One Interview to get the Job

• Take note of your past experiences
• Have an elevator pitch about your skills and experience to make it known that you’re a great candidate for the business
• Tell them what you’re passionate about and state how your skills would be able to provide value for the organisation
• Have a basic understanding and knowledge of the company

An Acronym to take note of HEPLASH

H – Hungry: Show that you’re always learning, show that you want more. Let that be seeing in how you greet them, let there be energy in your voice

E – Energy: Sleep well before the important day, don’t slouch when you seat and when you stand and walk, chest out and be comfortable, smile. We sometimes unconsciously frown, take note of it and keep that frown hidden, also smiling gives people the impression that you’re engaged and interested and make the smile natural. Then intonation, let there be inflections in your voice, they pull attention and it also how interested you as the speaker is in what you are saying

P – Potential: Show that you have potential for more, potential to take on more, to learn more, to do more. It should show that you’re constantly delivering and constantly learning (learning agility). It show the organisation can trust you with stretch assignments (things which are completely out of your comfort zone). It is very rarer,  hence, a lot of recruiters look out for it

L –  Long term: would you stick around or leave at the drop of a hat. Companies want someone who would stick around. It is normally hard for them to check this during an interview but they would look at your past experience in your CV and see how often you move around but there are other indicators. Make sure you have prepared important rationale for why those changes were made.

A – Attitude: this basically how you view the world and how you view yourself. Recruiters are looking for a can do mentality and a winning attitude. Someone that does not give up and make excuses.

S – Soft skills: Also called life skills. This is how you communicate with people in your team, how you get along with people, how you influence people, how you behave when confronted with a problem, what about your empathy, how you communicate / articulate your thoughts and skills to the world.

H – Hard skills: Those are already there, university degree, education, work experience, business prowess. Hard skills are relatively easily teachable, soft skills, not so much. In HR there is a saying, “The soft stuff is the Hard stuff and the hard stuff is already there”.

All of these are needed, but the hard skills are less needed when applying for a new job because they can be taught. Most of these are soft skill so use these to differentiate yourself.

During an interview you should connect then convince. Prioritize warmth before competence. You want to push an attitude of someone that’s likable, have a confident smile. It should also be noted that there is a thin line between confidence and arrogance so be wary of that. Once the warmth is there, then pioritise your skills. Dress while, smile, ask questions if you are confused, it simply shows you were listening but you need clarification, don’t wing it, if you make a mistake appologise. Try and mirror the interviewers posture but never slouch but it is safe to sit up and lean in .

When speaking, silence is always better than um, erm, etc and always try and make eye contact, do not let your eyes dart around, if you must look away, look to one angle then look back. Then pronounce your words clearly, if this is an issue for you, slow down when speaking, take your time and open your mouth (open it but you don’t want to eat the world). Make sure your tone varies, have high and low inflections and well timed pauses also go very far. These show you know what you are saying, you’re passionate and it keeps their attention. You don’t want your interviewers to leave the meeting wondering what you said.

Your body language is also very important. It was touched earlier but to add, seat in an open position, arms not crossed and palms visible. Gesture but with moderation, let your gestures have meaning but for no reason should you gesture to the point that your arms should be over your head for long periods or multiple periods.

Then listen well and answer their questions, sometimes a recruiter could ask you more than one question. Answer the questions that you remember well then ask them to clarify the other question or if there is anything you need them to expand on