Many of my clients focus heavily on the role of the resume in their job search, believing that a better resume will get them the job. Sometimes that is the case, but let’s be clear here folks, resumes don’t get people jobs. Your resume will get you interviews (sometimes), but interviews are what get you job offers.Time after time, the clients who get the best and fastest results in their job search campaigns are the ones who take a comprehensive approach and invest time, money and effort into improving their interviewing skills, as well as their resume.Strong interviewing skills + strategic networking +referrals = job offers.In this two-part series, I will outline five specific steps you can take to elevate your interview performance and increase the number of offers you receive: - Be authentic. In addition to job-related skills, employers are assessing your personality, confidence and communication skills. In most cases, they are looking for someone who is confident, but not cocky or competitive. In other words, they are looking for authenticity. The more relaxed and natural you can be, the better you’ll perform during the interview, because the pressure is off to be perfect or impress them. Additionally, “being yourself” in the interview ensures that you only get offers from companies where you truly fit in and will be successful.
- Focus on solving the company’s problems. Even if you don’t consider yourself a problem-solver, you are. No matter what line of work you are in, you play a role in solving a problem for your employer. What kind of problems do employers have? Not making enough sales, inefficient processes, lack of quality control, understaffing, technical problems, and the list goes on. Think about the role you are interviewing for and ask yourself what problem this position helps to solve and how you’ve done that in the past. A perfect segway into part two of this series....