How to shine in job interviews
By: Nesrin Yüksel
Tags: Job Hunting, Helping Others, Job Interview, Best Practices, Advice

I am starting the story with a disclaimer: I am sharing my own point of view as a passionate talent acquisition specialist with 10 years professional experience and as an empathetic human being.

I am writing this article because I would like to help job seekers not to feel frustrated or demotivated when receiving a rejection. I do understand that it’s hard to see it in a rational way sometimes because you put so much effort, hope, and time into your application and getting interviewed to then receive a rejection can be frustrating. However rejections are part of the whole job searching journey and even part of life — but I don’t want to get philosophical now:)

I know from my personal candidate experience that receiving a rejection always puts me in a state where I question myself and my skills. And also friends who didn’t get the job would overthink a lot and ask me what they did wrong. Like I mentioned before — it takes some practice to deal with it in a rational way. However I would recommend everyone to free themselves from the thought of “what did I do wrong” but rather make sure to be fully prepared for the interviews. This way you can follow your own check-list and tell your very own professional story. It should be fun for you to show your potential new employer how great you are and what you can contribute to the job. And if you still get a rejection then at least you know you have done everything right in your own way! And the following approach might help you (I hope).

Company: Which products/services does the company offer you are applying for? Do your research and make sure you can explain what the company does in 2 or 3 sentences. You don’t need to know all of the history or “hidden” facts but in order to convince that you would like to contribute to the company’s success you need to understand what they are doing before you go into the interview.

Which products/services does the company offer you are applying for? Do your research and make sure you can explain what the company does in 2 or 3 sentences. You don’t need to know all of the history or “hidden” facts but in order to convince that you would like to contribute to the company’s success you need to understand what they are doing before you go into the interview. Motivation : What is your motivation to work for that company? Ideally you have at least 2 good reasons to apply for this specific job at this specific company. Saying that you are generally looking for a new job in tech in Berlin is not helping the interviewer to understand what you are looking for. Study the job description carefully, explore the careers page and their LinkedIn profile in order to understand if that resonates with your career plans. Explain how that new opportunity would match your life, interests, passion, career growth and excitement to learn new things.

: What is your motivation to work for that company? Ideally you have at least 2 good reasons to apply for this specific job at this specific company. Saying that you are generally looking for a new job in tech in Berlin is not helping the interviewer to understand what you are looking for. Study the job description carefully, explore the careers page and their LinkedIn profile in order to understand if that resonates with your career plans. Explain how that new opportunity would match your life, interests, passion, career growth and excitement to learn new things. Communication : Now, this is key. The best advice I can give is to be clear. It’s great if you are someone who likes to talk and it’s good to have an interactive conversation with the interviewer. However be prepared to guide the interviewer through your CV. Highlight the most relevant stages in your career in a summarized way and create a story everyone can easily follow. Be yourself and be focused. It should take you 5 minutes maximum to introduce yourself.

: Now, this is key. The best advice I can give is to be clear. It’s great if you are someone who likes to talk and it’s good to have an interactive conversation with the interviewer. However be prepared to guide the interviewer through your CV. Highlight the most relevant stages in your career in a summarized way and create a story everyone can easily follow. Be yourself and be focused. It should take you 5 minutes maximum to introduce yourself. Answers: When asked questions listen carefully. If you need a few seconds to “digest” the question then say it, think about it and answer. The more specific you can answer the better. If you get 2 or 3 questions in one go then try to summarize the questions and ask if you understood the questions correctly, and answer them one by one. In case you didn’t really understand the question at all then be honest and say it. The worst thing which can happen is you didn’t fully get the question and you just guess it in your head and if you are lucky you manage to answer it somehow. Don’t leave it to chance. Same for simply not knowing the answer — be honest and say it.

When asked questions listen carefully. If you need a few seconds to “digest” the question then say it, think about it and answer. The more specific you can answer the better. If you get 2 or 3 questions in one go then try to summarize the questions and ask if you understood the questions correctly, and answer them one by one. In case you didn’t really understand the question at all then be honest and say it. The worst thing which can happen is you didn’t fully get the question and you just guess it in your head and if you are lucky you manage to answer it somehow. Don’t leave it to chance. Same for simply not knowing the answer — be honest and say it. Examples : This is key as well. It helps the interviewer enormously if you can give specific work examples to the questions asked. It helps because this way the interviewer can understand if your previous experience is fitting into their current team set-up, challenges, and plans. Even if you get asked a closed question I would recommend backing it up with an example to show that you know what you are talking about. In the ‘talent acquisition language’ this is called behavioral interviewing and you can google lots of tips and tricks if you want to learn more about this technique.

: This is key as well. It helps the interviewer enormously if you can give specific work examples to the questions asked. It helps because this way the interviewer can understand if your previous experience is fitting into their current team set-up, challenges, and plans. Even if you get asked a closed question I would recommend backing it up with an example to show that you know what you are talking about. In the ‘talent acquisition language’ this is called behavioral interviewing and you can google lots of tips and tricks if you want to learn more about this technique. Questions: This goes together with your motivation for the job and the company. Think about your expectations. It is good to challenge the interviewer as well. Ask them anything you are interested in knowing about the day to day of the job, the team(s), projects, etc. Interviews are never one-sided — as much as the interviewer wants to get to know you, you should also get the insights you were looking for.

This is it really — it’s all about your own story and being prepared and able to share this with the interviewer(s). If things still don’t work out in your favor then rest assured that you have tried your best. You can be confident that there is the right job out there for you! If that one company didn’t offer you the job it doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. You have done everything right in your own way.