Today is on job interview confidence this is not the first time I've spoken
about this I actually shot a video last year the year before called job
interview confidence it's got a tag line with with pro tips in it and I covered
as you get into the interview and you look at the different phases of the job
interview when you get a chance to describe yourself walk them through your
resume or tell me about yourself kind of the early warm-up stage where you can
control your story and then and then I move into the body the major body where
they're asking you questions usually the popular job interview questions and your
that you're fielding lots of questions that you probably anticipate and then
when you get too close with your questions and I talked about how to be
confident at all three of those stages and but let's be honest it's a lot
easier to be confident when you've prepared when you know what you're
speaking about when you're describing stories that have actually occurred in
your life it's a matter of just remembering them and sharing them
cleanly that's a lot easier wouldn't you say so
where you know where does that leave us right now what does that leave us to
talk about well when are we the most exposed when are we at the greatest risk
of feeling not confident when they ask us something where we don't know the
answer or perhaps we don't really have the experience so that's what I want to
focus on today and that's what's gonna be the line share of the discussion
because I think this is where you have the greatest likelihood of tripping up
now before we get into this I want to I want you to take some comfort in a
couple of things the first thing is when you do get asked questions that are
venturing into areas that you don't have experience or you don't really know the
answers to fact matter is the employer the job interviewers they probably
should have known that rightful from from your resume you didn't advertise
that you had particular skills or maybe you were trying to be clear that you
didn't have that much domain experience in a particular area and industry a
solution line a mess that allergy a process of whatever
technology whatever it might be so they probably should have known that and they
might even know that and they might just be kind of fishing to see maybe you have
some additional stuff that is that isn't on your resume but the second thing that
you can take comfort in is I'm gonna give you a formula that I want you to
practice I want this to become automatic and if you do this I guarantee you will
come off more confidently you you you will you I promise you and I got I got
to me some note cards today just a couple of them but I want to take you
through a five-step process that I want you to use to kind of build your own
formula as you get into these areas where you're not really sure they're
asking you about something that you don't have experience with first thing
and this is a little sneak into the body language discussion but the first thing
about being confident and carrying that air about you has everything to do with
your reaction to the question so reaction is very very important that
that initial how you felt about it this goes for a lot more than just the
interview goes for their salary negotiation your greetings all that good
stuff and the tone and the voice in which you share the first words out of
your mouth right because you're gonna react they're likely gonna see you
physically before the sound travels to them so if you think about this as an
entire reaction that's very very important so when they ask you something
that you do not know your natural response needs to be that you are
pleased if not excited about the fact that they asked you this question so if
they're asking you you know have you used this methodology how much
experience do you have in this technology have you ever worked in this
industry how would you draw parallels between this and their whatever the
question is the most important thing for you to do is smile first you don't have
to glow like a clown just just smile just be
positive kind of lean in a little not not all the way across table but just
kind of lean into it like this is great I'm thrilled you asked me in as a matter
of fact the first words out of my mouth would probably be you know what that's a
great question it's interesting that you asked me that or something like that
something very positive that you are welcoming the chance to share what it is
you're about to share so the first thing is you've got to have a positive
reaction because that is going to carry more weight and we're gonna talk about
this in the body language discussion but if you have ever heard of Albert
Mehrabian rule of personal conduct he talks about the seven 3855 rule and what
that means is that 7% of your communication is coming from your words
38% is coming from your tone and 55% is coming from your body language I think I
got that right but basically 93% of what the message
you're sending to them has nothing to do with the words that you're using so and
we're gonna talk about the mistakes people make but I just I want you to
file this because it's very important that your reaction is positive very very
very important then after you say it's interesting that you asked me that or
it's a great question or whatever you want to say or both then all I want you
to do is I want you to use some positive language for a negative thing right I've
yet to do that I've yet to experience that I yet to gain experience I've yet
to use that technology I've yet to use that methodology I've
yet to use that cost basis accounting method whatever it might be
I've yet to do that you can get this over quickly fact of the matter is you
never said you did that that's in 99% of the cases and take comfort in knowing
that you are sitting there in the interview and they likely should have
known this or at least whoever screened you knew this so that's that's the next
thing or really the first thing that you're gonna under so that that's very
important then the third part about this is it's more important to talk about who
you are not who you're not or what you are not what your
and it's always greater to talk about what you know versus what you don't the
conversation is not about the fact that you don't have the experience or you
don't know the answer you need to explain to them what you can do what you
do have experience with or how you would think through something or whatever the
the proper case may be so I've never used
I've yet to use that management methodology but I have used these three
others I've yet to use that technology but I've
used these this one or these others just like it I've never had practical
experience on the job using that technology but in school I
learned and practice this I took night classes whatever it is that you did do
you want to try to draw a parallel between what they asked and and and the
insight that they're looking for the experience they're looking for with you
with what it is that you have done that you can use some application of so that
you can get up to speed quickly which is leading me into my next thing so you
want to talk about about what you know not what you don't this is about what
you can do not what you can't do you're gonna rack up a lot more points
and they're gonna they're gonna feel a lot better about the discussion if
you're talking about what you are able to do so I've yet to do that I do have
some experience in these other methodologies which I had to learn for
the first time and as a matter of fact I want you to talk about and when I
experienced something that I have not encountered before these are the steps
that I take to get up to speed quickly so the first time I had to learn a
project management methodology here's what I did the second time I had to
learn a project meant a different methodology here's what I did to get up
to speed quicker that took me half the time to learn the first one and so on or
if it's not something specific use your generic techniques this is ultimately
what I do to get up to speeds is to shrink that learning curve so just to
roll with me here so I've yet to do that I do have this experience and whenever
I'm faced with learning something along these lines and new technology and
methodology a new application whatever it is here's what I do to get up to
speed and then the next thing that I want you to get in there is your overall
philosophy about how you feel about not knowing something so this element is
I've yet to do that I have used these other applications or these other
methodologies when I'm faced when I was faced with those for the first time or
when I'm faced with something for the first time here's what I do and you know
what as a matter of fact I absolutely love when I encounter things that I
haven't encountered before because then I get to learn something new that's how
we all grow isn't it and as a matter of fact that's one of the things that's
very attractive to me about this role in your company is the fact that I'm going
to get to learn a new insert whatever it is here so you want them to know that
you're coming in with an attitude that says I welcome this and when you think
about it I personally no matter how long I've been doing this as a trainer I
literally literally learn something new every day that I have never encountered
before every single day so a lot of you especially if you're dealing with a role
that's varied has many different facets to it you're going to be facing things
that you haven't faced for the first time frequently the other thing is the
rate at which things change in this world today there's a high velocity of
new things that get introduced on a daily basis that change the way we do
things from a platform perspective from a communications perspective and all
those other things so this should not be shocking anybody so I just I want to
make sure that you do that and you can do all that very quickly and see where
they take you but the point to all of this is your reaction needs to be very
positive you don't need do not dwell on the fact
that you don't have that experience I've yet to do that that's it that's all
you need to say then move into what you do know what you've learned in the way
of other applications what you've learned in the way of other
methodologies whatever it might be then talk about how you get up to speed and
then talk about your philosophy that is your formula you don't have anything
else to talk about when they've asked you that question that you
have experience with so you may as well be confident and fill it in with that
formula because that's gonna give them a better indication of who you are what
you're about and what you bring to the table now I also want to talk about some
of the things that I don't want you to do because these are really going to
neutralize that confident tone the voice your inflection the eye contact that you
that you should be giving them the fact that you were leaning into something and
I kind of I kind of wrote these all on one card because I think you get it
based on what I just said I don't want you to look away I don't want you to
cower I don't want you to lean back I don't want you to stall I don't want you
to homina homina homina I certainly don't want you fidgeting around when you
get nervous these are sending all the wrong signals so if you're you know
you're slouching back or you're pulling away or you appear to have been caught
off guard you're gonna you're starting in a hole
and as a matter of fact then their mind mindset goes to are now you're
uncomfortable how are you gonna react to this I still need to know whether you
have the experience I just asked you about right so it's it's a deep hole but
if you if you're if you're up if you're if your tone is confident if you get out
the fact right away that you don't have that experience you'll you'll do fine
and then you talk about who you are not what you're not believe me this works
for those of you that I guess to cap to cap this all off before we go into
questions for those of you that have the interview intervention book if you if
you have the interview intervention book there's a chapter in the book called my
silver bullet interview and it's got the 14 most effective job interview
questions that I think you can be asked in my opinion so there's the 14 base
questions there is 43 variations of those questions so each question can be
disguised differently they also cite what the employers looking for in the
very best response one of those questions in that chapter is how do you
educate yourself that how do you educate yourself and the way that that that's
packaged is very similarly to what I just described because you are
ultimately talking about you change their question from do you have this
experience - how do you educate yourself you've done them
you've powerfully done that because that's all you have to talk about in the
wake of that question that they like we shouldn't even ask you in the first
place but they did so I just I want you to go in there confidently I want you to
be confident I want you to remember your reaction your tone and the formula and I
think you'll do I think you'll do great all right hope that helped you