Job Interview Tips

Gain the skills to nail that job interview to keep upward mobility

“My biggest weakness? I just work too hard”

“I want to work here because I just really love this company and what it stands for”

“I did so much at my prior role it is really hard to describe”

Interviewing for a new job is one of those things people dread. It is a combination of so much that gives people anxiety - being judged, potentially finding out they aren’t as good as they think, getting asked questions and being put on the spot, having to talk to a bunch of strangers and needing to impress them, etc.

It is such a large fear for some people that they will do anything to avoid it. Heck, at a prior company they did job eliminations and one of the long-timers got offered 2 years severance and instead took a demotion to stay at the same company (and someone who was already under-promoted despite having a very desirable skillset)…rough.

Maybe you land at the right company at the right time and just move up the ranks fast, but for every ‘intern to c-suite in 20 year’ story you hear, there are 100s if not 1,000s of people toiling away in the same role for decades. We already went over how to succeed in your W-2 career and a big part of it was knowing when to jump ship for better opportunities and continued upward mobility.

Well, a big part of having the confidence to take a new role is knowing you will nail the job interview.

Yet, if you have ever been in a role of interviewing for a job, it is shocking how terrible most people are at interviewing. I always say that “when you are starting your career, you assume most people are giving similar answers as you. Then you start interviewing people and realize how wide a range of answers the same question will get”. I always tell young kids to volunteer to interview interns just to get a sense of what works and doesn’t because of this.

So here are my thoughts on how to nail that next job interview. I am 3 for 3 in getting external promotions when applying out. And in each of the 3 moves, after being hired, was told that it was no competition. But it is not something that I would consider as coming natural. And reading ‘advice’ online for how to interview was much more miss than hit.