Things to Do During an Interview
Well, you have well-prepared for the interview. Your rehearsal finally comes to the time for fruition. How are you going to impress your interviewer? Do take some time to read the article,‘Weapons’ To Be Prepared For Your Interview, if you haven’t done yet.
1) Smile
Do maintain a cheery mood despite the formality of the interview. Pay your interviewer a gracious smile and greet him or her with courtesy.
2) Reveal Your Confidence
You have made tremendous preparation for your interview. Hence you should be able to demonstrate your confidence during the interview. Answer the questions given confidently, politely and naturally will make the interviewer more comfortable with you.
Nervousness can easily occur when you are being asked questions that you may only have a vague idea about it. When you confront with such situation, you have to be frank to your interviewer that you don’t have much idea about the topic being asked. Do not risk stumbling over it by showing your limited knowledge concerning the questions asked. It will only display your incompetence in it. Then, promise your interviewer you will do more research on the topic being asked to show you have a willing-to-learn attitude. This method will work provided you are only stumped with 1 or 2 questions out of 10 questions, not every question.
You can easily twist the topic that you may not be so familiar with, to something you are well-versed in. For instance, if you are applying for a position as interior designer, your interviewer may ask you, “How well do you know about Balinese design?” You may have a vague idea about Balinese design. So again please don’t act as if you know very well in Balinese design. You may portray your honesty and answer, “I am sorry to inform you I have a vague idea about Balinese design, but I promise I will do more research on it to ensure I can effectively apply it when I work with you in the future. I will know more about contemporary design, would you mind to listen to some of my ideas about it?” As courtesy, most likely the interviewer is not going to reject you. Then you can smoothly show off your length and breadth of your knowledge to him or her confidently despite your previous demerit. Asking for your interviewer’s permission first before you start ‘throwing’ all your knowledge is significant to portray your respect to the interviewer.
For more information about effective communication, do feel free to read about this article.
3) Speak As If You Will Be Working for the Company
Let’s take my previously quoted sentence as an example. “I am sorry to inform you I have a vague idea about Balinese design, but I promise I will do more research on it to ensure I can apply it effectively when I WORK WITH YOU IN THE FUTURE. By mentioning these few words which I highlighted with capital letters, you are trying to set a mentality to the interviewer that you are going to be his/her colleague. “I strongly believe my skills in troubleshooting will highly help OUR COMPANY to solve this problem.” Again, with the words ‘our company’ you are expressing your passion to have this company as your employer. This method can help you to develop an intimate bond with the interviewer and highly increase the chance of getting hired.
4) Stay Positive, Get Rid of Negatives
Stay positive irrespective of the circumstances. If you are being asked the reason of leaving your previous company, never disclose the negatives of your ex-colleagues or former organization. If you do, you will be the one looking bad. In this case, you may keep smiling and talk about leaving for a positive reason such as seeking for an opportunity for doing something different or some other positive reasons.
Remember, always appear to be steady even though the interviewer may try to give you a hard time. Think before you speak. If you need the question to be repeated, don’t afraid to ask politely rather than you misconstrue the interviewer’s question. Sometime, it can be a little nerve-racking to tackle question like expected salary. In this case, you will probably at a weaker side if you answer first. So, do not answer it directly. Instead, you may answer this way, “This is a tough question. Do you mind to tell me the salary range for this position in your company?” Most of the time, the interviewer doesn’t mind to tell you. Just in case he/she is reluctant to tell you. Then you may say that it depends on the details of the job and provide the interviewer a wide range of possible salary figures that you are comfortable with. But do not ‘over-price’ yourself, if not, you may appear to be too ambitious and scare away your potential employer.
What are the final steps you have to do to ensure a successful job interview – getting hired? Don’t miss this article, Make Your Interviewer Say ‘Yes’ To You.
