How I Tried To Stand Out In my Interviews

As someone on a career break, I was always mired in quicksand of self-doubt, low confidence and fear among several other things that sunk me down. Externally, stream of rejections, lack of community also attributed to push me down further. And just like erratic movement can make you sink further in the quicksand, your resistance to push away all the above can make you sink during job search process.

As soon as I realized that my helpless flailing isn’t helping me, I had to stop and introspect. I stopped applying, practicing for interviews, revising my resume for the 100th time. I decided to completely detach myself from the process to give some time and space so I could think strategically about my job search and where I was headed. All the time away, gave me an alternate perspective on my process so far. I compiled my rejections as part of data analysis and derived conclusions from it. This not only helped me put my negative emotions on the side, but also gave me several different steps. I had complete control over these steps, and kept implementing them effectively. I was then able to tweak them to see if my outcome was any different. Most often we try to control and change outcome. As most of us, especially with a science and engineering background know that we should focus and tweak the variables that are in our control to see any change in the outcome. With that in mind I stopped changing my story, my interview answers or my entire resume to match the job description- which a lot of restarters do out of desperation. I identified the variables I had control over and tried to change them instead. Based on my findings, three things impacted my outcomes, especially in the interview phase. I will share these three things below-

1)????I meticulously created and delivered each response in my own way:

?There are many effective frameworks to help in preparing for behavioral interviews. You can refer to STAR, SAR, PAR or any other frameworks out there and use it as you prepare for your interviews. I would recommend to not make the interview a mechanical and rehearsed question answer session. Interview is a form of storytelling, to hook the interviewer on your response, so that they can relive the highlights later, especially when decision making. I am a very visual person, and my understanding comes from writing and drawing things. When I went in for interviewing, I would bring a notepad and write down notes. I would also answer questions by drawing out my thought process. Not only that gave me a ready summary at the end, but I could also bring the interviewer along on my journey. They would add details where necessary to create a full picture that both of us got to as a team. So, think of how you can effectively tell your story for each question and get the interviewer engaged such that they are jumping in. You can gauge if you are successful if it seems like a discussion or brainstorming rather than an exam.

2)????I gave every interviewer a copy of my well thought out Brag sheet-

I bought LinkedIn premium while I was job searching. With the subscription I was able to avail a lot of LinkedIn for Learning courses. One of the courses I enrolled in, talked about how to prepare for and standout in an interview. I forgot a lot of it but one thing kind of stuck with me- Brag Sheet. The concept of "Brag Sheet" blew my mind. Creating a brag sheet really challenged me to work on my negative inner dialogue, own the sheet and confidently hand it over to the interviewers at an opportune time. The first time I gave it to an interviewer, my heart pounded so loudly I thought it is going to rip out of my body. Since I received a positive response, I tried it again in my next interview and then again after. Ever since I try to keep a running brag sheet even when I am employed. You are in that interview seat to convince the interviewer of your skills being a good match and help them see and visualize how it would be working with you. This sheet will make it so much easier for them. Job seekers cannot put the onus on the interviewer to know their complete history and why they are uniquely placed for this job. Bragging and advocating for yourself is the only intent of the interview. Nothing else speaks as much about your capability and thought process than preparing for such a concise document making it easier for interviewers.

3)????I researched the job position thoroughly:

Often, we hear the advice that research the company well before going into an interview. But what does this exactly mean? My interpretation of this advice was to read up about the company, their competitors, recent articles, and milestones that the company achieved. The next step was to research interviewers on LinkedIn as my next step where they came from and how they tell their story about their career. This gave me the perspective on what is important to them. I went beyond the company research and interview research. I have since learned to reach out to recruiters who set up the interview calls. I often asked them about the expectations of the interviewer, the interview format, and anything else they can share regarding the interviewer, the process or the company. More often then not, they were happy to share details based on their discussions with the hiring managers. Especially the challenges they have seen that the hiring team faces. All these responses would help me prepare and give an anchor to my responses and are relevant for the team and the hiring manager.

So, the answer to the question I posed at the beginning

"How Tried To Stand Out In Interview"

is by being ME.

These are the three things helped me deliver my message about my experience, my style, and how I would fit in the team. I have created templates around interview preparation that helped me reduce my interview prep time from days to hours. During the peak of my interviewing phase, I was able to prepare for back-to-back interviews and still do great without burning out. What are other things you have found to be useful that has helped you stand out? Did you do anything differently? Feel free to reach out to discuss this further of if you have any questions on how to implement the above.?