Body line...contd

Apart from the silent treatment that you can sometimes be subjected to, the ‘Bodyline’ interviewer has a few more weapons in his arsenal. Stress interviews though not very desirable are still common though I doubt you will encounter one when going for an entry level job. But if you are aware of what the interviewer is trying to do you can deal with it with ease and confidence and actually help the interviewer understand better your suitability for the job. Most prevalent stress interview is the one where a five or six interviewers interview the candidates in quick succession. The objective is to intimidate and confuse them to find out how they handle such situations. Questions about handling pressure, conflict resolution and work load are asked to find whether the candidate has faced similar situations and how did she handle them. Another arrow in the interviewer’s quiver is that the interviewer acts in a hostile and rough manner. For example, the interviewer may ‘act’ disgusted with the candidate’s answer and roll his eyes to convey disbelief and shock; he may avoid making eye contact and interrupt the candidate mid sentence and turn his back on him. Sometimes he could take a phone call while the candidate is grappling with a question he has asked. You ought to be smart enough to realize what is going on. The interviewer is playing a game or a role. Once you realize that you can play along. There is nothing personal and there is nothing wrong with you. It is an act. The moment you are aware of this fact it becomes easy to answer his questions. As he is tries to throw you off balance you remain calm, cool, relaxed and smiling as you answer his questions with aplomb. In another tactic of the stress interview all members of a panel of interviewers asks you questions in quick succession without giving you enough time to answer any. Once again be quick to recognize the game, keep your poise and deal with them like you will deal with a group of curious friends asking you questions about your recent trip or success or achievement.
A stress interview is an odd ball as in it you encounter a hostile interviewer. You are treated as if you are an enemy and not welcome. That is the reason I say a stress interview is not the norm. It is an exception and designed to check temperament of a candidate for very specific environment. Normally a job Interview should not be viewed as a tug-of-war where the interviewers and you are trying to get the better of each other or as a cat-n-mouse game where you are trying to hide something and they are trying to dig them out. It is not a catch-me-if- you-can game. An interview is a joint effort on the part of the interviewers and the interviewees to determine whether the later is suitable for the job in question or not. That is the reason good interviewers always start of with interview openers designed to relax the candidates so that they are not tense or overwhelmed by the situation. The interviewer wants you to relax and feel comfortable so that they can get to know you better. In fact they are seeking your cooperation to help them find the ‘real you’ and determine whether you are the most suitable candidate for the job or not. That is the reason they ask you to talk about yourself. After all that is one subject you know very well and psychology tells us that everyone is a thousand times more interested in himself than in any one else. Psychology also tells us that subjects people most like to talk about are ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my self’. Also, nine out of ten people, when they talk about themselves, talk about their achievements and strengths and special talents. Then why is it that when faced with a similar request during an interview people instead of feeling relaxed and relieved they actually become extremely nervous and crumble? The main reason could be that they are either trying to hide something or trying to make an exaggerated claim. Do they do that normally while talking to their friends? They probably do, but their job does not depend on being found out by their friends though there to their credibility takes a plunge. In an interview the moment they hide something or exaggerate a claim they are scared and nervous because if they are caught, which is very likely, they will be out of contention for the job. So if you were to recognize two facts about interviews you will not be scared or nervous.
The first thing is that an interview is actually a combined effort on the part of the interviewer and the interviewee to find out whether the interviewee fits the bill to be recruited based on the skills, knowledge, attitude and aptitude required for the job or not. More often than not it is conducted in a friendly cordial atmosphere. While the interviewers are trying to establish the candidate’s suitability the candidate also has equal right to try and find out whether the company is good enough for him. I know this seems so far away from what the common perception of the interview is, yet it is true and the sooner you recognize it the better it will be for your confidence. For this you have to acquire the ‘abundance mentality’. Abundance mentality would entail that you believe that there will be enough jobs out there for which you will have the requisite capabilities and skills. Once again this also comes as a bit of information that is hard to swallow for people who have been actually raised in a world of shortages and have a scarcity mentality. Most of you have grown up hearing that this is the age of cut throat competition and that unless you get ahead of others whether by hook or by crook you do not have a future. It may have been true for the generations that grew up in the ‘Industrial Age’ it is no longer true in the ‘Information Age’. The rules of the game in the information age have changed and you need a more modern, a more confident, a more cooperative rather than a competitive attitude to be successful. There are more opportunities for every well educated, well mannered, optimistic young citizen of the world today than there have ever been at any other time in history. As the world shrinks opportunity expands. Second thing is an interview is a selection process and not a rejection drill. The interviewers are as interested in selecting you as you are keen on being selected provided you are the right candidate. We come back to the same thing focus on being the right candidate. Will you find a job that you want to do? I am one hundred percent sure if you look for one sincerely and be the right currency, you will.

Bodyline Bowling

‘Readiness is all’, says one of Shakespeare’s characters. Dealing with prolonged silence and sustained staring by the interviewer during an interview can be very unnerving for the best of candidates. Mercifully it is not used too frequently. Normally you will not face this treatment when you appear for an interview for an entry level job. Nine times out of ten the people interviewing you will be thorough HR professionals trained to spot your strengths and suitability for the job. Yet you ought to be prepared for the situation as you might end with a goofball of an interviewer once in a while. The interviewee is sometimes put through the ‘silent treatment’ to check whether the candidate can work well under pressure. It is one of the techniques of what has come to be known as ‘stress interview’ and is used to see how you respond to stress situations. Once again at the risk of repetition it has to be said that readiness is everything. Awareness about what the interviewer is trying to do makes dealing with it so simple that you will wonder if there was nothing more to it. On the other hand if you are not ready for it you might mess up the interview. If the question’ what are your greatest weaknesses?’ is a deadly bouncer, this one is the lethal ‘bodyline bowling’ itself.
This is how it works. You have just answered one of those questions about your strengths, achievements or your weaknesses and the interviewer instead of carrying on the conversation just sits there and stares at you for what seems to be endless time. You wait feeling a bit uneasy and thinking if you made a mistake or broken some sacrosanct rule of good behaviour in an interview. You either freeze in your seat or fidget around uncomfortably and all he does is sits there smiling like Mona Lisa. Such an experience can be very disquieting and devastating to your confidence and could lead to some stupid actions like smiling foolishly and asking, “what?”
Most interviewees unprepared for the situation make the mistake of rushing in to fill the vacuum created by the silence assuming prolonged silence is an invitation to restate or clear up the previous answer. The hapless interviewee sometimes babbles on and on to get things right giving away more and more information irrelevant for the purpose of the interview. Sometimes this information could even be damaging. Why people begin to babble thus is because in most cases the candidate feels that he has committed a blunder so he just keeps rambling on to correct the ‘wrong’ without knowing what wrong he is correcting. He ends up being utterly confused and feeling miserable. That is what happens when you are unprepared.
Now let us see what can happen if you are ready for the body line bowling. The ‘stress test’ or ‘the silent treatment, as it is sometimes called is nothing more than a weak little kid wearing a vicious looking mask. The moment you unmask the interviewer it becomes innocuous. If the interviewer tries to put you through it this is what you do: You keep quiet yourself for a little while and then with a smile and all the sincerity at your command ask something like, “Is there anything else you want me to tell you about my achievements or strengths?” The point is not to be scared or confused. Keep any hint of sarcasm out of your response and be very, very polite. That is all there is to it.
That is why the strategy of being honest not just in the interview but all through life is so important. The silence scares people because they know they are either hiding some information or exaggerating an achievement. You have to be one hundred percent sure at all times to be honest. Then you have nothing to hide and no one will ever be able to intimidate you by silence and staring. In any case in general conversation too, we must remember that silences do not have to be filled up unnecessarily. In a situation where you are negotiating a deal or an agreement you have to be ready not only with your own ‘shopping list’ but also the ‘shopping list’ of the other party. In learning the art of effective negotiation one must be trained not to rush in to fill up the vacuum created by ‘silences’. In fact it is believed that he who speaks first looses. In an interview situation the rule dose not apply with the same intensity but it is certain but the person who rushes in to fill up the silence too quickly looses. So what you have to do is: wait for some time; look and feel confident; smile; and ask politely, pleasantly and sincerely if there is anything else the interviewers would want to know about the last question they asked.

The Deadly Bouncer

If there is a complicated or a trap question then this is the one. We know the basis of your selection for a job is your strengths not your weaknesses then why should the interviewer even bother to ask a question like, “What are your greatest weaknesses?” The fact is this too is a question which is asked quite frequently. There is a 50:50 chance you will be asked this question and more often than not it will be lobbed at you in an ever so lighthearted, easygoing manner. If you are not prepared for it you will be hit by this bouncer. Like they say you will not be knocked out by a a hard knock but by the one you did not see coming. Chances are this is the one which will catch you unawares.

This is normally an eliminator question and the purpose it serves is to shorten the list of candidates for the final round of selection. The psychology behind the elimination seems to be why should you even talk about your weaknesses? Why be negative? Some people (usually psychologists) even suggest if you are aware of your weaknesses why have you not worked on them already and got rid of them. So the best strategy to deal with such a question is not to talk about your weaknesses. If you do the interviewer will probably give you credit for honesty but assess you negatively for your being aware of your weakness for sometime and not taking effective steps to improve. Don't even ask me why they do that. I am not a psychologist. All I can tell you is that they do.
One very old, tested and quite acceptable strategy to deal with the question is to disguise one of your strengths as a weakness. Though it has been extensively used by trainers to train candidates for interviews it works most of the time simply because it insures you do not talk about any weaknesses. Of course it occasionally produces hilarious results especially in campus recruitment as sometimes the entire batch of say twenty or even thirty candidates are asked the question and each one invariably talks of the same strength 'disguised as a weakness'. For example they would say something like, "I am so focused and determined to get the job done on time that I drive my people too hard. I am this A type personality and I work with such a sense of urgency that I sometimes forget that not everyone is at the same wavelength."
Interviewers also have fun with this and the moment they realize the batch is prepared with it they twist the question and sometimes ask," OK is your weakness also the fact that you drive them too hard?" The experienced interviewer will obviously know that you will not talk about your weakness and that is how it should be.
The best way to deal with this question in an interview again focuses you on finding out what exactly are your interviewer's needs because you can state them in answer to this question and assure him that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing the functions that need to be performed in the job you are being interviewed for. Remind them of what they are looking for and show them you have those skills and traits. For example you could say, " Well, I am sure there will be shortcomings in me but based on what I know what qualities are required for this job, I believe, I will be the best choice. I know when you hire people for a job at this level; you are looking for the right qualification and the right kind of motivation to do well. You can see from my records I have both the qualification and a willingness to pursue excellence in whatever I do. So I feel I there should be nothing that could come in the way of my performing well if given the opportunity."
And of course don't end up repeating this passage verbatim. Try and understand what you are doing and convey it in your own language. This will require practice and practice sometimes is boring. Remember, spectacular success is always preceded by a lot of not-so-spectacular practice. If you still do not feel up to it for any reason or you are still not very sure about the qualities the interviewer is specifically looking for, you could confess to a small weakness which is not really a weakness. If you can match it with the requirements of the job so much the better. For example if the position you are being interviewed for is in the PR department, you could say I like people and one of my weaknesses is that I like to party. If it is a teacher's job you are applying for, you could say that one of your weaknesses is that you do not seem to be able to finish off your work in the class room. Students tend to trust you so much that they continue their contact with you even after the class and keep coming to me for advise and guidance. That takes a lot of my time and my family sometimes has a problem with it. Sometimes you could just say with a touch of humor that your biggest weakness is coffee or perhaps chocolates.
The idea is not to focus on weaknesses and be prepared to talk about he interviewer's need and your strengths and how they make a perfect match.

Prepare to talk about your strengths

We all know that you are going to be recruited for your strengths and not your weaknesses. Here is another question which is very straightforward and in sync with what the interviewer is looking for. You need to be aware of your strengths and what is going to be your unique contribution to the job and the organization if you were to be offered the job. This is another one of those innocuous little questions which could throw the candidate out of contention if he or she were to come across as some one who is arrogant or egoistic. Some candidates hit the other extreme and end up being too humble and spineless. Both extremes are undesirable.
This might seem to be an oft repeated theme but it is so true it bears repeating. We learnt earlier that your first and foremost strategy is to find out what does the interviewer want the most before you even begin to answer any questions. The best way to do that is to do your research and if there is still something you need knowing; ‘ask’. You need to do your homework and be prepared for answering this question. Know what your greatest strengths are. Be prepared to talk about your strengths and site examples and instances from your life to substantiate your claim. It is easy to understand ones reluctance to talk about oneself as we have been trained from the very beginning not to blow one’s own trumpet. In most people’s mind it goes against the basic tenant of edification which says you can edify anybody else in the world except yourself. Yet you need to prepare yourself mentally to talk about yourself and your strengths and achievements in an edifying manner without coming across as someone who is pompous and egotistic. The best way to do that is to state your achievement or your strength in an even tone and immediately get down to narrating an incident or a stating statistics to illustrate your strength or achievement. The more recent the example the better it is.
The secret to responding successfully to such a query is to prepare for it. The preparation obviously starts at home. You should take some time out and write down some of your strengths and achievements which are similar to what the employer is looking for in a candidate for the job you are being interviewed for. Then think back and also write own some incidents, statistics, or anecdotes that will illustrate or reinforce your claim that strength or achievement. This is another one of those innocuous looking questions which unless you are prepared for it will cause a few problems. Once again chances this question will be lobbed at you in one form or the other. The interviewer wants to find out whether you have introspected or not. He also wants to see where is your self esteem is at. Can you talk about your strengths and achievements without being boastful? Or do you swing to the other extreme and act so humble and self effacing that you become part of the furniture? The focus of the interviewer is as much on your tone and posture as it is on your strength and achievements. Being prepared for this question will require a bit of effort and sometimes some change in attitude. Are you the kind of person who takes the entire credit for your self or will you give credit to others where it is due?
Generally speaking some of the strengths employers are looking for are what every, well socialized young person already has and one does not have to ponder too deeply about them. For example character traits like honesty, integrity, sincerity, loyalty, commitment and a strong work ethic are all prerequisites that are non negotiable. No amount of talent, skills and enthusiasm and motivation will compensate for a little bit of lack of honesty. In fact there is no such thing as a little lack of honesty. One is either honest or not. You either have 100% integrity or not. Yet interviewers will want to see some of these strengths and achievements illustrated. If you have proven track record of being an achiever it helps the interviewers take appositive decision. Employers are looking for someone who is intelligent yet humble, someone who is an achiever and yet a team player who will fit into their corporate culture, someone who will be comfortable around other people, someone who is dedicated and will walk an extra mile in pursuit of excellence, has clear cut personal goals and targets which can be aligned to the goals of the company and of course someone who has appositive attitude and looks to the future with optimism and expectation.
So the best way to tackle this question is to be prepared for it. Preparation is done at home and is sometimes quite boring. But remember spectacular success is always preceded by some very unspectacular (read boring) preparation. Another similar question which needs solid preparation is what your greatest weaknesses are. More about it in the next post.

Tell me about yourself

Most interviews open with this innocuous sounding request, “Tell me about yourself.” We talk a lot about Pareto’s principle or the 80: 20 rule. It certainly applies to the interview openers. Eighty percent of all interviews open with this request. If you are smart and have prepared well you should welcome the opportunity as we understand by now an interview is all about the interviewer getting to know the interviewee. The trouble is that most candidates are unprepared to talk about themselves. Some begin to babble, quite incoherently at times about their ‘times and life', others go blank. Some even go on to talk about their personal life and problems they are facing as if they are not appearing for a job interview but are on a psycho analyst's couch. You have to learn to avoid falling in this trap. Don't get me wrong, the interviewer is not trying to trap you in any way. It is your lack of understanding of the question and what it implies that you get all tangled in a web of your own making. There is no need to narrate the story of your life and what your parents and siblings do and where you hail from.

Remember the purpose of the job interview? It is to find out whether the candidate is suitable for the job or not. Period. Your best answer for such a question can only be directed in that direction. You could start with the present and why you feel you are best suited for the job on offer. Once again remember the maxim ‘you can only sell what the buyer is buying’. This is the most important thing to be understood by the candidates. if you can truly understand this one little marketing principle you have understood the secret of job hunting. You would have understood the intrinsic psychology of acing every interview.

The good news is that it is not entirely about you when you are asked to talk about yourself. This may come as a surprise but it is true. It is first about knowing whether you understand what the job requirement is and then it is about whether you are the perfect match for it. It is about knowing what qualities the interviewer is looking for in you. It is about knowing what are the goals, targets and aspirations of the company. An effective response to this question will be different in different interviews. You need to do a thorough research on the Company, the industry in which it operates and profile of the job you will be interviewed for.

If you are satisfied with your information about the company and the job profile and are confident you know what strengths and qualities will be required to do the job you are on a strong wicket to talk about ‘you’. If in a rare case you feel you are still not sure about what the job requirements are; do yourself a favour and ask the interviewer, as early during the interview as possible, for more elaborate description of what the post entails. When you are asked to talk about yourself and you are still unsure about the the abilities required to perform in that position you might respond by asking something like, “I have quite a few accomplishments I could tell you about but it would be best if I could address directly to your needs. It will be great help if you tell me about the priorities of this position. if you feel the need follow it up with a couple of more questions so that you know exactly what the interviewers are looking for. Your second question could be, “Is there any thing else that you is essential for success in the position?”

There are a few things which emerge from what you have just read. First of all a job interview is not an interrogation session where the interviewer shoots questions an the interviewee either answers or ducks them. it is a conversation. The objective is to find out whether the candidate is suitable for the position on offer or not. The success of an interview is as much a responsibility of the interviewer as it is of the interviewee. If the interviewer fails to select the right candidate for the job it is his failure. Second of all there is no ban on the interviewee asking questions to clarify things and finding more about the requirements of the position. So get fear out of the way and practice asking these key questions. It will also showcase your confidence. Of course do not ask questions just for the sake of asking questions. Don't ask unnecessary and illegal questions either.

Once you know what are the main requirements of the job you can 'tell them about yourself'. Talk about your skills,strengths and abilities in the light of what you know the job requires for you to be successful in it. Talk about how you have performed strikingly similar tasks and undertaken similar duties with success. Do not forget to give actual examples from your SIP, your past job experience and academic life. Tell the interviewers about achievements and responsibilities which will present you as the most suitable candidate for the job based on the needs of the job. At no time should you lie about your talent and claim to have abilities you do not have. Be absolutely honest at all times.

When they ask you to tell them about yourself they are actually asking what do you know about the job on offer and what are the qualities you have which make you feel you can do it competently.

The Magic Wand

One final word before we go on to discuss specific questions and the reasons why they are asked in an interview. The other day in the class I asked how many of the students felt that I had a magic wand and I just had to wave it to turn them into the most sought after managers in the job market. While most students were not very amused by the question there were eight to ten of them surprisingly raised their hands and said, they did. The response was at once, scary and humbling. Though no teacher or a trainer has such a stick which she can wave to turn you into super managers that the industry will kill to acquire, you certainly have one. It is called decision. You can certainly take a decision to become someone that the industry is looking for by deciding two things. One you are willing to outwork every one else in the world and that you will be honest to the core. Bingo. As far as knowledge goes every one has to be a student all his life and make an everlasting commitment to learning. You have to tell yourself that you are good person but you have to become better. There always is scope for improvement. You have to be the best you can be. You were created unique and you have to be without equal. If you can prove to the interviewer that you have great work ethic and uncompromising integrity you will ace every interview you go to provided you have the skills required for the job. Apart from that it is a marketing thing. The secret to smart sell yourself is that you need to find out what the company wants in an employee and show them that you have in you what they are looking for. Can you match your abilities with the requirements of the job? If you can, the job is yours.
So part of the process of your search for a suitable job is to thoroughly research what the employer wants. You must spend some time finding out what the employer is looking for. If you are applying for a job in response to an interview read the advertisement closely and figure out the employer’s needs. Then go ahead and provide them what they need. If your college has a placement cell who has invited a company for recruiting candidates for certain position, talk to the people manning the cell and find out everything you can about the company and the industry it functions in. Discuss the profile of the job on offer with the people in the Placement Cell. Make a check list of all the abilities and skills the job requires. Check out if you have the qualities and qualifications the company wants you to have. If you do not have some of the skills required, make a commitment to acquire the skills needed. If there have been any articles about the company that appeared in the press in the recent past read up the articles and be aware of the direction the company is moving in.
Ask yourself also a few questions like do you have the temperament to do the job you are going to be interviewed for? Is their any likelihood that you will be willing to the job without rumination if such a situation were to arise at some time in the future? This is as tough a question to answer as it is important. The answer to the question will determine how much fun you are going to have doing the job and in your life. If you were to answer the question in the affirmative you have found a job which will never be a boring because you love doing it. The secret to happiness in life is either finding what you love doing and doing it for remuneration or without it; or begin to love what you are doing. At this stage in your life when you are checking things out it is not a bad idea to go ahead and try a few things and then figure out what you like doing and what you don’t. Take a few risks. There is no bigger tragedy in life than to be stuck all your life in a rut for a little bit of extra money. No one ever regrets having spent less time in the office or at the place of work because most people are in the wrong job. The time to think what job is good for you and what job you will absolutely love doing is now before you commit your self. For most people it is too late the moment they get their first job because they never have the opportunity or the guts to change direction later.

You can’t sell from an empty wagon

So what you know is that you can’t prepare for a job interview overnight though it is also true that you should always be ready to face one. After all an interview is nothing but the interviewer and the interviewee getting to know each other and determining if the interviewee is suitable for the job she is being interviewed for. What you can do right away is remain positive and upbeat, have a good self image and do something every day that will take you closer to your goal. The goal is to become the best person you can be. Remember you are not really in competition with anyone else. Your motto is every day in every way I will become better and better. You have to sharpen your axe every day as Stephen Covey will say. Your axe here is your brain, your character and your personality.
Let us create a hypothetical situation. For a moment assume you are the CEO of your own Company and you are going for a holiday and plan to be travelling around the world. You will be gone for six months. You are looking for a Chief Manager who will look after your Company in your absence. What kind of a manager will you recruit? What qualities should your manager have? The other day when we discussed this in the class full of students of business management a huge list of desirable qualities was proffered by them. They would want their Chief Manager to have good communication and interpersonal skills, problem solving and conflict resolution skills. They expected their manager to be educated, experienced, intelligent, punctual, well dressed and well mannered. He should be a good team player be able to work under pressure and have great leadership qualities. He should have good knowledge about the world in general and the world of business in particular. The right manager should not only be high on IQ but also on EQ, should know how to compliment and criticize as also be flexible while still being firm. She should be able to manage her time and meet targets of the company. She should be responsive while being responsible. Everyone agreed that the qualities that would be the most important would be that the candidate be honest and have high integrity. No one wanted a manager who would be unethical, dishonest, unorganized, rude, crude and foul mouthed. An intelligent but dishonest manager will clean you out before you have enplaned let alone gone around the world.
Remember when you go for an interview the industry is also looking for all those qualities in you that you will look for if you had to appoint someone to run your business. Is it very tough to acquire all those traits of character and personality? No you are just a decision away from being the manager that everyone needs and desires to run businesses. Once you have taken that decision you have to hone the required skills and work on your self every day. Success is first an inside job. You have to work on your self and become absolutely irresistible and make success a habit. It is a life-long commitment. Everyday in every way you become better and better. Your journey in life is not about perfection but about progress. Being a good manager is the same thing as being a good human being only more efficient. Yet it is not about doing one thing a hundred percent better; it is about doing a hundred things one percent better regularly.
Landing a good job is all about selling your wonderful qualities. You cannot sell them if you don’t have them. You cannot sell from an empty wagon. Preparing for an interview is not just about learning how to wear a tie and dress up well or learn how to answer a question. It is not even about learning the right posture and body language, it is about deciding to be absolutely honest and having uncompromising integrity. After that it is about acquiring the right skills and knowledge and willingness to work hard. Your time starts now. The price of success is non negotiable.

Interview: You can only sell what the buyer wants

Let us face it. Everyone is nervous before an interview and it is a rare person who is not anxious during one. Just like a little bit of tension is actually good for health; a little nervousness is not necessarily harmful for your chances of success in an interview. Nervousness is normal. So just go with the flow and know that it is not easy for the interviewer either. Like any other form of communication, every type of interview is a two way street though here we will restrict ourselves to job interviews. Failure to identify the right candidate for the right job is as much a failure of the interviewer as it is of the interviewee.
So, you as an interviewee just need to remain generally upbeat and positive. The whole idea of the interview is for the organization to pick the right person for the right job. You have to just help the interviewee to get to know the real you as well as it is possible in the short duration of the interview – a task which is not easy by any means. It is not such a stupid idea when you are sometimes asked to spend some time to know yourself and practice articulating what you know about yourself. How, for example, will you describe your strengths and weaknesses; what are your likes and dislikes; what are your goals and dreams or what strategy do you have to achieve them? Is your strategy in sync with the goals and dreams? Do you have a strategy at all? Preparing yourself for a job interview is a lot about getting to know your own self and being able to communicate it to the interviewer on the day of the interview.
Sometimes candidates memorize answers to questions and rattle them off like a parrot would. In preparation for an interview there is nothing worse you can do. If a person cannot talk about himself what else can he really talk about? An interview, unless it is designed for some specific objective where a different approach is required, is a conversation and not an interrogation. The onus of keeping an interview conversational lies with both the interviewer and the interviewee. If the interviewer fails to keep it at that level, you as the interviewee should try and bring it to that level by being absolutely honest and disarming. So do not memorize answers to questions but certainly know what points you would like to cover in answer to a question. You could rehearse answering questions with your friends or even alone. Make sure you keep the tone conversational. Make sure you never memorize the exact language. Be natural. Be your self. It is ‘the you’ that the interviewer is looking for in you - the real you.
It may be common knowledge for marketing people but is perhaps the most well kept secret when it comes to cracking job interviews. It goes like this: find out what people need and help them satisfy that need. For getting a job find out what an organization or a Company wants and help them get what they want. In other words you must have the qualities that the employer is looking for in the candidate for a particular position. You can only sell what the buyer wants. So it is not just about you it is about the position. You must match your abilities with the needs of the employer. To be able to do that you must first know what is the employer looking for or what does he want. You have to find out what is the buyer buying. And the best way to do that is research the job being offered; research the company and the industry. If required ask a few questions in the interview itself. Yes you read it right. You can ask a few questions in the interview.
To crack an interview find out what the employer wants and give to him.