The thing that a lot of people do not consider is that 50% of a job interview is already done before you show up for the job interview. In the first stage, the first thing potential employers see is your CV. Potential employers are like you and me, they know what they like and they know what they don’t. From a personal point of view, the first thing I do when a CV or any form of marketing literature comes in my email or post is look at it and within a few seconds decide whether it’s worth anymore of my time. If it doesn’t look right, i.e. the presentation isn’t quite to my style, it may never get the time of day again! However if the presentation is to my preference then I’ll read on…we have now reached the second stage. The second stage is the reviewing the content stage, this is the who, what, where, when, etc.
Typical questions which may run through my head are:
- Is this what I’m looking for?
- What can this person bring to the organisation?
- Does he/she have anything in common with the other people in the company?
- Does this person sound like a team player?
- How much experience does he/she have?
If you are successful at both stage one and two, and you are one of the lucky ones the following may happen – either you’ll get a response saying thank you and your details will be kept on file or you’ll receive a call finding out when you are available for interview. The point here is that if you have portrayed yourself in the right way before the potential interview, the interviewers will already know what to expect, and will just want verbal confirmations from you of your ability to do the job well and add value. Your ability to interview effectively is now the key to securing the job. If unsuccessful in an interview and you say to yourself afterwards, perhaps I could have done better in that interview then you may need to consider your interview technique and interview preparation as we all respond differently in difference circumstances.
So to summarise, to do your 50% I would advise you to have your CV reviewed and possibly professionally written if required. After doing that you may consider having your interview techniques reviewed to get to that desired 100%!
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler” Albert Einstein
For further information on CV Review, CV Writing, and Interview preparation email careercoach@david-walters.co.uk
