What you don’t know and how you are showing up to a job interview could be sabotaging your ability to land your desired role, so in today’s blog we will review how to interview confidently, in the right way so that you can finally get hired! Get a copy of this cheat sheet 10 Common Interview Questions & How To Answer Them to help you successful prepare for your job interviews!

1. Take Action Now: Competence And Confidence Start With Courage

Starting is what stops most people and keeps them stuck in either not finding a job or staying in one that they hate for way too long. This is due to their fears of rejection and a fear of failure. When we know that we are inexperienced in an area it will naturally cause us to feel apprehension because we are venturing into new territory. This discomfort is normal, it is just a message that there is risk here so preparation is needed. We can learn to listen to the messages that come from our emotions as signals to tell us what action to take. The signal from the emotion of fear is preparation, our body’s way of telling us that we need to invest the time to get prepared. Fear is not a message that we need to stay stuck however, and this is what many people’s reaction to fear is. They don’t do anything. They sit waiting and hoping that one day they will feel confident enough to go out and interview. This is a flawed way of thinking about the situation, the best way of thinking about approaching a situation like this where we feel unprepared is not waiting to feel confident but to lean into courage. We need to utilize courage to give us the push to take action, now. The great thing about courage is that by its very definition we make a decision to show up and move forward despite the feeling of fear and discomfort. Courage is what is required when fear shows up, because if we didn’t feel fear we wouldn’t have to pull on the internal resource of courage to move forward. When you feel the fear and do it anyway, every time you go out and take action your competence is built up and you develop more skill, and more expertise. As your skill grows, then your confidence grows. So in order to become confident in an area that we currently feel apprehensive about, the solution is to take action through courage, then competence is developed and we eventually get to feeling confident. Take action today on preparing for that interview that you have been thinking about for way too long and you will see that this very thing that used to intimidate you is the thing that you will begin to master. You can do it!

2. You Have What It Takes aka You’ve Got The Goods

If you have been invited in for a job interview it simply means that you have met the qualifications of the role. Recruiters and hiring managers review sometimes hundreds of resumes before they narrow it down to the final list of candidates that they will go on to interview. So if you have gotten to the point of getting a call to come in for an interview, rest assured that your experience was good enough to warrant a call! The message from the inner critic loves to tell us how not worthy we are and how we are not good enough so this is why grounding yourself in facts such as this will help us to tame the negative self doubt that shows us and encourage us to own our brilliance that is our qualifications and preparedness for the role. You have got the goods, so it’s time to act like it!

3. Use Contextualize Stories To Articulate Your Accomplishments

This can be one of the most invigorating, fun and motivating parts of a job interview process. Yes I use these words that are not normally associated with going through a job interview because we can set our intentions from the beginning on how we are going to go through this process. It can be arduous, stressful and nerve racking if that is how you decide you are going to approach it, or you can do the work to prepare and choose that this will be a fun, learning experience for you. Back to my point, the reason I say thinking about your accomplishments can be the best part of the interview process is because it is our opportunity to take a step back and be in awe of all the things we have done in our career so far and what we have had to overcome to get here! Most of us take it for granted all the things we have done because it is now second nature to us. We show up and just do what we do without a second thought. So break down your accomplishments over the years into 3 main categories:

a. Process Oriented Accomplishments: how you have improved processes to save time or money

b. Expertise: how you have used your expertise to drive a positive outcome

c. Soft skills: how have you used skills such as emotional intelligence or communication to influence change

Once you have broken your accomplishments down into these categories, take three to four stories that you can reference in the interview to give context behind your accomplishments. Stories give the full picture of what you had to do to drive impact in an area, it allows you to give a view of how difficult or challenging a situation was before, what you had to overcome to get the result and what you did to achieve it. Just saying that you improved a process isn’t enough as it doesn’t give the full story of what happened and you want to give context so that the interviewer can understand the enormity of what you have done to drive results.

4. Research Top Interview Questions

Companies ask some common questions to find out whether or not people are a good match technically and culturally for their organizations. So do your research on common interview questions or click here to get a cheat sheet on the Top 10 Most Common Interview Questions and How To Answer Them. Then practice answering these questions out loud first in front of a mirror then later with another person such as a friend, coach or family member.

5. Establish Authentic Connection & Let Your Personality Shine

Remember hiring mangers and interviewers are human beings just like you. They do want to work with smart people that will bring value to their organization but just as importantly they want to work with someone who they want to be around (i.e. someone they like) or can connect with. Yes, it can be nerve wracking as stated before when you are going through the interview process but if you are overly formal and stoic you will be viewed as “the candidate” and not someone with both intelligence and personality that they want to be around. So let go of stoicism and work on ways to authentically and naturally connect with your interviewers.

Check out my Youtube Video here for ways to establish authentic connection.

6. Ask Questions

Recognize that the company isn’t the only one doing an interview here. This is interview is in both directions you are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. This mindset allows you to come from a place of power and not a place of desperation. You are potentially going to spend years with this organization so make sure you do your research by reviewing the company’s website, reading their annual report and talking to current or former employees of the organization to get the inside scoop and ask any outstanding questions that you have after you have done your research. You have options on what company you work for, so come from a place of abundance not scarcity. This company isn’t the only company in the world and you have many options on who you choose to work for just like they have options on which candidate they decide to hire. Having this mentality in addition to doing the research and asking well thought out questions will help to send a message to the employer that you are prepared, informed and do your homework. Which company wouldn’t want a person like this to work for them?

7. Do Visualizations And Success Affirmations

Athletes have engaged in the practice of visualization for decades, even centuries, and many in the corporate world have completely overlooked its effectiveness. Athletes do visualization for one reason, it is a powerful tool to elevate and improve high performance. Neuroscience research shows that the same regions of the brain are activated when we visualize an action compared to when we are physically engaged in the same action. Use the power of visualization to vividly and with emotion imagine the interview going well, you feeling confident, you establishing rapport, and that the whole experience is positive. You can also use the power of affirmation to erase the voice of self-doubt that typically invades the minds of people going through an interview process. Watch the Youtube video related to the blog for a good example of an affirmation to use to calm your nerves and allow you to feel self-assured during an interview.

Remember, any company would be lucky to have you working in their organization so, go out and crush your interviews because you are built not to shrink down to less but to expand to more, and I am rooting for your more!!

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How To Interview For A Job Confidently