Interviewing Insights

Advice for Mastering Job Interviews.

Job interviews can make even the most confident person feel vulnerable. No matter how well you’ve prepared, there’s no way to predict what questions the hiring team will ask or how best to answer them. If you’re unemployed, the pressure to perform well can feel even more intense, as securing a job and a steady paycheck hangs in the balance. These factors can combine to create a perfect storm of stress and feelings of helplessness throughout the interview process.

Given the high stakes, it’s no wonder that interviews provoke anxiety and self-doubt. Even with a resume that reflects a strong track record of achievements, a few hours of interaction with a recruiting team often determines whether you get hired or passed over. With this in mind, your goal during the interview should be to stand out as someone people want to work with.

Many mistakenly believe that the key to interviewing success lies in mastering technical details and impressing interviewers with statistics and percentages. While it’s important to demonstrate your knowledge, interviewers can already gauge your technical qualifications from your application. So, use your interview time, to showcase you.

Try Using the STAR Method

To showcase your social skills, consider using the STAR method when responding to interview questions. This technique structures your answers clearly and concisely:

Situation: Describe a specific situation or challenge you faced.

Task: Explain the task or responsibility you had in that situation.

Action: Detail the actions you took to address the challenge or complete the task.

Result : Share the outcomes or results of your actions, emphasizing what you learned or how you contributed to your previous workplace.

Using the STAR method can help you tell compelling stories and make you remembered.