Do you know the Golden rules of Interviews?
Do you know why they are so important? And why employers love candidates who stick to these golden rules?
- Be Honest – make sure that you are being honest about your experiences and skills but that you are also showing your best achievements
- Be Positive – always be positive about your past experiences, even the awful jobs in your past! We make sure that you identify the positive.
- Be Brief – we make sure that you are concise and clear so you make the best possible impact.
The first golden rule of interviews is be honest.
Employers need to be able to trust you so don’t make stuff up! You can’t claim that you can ski and horseback ride when you’ve never been anywhere near a chalet or a stable.
You should make sure that your CV and interview answers use words like “I” rather than “the whole team”. Employers know that you can’t do anything in modern organisations that don’t involve a team of people or at least Google! But the interviewer wants to know what you did.
In addition, you sound much better when you are being truthful. You look more in control and confident. This will always come across to an interviewer. They can tell if you are lying.
The second golden rule of interviews is be positive.
Have you ever heard your mate moaning and moaning about how it wasn’t their fault? Or how their boss hates them? Why they couldn’t get a promotion?
Well, just like you hate it in the pub, we hate it in interview rooms! Be positive.
Always talk about the good things about your old job. If you can’t say anything positive about your old boss, without breaking rule one, then say nothing! The interviewer wants to know that you won’t be slagging them off in a year’s time to someone else!
So only positive comments please. Talk about what you learned that you love about a boss or share what you learned about yourself.
The final golden rule of interviews is be brief
This one is simple. Listen to the question. Answer the question clearly. Offer more information only when they ask for it.
A good interviewer will be trying to make you look smart. They will be trying to get the best out of you. So let them ask follow up questions.
I once had an interviewee who spoke for 20 minute on our first question – it was only “how are you”? Let the interviewer explore if they want more details.
Follow these simple 3 Golden Rules of Interviews and you will be fine!
If you would like to practice the 3 golden rules of interviews, we have a special training session so you can practice your answers with Professional Personal interview coaching.