In the previous ‘How to Job Interview (Part 2/4)‘ article I talked about the need to analyze the reasons behind why you are asked questions. I hope by now you understand the importance of this and with a bit of practice, you will learn the art of giving ‘correct’ answers.

In this article, I will give you some strategies that I personally use to make me sound much more intelligent & impressive during the interview. This may piss some people off, but believe me, this is such a good advice that you will want to make sure you always do this before any interview.

Depending on the type of job you have applied for, there are certain characteristics/attributes that companies look for when hiring a candidate. You need to memorize at least 10-15 of these ‘NICE’ words and make sure you smoothly incorporate them during the interview when answering questions.

Let me give you an example:

If you are interviewing for a management position then the following words are related to this field.

Motivation, Leadership, Communication, Management, Self Starter, Attitude, Goals, Change Management, Organizational Skills and so on (you get the point).

I would go ahead and memorize these words, and when i give a specific answer I will try to use one of these words with an added emphasis. A lot of time you will find some of these words in the job description, if not then just search for similar positions on job boards and create your list.

When you are asked to describe your previous jobs, DO NOT read them the bullet points from your resume. The interviewer knows how to read and this just makes the interview that much more boring.

This a trick that my friend taught me and it’s amazing how great it works. This is what you have to do:

For each of your previous jobs list 5-10 accomplishments. You have to write these 5-10 accomplishments on a piece of paper (no computer please). It is even better if you can put monetary value on these accomplishments.

Let me show you an example:

Job title: Team Manager

Accomplishments:

• Motivated staff (monthly sick days dropped by 20%, worth $500 per month (over $5000 saved on a yearly basis)
• Implemented new training strategies to improve sales, also known as up selling (sales increased 15% ($5k) on a monthly basis)
• Improved internal invoicing procedure, saving company 1 hour (1 hour = $25) everyday (7hrs weekly, 28hrs monthly etc)

Are you getting the point? When you physically write them down on a paper using a pen, the information sinks into you subconscious mind which makes it easy to remember during the interview.

Accomplishments are all about how you saved/made the company money/time or improved efficiency, which really comes back to time/money. If I am the decision maker at a company interviewing you, this is what I want to hear. Can you save/make me money/time?

This one will also piss some people off, but I think that by now you get the point that I don’t care. This is my favorite strategy because it makes me sound like a genius and people are ALWAYS impressed.

All you need to do is memorize some powerful quotes related to your job position. This can be done from either books or other places such as magazine, internet etc. The key is to incorporate these quotes into your conversation with the interviewer. This MUST be done in a natural manner so it sounds like part of your normal speech. You don’t want to sound like a robot, and everything I teach you does need PRACTICE.

Here is an excellent example of how I would use this strategy:

Job position: Finance Manager
Quote: “Failure is not an event, but rather an opinion”

While describing myself to the interviewer I would use the quote in the following manner.

“You know, looking back at all the accomplishments I have achieved, there is one thing I realized that has separated me from the masses. And that is the ability to move forward despise many obstacles. Now that I think about it, failure to me has never been an event, rather an opinion held by others, and we all know how cheap opinions are. Really, I think this is the main reason for my success in all aspects of my life.”

Are you starting to see how powerful this method can be if used correctly? Again, all the above strategies are not unethical, rather they are designed to give you the upper edge over other candidates, so use them wisely.

This is a simple technique, but most people don’t do it. All it requires is that you do a little thinking before going into the interview. Think about what you wish to convey to them by the time the interview is over. I usually think of a main theme that I want the interviewer to learn about me and then during the interview I refer to this theme in some way a few times.

An example of this would be:

Theme: I am an excellent motivator, so good that i can make a donkey think he is a horse (I am exaggerating)

During the interview when I am talking to the other person, I would throw in comments such as:

• “…I was amazed at how much a person can improve productivity by simply customizing my management styles…”
• “I am successful at motivating others because of what my mentors did to me in my early days of management…”
• “…and thats when I truly started to recognize that you can’t motivate everyone using the same technique…”

There you have it. Four strategies you can easily learn and use during your next interview.

In the next article I will now finally discuss the specific science of answering questions which at this point shouldn’t be too difficult.

Talk soon.