Land the Job You Love: Tips to Interview Hit Home Runs

This continues our series about what you can do to get a great job with a great salary

Max made great phone calls. He averaged 7-8 meetings a week. Unfortunately, he frequently stumbled in interviews communicating how his skills and experience satisfied their needs and goals. He attended our workshop and learned how he could answer all interview questions with four types of answers. He prepared answers for his interviews and wowed the decision makers. He had three job offers and accepted one within two weeks. I want to share.

Answer questions with 4 Types of Answers

You may answer any interview question with four types of answers:

• Demonstrate your skills and experience with home run statements
• Reframe their thinking about your weaknesses
• Present your dessert tray to entice them to want to hire you
• Ask questions to gather more information

Questions that Invite Home Run Statements

You may use home run statements to answer questions about your

• Past experience “Tell me about your experience at (a past employer, school, etc.)?”
• Skills and strengths “What are you biggest strengths?”
• Problem solving “How would you handle the following situations?”
• Reasons and benefits of hiring you: “Why should we hire you?”

Answer with Home Run Statements

Some questions invite you to highlight your results. Follow our home run format to answer the questions:

• First Base: Describe what organization you worked for at the time
• Second Base: Describe the problem you addressed and briefly what you did
• Third Base: Describe the results of your efforts
• Home Plate: Apply what you did to their needs and goals with a question similar to “Are those the kind of results you want?”

Here is an example:

• “When I worked for ACME Groceries,…
• …we had a shoplifting problem. I increased my sensitivity to suspicious situations…
• …As a result, I stopped two customers. They stole something from our store. The police found $900 of merchandise stolen from 3 other of our stores when they inspected their car.
• Would you like that diligence at your store?

Wednesday we explore how to reconnect with people after meetings and interviews