Tag: interview confidence

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Why All Interviewees Should Train As Public Speakers

To Pass an Interview Train As a Public Speaker

In the job interview book “the 73 rules for influencing the interview” I talked and taught you how to increase your communication confidence and how to influence the interviewer using words. 

This mixture of persuading with confident communication is the desired skill that increases your chance of being offered a position. This skill can be developed through public speaking.

How many times have you been influenced or moved by a powerful orator? How has a charismatic speaker motivated you? How did confident communication get you to change your opinion?

Being able to persuade with words is the desired skill of any interviewee. These same techniques are being used right now by public speakers.

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chris delaney public speaker

Talk With Purpose 

When learning to public speak one of the first lessons you learn is to talk with purpose.

This is a lesson you need to take with you to the job interview. One of the biggest interview killers is the way an interviewee communicates. Often, due to nervousness, the interviewee talks without thought, they drone on and on about everything apart from the answer to the asked question.

When asked an interview question, first think to yourself “what skill, quality or experience do they want me to discuss with this interview question?” Remember to think back to the job spec

All job interview questions, even curved ball job interview questions, are asked to uncover specific desired criteria. By focusing in on these criteria you can speak with purpose, keeping your interview answer on point.

Create a Strong Structure 

It is easy to get lost in your own interview answer.

Have you ever found yourself asking the interviewer if you have answered their question? This is because we answer interview questions with no structure.

In public speaking you are taught to 1; state what you are going to say 2; say what you are going to say 3; summaries what you said

This is a great structure for getting your point across and keeping your interview answer short and on point. In the job interview, you can adopt this same (or a similar version) structure. Start by 1; saying you have desired criteria 2; give an example of desired criteria 3; summaries by stating that these criteria are your key strength

Interview questions and answers

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Use more than Just Words 

Great public speakers inspire, motivate and enthuse the audience not just with words, but also with their tone, body language, gestures, stage presence, stories, metaphors, rhetorical devices, facial expressions and the use of props (maybe a PowerPoint presentation)

Confident interviewees use these same well-tuned skills (that you can easily learn from an interview coach or by attending a public speaking group) A remember-able interviewee, the one who is offered the job, creates an emotional connection with the interviewer by communicating with all their senses, creating intrigue and using public speaking persuasion techniques.

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Delete Negative Self Talk Prior to The Job Interview

Get Confident – Delete Negative Self Talk Prior to the Job Interview

Imagine that you wasn’t nervous, fearful, scared prior to the job interview. If you were more confident, how would this impact on the job interview outcome? If you truly believed in yourself how would this increase your ability to sell yourself in the job interview? If you could communicate with confidence would you increase your job offers?

The number one killer in the job interview is nervousness. This state of fear create negative self talk which turns fear into anxiety, ruining your chances of a successful job interview. Here is how to beat you job interview anxiety.

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 Job Interview Fear

Everyone has an internal voice prior to the job interview. If your internal voice is like a devil in your head, telling you how rubbish you are, putting you down and making you feel worthless.

By killing this devil your head you can create the feeling of control.

Ask the devil what is his positive intent (everything your subconscious does has a positive intent)? Then ask what I can do to improve, develop and evolve? These questions create insight. Common answers include; practice your interview questions, improve your delivery style or attend a mock interview

Job Interview Fear

Take Control

Your mind is yours! You can take control and with control becomes power.

When you hear the negative self talk about your forthcoming job interview, take notice of the voice tone, volume and diction.

Repeat the message but this time change the volume, lower it and notice the difference in your emotional response. Turn the voice into the sound of a cartoon character and again notice how this changes how you feel.

By changing your internal voice you can easily change how you feel. You can even take this one step further and say positive affirmations using a confident, powerful internal dialog.

Interview questions and answers

Overcome Job Interview Fear

When you tell yourself you will fail the job interview, it feels like you are bullying yourself. Instead of taking your dinner money, your internal devil is taking your opportunities.

To increase confidence, imagine you can see the character who is stating this limiting belief. Often people will see a big overbearing, larger then life character. Juts looking at this figure makes you tremble with fear.

To take control. Pause this image. Then imagine shrinking the image in front of you, so it seems that you are standing above the person. Make the person smaller and smaller, until you feel more powerful.

The way you visualize your thoughts creates different perspectives, different emotional responses to the same situation – in this case the job interview.

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How to Con the Interveiwer and Get Away With It

The Interview Con

To con the job interviewer (well anyone really) you need to promise them something of great benefit.

In the job interview this is how you will double there profit, decrease overheads or gain them millions of pounds in new business.

The bigger the benefit the better.

In the job interview stress how easy it is for you, the star employee, to achieve this. Explain how this system is something you successful implemented in your last organisation. Explain how the cost for this system is low or none at all, it’s about the knowledge or contacts that you have, that you are happy to share with them.

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Sweep aside the Skeptics

Depending on how you frame the “Great Bennett”  some employers will be skeptic.

You need to get the interviewer to commit to you. When someone commits to you, even if this commitment is only a small commitment they are psychologically more likely to commit to something bigger.

In the interview you ask the skeptic interviewer that if were able to double their profits would they recruit you? Every interviewer will answer yes to this.

Sweeten the pot.

Share a piece of advice, a contact or something that shows that you have something that would benefit the organisation. This will create interest and desire.

Create Positive Visualizations

Ask how if you were to be successful in the job interview and if you were to implement your success strategy how would this benefit the company?

Get the interviewer to imagine you both collaborating together and get them to imagine how your strategy/contacts along with what the organisation is currently doing would together take their profits to the next level.

The more you influence the interviewer to imagine you and them being successful the more they will buy into you.

At this stage you may want to return to the commitment stage, offering a few more sweeteners.

Interview questions and answers

Create Desire

The interviewer now, will be imagining how they will benefit from you being hired. Not only will they want to recruit you they will want you on their team.

You will hear the language the interviewer subconsciously uses go from the language of a skeptic to the language of desire.

They will want to offer you the job on the spot, but employment law won’t allow this.

To keep the flame burning once you leave the interview, explain that you have already been offer another job that you are highly interested in.

Scarcity is a massive motivational pull, as people always want what they cant have.

If the employer see’s massive value in you but then realises that a competitor make snatch you up, their desire for you will triple.

Not only will you be offered the position, you will now be in a strong position to negotiate a high salary.

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3 Interview Confidence Tricks

3 Job Interview Confidence Tricks

Confidence is the key to job interview success.

The nervous, timid and anxious interviewee lacks rapport, struggles to get their point across and often comes across weak and pathetic.

As well as preparing your interview answers you need to prepare your job interview confidence.

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Job Interview Confidence 1

Pro-activeness not procrastination

In the weeks leading up to the job interview you need to prepare your interview answers. Start by improvising what you would say, knowing at this stage that you will make mistakes.

After each rehearsal, reflect and edit your script. This pro-activeness increases memory. When asked a question, the answers will flow.

Many failed interviewees will replace pro-activeness with procrastination. The fear of the job interview stops them preparing which can only lead to interview failure.

Job Interview Confidence 2

Deep Breathing

The easiest, and most effective way to decrease nervous and increase confidence is with deep breathing.

By breathing in deeply in, lifting your whole diaphragm, holding it for a few seconds before releasing the breath you will naturally  calm down. If you repeat this 3-5 times your interview anxiety will disappear.

Job Interview Confidence 3

Become an Actor

People, generally, don’t like to talk about themselves. Worst then that, rarely does an individual like to state out loud their strengths and qualities.

To overcome this imagine being an actor. Play a part – a more confident version of yourself. Change your stance, so you stand like the confident person you are playing. Actors perform their best when they feel the emotions they want to express with their performance. Feel the confidence you will express when you play this role in the job interview

By focusing on confidence, you will feel more confident.

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Be Your Confident Self During Your Interview: Beating Anxiety

Stay Confident During Your Interview

Nobody likes interviews, but some people are better at them than others.

For some people, the excitement of actually getting a job interview is usually swiftly followed by panic. And for some people, the panic and anxiety induced by a job interview is sometimes enough to call the whole thing off. But then, it’s a passage we all must go through if we’re going to get to the places we want to go.

However, that doesn’t make them any easier. To help you get through your interview unscathed, we’ve put together some useful tips. Heed our ways and, while you might not quite be your dazzling, confident best, you’ll be closer to that version of yourself than the opposite.

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Become Superman (For Two Minutes)

How would you feel if I told you you could give yourself the gift of confidence?

Well, you can. The ‘Superman Pose’, as it’s known, is a trick of the mind that has shown to chemically give ourselves the boost we need to feel confident. And the best thing about it is that it’s so simple.

Just stand in front of your mirror, put your hands on your hips, and look at yourself as you stand tall and proud.

For reasons yet unknown, after two minutes you’ll have improved your confidence levels. At the very least, it can’t hurt.

Affirmations

Some of the most confident celebrities, including Will Smith, use affirmations to give themselves the confidence they need to attack the day.

On the morning of your interview, loudly proclaim to yourself just what you’re going to achieve that day. “I’m going to nail this interview”, you might say. Ask yourself how, and answer: “because I’m a talented, confident man/woman and I’m more than capable of delivering results”.

Breath Slowly

People with more profound levels of anxiety can feel fearful and uncertain on a daily basis, not just on the days when it comes to job interviews.

For those people, gaining some confidence on the morning of the interview won’t cut it: they’ll need to manage their anxiety when they’re sitting in the waiting room and also during the interview.

One technique is to using breathing techniques to control the anxiety. You’ll be amazed at how quickly breathing can have an impact on our calmness levels.

Before you go into the interview room, take a few moments to prepare yourself. A useful tool is the 4-7-8 rule; breathe in slowly through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and then exhale for 8 seconds.

Repeat this for a moment and your stress hormones will have lowered and you’ll feel calmer.

Chew Gum and Avoid Caffeine

Some of the things we feel in the build up to an interview date back to our hunter gatherer days. By cranking up the pressure, we’re keeping ourselves in fight or flight mode at levels that anybody would struggle to cope with.

To combat this, watch what your eat and drink.

Caffeine, for instance, will help you feel alert but will also increase your heart rate and make you more anxious. If you must give yourself a wake up boost before your interview, go on a run – you’ll be surprised just how energising exercise can be.

Additionally, carry some gum with you and chew it on the way to your interview – it’ll link back to your basic, primeval state when, way back when, being able to eat in peace meant we were under no threat from predators.

Not only will you feel more relaxed, your breath will also be fresh!

Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail

There’s plenty of tips and tricks to make yourself more confident, but it’ll count for nothing if you do them and then haven’t prepared properly for your interview.

When that happens, no technique will be able to cover your back – you’ll be found out. The best possible method to being confident in an interview is by truly knowing what you’re talking about inside and out.

Learn the material, have your friends test you, and make sure that if anything stops from getting the job, it won’t be because you haven’t prepared. You might still be nervous for the first couple of minutes of the interview, but eventually you’ll show you do indeed know what your stuff!

Article by Gemma Rainford

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Interview Questions and Answers Describe Your Work Ethic

The interview question, describe your work ethic is designed to see if the employee is looking for a job to simply pay the bills or a career that means something to them.

This question is designed to uncover your commitment, honesty and reliability.

Check the interview video below for more details. Good luck with your next job interview.

Interview Question Describe your work ethic.

You will only be employed if you have a good work ethic; explain how you are determined, hard-working and enjoy getting your task completed on time and to a good standard. During the interview question explain how you are determined, reliable, commitment and honesty.

Example Interview Answer

“I have always been a hard worker, once given a task I like to ensure it is completed on time to a good standard. If working on a short deadline, I will work late to ensure I meet the deadline”

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3 Step Interview Success Process

Interview success is easy to achieve, all the interviewee has to so is follow these 3 steps for interview success.

Career professionals who can’t get over the interview hurdle do one of 3 things wrong;

1 they allow interview nerves to create procrastination – this leads to the applicant being lazy, they don’t prepare for the job interview, they rarely practice answering tricky questions and they focus on the negatives of previous interviews which creates a failure state

2 they don’t have a unique selling point – a lack of a unique selling point creates a boring interview. Interviewers are looking for an applicant to stand out, to make a differences, someone who is unique and interesting

3 they don’t structure their interview answers – a generic interview answer creates disinterest, an answer that goes on and on turns interviewers off and an interview answer with no structure creates confusion

This 3 step process that you are about to uncover, for interview success, will put the power back in your hands, you will win more interviews and gain more job offers

Create Interview Confidence Instantly

Your mind, to teach you how to react to a situation, searches for a “frame of reference.” – this is how I reacted last time, so I will react in the same way.

Successful interviewees have a positive frame of reference for the job interview, but most people don’t. The initial frame of reference for this public speaking event, is often, standing in front of your class at school, feeling embarrassed and getting shouted at by the teacher.

This state creates interview nerves and with each failed interview your confidence for job interviews dramatically drops, until the thought of a job interview sends shivers up your spine.

You need to create a new confident frame of reference. This technique uses your minds creativity and visual skills to change your emotional response to the job interview – increasing your confidence

  • Step 1 – think of an interview (this will be created as a negative visualisation in your minds eye. Often this will be a coloured movie, a movie of you failing and looking embarrassed)
  • Step 2 – pause this movie, move it away from your minds eye, so you can see the corner of the movie (
  • Step 3 – place the picture of the movie in an old frame and drain the colour from the movie
  • Step 4 – push the movie further and further away from your minds eye, so the image gets smaller and smaller, more out of focused until it is a dot on the horizon
  • Step 5– create an image that represents you being your best at a job interview; you looking confident, answering questions well and having great rapport
  • Step 6 – make this image big and bright, vivid and strong, add sound and move the movie so it is where the old image use to be
  • Step 7 – imagine the old movie and follow steps 1-5 but this time do it quicker and quicker so it moves to the horizon in an instant and in a quick of a flash move the positive image towards you replacing the old image
  • Step 8 – complete this process 10 time, until you only see the positive movie when you think of a job interview

Create an Interview Selling Point

Everyone who attends the interview for the position you are applying for meets the job criteria (or they wouldn’t be offered an interview).

In the job interview you have to be seen by the interviewer as a better applicant then the rest of the interviewees. To be offered the position you need to offer the interview more then what they want, additional extras, you need to sell yourself through a unique selling point.

If you were offered two cars for the same price, which car would you take? Car 1 – standard model or Car 2 standard model plus free insurance, free satnav and free petrol for 1 year?

Its a no brainer. the same process can be used in the job interview. Show the employer how you meet the job criteria and then offer additional benefits. What skill, quality or experience do you possess that others don’t? What can you bring to the team that will make a real impact? How will your experience and work ethic make an difference in terms of quality, productivity or profits?

Create a Structure to Sell Yourself with each Interview Answer

Don’t just answer questions willy-nilly – as this wont impress anyone.

To be offered more jobs in the job interview you need to structure each interview question. A structure helps you to sell yourself while answering the interviewers question, it also stops you waffling, reduces “erms” and “arghs” and it makes sound professional and confident

To structure your answer;

step 1 – answer the question in the first sentence; no matter what you are asked make it clear at the question start that you have that experience or skill. Take a simple question around team work experience, most people answer this by talking about how “a team is more productive” instead of this common start to the question, state your duration in high performing teams  “in all my previous roles over the past 10 years I have worked within high performing teams…”

By stating how you have said skill, creates intrigue, this intrigue ensures the interviewer listens to the body of your answer

Step 2 – give real examples. Many interviewees state facts when answering questions. For some questions, this is fine, but in the main you need to give real examples “…an example of this is A, B and C…” (unique selling points)

Examples are like stories. When you hear a story you visualise the plot and every visualisation has an emotional attachment. When you explain how you were able to achieve success the employer will feel this emotional and associate the positive feelings onto you.

Step 3 – Explain how you can use this same skill in their company. When possible “future pace” this means you can finish the interview answer by stating that this experience can be used in the position you are applying for “…if offered the position I could implement this process in to the business which will increase production and profits”

If its a question where you cant future pace, you can simply summarise your opening state and story “…so overall my 10 years experience working in high performing teams has allowed me to X..”

The summary tells the interview that your answer is over. In addition having 3 steps is really powerful for the interviewee, as the structure keeps you focused boosting your interview confidence.