How to interview well -- 1

Job interviews are a form of public speaking, and only a very few people seem to enjoy them and do them well, much like other forms of public speaking.  So here goes with a series of blogs on making job interviews fun and successful.

 

The first idea to get in mind is a Zen-like one:  you need to believe that you don’t need the job.  Even if a little self-hypnosis is involved, you’ve got to walk into the interview with an attitude that says, “hey, great to be here, looking forward to our conversation, interested in finding out more about your organization, happy to spend the time with you – but I’m not desperate for a new job.”

 

Desperation is not attractive, and it causes your interviewer to begin to wonder what’s wrong with you and why you’re so eager to leave your other job (or why you don’t have one).  So excise it from your attitude, as best you can.  

 

The point is to be able to truly focus on the interview itself.  You need to be fully there, present and accounted for, and enjoying yourself.  If you’re only thinking about employment after the interview, you’ll be focused on other things beyond the moment, and you won’t make the impression you need to make, ironically, to get the job. 

 

This kind of relaxed-yet-engaged attitude sets you up to negotiate well for a salary, in the happy event that you get an offer.  If you convey to the other person that you’ll do anything to get the job, you can be sure that working at a lower salary will be on the list of possibilities. 

 

It’s the same way for theatrical auditions.  Ask any actor, and he or she will tell you that the most brilliant auditions become moments unto themselves and the actors who do the best are the ones who aren’t thinking about anything beyond that imperishable moment. 

 

So focus on the task at hand, and get really interested in that.  Don’t look ahead to something else, yet.  Just be there, in the room, as engaged as you can be.  It's a conversation.  Simply that.