These two easy changes will massively increase your success at interview

Being great at what you do doesn’t mean you are going to perform well at interview.

Being perfect for a role doesn’t mean you will get the job.

I work with credible, high performing leaders who get regular approaches about opportunities but they don’t end up landing the job. They might not even get past first interview. This is because they are busy at work and they haven’t invested the time to prepare properly for the interview. They can’t concisely articulate their most significant career achievements along with the business benefits of their actions.

So, to set yourself apart:

1. Prepare Case Studies

It is easy to prepare, you just need to commit some time to it. Here’s how:

  • Review your CV, and identify your greatest achievements. These should be projects or activities you have completed and delivered, with a clear and tangible output. These are going to be your Case Studies.
  • Write down each Case Study and break it down following the STAR model i.e. what was the Situation, the Task, the Action and the Result.
  • For each Case Study read it back and check that you have clearly articulated the benefit to the organization. Ensure it answers the ‘so what?’ question. Make sure it is output focused not process focused.
  • Practice talking through each Case Study out loud and get used to saying it.
  • Your Case Studies can be used to answer a variety of questions, you just need to adapt the focus and the language.

The second change is in how you land each answer at interview. It is so simple but makes a big difference:

2. Lead with a teaser of the result when you answer an interview question.

Here’s how:

  • Go back to your prepared Case Studies above and for each, write a short opening sentence giving a taster of what is to come – the most impressive output, ideally a metric.
  • When the interviewer asks a question, for example, ‘What is your most significant commercial achievement?’ instead of starting your answer with the Situation, setting the scene and narrating through the STAR model, open with an impactful result taster sentence. For example ‘Of course, I will tell you about when I landed a new client worth £3m.’… then talk them through all elements of the STAR model, ending with the full details of the result. I call this the R-STAR model.

Easy right?

Yes. But you would be surprised how few people do it.

Click to sign up for Positivity Bites and download your free template to prepare your Case Studies.

If you would like to invest in some one-to-one Interview Coaching find out more here.

Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

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