It's a CONVERSATION, Not an INTERROGATION!

Hello my ninja circle! 🥷🏽

I wanted to to come to you with some ninja nuggets on interviewing. Additionally, if you prefer to watch the video of this post you can find it here: VLOG

If not, continue on below ☺️:

Now, I’ve been coaching, and helping individuals achieve their career goals for well over 10 years. I also have 21+ years in corporate America where I have hired and sourced talent for teams I led.

As I have been working with clients that are looking for new career opportunities over the last few months one area I see that caused a lot of anxiety in the job search is the interview. I’m sure that is of no surprise to you. Even, I get nervous for interviews. However nerves are not a bad thing. It just means you care, and frankly you should because making a career move is a HUGE life decision. Nerves can become a hindrance when you let them take over the mind. This then hinders your ability to effectively communicate during the interview.

Now stay with me, for a moment so you don’t miss the nuggets coming shortly. I want to make a parallel here to give some context. As a martial artist the first thing I learned was how train the mind. Being in there right frame of mind is crucial for execution. If the mind is not conditioned on what to do as far as emotion (staying calm), or technique and skill (knowing which techniques and skills to use in a given situation), our execution will be off. The value isn’t just conditioning the body, but conditioning your mind on how to react in certain scenarios.

The same holds true for interviewing.

So, here are 3 tips you can start leveraging today that I, and my clients, have found to be extremely useful to minimize some of that stress and anxiety.

1. PREPARE - You not only have to prepare your mind for what is coming ahead in the job search journey, but you also have to be prepared to effectively answer the questions in the interview. First, to prepare your mind I highly recommend surrounding yourself with a positive support system, speaking positive words over yourself everyday through affirmations, and know what value you bring to the table. Go deeper than just skills, competencies, but more along the lines of VALUE. This will help you to persevere through the journey, as sometimes you may feel because you don't have a certain skill or competency you don't add value, but that is not true. Second, analyze the job description to truly gain understanding of what the job entails. I call this the job dissection where you break the job down to truly understand what each bullet point means. You will then leverage that information to identify scenarios in your career you can leverage to answer the interview questions. Many just read the job description, but you are staying surface if you do that, let's go below the surface to obtain clarity. This minimizes some of the stress of drawing a blank in the interview.

2. IDENTIFY - identify 4-5 main scenarios you can leverage from you career to answer multiple types of interview questions. You may find that there is a scenario where you demonstrated leadership, conflict resolution and influence. Less is more. The less you have to remember the more time you can take answering the questions with confidence and asking questions to gain understanding if this is the job for you.

3. CHANGE YOUR MINDSET - an interview is a conversation, not an interrogation. You are not being grilled for a crime, and if you are feeling this way this may be an indicator the environment may not be the right environment for you. Think of the interview as a conversation where you are trying to determine if this is the job, and environment, you want, as you interact with the interviewers. And please know the interviewers are determining the same as they speak to you. Think of it as a colleague asking you for advice on a particular situation in passing in the break room. You don’t consider that an interrogation right? Rather you view the co-worker as someone seeking your advice based on your experience. Same as the interview!!!

So there you have it!!

<< NEWS FLASH >>

Now, I will be launching an online Career Preparation & Development course later this year where I go deeper into each of these tips. I have actually created blueprint on how to effectively prepare for your next career move that consists of 7 modules that will take you on amazing journey to successfully prepare for your next career move.

If you are interested in hearing more, and receiving upcoming communications please click here: I'm Interested

Until then, I hope these ninja nuggets have helped you in some way and I look forward to engaging with you in the future.

With that, have a great and blessed week.

The BA Martial Artist is out!!!🥋

Paula Bell