Imagine you’re in the reception area, waiting to interview for your dream job. Now you’ve spent so much time, energy, resources, preparing for this moment. How will you do? Will your interview skills shine? You may fall victim to the pitfalls, which will prevent you from achieving your sole goal of the interview, and that’s to land the offer. Let’s discuss a proven strategy to help you get out of your own way and help you land the job that you’ve dreamed of. I want to help you avoid the mistakes, ones that I’ve seen made over and over throughout the course of my career.
Let’s get back to you. Your sitting there in the reception area. Think about it. When did you arrive in that reception area for that dream job? How long have you been there? Did you arrive the moment that your interview was to begin? Imagine that the interview starts at 9:30 am. Did you walk out of the elevator exactly at 9:30 or were you there a few minutes early? My first secret to success is one that I learned years ago in band camp, yes band camp. My band director at the time shared with me a saying that I’ll always remember. It goes like this, “To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late.
Tip for interview skills success:
- Demonstrate great behaviors of a future employee from the first point of contact in any interview.
- You don’t want to make a bad first impression. Interviewers are making decisions on you and whether you are fit for the role and company in the first 90 seconds.
- If you show up late, you’ve already failed. I will even go so far as to say if you show up late, your guaranteed not to receive a job offer.
Now I’ll share a personal story with you. I was hiring a team a few years back and there was a candidate who had a 9am interview. I was waiting for the call from HR. Well 9:00 came around, 9:05, 9:10. I finally got the call from HR at 9:15 and in my mind, I already had a negative viewpoint of that individual that they were not dependable. If they didn’t respect my time, then how can I guarantee that when they’re working on my team, when I’m relying on them to meet the key deliverables that I’m responsible for?
What about you? What steps will you take to increase your probability of landing your dream job? Please share your feedback below.