Know yourself. Make sure you have thoroughly memorized everything in your resume, especially specific examples of your accomplishments. I'm always amazed when I interview a candidate, ask him a specific question about his experience that could be answered right off his resume, and watch him fumble for an answer. Yes, I've read your resume, but I want you to pick out the parts of your resume that are applicable to the question and answer it in an articulate manner. You can't do this unless you are thoroughly familiar with the information in your resume.
The key here is practice. Look at the job posting for the job you will be interviewing for and note the specific requirements that are listed. Then, practice stating your experience and accomplishments in terms of how they relate to those requirements. Do this until you can comfortably and succinctly recap your experience and accomplishments, using each job requirement as a question.
For example, if one of the job requirements is "five years of sales experience," then your answer could be: "I have seven years of sales experience with XYZ company, during which sales increased 40% in my territory." Be prepared to give an answer like this for every requirement listed for that job and you will be ahead of 95% of the other applicants.
Produce your commercial. You should prepare in advance a 30 – 60 second recap of your job experience and some key accomplishments from that experience. Why? Because frequently an interview will begin with a question such as: "Tell us something about yourself," or some variation of that question. This is your chance to present your "commercial" about yourself. It should be a very condensed recap of your employment history and some of your major skills and accomplishments. NOTE: It should be all about your job experience and NOT about your personal life or hobbies. The hiring manager is only interested in one thing: Do you have the experience and competency to be the best candidate for the job?
Here, too, I've had many job applicants stumble with trying to give an overview of themselves and come across as awkward and inarticulate. You should write out your commercial in advance, make sure it includes your most significant experience and accomplishments, and then time yourself by reading it out loud. It should more than 30 seconds but no more than 60 seconds. This doesn't sound like much, but 60 seconds can be an eternity in a job interview! ...
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Author: Tom McBroom