bake that same cake again.

Frame of Reference

Internal and external feedback is just a frame of reference; in the workplace you can use these frames of reference to motivate your employees, by speaking their language.

External employees need reassurance at all times, give it to them and their workload will increase. If you want them to do X tell how wonderful this thing is, how everyone would like to be a part of this team or project because external people will go with what others tell them.

Internally motivated employees just don’t care what others think, you may shout about the wonderful project until your red in the face but the internal employee will make his own decision.

To influence the internally motivated, you have to appeal to his own experience “last year you were part of the X team, I remember you telling how much you enjoyed the marketing side of the project, well this new project has a large marketing campaign, you should take look and decide if this is something you would like to be involved in?”

Is it one or the other?

We are all motivated by both our internal and external frame of reference, but generally people have a strong preference to one of these motivational traits. By speaking in language that they can reference can motivate and influence the employee in the workplace.

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December 29, 2012

Workplace Extrovert Good or Bad?

In every workplace there is always one extrovert, but is having a workplace extrovert good or bad? Leave your comments below.

Good Extrovert – the extrovert always has a story to tell, a quip to share and an ideas to discuss. The Monday morning blues are lightened when the extrovert arrives, their happy chatter can go along way when you need a break. The extrovert will say whatever is on their head, in team meetings they will ask the question that you have wanting to ask for the last twenty minutes, the extrovert will start the group discussions in team exercises, and the extrovert shares their thoughts on new innovative ideas. The extrovert can bring a new energy to a team, they can boost morale and the extrovert can be the one person you can turn to when you need a workplace boost.

Bad Extrovert – the extrovert will often interrupt your work, with no thought to your forthcoming deadline, they will join in conversations even when uninvited, and they will share their thoughts and ideas when they’re not required. The Extroverts negative side comes out, when on a late Friday afternoon, you are halfway through a series of task, your concentration is complete and then the singing extrovert enters, singing, chatting and discussing any old thing that pops in to his mind. The extrovert can eat away at your free time, as the team meeting ends, the extrovert will have a hundred questions to ask when all you want to do is go home. The extrovert can interrupt, annoy and share unwanted thoughts with whoever is in listening range.

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