hey don georgevich here in this video
i'm going to tell you what needs to be
in your answers to effectively answer
identity questions
so what are identity questions anyway
you've heard me talk about them you see
these are questions that reveal your
traits your beliefs what motivates you
what you like and dislike and your
answer to these questions
paints a picture of you
your answer creates a picture in your
interviewer's mind of
who you are based on many things like
what you say what you do the books and
magazines you read
the people that you've helped what you
do in your spare time the projects
you've worked on
things you've accomplished you know what
your goals are etcetera i mean the list
goes on and on
the late great zig ziglar always used to
say you are who you are and where you
are because of what has gone into your
mind
and interviewers know this they know how
to dig deep to see who you are and by
asking you a series of identity
questions this helps them create a
picture of who you are and to visualize
you working there just like an architect
builds a model of a building before
actual construction begins an
interviewer will create a visual model
of you in their mind before offering you
the job and if they can't see you
working there long term you're out but
if they can't see you're probably in so
that's why some of the most unlikely
people get hired for jobs it's because
they know how interviewers think and
they know how to present themselves to
create this beautiful picture in the
interviewer's mind now
using identity questions employers can
piece together how you're going to fit
into their organization
based on your answers to these questions
so if your interests are not in line
with their ideal employee
you're likely going to face an uphill
battle and you won't get the job but
when you tell them what you liked or
disliked about your last job they can
determine if you're going to be happy
here
long term
you see long term is the key
that's more important than any skill
that you have employers don't want to
hire short timers
they want to hire people who
they believe will work there for many
years to come
and will contribute to the overall
growth of the company
that's how the company will become
successful and remain competitive
not by frequently hiring people that
don't work out
so the way you answer these identity
questions describes who you are and if
you have the right stuff that they're
looking for
it's not about
giving the right answer because the
right answer just isn't good enough
you need to give an answer that allows
them to visualize you working there
now that you know this powerful and
charismatic trick
you can create any image you want your
interviewer to see in you
now that might be a little borderline
manipulation there but and and that's
really not the topic of this lesson my
point was just to show you
what is possible i don't want you going
out there and controlling anyone i want
you to be yourself i want you to be
genuine but i also want you to be aware
of what you're saying and that your
words build an image in their mind
so
what kind of image do you want
interviewers to have of you
well it's different for everyone
for some job interviews
you might want to look like an
overachiever
you might want to come across as
humble
you might even want to look like a real
cutthroat player who would steal their
boss's job and on the weekends knock
down kids lemonade stands
you might even want to demonstrate a
thirst for knowledge or for helping
people or for teaching others about what
you know
the list really is endless and that's
why the right answer
to an identity question
depends it depends on you your goals the
company their culture and a whole bunch
of other things all rolled in one and
you see there is no right answer and i
can't give you one because you have to
create it only you can do it but the
purpose of this video is to show you
what elements need to be in your answers
but oftentimes most people they aren't
even aware of what they're saying in
their interviews
and this is causing interviewers to pass
on them
i mean for example if you're
interviewing at a university let's say
one of the things that you should tell
them about you is that you're planning
for your masters or your phd
universities love to hear about your
academic goals and this paints a picture
of who you really are to them and it
helps to visualize you there long term
now if you're interviewing at places
like nasa you know they also they want
to hear about your academic goals too
but if you're interviewing at places
like apple and google
you want to let them know that you're
very much concerned about improving the
customer experience you see
both of these companies thrive on
selling consumer products and services
so you want to be consumer minded
you want to have stories about how you
have dealt with consumers and more than
anything how much you enjoy helping
other people and improving the whole
customer
experience now google and apple they're
also really big on collaboration so
you want to show them that you've worked
in groups
at your past jobs to accomplish projects
if you interviewed at google let's say
and at your last job you were a
programmer who worked in a private
office and let's say you were really far
removed from everyone else
it really wouldn't matter to google how
good you were programming you could be
the best at what you do
but google would likely pass on you
because you lack
collaboration experience and working
with others in an open atmosphere
now i bet you're starting to see why you
may not have been awarded the job in
some of your past interviews
and
why there isn't necessarily a right
answer to an identity question
just wrong ones and you see
the questions
that would prompt these answers they
could be anything
they could be
questions like you know what is the most
interesting thing
about the people with whom you work
what do you or why do you want to work
here
tell me about
yourself or
what is most important to you in your
next job
and you see there are many more of these
and i put a link on this page
where you can you can click on that link
it's a pdf file and you should be able
to get the whole list of these questions
and all the behavioral ones too
but my point is there is no right answer
to any of these questions and they will
all have different answers
let's say you're interviewing for a
nursing position
you would want to share with them
how much you love taking care of other
people and that that's just your passion
let's say you're interviewing for a
school teaching job
you would want to share with them your
love of teaching and mentoring younger
children
and your comments to these questions
they can come out in many different ways
throughout the conversation of your
interview
now these are all just subtle hints
about yourself that you're sharing with
your interviewer and interjecting into
your answers and all these are going to
create the picture in their mind of who
you really are and when they know who
you are then it's easy for them to make
up their mind about you and if you're a
good fit into their organization
now what you think about how to answer
identity questions and what you need to
do
answering them gets a lot easier
let's say
let's say you're interviewing for a
customer service position
you would want your interviewer to know
that you love taking care of customers
and you love helping them solve their
problems
you might even have a story of your own
that you want to share with them about a
bad customer service experience that you
had and how you don't want that to
happen to anyone else
or let's say let's say you're seeking a
management position what do you want
them to know about you
do you want them to know how capable you
are at leading a team
sure you do
do you want them to know that you've
been successful before
of course
do you want them to know that you have a
passion for getting things done on time
and under budget
most definitely yes
do you want them to know that you're
analytical minded well possibly might
depend on the job but i would think that
it ranks up there there are just so many
different scenarios that it's impossible
to cover them all with you
in this video and even if i covered a
hundred different scenarios with you
that still wouldn't be enough to cover
every situation
and that's why i developed the interview
answer accelerator program
this is where
you can write down your answers to these
identity questions and project the image
that you want on me do it on me first
and i'll tell you if your answer is
going to fly or not
and what you should do to make your
answer stronger and to create the image
that you want interviewers to see in you
a customer recently wrote into me
with the answer that he wanted to give
to an employer for why he was terminated
and you see
he had this big long answer about
performance issues and that he was suing
his former employer
ouch he actually thought that he was
defending his termination by mentioning
the lawsuit he thought this was a good
thing so you never want to tell an
interviewer that you're suing your
former employer because they're just
going to assume that you're going to do
the same to them if things don't go your
way in this job
and this is just
one example of how someone thought they
were painting a positive image with
their interviewer
but in reality it was very negative
fortunately fortunately he never gave
them the negative answer
okay that's that's all i have for you
today uh i hope you learned that
interviewers are carefully
listening to every word that you say and
that you really need to be alert and
aware of what you're saying because
every word is helping them develop this
picture of you in their minds
and you can create a good picture
or a negative picture and fortunately
the choice is yours
so
make sure that you leave me a comment
below tell me if you bungled any of
these identity questions or if you've
used the power of them to land your
dream job
i really want to hear your story i'm
here if you need my help if you want to
enroll in the interview answer
accelerator i would suggest doing it
soon because i'm only accepting 25 new
students and then i'll be closing the
program down
and i'll tell you more about the program
in the next video
i'll send you an email tomorrow with a
link to the last video or
you can share it on facebook tweet it or
share it on google plus and you can
start watching it right now
i'll see you soon bye-bye now
hey don this is charlie coulombe theory
and i just want to thank you for your
wonderful book
i've been through several of them some
actually have hurt me
in getting a job which is quite funny
but
um
i just wanted to tell you that your book
was awesome i've shared it with other
people as well but
i was in a complex kind of a situation
complex in the meaning that i was in a
very highly competitive
environment and
all your questions and your continued
support throughout the throughout the
process to me was awesome
it was a long process but i ended up
with an awesome job and i couldn't have
gotten there without you
so again i think you're the best i think
you're the best that money can offer
and i just want to thank you for all
your
private emails as well as your continued
support throughout the whole process
you are awesome i hope you use some of
the things that i provided as well
i think that you've touched on so many
wonderful areas of the interview process
and
one of my last interviews
the woman asked me if i felt lucky and i
said you betcha
and
the next day i got offered the job so
thanks to you thanks to your book thanks
to your continued support
you're the best thank you so much have a
wonderful
have a wonderful
week month
and continue sharing your thoughts to
those of us who needed your help
thanks again bye