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3 Tricks to Influence the Interview

3 Tricks to Influence the Interview

The job interview is a tricky arena, where everyone is competing for the job offer.

Who gets the job, isn’t always the best job applicant. In fact interviewers are easily influence, so the best interviewee is the one who knows how to influence the job interview.

Everyone of us is influenced on a daily basis – most of us don’t realise this. We are influenced by anything from brand advertising to social proof. You can use these same techniques and make them relevant to the job interview.

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Influence The Interview Trick 1

You don’t even have to be an expert to win job interviews you just need to come across as an expert – what is an expert anyway?

It is just someone who can remember more about one subject or niche than others, so all you have to do is show you have this in-depth knowledge (don’t worry you will learn how to remember vast amounts of information later using the Memory palace technique)

If you’re passionate about the career and the industry you have chosen or you just want to pass your job interview, you need to become an Industry Expert and you can become an expert or sound like an expert in just one week.

An industry expert will have extensive knowledge about your career sector, the leading companies in this industry and the industry jargon employer’s use.

7 Quick Steps to Cheat the Interview and become an Industry Expert in just One Week:

Use A Search Engine:

Open a web search engine such as Google and in the search box write “Your industry name” and “Job profile” example “Web Designer Job Profile.” Once you open a Job Profile, go down to the bottom of the page, as you will find links to industry websites such as the sector skills council websites. These websites are valuable and record a large amount of information and can be used to research the industry and future job trends.

Match Your Skills to Your Career:

The job profile will also record the job duties, skills and qualities often required by employers. Highlight the skills and qualities you already possess and the duties you would enjoy undertaking if you were employed in this role. If you have highlighted at least 80% of these, you have found an industry that you should excel in, as the job duties already match the motivational part of your personality. While answering interview questions give examples of the skills you possess that are recorded on the job profile

Set up Industry Alerts:

Set up Google alerts to receive relevant daily news feed, blog articles and website updates on the industry you are interested in applying for. You need to search for the following on Google Alerts then read and quote interesting and relevant aspects during your interview.

[Insert Job Title] News

E.g. Marketing Assistant/Accounts Manager/ Graduate Internship News

[Insert Job Industry] Industry News

E.g. Marketing /Accountancy/ Publishing/ Hospitality and Catering Industry News

[Insert Job Industry] New Contracts and Funding

E.g. Social care/Financial Services/ Beauty/ Public Services New Contracts and Funding

Twitter:

Follow “Industry” tweets to receive industry news feeds, industry job adverts and updates. Set up an “Industry” list. After a while Industry twitterers will search and add to you. Use twellow to search for twitters by industry. Don’t be afraid to ask tweet questions to these people – even asking answers to potential interview questions, twitterers love to reply to tweets, they will feel flattered that you have picked them.

Social Network Sites:

The social network sites for businesses is growing, join 3 of these such as linkedin and join industry forums, discussions and join in asking questions around the industry growth and decline and learn the meaning of industry jargon. Set up your own online industry profile-this needs to be a professional, polished page.

Ask Facebook:

On Facebook search for “Friends” under “Co-workers”, searching for them typing in their company name. You can befriend people working in your industry and then ask them questions or ask them to complete a questionnaire or poll – social networkers are normally keen to respond to this.

Network:

Attend industry network events, always dress smart and be prepared to distribute your business card to other professionals. This is a great chance to update your industry information and meet industry leaders. Many job hunters establish productive links in this way and gain offers of employment or inside knowledge of when recruitment is upcoming.

Influence The Interview Trick 2

Confident handshake

A handshake like all body language gives away how you are feeling – nervous or confident?

And employers prefer to offer jobs to confident interviewees. Employers are not taught what a certain handshake represents but unconsciously your handshake and body language will give clues to the employer’s subconscious mind.

If your Palm is facing up this can be taken as a sign of submission

A palm facing down can be taken as aggressive

A palm facing sideways is taken as a sign of equality

If an interviewer uses the Palm Facing down handshake (aggressive)on you, you can counter this by putting your second hand on top of their hand and slowly turning their Palm up (this needs lots of practicing for it to look natural)

Employers will probably not remember the handshake itself, they remember the unconscious image they create of you from the handshake, just like our body language gives non verbal clues, and so does your handshake.

What makes a good handshake? A firm grip, eye contact and an up-and-down movement. Now you know what makes a good handshake, don’t fall into the trap of stupidity and make a common handshake mistake:

The Bone Grinder

Don’t turn a handshake into a competition to see who is the strongest.

The Extended Handshake – a nervous interviewee will be pre-occupied with making a good impression and overcoming their nervous, that they will forget to let go of the interviewer’s hand.

Slippery Eel

Again this one can often happen to nervous interviewees, the more nervous we become the more we sweat, remember to sneakily wipe your hands before the handshake.

Influence The Interview Trick 3

Question the questioner

Throughout the interview, when asked a question you will end each interview answer with a summary relating back to the original question, highlighting one of your unique selling points, creating a mini loop from the opening of the answer (answering the question in the first line) to the question end (the summary)

At the interview end when you’re requested to ask the interviewer any questions, ask a few planned questions and then end the meeting by summing up the whole interview. Use this point to emphasize your unique selling points, creating a persuasive loop from the interview beginning (tell me about yourself – question) to the interview end (do you have any question for me – question)

Summaries in a way that seems to the interviewer that you have just decided to say this rather than the interviewer knowing you have planned a summary. You can see examples throughout this book where I have referred to earlier techniques, in later chapters to reinforce the importance of several Rules of Influence.

In your end of interview summary you need to:

  • Highlight your selling points
  • Show your enthusiasm
  • Confirm how well you would fit in with the job/working for their company

You need to summarise after you have asked the interviewer several job related questions and to make this statement sound like it is unplanned “off the cuff”

Example

“I just like to say, I’m really excited about everything you have told me about the company, I know my experience will fit in well with your company and I am already thinking of several ideas that will help us sell x”

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4 Insights That Will Give You The Edge At Job Interviews

Out of the whole process of finding a job, which consists of several stages, people generally find interviews to be the most dreadful. However this shouldn’t be the case, with the right mind frame and attitude you will find that there is nothing to fear when it comes to job interviews.

I will be sharing 4 insights that will give you the competitive edge at job interviews.

Handing Curveball Interview Questions

So what are curveball questions? They are the type of questions that you can’t really prepare for.

  • What is your definition of a brand?
  • What has been the low light of your career?
  • What does the word ‘insight’ mean to you?

The main reason they ask you these types of questions is to put you on the spot. In most cases there is no real right or wrong answer. In fact they probably don’t know the answer themselves. They just want to see how you handle the pressure.

Solution

The best way to approach is to simply ‘avoid getting flustered’. Pause and think for a moment about the question, and there is nothing wrong in doing so. Take the question in the spirit that it’s meant to be taken and provide a reasonable answer.

In the worst case scenario where you don’t know the answer is to simply say ‘I don’t really know the answer to that question but I am intrigued to know what it is’.

By doing so you are being honest and transparent. Above all you are showing the attitude of having an interest in learning.

End of the day we are all human beings and no one knows the answer to every question.

Asking Questions

It’s important to bear in mind that interviews are a 50 – 50 situation. The picture is that you are looking for employment and they are looking for an employee.

Just like they ask you questions, you can, should and must ask questions from them too. Note: It’s not to say that you should be asking 50% of the questions!

Here are a Few Guidelines:

  • Ask them questions to get more clarity on the role that you will be doing and how important it is to the organisation
  • Enquire what the company’s values, principles and policies are.
  • Similarly to how they would ask you ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years time’ you may ask them what the organisation’s vision is for the next 5 years.

Another good approach is to find out how the company handled tough times. For instance what challenges they faced during the recession period and how they overcame it.

By asking questions you are portraying confidence and enthusiasm. Plus your awareness of the company only gets better. Furthermore they will be happy to answer your questions since they are proud of their organisation, its vision and how they overcame hardships.

Towards the end of your interview a very good question to ask is “What other concerns or reservations do you have about my ability to carry out this role?”

By asking this question you get a very clear idea of where you stand. You get a feel for what they thought about you. Plus if it happens to be that they have any concerns, you can answer them straight away

Expressing Your Opinion

After doing your research about the organisation you should have a good idea about their history, products / services / projects, target market, competitors etc. The reality is that everyone else who you will be competing against would have done the same. Having an opinion is what is going to give you the edge.

Once again there is no right or wrong opinion but what matters is that you go into that interview room with an opinion and what matters even more is that you have sufficient facts to back your opinion.

Here are a Few Guidelines:

  • It could be on anything really.
  • The way they provide their services
  • Their methods of advertising
  • Should they be using social media as a potential platform to find new business.
  • Is there something that can be learnt from their competitors.
  • Other areas in the market to target, add on sales or merchandise
  • Any constructive feedback, room for development and growth etc.

Expressing an opinion can be very effective and powerful. What you have said may not be taken aboard but the fact that you made an opinion is very significant. It is also a simple way in which you can get them thinking. “Hmmmm this person has got a point….” This method will certainly make you a cut above the rest, brings in that ‘x’ factor and shows that you are not another crab in the bucket.

Bringing your A-Game

Before you leave home for the interview, it is vital that you are in the right emotional state – confident, calm and charismatic. That feel good state that we all like to be in. We will have our own unique ways of doing this

Here are a Few Guidelines:

This could be:

  • Your morning routine
  • Meditation
  • Listening to your favourite music
  • Listening to motivational speeches
  • Doing some push ups. Etc

Identify what yours is and carry out that activity to reach that peak performance state. Effectively, when you walk into that interview room they will just know. You will be radiating that energy, enthusiasm and confidence.

Apply these insights for your next job interview; they are certainly going to give you the edge to be more competitive.

Good luck!

Author Bio

Chirathu Liyanage – Public speaker and Blogger with a passion for self development, aspiring to help people in life.

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The Interview Motivation Language Model

We are all motivated and influenced differently. But imagine that you could learn how your interviewer was motivated during the interview. In this situation the interviewee could easily frame their interview answer so the language used could have a greater impact, increasing your chances of increased job offers.

Motivational Traits

Today you will learn about motivational traits; how to uncover the interviewer’s traits and how you can use this to influence the job interview outcome.

NLP Mind Tricks

Achieving Goals or Solving Problems

Each of us are either motivated by Achieving Goals or Solving Problems (the glass is half full or half empty) we either see a problem that needs to be solved or we see a goal that needs to be achieved. This perception is key to understanding your interviewer’s mind and their own motivational model.

A goal-setter can easily be de-motivated when a team talk about the problems and issues they face. This is because we are all wired differently and in the interview situation, especially when the job offer comes down to the interviewers gut feeling about someone, understanding the interviewer’s motivational preference can secure you the job.

To detect how your interviewer is motivated you need to listen to the language the interviewer uses; how they phrase their questions and answers.

Interviewers motivated by Achieving Goals will often use terminology that represents this trait; goal, achieve, attain, get, achieve.

Problem Solvers on the other hand use opposite jargon and phrases; avoid, exclude, away from, problem, recognise

Problem Solver – Example Interview Question “if you were given a last-minute deadline, how would you solve the timing problem?”

Goal – Example Interview Question “if you were given a last-minute deadline, what would you do to ensure you achieved the deadline goal?”

To ensure you use language that motivates your interviewer you need to phrase your interview answers in such away that they make a real impact on the interviewer. To achieve this, you need to speak their language. If they talk using goals or problem solving language you need to incorporate this same language in your interview answers.

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How to Persuade a Job Interviewer using 2 Pick-Up Artist Techniques

The night before you lie in bed, awake, thinking about the person you’re going to meet in the morning; what will they look like? How will they react to you? What will they say?  Will you make a fool of yourself? Will they want to meet you again?

The above situation is common for both a first date and a job interview. In actual fact, the job interview is much like a first date, and interviewees need to prepare in the same way. Pick-up artists have a unique gift at picking up women, using sneaky tricks to ensure they get the women’s number on the first date. You can use these same techniques in the job interview to persuade the job interviewer to offer you the position

Interview Persuasion

Likeability – it’s not good enough to just be nice.

Clubs are full of nice people but not all of them get dates. At the interview, everyone will be acting their best and you need to stand out from the crowd. To get a date or to be offered a job, you need to add something extra, you need to be unique and interesting.

In the club you might choose to show a “target” how you can “read minds” – a standard pick-up artist trick. In the opening question at the job interview “Can me a little about yourself?” you can stand out by sharing a secret, rather than just summarising your qualifications and experience, because EVERYONE will do this.

“In the last three organisations I have worked for, I turned their underperforming business on the blink of bankruptcy into highly profitable businesses and I’m happy to share the secret of how I do this with you today..”

or hint at your unique selling point “The company I currently work for is going off in a different direction, which is the reason why I am here today. Many of the company clients are also looking to move to a new organisation due to recent policy changes, and I have a list of 67 clients who have personally agreed to follow me wherever I go..”

The secret here is to create intrigue, get the date or the employer to want to know more about you, leave them with hundreds of questions “how did he do that?” “How much is he worth in terms of profit?” keep them guessing, become a mystery and be seen as a valuable asset.

Scarcity – we all want what we can’t have. 

The date and the employer have all the power. You introduced yourself to the girl at the bar, which means you like her. You applied for this position, which means you need this job. Take away their belief that they have you and you will take away their power.

The pick-up artist after creating intrigue using the mind-reading technique will then walk away leaving the girl speechless, waiting for her to seek him out. Instead of complimenting her, as he did through the mind-reading technique, he will, instead make an offensive comment “is that an old dress you’re wearing?” Sounds crazy? You have seen this work hundreds of times when girls go for the “bad boys.”

In the job interview, once the employer understands how valuable you are, you can start create scarcity “I been offered a couple of positions already this week, but I will only accept a position with a company that I believe is going to grow. I know your share prices have dropped over the past 12 months, my question is, what plans have you put in place to increase your share value so it is higher than it was 12 months ago?”

Remember this technique works because by this stage they are interested in you, they want you. Your either an interesting person (everyone is interested or amazed by someone who can mind read) or you will add value (value = profit) to the organisation.

They have felt pleasure from your introduction, now you have given them pain. They will miss out on a date with you, or a competitive company will recruit you and take their profit. If they believe they will miss out on you, they will want you more.