Getting hired is the ultimate goal of all who attempt job interviews. But many people who attempt job interviews are ill prepared. I have talked to many people who have no clue as to what goes into an effective job interview preparation. Here in are revealed the secrets that should inform every preparation stage for those seeking to excel in the job interview.

There are twenty University admired key behavioral traits: they are your passport to success in any interview. Use them for reference as you customize your answers to the tough questions in the following chapters.

 

The Secrets Revealed

SECRET 1: Your Professional Profile is the most desirable trait to every employer. Professional traits are learned and developed as a result of our experiences in the work place.

 Universally admired professional profile 

All companies seek employees who respect their profession and employer. Projecting these professional traits will identify you as loyal, reliable and trustworthy.

  1. Reliability: Following up on yourself and not relying on anyone to get the job done, and keeping management informed all the way.
  2. Honesty / integrity: Taking responsibility for your actions, both good and bad. Always making decisions in the best interests of the co.
  3. Pride: Pride in a job well done, always taking the extra step to make sure the job is done to the best of your ability paying attention to details.
  4. Dedication: Whatever it takes in time and effort to see a project through to completion, on deadline.
  5. Analytical skills: weighing pros and cons. Not jumping at the first solution that presents itself. The short – term and long – term benefits of a solution against all its possible negatives.
  6. Listening skills: Listening and understanding, as opposed to your turn to speak.

 

SECRET 2: Your personal Profile : The interviewer searches for your personal profile to determine what type of person you really are.

Universally admired personality traits

The presence of these keys in your answers tells the company rep how you feel about yourself. Your chosen career and what you would be like to work with.

The following words and phrases are those you will project as part of your successful, personal profile.

  1. Drive: A desire to get things done. Goal-oriented.
  2. Motivation: Enthusiasm and a willingness to ask questions. A motivated person accepts challenges and does that little bit extra on every job.
  3. Communication skills: The ability to talk and write effectively to people at all levels in a company is key to success.
  4. Chemistry: The Company is looking for someone who doesn’t get rattled, wears a smile, is confident without self – importance, gets along with others – a team player.
  5. Energy: Someone who gives that extra effort in the little things as well as important matters.
  6. Determination: Someone who doesn’t back off when things get tough.
  7. Confidence: Poise, friendly, honest and open to employees high or low. Not intimidated by the big brother, nor overly familiar.

 

SECRET 3: Your Achievement Profile: Companies have limited interests: making money, saving money and saving time, projecting your achievement profile, in however humble fashion, is the key to winning any job.

 Universally admired achievement  profile

Companies have limited interests: making money, saving money and saving time, projecting your achievement profile, in however humble fashion, is the key to winning any job.

  1. Money saved: Every penny saved by your thought and efficiency is a penny earned for the company.
  2. Time saved: Every moment served by your thought and efficiency enables your company to save money and make more in the additional time available. Double bonus.
  3. Money earned: Generating revenue is the goal of every company.

 

SECRET 4: Your Business profile.  I am determined on its own doesn’t hold enough salt. It’s forgotten by the interviewer the moment you utter it.  Projecting your business profile is important on those occasions whereby you cannot demonstrate ways you have made money, saved money, or saved time for previous employers.

 Universally admired business profile

These keys demonstrate you are always on the lookout for opportunities to contribute, and that you keep your boss informed when an opportunity arises.

  1. Efficiency: Always keeping an eye open for wastage of time, effort, resources and money.
  2. Economy: most problems have two solutions an expensive one, and one the co would prefer to implement.
  3. Procedures: Procedures exist to keep a co profitable. Don’t work around them. Means keeping your boss informed. Follow the chain of command.
  4. Profit: All the above traits are admired because in the business world they mean profit.

 

Secret 5: Every one hires for the same job. No one in the history of industry and commerce has ever been added to the pay roll for the love of mankind. Regardless of the Job or Profession, we are all problem solvers. That’s the first job description for anyone who has ever been hired for any Job, at any level of organization anywhere in the world.

This fifth secret is key to any Job interview and career success in any field.

  1. Think of your profession in terms of its problem solving responsibilities.
  2. Once you have identified the particular problem solving business you are in, you have gone a long way toward isolating what the interviewer will want to talk to you about.
  3. Identify and list for yourself the typical problems you tackle for employers on a daily basis. Come up with plenty of specific examples. Then move on to the biggest and dirtiest problems you’ve been faced with Again recall specifically how you solved the problem.

 Here’s a technique used by corporate out placement professionals to help people develop examples of their problem – solving skills and the resultant achievements.

  1. State the problem: what was the situation? Was it typical of your Job, or had something gone wrong? Be cautious of appointing blame.
  2. Isolate relevant background information: what specific knowledge or education were you armed with to tackle this dilemma?
  3. List your key qualities: What professional skills and personal behavior traits did you bring in to play to solve the problem?
  4. Recall the solution. How did things turn out in the end? (If the problem did not have a successful resolution, do not use it as an example)
  5. Determine what the solution was worth: Quantify the solution in terms of the money earned, money served, or time served. Specify your role as a team member or as a lone gun, as the facts demand.
  • If you follow the steps above, you will develop a series of Illustrative stories for each key area; remember stories help interviewers visualize you solving their problems as a paid member of the team.

We get two very special benefits when we understand and apply the fifth secret. First we show that we possess the problem solving abilities, second, when we ask about the problems, challenges, projects, deadlines and pressure points that will be tackled in the early months, we show that we will be able to hit the ground running on those first critical projects.