I have noticed recently in many Linkedin groups that lots of people claiming to be experts on the job interview are giving out poor advice on how to handle this interview situation.
Most interviewers are not well trained or skilled at interviewing. They are just as uncomfortable as the candidate. They will start with the most common and dreaded interview question that is easy for them but very awkward for you. It goes like this. “Tell me a little about yourself”. Or “Tell me about your experience as an …….” If you launch into an answer as most people do, you will ramble, give way too much information that lacks focus and you will not provide what the interviewer is looking for. This happens because the interviewer gave you no direction, focus or guidance as to what he is looking for and you didn’t take the time to ask.
Lee Hecht Harrison a leading outplacement firm simply says to give your elevator speech in response. Another “expert” on Linkedin posted this impotent advice last week. “Start by giving the highlights of your education, review your work history focusing on your accomplishments and end with a statement describing what you are looking for”. On the surface this might seem like moderately sensible advice but actually it is bad advice.
Everybody struggles with the “Tell me about yourself” opening to an interview when in your mind you should be shouting THANK YOU. In the best case the interviewer has just given you a gift. He has handed you an opportunity to set your interview strategy, take control of the interview, learn what is uniquely important to the interviewer and learn how to direct the rest of the interview towards a successful conclusion. If you handle this correctly that is. If you handle it wrong you lose the opportunity and waste everybody’s time. Launching into a presentation is handling it wrong for the reasons given earlier.
An interview is a sales call with the interviewer being your prospect and you being both the sales person and product you’re selling. Any skilled salesperson will tell you that on a sales call you never ask a question unless you already know the answer and you never answer a question unless you already know that your answer is what your prospect wants/needs to hear from you. So if I’m telling you not to launch into a presentation providing what could be useless information what do you do?
You have to find out what the interviewer really wants to hear, what is important to him and what will set you above your competition. Try this response with a smile and a little humor.” I have so much good information to share about myself and my career that I could start talking and not stop for a couple of hours. Since you have more important things to do today than listen to my life’s story, specifically what would you like me to address?” and/or “What skills and abilities are you most interested in hearing about?”and/or “What experiences are most important?”
The answers to these questions will tell you exactly what features you need to sell. You tell the interviewer what he wants to hear about and nothing else. Not only has he told you how to respond to “tell me about yourself” but you now know what skills, abilities and experiences will get you the job if sold effectively during the rest of the interview.
Most “experts” only teach tactics. In today’s market you must also master strategy to get an offer. You just learned some great strategy.
Happy hunting
