3 Proven Techniques to Improve your Interview Skills
Your interview skills are good, but they could be better. You’re not quite as confident as you’d like to be. You feel good about yourself…
Your interview skills are good, but they could be better. You’re not quite as confident as you’d like to be. You feel good about yourself going into the interview, but once you sit down, all hell breaks loose. You forget everything you prepared for, you get super nervous, and all of your preparation goes out the door.
I used to get the same way. I’d sit down for an interview, and my brain would turn off. I’d forget everything I prepared for, and lose all of my confidence.
After dozens of interviews, I’m now very confident interviewing. Here are 3 steps you can take to improve your interview skills.
1 — Review common interview questions
You need to familiarize yourself with common interview questions. For example, you should be able to answer these questions with ease:
Tell me about yourself
What are some of your strengths?
What are some of your weaknesses?
I’m sure you have been asked these questions millions of times. The first step to improving your interview skills is to know about the common questions you will be asked. The best way to review common interview questions is to break them down into different categories. I categorize all interview questions into 5 buckets:
Each type of question can be answered in a similar way. For example, the process for answering interview questions about your work-history is exactly the same. “Tell me about a time you…”
…had to overcome a conflict while working in a team.
…had to use technology to work more efficiently.
…demonstrated leadership.
Although the details of the question may change, the way you answer the type of question doesn’t. This is why categorizing interview questions is super helpful.
2 — Prepare answers for common interview questions
After you have identified common questions and put them into different categories, prepare answers for these questions.
Come up with frameworks to answer questions within each category — Come up with a framework, process, or strategy to answer each type of question. For example, come up with a process to answer any type of personal question, work-history question, company-specific question, etc. Frameworks are super helpful because they help keep you organized. They always give you something to fall back on. If you’re in an interview and you find yourself rambling or you are stuck, you can always go back to your framework.
Use your frameworks to prepare answers for common interview questions — Once you have your frameworks, apply them to common interview questions. Keep your answer concise.
3 — Practice
After you have come up with frameworks for each type of question and prepared answers for common questions, you need to practice. A lot of people are confident in the answers they prepared, but they are not confident once they are in the interview room. The only way to get better at verbally answering interview questions is by practicing! Here are some super effective ways you can practice.
Get a study buddy — Find someone to practice with. Maybe you have a friend who is interviewing for jobs too; link up with them. One person plays the interviewer and the other the interviewee. Ask each other interview questions and test how accurate your answers are to the ones you wrote down.
Record yourself — If you can’t find a study buddy, record yourself answering questions. This is a great method because it gives you an opportunity to hear and see yourself. Answering a question on paper is much different than answering a question verbally. Again, the best way to get better at verbally answering interview questions is to practice.