People hire and promote those whom they like. Regardless of talent, to get anywhere in your career, it’s imperative to make an employer want to give you the job. The clearest paths to this include talking in terms of their interests, making them feel important, and obtaining the ability to see things from the recruiters or hiring manager’s point of view.
If your ability to get ahead rests on connecting with the interviewer, let’s take a look at what makes a hiring manager or sales headhunter tick and discuss how to ensure that you leverage the relationship to become a top choice.
Below are five ways ways to increase your odds of the hiring manager liking you on a personal level and becoming more apt to make you the job offer you want.
1. Ensure your facial expressions are welcoming, yet strong.
The number one way to show an interviewer that you are warm, friendly and engaged is to simply smile. As people, we attribute all kinds of good things to people who smile at us, such as happiness, attractiveness, sociability and success. Your interviewer will have a similar perception.
Good eye contact projects strength and confidence. It will assist you in establishing a mutual understanding a.k.a. sharing a common perspective. Conversely, a lack of eye contact will tell interviewers or recruiters that you may not be sharing the full story with them.
2. Stop focusing on what you want so much and begin giving the employer what they want.
In order to do so, we must ask ourselves what exact traits do employers want in those whom they are hiring?
Among other things, employers make job offers to applicants who can show they are:
a. Autonomous
b. Knowledgable
c. Reliable
d. Intelligent
3. Make the interviewer feel important.
Show enthusiasm for the job. Be excited to be in the office, listen to every word the interviewer says, do your research on the company and display sincere appreciation for the employer’s time.
A simple, “I know you’re busy and I appreciate your time,” will more than suffice.
4. Sincere compliments make hiring managers as well as recruiters warm up to you.
If you’re like any other human being, 95% of the time, you spend thinking about yourself and your needs.
When we stop and begin to think about the desirable attributes of an employer, you make a significantly better impression. There is always something special about an organization and job where you are interviewing; you simply must discover them.
When you uncover those strengths and simply recognize those positives, employers will lean to your way of thinking more readily. However, be cautious, as insincere flattery will have the opposite of the desired effect.
5. Talk in terms of what the employer wants.
When going for any job, understand that hiring managers and employers are worried about their own problems.
Just like any job seeker, you are going to have your needs, though once you figure out what the recruitment parties’ desires are and determine ways to solve those issues, your requirements will be met in full.
There are two highly effective methods in order to uncover what your prospective employer really wants. The first is to carefully read the job description; the second is to intently listen to what they are saying and read in-between the lines.
These tactics are not intended to trick an interviewing into choosing you. You might be able to convey your strongest attributes while being highly attuned to your interviewer’s goals for the job, but if you’re interviewing to be a technical scientist in accelerator physics and you just got your BA in Communications, you’re not primed for success.
But all things being equal with your own background and the skills the job requires, these basic interview techniques will astronomically up your chances of securing the next interview, and finally a job offer. It isn’t every job seeker who arrives at an interview primed to make the most of it on these intangible interpersonal levels, so make the most of that and set yourself apart.
