It is common for interviewees to talk only about the past during the job interview.
The past is where you have been successful, where you have built up your skills, qualities and expertise, which is why it is easy to fall into the “past trap”
To influence the job interview you need to focus your answers on how you will impact their company in the future. Here are 3 Reasons To Talk About The Future Not The Past In Job Interviews
I Did, I will
Lots of interviewers will ask questions around your skills “What is your key strength” “Give me an example of when you have used X skill”
And most interviewees answer by talking about a past success “In my last company I DID, A, B and C…” This type of answer does highlight your skills and successful achievements but it doesn’t have a massive impact on the interview outcome. Remember everyone attending the interview will have had similar experiences and will give similar past success stories.
To add power to your answer you need to talk about how you will use this skill to help the company achieve their goals. By focusing the interviewer on you being successful in their company has a higher emotionally impact on the interview outcome.
“My key skill is X, the way I WILL use this skill to meet our KPIs will be to A, B and C” This is a simple tweak in the interview answer structure but this simple tweak has a massive impact.
Imagine….
Certain words can influence the interview. “Imagine” seems a simple word but in actual fact this word is a POWER word.
Imagine is known as a command word, when used in a sentence it commands the listener to take action. Imagine is so powerful that it is used in conversational hypnosis, by pick up artist and in mentalism shows.
When asked an interview question, you can use “imagine” to get the interviewer to focus on you being successful in their company which is highly motivational. If say “imagine a duck balancing on a blue ball” you have to picture this image, to process what I have said – did you picture a duck on a blue ball?
It’s the same in the job interview, if you say “Imagine me using my experience to help you achieve X and Y..” the interviewer has to imagine this positive outcome.
Future Questions
At the interview end you be invited to ask questions.
Most interviewees will ask questions around development opportunities, staff retention and holiday entitlement.
But this an opportunity missed. You can use the questions you have to focus, once again, to focus the interviewer on you being employed and successful in their organisation.
Ask questions that make the interviewer see you working for them. If, throughout the interview the interviewer keeps imagining you working for them and being successful, they will increase the desire to recruit you
An example question to ask would be “If I was to start working for you, what would you like me to achieve first?” This simple sounding question will make the interviewer imagine, first, you working for them, and secondly, even more powerful, you achieving something important for them.
The more the interviewer imagines you being successful while working for them – and the outcomes this achieves, the more they will want to hire you, which is why you need to focus your answers on future successes not past experiences.
