Be Honest With Yourself

Let’s face it, job interviews can really suck. 

I know very many good friends and colleagues who find the whole process entirely intimidating, nerve wracking and often very confidence sapping.  Yes a necessary evil but one that we rarely look forward to. 

Being honest with yourself about past performance at interviews, so that you are best placed to really make a big difference at the next opportunity, can greatly increase the degree to which you are relaxed and self-assured when the moment of truth arrives. 

However self-aware you think you are about your own past interview performance, at Brosna, when working closely with individuals ahead of a critical interview, we often find that:

•  The feedback individuals have received from previous job interviews is often very scant and certainly doesn’t tell the full picture. 

•  Often the feedback focuses on the degree to which you have been able to put across your professional competency and experience in relation to the job, but omits a large range of personal behaviours, habits and mannerisms that might not show you in the best light and, worse still, might signal a nervousness, lack of confidence and uncertainty in your response to questions. 

•  The feedback might be significantly out of date - you may not have been interviewed lately and your recent experiences might have shaped the way you approach the interview.

All of these are compelling reasons why, when we work with gifted individuals to prepare them for interview, we insist on video role-play of interviews accompanied by clear and sharp feedback. 

Holding job candidates up to the “mirror” of the video camera and playback always increases the degree of honesty and self-awareness about how individuals see themselves anew at interview.  

That being said, it is not just about the bad stuff!  We use video playback to focus as much on the very positive behaviours at interview so that the candidate can use more of these and use their already positive behaviours to better effect. 

But of course we do also concentrate on identifying, quantifying, minimising and where possible eliminating the behaviours that are more likely to leave a negative impression on a job interviewer. So if you repeatedly nod your head, frantically wave your arms, over-talk answers, break your flow with repeated “eerms” or have eyes that dart all over the place, then we will spot this together during video playback.

And the good news that surprises me almost every time, is that individuals having seen themselves can very quickly with concentration, coaching and practice reduce or eliminate the worst excesses of the more negative behaviours.  

So ask yourself - how honest am I about how I perform at interview?  Do I have the feedback about where I need to improve and (most importantly) am I being disciplined in how I practice to improve? 

Job interviews may be nerve-racking but they are just too important to leave to chance.  Smart and regular job winners know that by gathering feedback and being honest with themselves, they can make a significant difference in their interview performance and massively increase the chances of securing their targeted job.

If you feel you could benefit from confidential coaching advice to prepare you for your next job interview, then please contact Tim Chapman at tim@brosna-Consulting.com