Confidence, preparedness can help you stand out from the crowd
Wouldn’t it be great if you could spray a magic potion(一液体剂量) on a hiring manager during an interview to make him or her fall in love with you? As a job candidate, that is.
Alas, there’s no such potion yet, so you’ll have to rely on your own charm. But many of you have been off the interviewing bandwagon(潮流) for years, until now.
The recession is throwing more and more people into the job hunt, people who haven’t the slightest idea about how to ace a coveted(梦寐以求的) interview.
Unfortunately, that spells job search doom. If there ever was a time to make yourself stand out during a job interview, this recession is it, because you’ll be up against a large pool of talented applicants.
How do you do it?
Endless interview advice exists, everything from having a five-minute elevator pitch about yourself to wearing a crisp white shirt. However, there is no one surefire(一定成功的) way to nail the interview, just as there is no one type of interviewer or interviewee.
It often comes down to chance and chemistry. Sorry, folks. What works for one job seeker probably won’t work for another. You need to find the technique that's most comfortable for you.
What worked for them
Here are three very different approaches:
* Lots of eye contact and just the right outfit — including a long skirt, suit jacket, high heels and pantyhose — helped Paula Cyrus, who lives in Dallas and was laid off seven months ago, do well during a series of interviews. “I also had a lot of enthusiasm, without being crazy,” she added.
She ended up landing a software support job with a mortgage company through staffing agency Randstad, beating out 12 other applicants.
* Fred Lee found approaching the interview as if it were just a get-to-know-you meeting took the pressure off his nerves.
“I make it more of a dialogue, a discussion,” he said.
Lee also sent an introductory e-mail to some of the individuals he was going to interview with before he even stepped into the company’s building. His confidence got him hired in November as a development manager for Chicago-based CashNetUSA, an online financial services company.
* And Meagan Hayes of Irvine, Calif., handed her interviewers a written plan for what she’d do in the first 100 days if she were hired. “I was nervous about doing it, but I had four interviews with another company and didn’t get chosen,” she said. “This time I wanted to put 150 percent into it.”
Her moxie(勇气) paid off. She started her new job as director of marketing for accounting firm Haskell & White in October.
While all three of these job seekers had the necessary skills and credentials(凭据) to do the work, they also were able to set themselves apart from the crowd and connect with the hiring managers.