A few practical tips that help you present yourself properly in professional job interviews.
Do you feel stressed before interviews? What are the causes and how can you reduce it? What can you expect during job interviews? Practical tips for people preparing for interviews.
1. Check exactly what experience is required for the position you are applying for. Very often, job advertisements provide formal and competency requirements. The Competency Based or Behavioral Interview will focus mainly on them.
2. When it comes to competency requirements, you should consider your experiences that may be related to them. For example, if time management experience is required, recall situations in which you could really demonstrate such skills. If team management skills are required, think about events in which you had the opportunity to increase employee motivation, manage change, etc.
3. If you are a graduate and do not have much professional experience, look for so-called ‘analogous experiences’, i.e. similar to those expected by the employer. Referring to participation in projects, internships or apprenticeships may be helpful.
4. Do not confabulate, do not ‘embellish’ reality; the signals of such behavior will be clear to an experienced interviewer.
6. Do not worry that you may look a little stressed, nervous; we sometimes feel similarly, maybe we have a little more practice in hiding it……
The time of guides is not over yet, but there are already programs that recommend ‘excellent’ ways to properly present yourself to an employer. Below are a few myths that most often appear on the Internet or in various guides.
1. ‘Proper attire is essential.’ For several years now, in the world, including Poland :), there has been no stereotype related to the dress code for a recruitment meeting. High-tech companies probably played a part in this, quickly adopting the saying that ‘clothes don’t make the man’. Few interviewers are fooled by the impression a candidate tries to make with their attire. Of course, an approach based on respect expressed through neatness, lack of extravagance or eye-catching accessories is important. Neutrality and matching the specifics of the industry in which the company operates will probably be the best solution.
2. ‘Shake hands firmly.’ If you work as a doorman, the recruiter may pay attention to this. A handshake is more of an indication of whether the candidate reads ‘How to sell yourself at an interview’ guides than an actual manifestation of anything, and you certainly cannot infer a person’s character from a handshake.
3. ‘Be confident and decisive.’ Will an accountant really need confidence and decisiveness during a conversation with a interviewer? Unless, of course, she is the key contact person for the tax office or the Supreme Audit Office. Data analyst, Java programmer, …, yes, these are professions that require special self-confidence ☺.
4. ‘Crossed arms or legs are a withdrawn, closed posture’. This may as well be a signal for the recruiter to turn on the heating. No person experienced in recruitment analyses individual behaviours and is as far from drawing far-reaching conclusions based on them as possible. Non-verbal behaviours are analysed in the context of verbal behaviours, also in relation to other recognised behavioural patterns.
Applying the above and many other such tips very often brings effects opposite to those intended. Firstly, using unnatural behaviours engages the candidate’s attention to a degree that prevents fully effective answering questions about previous experiences. Unnatural behaviours cause disharmony – and this really affects the assessment of the candidate’s credibility. Lack of confidence and application of all textbook advice may be the result of stress or recent difficult experiences in private life.
So focus on the substantive presentation of your previous experiences, recall situations and your behaviours regarding the required competences.
