CAB 21. Top 5 common problems during interviews

Dear friends,

I have done hundreds of interviews and these are the top 5 common problems that I see when people come for their interviews.

First, they don't know how to build rapport. Interview essentially is about human interaction between you and the interviewer. We are more likely to believe things that people we like say. So similarly in interview situation, when you establish good rapport with the interviewer in the initial stage, then the more likely they are to believe your interview answers. So how do you build rapport? By making small talk right from the beginning. 

Second, they don't have the confidence that they are the best person for the job. Interview is a mind game. You have to be in the right mindset when you come for interview. When you don't have the confidence then it shows in your behaviour, the body language and the choice of words that you use. A good interviewer can easily sense that you are not confident.

So what can you do to have more confident? You have to prepare for the interview. There is no shortcut to that. Do your research about the company and the interviewer. And you can also do the Wonderwoman pose beforehand to gain some positivity in your mind (made famous by Amy Cuddy)

Third, they don't know how to sell themselves to the interviewer. They just ramble on about what they have done in the past without thinking what are the key things that they should be highlighting. When I coach people about interview, I ask them who are your main competitors for the job that you are applying for? What are their characteristics? Then I ask them to think 3 reasons why you are better than the other potential candidates. These 3 things are what you are going to make sure the interviewer hears from you throughout the interview.

Fourth, they haven't anticipated what are the potential questions that can be asked. Interview is not that long, it’s usually only about an hour. So the questions that will be asked are more or less the same interview questions. They will ask you ‘tell me about yourself’, ‘what are your strengths and weaknesses’, ‘why do you want this job?’, so be ready to answer those questions.

I have written about how to answer interview questions before and you can re-read them here.

Fifth - they don't know how to read the body language of the interviewers. You can tell a lot about how the interview is going by the facial expression and the body language of the interviewers. If you can sense that they don't like your answers then you could add more points to your answer or give another example that might fit more to what they are looking for. So make sure that you are observing how they are reacting to your answers.

So those are the top 5 common problems that I see.

All are very fixable. Don’t do them when you go for interviews.

Doktor Az

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