Kelly J. Jones is Chief Operations Officer at Jones & Co., LLC. https://dreamcareer.jonesandcompanyllc.net/
Congratulations! Your top company just invited you to interview. Now, your work REALLY starts!
Now, your job is to convince the company that you are the best person for the job. To win the job offer, you must clearly communicate and demonstrate that you have what it takes to elevate the company to the next level, solve their “pain points,” and fit in with their culture.
Your challenges, now that you’ve accepted them, are this:
Differentiate yourself from all other interviewees: Most companies will interview as many as 25 candidates within a short time span. You must have a plan to stand out when grouped with candidates who may share similar experience. To be successful, you must identify your unique skill sets, experience, and accomplishments and then develop and practice your narrative that enables the interviewer to equate your candidacy with the positive impact they can expect from you joining their team.
Establish that you are the best candidate for the job: Come to the interview prepared with situational demonstrations of how your unique brand of leadership and experience directly translated to outstanding results. Did you and your team complete a project on time and within budget when others tried and failed? Did you think of creative ways to not only retain important clients but also improve relations with those companies? Did you streamline or automate processes within the company that reduced costs or saved man hours? These examples demonstrate that you are the best candidate and greatly increase your chance of winning the job offer.
Demonstrate your knowledge of the company: Dive deep into the research pool so that you can draw direct correlations between the company’s current challenges and successes and your key skill sets and experience. If you are fortunate to know someone who works at the company, pick his/her brain on everything they know. Learn about product lines, key customers, revenues, reports from current/former employees, news articles, company acquisitions/mergers, social media posts. Find all the ways to show that you have the ability to positively impact the company.
Build rapport with the interviewer(s): Go beyond the pictures you see in his/her office. Ask the interviewer questions about their impressions of working at the company. Take notes. Draw correlations with your experience and describe methods you used to overcome similar challenges. Explain what you learned from perceived failure and how you turned it around to a positive next time. Don’t be afraid to show genuine warmth, inquisitiveness, and out of the box thinking. But above all, your narrative must always come back around to results, results, RESULTS. Clear, concise thoughts. Active listening. Appropriate body language. All are key to winning the job offer.
Author
Kelly J. Jones
Contributor, Heruka Lifescience & Health Innovations