Preface

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK

There are plenty of books and websites about job interviews. Most cover the basics well, many reminding you of things you think you already know, but for some reason never get round to putting into practice. Other books make you feel slightly guilty that you couldn’t transform yourself into the interview superhero required. You might have been tempted to get instant results by learning textbook answers to interview questions, only to discover they didn’t quite match the questions asked, and didn’t sound as authentic as you hoped. In any case you struggled to keep all the advice in your head at the same time. The advice sounded useful but didn’t seem to address the interview you have tomorrow morning, and didn’t get you the job.

This book is designed to take a different approach:

• It looks at the reasons you don’t put advice into practice, accepting the fact that you are not going to become the perfect interviewee overnight.
• It takes routine interview advice apart by giving you an insider perspective on what interviewers want.
• It helps you transform your performance, rather than feeling guilty about all the things you could have done.
• It challenges you to look at the small but significant changes you need to make to improve your impact at interview.
• It offers you the wisdom of experienced career coaches, recruiters and HR specialists to answer the questions you would ask if your career coach was in the room.

YOUR ‘KILLER APPS’

For those of you who aren’t obsessed with the latest technology, the ‘killer app’ is the bit of software that dominates the market and allows a provider to crush the competition, at least for a few months. You’re looking for something similar. Something that differentiates you in a tough market, something that shortens the odds and gives you an edge, but without taking months of preparation or coaching.

The good news is that you don’t need to become something you are not. You don’t need to be unique, you don’t need to be the one candidate in a million, and you don’t need to fake it. Possessing a killer app just means gaining an edge and being considered a front runner for a post from the moment you walk into the interview room.

What you will discover from this book is that this is only partially about your skills and experience. It is also about your attitude, your impact, and the way you present your evidence at interview. It is about appearing relaxed and in control (even though you won’t be). It is about telling good stories rather than spouting pre-rehearsed answers.

THE DIFFICULT NEWS

Although this book is packed with techniques to improve your interview skills and tips to help you get inside the mind of the recruiter, it does not offer you a magic bullet solution. There are things you can do quickly which will improve the odds in your favour and make it more likely that an employer will say ‘yes’, but you have to do some work. You have to undertake smart research, anticipate questions, and organise your evidence. A job interview is a time management exercise rather like a sports or stage performance – hours of preparation and effort go into a short, heart-stopping burst of activity. Performance under pressure requires time to be put aside in advance – not just preparation of your material, but preparing yourself too, so that you can project the best of yourself in the interview room.

GETTING AN EDGE

Surely everyone can’t become an above-average interview candidate? Absolutely right. Despite an abundance of information in books, articles and websites, candidates keep making the same mistakes, either not preparing at all or doing the wrong kind of preparation. Preparation does not just relate to thinking (and worrying) about interviews, but doing the right kind of thinking.

There are people who know how to win interviews on instinct alone (often they are unable to say what it is they do). These are the irritating people who tell you that they get every job they apply for. They sound ultra-lucky, but they have more than luck on their side – they have unconsciously focused their material, behaviours and attitude into the right place at the right time. This book shows you how to consciously apply the same techniques to your performance.

Any one of these chapters will give you an edge and improve your performance. A few hours reading this book will make a difference to the way you see yourself in the interview process, and the results you achieve.