Can you think of a more stressful situation than an interview? Companies want to hire competent, successful, articulate, and accomplished executives, yet their very first encounter often places the candidate in a particularly stressful and uncomfortable situation. You might find yourself in a “panel-style” interview where it’s you on one side and five company executives on the other side, each armed and ready to assault you with questions. It’s a pretty threatening situation, the exact opposite of the type of environment that should be created to allow you to demonstrate your best.

However, the reality is that you must deal with the hiring process the way that it exists. And, to accomplish that, you must learn how to comfortably manage and control your interviews. To help you with that process, here are five key strategies for interview success.

STRATEGY #1: Sell It To Me, Don’t Tell It To Me

Interviews are NOT the time to “tell” what you’ve done. Rather, interviews are the time to “sell” what you have accomplished. For example, if you’re asked how many people you managed in your last position, you might just answer with a quick, “I had a team of 35.” However, it’s a much stronger presentation to respond with, “My staff at IBM included 35 professionals and support personnel. Not only was I responsible for managing those individuals, I also directed all recruitment and hiring activities, set salaries, designed bonus plans, facilitated annual performance reviews, and projected long-term staffing requirements. What’s more, my team increased annual sales by more than 35% within just one year!” When you respond in this fashion, you’ve “sold” what you have achieved, and not just “told” what you were responsible for.

STRATEGY #2: Transition Every Negative To A Positive

What do you do if your interviewer asks about your experience managing other people and you’ve never done that before? Your first inclination might be to say that you don’t have any direct supervisory experience. Don’t do that; you never want to answer “no” or “I don’t know that.” Instead, use related experience to answer the question and demonstrate your specific skills. For example, you’d answer that question with, “My background includes extensive experience coordinating workload distribution among of team of 50+ personnel, and responding to their specific questions about job assignments, deadlines, and resources.” Then, even though you’ve been honest (you never said you supervised anyone), you’ve positively positioned yourself.

STRATEGY #3: Use The “Big” To Highlight The “Little”

Suppose that someone asks you if you have any experience with mergers and acquisitions. To organize your thoughts, make your response flow seamlessly, and make it easy for your interviewer to understand your specific experience in that area, use the “big-to-little” strategy. Start with an overview of your experience in M&A transactions; just a few sentences to describe your overall scope and depth of experience. (That’s the “big” part.) Then, follow up with 2-4 specific achievements, projects, or highlights that are directly related. You might talk about your involvement in due diligence, negotiations, transactions, and/or acquisition integration. (That’s the “little” part.) In essence, you’re communicating, “This is what I know and this is how well I’ve done it.”

STRATEGY #4: Remember, You’ve Already Passed The First Test

You’re nervous. You’re sitting in the executive conference room with the President, CFO, and two Executive VP’s. Take a deep breath and remind yourself that you’ve already passed the first test ”“ generally a phone screening to determine if you have the “right” stuff for the position or you wouldn’t have been invited for the interview. And, if you’re interviewing with the top executives of a company, you know that they’re already interested in you or they wouldn’t be committing the time to you and your interview. Therefore, go into the interview knowing that you’ve already got them on the hook, be confident, be poised, and work to “close the deal.”

STRATEGY #5: Take The Initiative

You’re nearing the close of an interview during which you had wanted to share your experience in supply chain management. However, the topic was never brought up. Now, it is YOUR responsibility to introduce it into the conversation. You might comment, “Before we end, I’d like to share one more thing with you that I think is quite important to the position and to my fit within your organization.” Then proceed with sharing the information. You must take the initiative during an interview to be sure that you have communicated all that is of value, whether or not the interviewer addresses a particular topic.

There is no doubt that interviewing is a stressful and often difficult situation. However, it’s your professional life on the line. You must walk into each interview with an agenda ”“ the information you want to communicate to demonstrate your qualifications ”“ and you must “quietly” control the interview to be sure that you paint a picture of knowledge and success as you position yourself as the “right” candidate.

Good luck!

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