Are you currently interviewing for jobs but feeling overwhelmed? The post below will cover 5 ways to be more confident in an interview so that you have the absolute best chances of getting the job.
So you’ve submitted application after application and you’ve finally landed an interview. Congratulations! That’s often the toughest part is to just get seen by somebody. No matter if this is your first or 100th interview, they all can be very intimidating so I’m going to cover 5 ways to be more confident in an interview to help give you an edge over the competition.
1. Do your research
One of the best ways you can be confident in an interview is to know the company you are interviewing at. This may seem like an obvious thing to do but in my experience, many people either don’t do any research at all, or they scan the website for 10 minutes and call it a day. Hate to break it to ya ladies, but this is not research.
A common question you may get asked will be, “why do you want to work for us?” and as much as I want to roll my eyes up and say “because I need a job” that is not the answer that will get you employed. You cannot answer this very common question without doing your research. Here are a couple ways you can research the company.
- Look at their current stock price and history to see if it was a stable, growing or declining company.
- Look through financial statements and see if they made their numbers last quarter or not.
- Review the products or services they offer and put yourself in the shoes of the customer. What do you like or not like about them? How would you improve them?
- Look up the company on glassdoor and read the reviews left by employees. Are they good reviews? bad? what things stick out to you?
- Look up their mission, vision and about section on their website. What parts of those statements resonate with you?
- Look up the hiring managers on LinkedIn and search their profiles for commonalities. Maybe you attended the same schools or have similar hobbies and interests.
- Search youtube and google images for any videos/images that might give you a look into their office to give you an idea of the culture.
After taking the time to do the above you should have a solid understanding of what type of company they are, where they are heading and if you see yourself in a place like that. This way when the question “why do you want to work here?” comes up you can confidently say something like,
“you know It’s important to me to work for a company that has a healthy environment and long term strategy for success. After pouring over some of the company documents like tax history and financial statements and seeing a steady incline over the last 8 months, I feel great about investing in my future here. Additionally, I took the time to read your employees thoughts on a public website and I was pleased to see how favorable the comments were. It has given me the assurance I need and I’m excited more than ever to be apart of your company moving forward.”
2. Dress for the part
I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to dress well for an interview. We all know that when you feel good on the outside, you feel great on the inside. This can also be one of the most stressful parts of the interview and you haven’t even gotten there yet!
This is also why it’s important to do your research first. Are they a casual company? formal business attire? Is this a mom and pop where you know will be treated like family? These all play a role in how you should dress for your interview. I’ve heard people say it’s better to over-dress than under-dress which is true, however as somebody who has sat on hiring panels I can tell you that if a candidate walks in super over-dressed, the assumption is that this person did not take the time to understand the company and wouldn’t be a good cultural fit.
Ladies, now is a good time to ensure you have one outfit that FITS WELL and can be dressed up or down that you have in your closet that you can rely on should you find yourself in need of a good interview outfit. Let me tell you about the time I interviewed with Calvin Klein. Yes, the designer. Now you tell me what the heck does one wear to interview with Calvin freaking Klein?!?! I felt at such a loss. I had to be fashionable or else I’d be laughed out the door, but fashion isn’t my thing…like,, it really isn’t. I just thought it’d be cool to work for a big company I should have thought that one through before I applied.
Let me tell you, I spent a solid week shopping for the perfect outfit that didn’t exist and it stressed me out so bad that I considered canceling the interview. (talk about having low confidence!) Thankfully, a dear friend of mine came over to my house and said, “let’s just see what you’ve got.” She pulled out a white button down shirt with a collar as plain-Jane as it gets and I was like, “really? A white shirt?” She said “yes, a white shirt is always professional and it goes with everything especially tasteful jewelry we just need to find something to pair it with.” Here I was searching for some magical blouse or dress-type-thing but everything was either too formal or too business-like or way too casual.
Since I didn’t have anything else in my closet, she took me to her favorite shop, made me wait outside until she had found a really nice, camel-colored, leather pencil skirt and told me to come in and try it on with my white shirt. I pulled open the curtain to the dressing room to hear her squeal “YES! that’s it! Well, maybe tuck your shirt in first. There you go, now we just need a pair of camel colored pumps and my work here is done.”
She was so proud of herself and I was too! Thank goodness for good friends who have better taste in clothes than I do! I never would have pulled a leather pencil skirt off a rack but I must say she had great taste and I made sure to tell her so when the interviewer complimented my outfit. – Didn’t get the job, but at least I felt confident that I could get the job because I knew I looked the part. So moral of the story is, if you don’t have a good outfit, get a good friend with good taste!
Prepare and practice over and over
Ok, you’ve done your research and you’ve picked out your outfit. Now it’s time to dig into interview questions. Because if you are unemployed currently, this is your job until you get a job. There are so many youtube videos on common interview questions and answers that there is no excuse to show up to any interview unprepared. You can search interview questions for big companies, small companies, family-owned companies, etc. This is the time to define your elevator pitch where you can describe who you are as a professional in 30 seconds or less.
This is important because feeling prepared will give you a confidence boost you didn’t even know you needed until you’re sitting there getting hit with questions left and right. You don’t want to be a deer in the headlights, you want to be at the point where you look forward to what question they ask next because you know you will have a great answer.
The other thing you need to know is how to prepare. If you are working with HR or a recruiter, you should always ask them this question. “If you were me, and you had X amount of time until the interview, how would you prepare?” and “Is there anything about the interview process I should be aware of?” These folks are usually pretty helpful and will give you extra insight if you ask for it. But this is when you can find out if they will ask behavioral type questions, or if they need you to prepare any documents ahead of time. The STAR method is becoming a popular way to interview so make sure you know what type of interview it will be.
Listen Listen Listen
One of the reasons we tend towards not feeling confident in an interview is because we are so much in our head that we don’t listen to what’s being said. If you’re anything like me, you might be sitting there nodding at what they are saying, looking them in the eye, but thinking about everything else. Thinking about what they might ask next, thinking about if my answer to the last question was good enough, thinking about what their body language is communicating and trying to gauge how interested they are in me and… you get the point.
I know that this over-thinking thing happens all the time in life, not just during interviews but this distraction can and often does, prevent you from walking into situations like interviews with full confidence. I want you to practice listening in your conversations leading up to your interview. Get into the habit of really listening and then taking a pause before you respond. This takes some practice but I can tell you as somebody who interviews candidates, I’m usually far more impressed with those that take a minute to breathe/think and then give a thoughtful, concise answer versus those that immediately speak because they have to get what’s up in their head, out of their head.
These are the types of people that tend to ramble, or don’t know when to stop answering the question. Your responses should always get straight to the point and be answered in under a minute or less. Anything longer than that and the interviewers will stop listening. So when you are practicing in your normal everyday conversations at work or at home, try to make a conscious effort to make your responses under 60 seconds. By the time you get to the interview, you’re going to feel more confident knowing you are good at giving concise answers that directly answer the questions you’re being asked.
Ask the interviewers these great questions
Hopefully you’ve followed the first 4 steps which have prepared you to be more confident in the interview by the time it’s your turn to ask the questions. But if you’re still not feeling confident, this is THE point in the interview where putting your confidence on full display can turn things around for the better. Usually in almost every interview, the interview will say, “This has been a good conversation, now do you have any questions for us?”
This is the part where you say “yes I do” and you open your portfolio that you made sure to bring with you which holds your resume, business card, and notepad with some prepared questions. Now, you’ll want to start by asking them questions that came up during the conversation. Something along the lines of “during our conversation you mentioned X about the company. I’d like to know how you would expect me to tackle that issue.” NOTICE: I didn’t phrase this as a question. I made a statement and then stated I want to know your response, versus saying, “how would you expect me to respond?” When you take questions and phrase them as statements, you come across with authority. Not only does this give you confidence, but it lets the interviewer know that you have confidence if they were to give you this role.
If you’ve done all of the above and still feel like you’re lacking confidence, I want you to ask this as your final question. “After meeting with me and getting to know my capabilities, what concerns do you have about putting me in this role?” This gives them the opportunity to be honest with you especially if they are on the fence. They might give you an honest response and say, well actually we are concerned about X and in which case you get one last shot to correct them or put their fears to rest about hiring you. Hopefully they will be impressed with how confident you are and move you through to the next phase.
I hope these 5 ways to be confident in an interview will help you as you reach for that next step in your career. Have you tried these and implemented them in your interview process? Let us know in the comments below so we can all learn from your experience. If you have any questions regarding these steps feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to help.
Bethany
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