Can you really stand out at Job Interviews?

Standing out at a Job Interview is not always a walk in the park. You're typically competing against other applicants who also applied for the job - and you usually have no way of knowing how they rank against you.

Here's the reality folks:

• There will always be more experienced, more qualified Candidates than you
• There will always be those better at talking about themselves than you

That's just a given - and sometimes, you will lose out to someone else who ultimately gets the job because of that, or other reasons. At a surface level, they appear more suited for the role.

Now there's not much you can do about that. But here's something you CAN do:

Put more effort into understanding the hiring need.

People generally spend more time speaking about themselves, as well as responding to the questions they are being asked, and not enough time understanding the Hiring Team's needs by doing some investigating of their own at the Interview. You end up standing out more if you do this because you're able to draw out what's most important to the Hiring Team and actually discuss what and how you can potentially help them.

Asking questions and trying to better understand the motivations of the Hiring Team demonstrates a sincere interest in the project and builds rapport because you're speaking about what's important to them.

To use an example - think of going to a retail store to buy yourself a new iPhone (or Android device).

At one retail store, the Salesperson starts firing away all the impressive bells, whistles, stats and all that about the phone. And if you already know that's what you want you might even just buy the phone from them (just as some Hiring Teams will just decide to go with the Candidate best able to speak about themselves as they're looking to make a quick and urgent hiring decision).

But at the next retail store, the Salesperson instead shows more interest in what your wants and needs are in your next phone. What do you like about your current device that you'd want in your next one? Why is that important? What will you be using the phone for? What is lacking in your current device? Why are you even looking to buy yourself a new device? Etc. Based on your responses, this Salesperson not only is more engaging, but also narrows it down to a specific model of the phone which would make the most sense for you. Most of us would most probably deal with this Salesperson because they've demonstrated more effort in understanding our need to buy a phone, and was able to provide a more customized solution based on those needs. Going back to Interviewing - many Hiring Teams would see you as standing out if you were to do this.

So, throughout the conversation, you need to be asking questions of your own (where relevant) to better understand the Hiring Team's situation and how you can potentially help them:

• What are their major pain points in relation to the project? How are those affecting them?
• What are the desired outcomes/ROI they want to achieve? How do you fit into this and which parts would you be contributing to the overall end result?
• What do they need done within the first 30 days? 60 days? 90 days?
• What impact would it have on them if you were able to deliver?

I hope you get the idea. As important as it is to speak about yourself and provide effective responses to certain types of interview questions, don't underestimate the power of showing a genuine interest in the hiring need to really stand out and grab the attention of the Hiring Team.

If you found this topic helpful - make sure you give it a Like and Share with your network, as well as share your own thoughts in the comments below!

Coming this week:

Live Stream: Tune in Wednesday @ 11AM ET for my weekly Live Stream. Visit my profile at 11AM ET and tune in!

From Last Week:

• Article:?Responding to "Why do you want to leave your current Employer?"
• Live Stream Replay: What Recruiters pay attention to on your LinkedIn Profile
• Video Clip: What is ChatGPT and why should Business Analysts care?
• For fun/not work related: Watch the choreography team I was on perform a Salsa dance routine ????

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That's all for this week; if there are any topics you'd like me to cover in a future edition, let me know in the comments - see you next time and don't forget to Like, Comment, + Subscribe!

Dean Kulaweera