Have you ever come across a job posting and role description on LinkedIn and thought:
I could totally do that job!
You go ahead and apply for the position. You’re 100% qualified for this job. You already have an amazing resume. You write an attention grabbing cover letter. And your LinkedIn profile is dialed in! You get excited as a few short days later, they call you in for an in-person interview! You’re excited and start prepping for it. You have all of your accomplishment stories prepared, your strengths and weaknesses and all of the usual stuff you’ve learned to prepare for interviews. You go in with confidence and for an hour, you answer questions, ask relevant questions and overall, feel pretty good about how it all went.
AND THEN…. YOU DON’T GET TO THE SECOND INTERVIEW – YOU DON’T GET THE JOB!
You’re left puzzled because you feel like you were the ideal candidate for the role. This doesn’t ‘make sense and you don’t know what went wrong.
In this scenario, chances are, they simply didn’t see you as a good “FIT” for the role, the company, department or culture.
You’re left wondering if there’s something that you could have done differently. And there is! A little known strategy when preparing for an interview is to learn how to decipher and read between the lines of job descriptions in order to
POSITION YOURSELF AS THE PERFECT FIT FOR THE ROLE DURING THE INTERVIEW STAGE!
I have 3 tips for you to help decipher what they’re looking for, beyond the skills and experience section of the job description:
1-Look for clues on the “soft skills” they might be looking for
These are the intangible but extremely important attributes they will be looking for in the interview.
2- Dig deep into your research on the company and culture
Go beyond the job description and review of the company’s website. Review any comments on Glassdoor. Check to see if you know anyone that works there or know someone who knows someone that works there. LinkedIn is an amazing tool for this. Reach out to them and find out as much as you can about the company, culture and the type of people who thrive there. Prepare to showcase in the interview the many ways that you would be a great fit and a great asset for them based on those intangibles beyond your skills and experience. 3- Put yourself in their shoes
Every employer has hidden fears about hiring anyone. How do I know this? Because I was a hiring manager for years! Hiring a new employee is such an important decision for a manager and a company and hiring mistakes are common and very costly. By putting yourself in their shoes as the hiring manager, you may pick up on those hidden fears or concerns and be able to address them on the fly in the interview. They may volunteer examples of people that have not done well with the company and are no longer there. They may also tell you about their specific goals for the department for the coming year and how this role helps achieve those goals. This is crucial information that you can leverage during and after the interview. Take great notes as if you’re called in for a second interview, it’s an opportunity to reinforce how you will help them reach their goals. To help illustrate how you can use this information, here are some specific examples on how to read between the lines of what’s written in a job description and position yourself as the right fit for the role: EXAMPLE # 1: “The ideal candidate would have a learning mindset and keep up to date with the latest technology and be excited to learn from others” What this could mean: This role or company culture thrives on people learning from one another no matter their role (or rank) and needs people that can learn new tech on the fly and with little training.
How to leverage this in an interview: Be prepared with specific stories where you’ve learned from others at all levels in prior roles and how you used this to deliver on company goals. Prepare to touch on your ability to keep up with new technology and share that knowledge with others, again, to help deliver for the companies you’ve worked for. So many employers today don’t have a lot of time or money to train people in many aspects of the job and many are willing to pay a premium for candidates that can show they have the ability to learn a lot on their own.
EXAMPLE # 2: “A passion for the business and for making a difference, making an impact through your work with our company” What this could mean: Passion is an attribute that many hiring managers are looking for because they perceive that when someone has passion for their work, they tend to perform better and go the extra mile to deliver results. How to leverage this in an interview: If you’re excited about the role (and truly, you should be if you’re pursuing it), then make sure that you demonstrate that. Your tone of voice, your body language, the rate of your speech can all be used to demonstrate this and come across as someone who’s excited and passionate about their work and that energy is very attractive to a prospective employer.
Hope you found this helpful! If you’d like to learn more about how to position yourself as the perfect candidate for a job interview, then we need to talk!
We’ll dive into how you can make yourself shine in your next job interview! 