Stepping into a job interview is intimidating for many of us, but when you’re a teen or young adult with a communication disorder, it can feel overwhelming. On the Speech Umbrella podcast, we tackle this subject head-on, with my husband, Dan Stratton, bringing his IT management and interview expertise to the table. One of Dan’s passions is helping young adults in their career searches and interviews. Together we demystify the interview process, transforming it from a daunting task into an exciting stage to spotlight your problem-solving abilities. We discuss the art of self-presentation, the power of a well-told story, and how to do networking interviews.
You’ll hear firsthand how strategic networking and informational interviews can forge paths to unexpected job offers and meaningful professional relationships. From the impact of a thoughtful handwritten note to the nuances of asking the right questions, we delve into the details that can set you apart. We also examine how to make an impression in the interview itself, with tips on maintaining composure under pressure and using body language to your advantage.
So plug in, listen up, and let’s get you ready to nail that interview with grace and confidence.
Helpful Links
Amy Cuddy TED Talk
List of Skills.
Long List of Skills
Sample Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
More Interview Questions
— Transcription —
Welcome to the Speech Umbrella, the show that explores simple but powerful therapy techniques for optimal outcomes. I’m Denise Stradden, a pediatric speech-language pathologist of 30-plus years. I’m closer to the end of my career than the beginning and along the way I’ve worked long and hard to become a better therapist. Join me as we explore the many topics that fall under our umbrellas as SLPs. I want to make your journey smoother. I found the best therapy comes from employing simple techniques with a generous helping of mindfulness. Hello, welcome to the Speech Umbrella podcast. While I don’t podcast on such a regular schedule as I did in the past two years, I still sometimes am really motivated to share some information, and that’s why this podcast came about today. Besides, I get to interview my husband, Dan, and I don’t have to do all the talking. I love that.
I am a pediatric speech-language pathologist, but sometimes I get clients who are on the cusp of adulthood older teenagers, until they have some adult concerns, and one of those is that summer job or their first job after they graduate from high school.
And now, if you’re someone who has a language disorder and words don’t come quite as easily to you, or if you’re someone who stutters, you can really really get worried about job interviews, and that’s when I like to talk about all this wealth of knowledge Dan has about how to do a great interview, because he has put a lot of study into coaching younger people how to interview for a job.
Recently I asked Dan for some advice for one of my clients and the stuff he was saying was so good. I pulled out my phone, I turned on record and said just tell my phone and I’ll play it for him. And it was really, really helpful because the way Dan said everything well, he said it like an expert. So today I’m going to interview the expert on how to interview for a job, and this can be helpful for anyone who is stressed about interviews. But I find it particularly helpful for those people with communication disorders, because what can be more stressful than being in a job interview, having to represent yourself well to someone who doesn’t even know you with how you communicate? So let’s start out with Dan introducing himself, so you know that he’s more than just my sidekick.
Hi, I’m Dan Stratton. I am an IT manager by day. I’ve spent 35 years working in that industry and have been a manager interviewing people for jobs for about 15 of those years.
So, Dan, what kind of help can you offer to our young adults who are stressed about interviews? That’s who we’re gearing this podcast towards those young adults who are maybe getting their first job.
Okay, this is perfect, because we’re going to give you a hack to jumpstart your career with this today. This is going to be so helpful to you. What is an interview? It’s easy to look at an interview and say, oh, they’re there to grill me with questions and I’m, you know, to try and trip me up. That’s not it at all. The reason they are interviewing you is because they have a problem. They have a need that you can fill and they desperately want to stop interviewing and have somebody fill that need. And so, as much as you’re looking for a job, they’re looking to hire you. So you need to think about that. They want you just as much as you want them, and so if you can think about that and realize they’re just as nervous as you are, that can kind of help get the nerves down and you can start relaxing and thinking ahead.
So I like what you said, that they’re just trying to solve a problem and you want to show that you can be the person who solves their problem.
Exactly, I mean they. They had somebody doing the problem before you know, doing a job before and that person probably quit. Well, now somebody has to do that work until they can backfill that position. So probably the manager is doing it themselves. So they are desperate to get somebody in there because their work is falling behind. They just want to hear how you can solve their problem. Come in and do the work.
So if you change your focus from thinking about how desperately you need the job to how desperately they need someone to fix their problem, that can help you with your mindset.
Right.
And then you can get into the interview.
And we’re going to talk more about that in a little bit. But yeah, how you do that.
Okay, so do you have some specific tips for how to prepare for the interview? So some of the stress is off of you, even as you’re just walking in the door.
Right, these are things that you are going to need to do well before the actual job interview, but they’re fun and they’re rewarding, so this work can be done at any time. So there’s no time like the present to start it Now. The first thing you need to do is you need to identify your skills, your superpowers. What have you done in your life that’s been really cool? Have you been on a sports team? Have you excelled at math? Have you gotten an award at school, at church? There’s a number of things that you probably have done in your life that you can be proud of. And if you can’t think of any, ask your friends, ask your parents, ask your family. Hey, what have you seen me do that you thought was pretty good? And then get those ideas from them. And then you need to break down what skills are involved in that. Let’s say, for example, you’re on the soccer team. Well, that requires commitment, because you have to go to practice every day, you have to have stamina, you have to think, you have to plan, you have to be able to react to unknown situations quickly. And that’s not even talking about the physical things that you need to do. You have weights that you’ve been lifting or something like that. Those are skills that you do, that you need to identify those skills. Now I’ll put a link in the show notes to some websites that have a whole bunch of skills that you can then kind of go through and go oh yeah, that’s in there, that’s in there. And then you can start taking that list of skills from all these different things that you do. Well, the more times you see that skill show up, that is probably your superpower. So, let’s say, you have a really good GPA, what goes into doing that? Well, that’s the same skills that help you in playing an instrument, because you’ve got to show up and do the homework right. Same with sports. These are your superpowers and your skills and you need to identify them. Now that you’ve identified those skills, I want you to build some SOAR stories about them. Now, SOAR S-O-A-R like a bird is soaring. S-O-A-R stands for situation, obstacle, actions and results. Every one of these skills,
You’re going to identify something that you did that was really cool and you’re going to write about what the situation was. Let’s say, for example, you had a big report to write for one of your classes. What was the situation? This was something that was a challenge for you. You didn’t know a lot of information about, but you had to get a good grade on this report. The obstacle was you had a lot to do in a short amount of time. What were the actions you took? You broke it down into the different pieces. You went and did the research and you went and talked to somebody. I don’t know what the answer is on this exactly, but you did some actions to get you through to the result. And what was the result? I got a really good grade on this report.
Let’s say you were flipping burgers at a part-time job or something like that. One night you had a situation of somebody called in sick. You had to work a double shift. You had to clean the grill. That’s the obstacle. What was the action you took? Well, you stuck to it. You stayed late, you helped out. The results is you got the job done. The company was able to serve all their customers really well. You know you got employee of the month. So you put those stories together and you actually write them down. This can be really helpful for people with communication challenges, because you get to write this down and understand it and know it before you go telling it to someone in front of them. So write the story down, use these examples and then practice them. I mean literally almost memorize them.
You can stand in front of a mirror and practice or something like that.
You can talk to your parents, you can do it yourself, but memorize these stories and you know. Then when anybody asks you a question about what’s something that you did, you can pull out these stories and you know them. You’ve already planned what you’re going to say so you can be more relaxed in it, because you know this stuff cold.
Well, that sound like you’ve memorized it, or will it sound natural?
Well, here’s the thing to you. It’s going to sound memorized, but it’s the first time they’ve heard it, so they won’t think it’s memorized. They’ll think that you’re just answering the question because, remember, they’re nervous too, so they’re just going to be hearing the answer, not how you delivered so much. And if you can get more relaxed, that puts them at ease and that gets them to totally ignore how you’re delivering it, just what your delivering.
And do the same stories work for different jobs that you’re applying for?
Absolutely, because these skills are transferable. For example, as a project manager, which is my current job, I have to plan, I have to break things down into little pieces, I have to understand some basic accounting, I have to be able to take notes and I have to understand who’s going to do what next. I have to calendar things. Does that sound like any skills that you might use as a speech therapist?
Yeah.
Most of them right, so they’re the same skills. Now, obviously, there’s very other things that you need to do that I don’t do.
Those are the specialized things, but people can be taught specialized skills. It’s these basic skills that people have that can solve other people’s problems that they’re looking for.
Exactly. I always tell people I can teach you to do the job. I can’t teach you the attitude and the basis of that. So if people realize that you show up and you’re going to do a job the best you can, they’ll be happy to teach you anything, all the specialized skills that you need, but they see that as, oh, this person does this basic, you’re in.
Now, is it possible to actually rehearse an interview? I mean, we talked about rehearsing the stories, but can you sort of rehearse what they’ll ask you?
You can rehearse an interview. So there are lots of websites out there that have sample questions that they’re going to ask you in an interview and you can take those questions and you can have, you know, if you have someone, they can ask you the question and you can answer back to them. That’s ideal. Second best thing record yourself asking the question, play it back and then answer the question. You know you can practice those questions that they’re going to ask, because everybody asks the same questions. Honestly, we really do. We have very little that is new in the world, so you can rehearse those questions and then you’re going to get some form of that question. Now another thing you can do is you can and this is all the popular thing out there video yourself answering the question. Only do that if you really want a traumatic experience. I mean, it’s very teaching, it’s very good, don’t get me wrong. I highly recommend it. But the first time you watch that you’re going to, you’re going to die.
And you’re going to see your body, language and all sorts of things.
Yeah, and so be easy on yourself. Everybody hates that. I hate it so much, I never do it, but you can video yourself and then you can really do an understand. Hey, this is what I’m doing, this is what they’re seeing, so then you can. You can change that. But the best practice I know for preparing for an interview is a networking interview.
Now we’re getting into Dan’s super interest and specialty, which is networking interviews. But tell us what a networking interview is.
Well, first you got to know what a network is. Now it’s not a bunch of computers that talk to each other I mean that’s that’s a different kind of network but a networking interview or a rather a network In business world is a group of people who know you and understand you and you know you talk to them and they talk to you. You’ll hear this a lot in the, especially in the sales world. They all network a lot. Those are a bunch of extroverts. Chances are you’re not an extra extrovert and that’s okay.
You can have a network of people too, people who know you and will help you out. A networking interview is how you build that network, because you’re going to go in and talk to somebody and you’re going to tell them a little bit about yourself. You’re going to tell them what your skills are and you’re going to ask them questions how does this fit in your industry, your world? Is this a valuable skill? What skills do you have? And we’re going to dive into this a little bit deeper, because if you can master this skill, you will have an amazing network, the instead of just having one person out there helping you find a job.
You’re going to have 20 or 30 or 50 people out there.
Okay, so this sounds like something that a 30 or 40 year old person would do, but for these young adults, is a networking interview a good idea for them. How does it help? How? How would someone their age even get started?
You’re right. This is typically something done by someone in the industry. You know that’s had a job or two. But if you start now as a student, you’re going to be able to build a network way easier than them, because the key to a networking interview is you are not asking them for a job. Never ask anybody for a job in a networking interview. You’re asking for advice. Now, when you’re in industry, out in the working world, people are going to be suspicious. They think you’re going to be asking them for a job, because that’s mostly why people do these. But as a student, you’re asking for help, and who doesn’t want to help and mentor a student?
Everybody does.
Everybody does. It’s an honor for you to even ask them to be a mentor, and so they are going to fall all over themselves to help you out. And it is amazing, the doors that you are going to be able to unlock, because they’re going to open up their contact list to you and share you with all their friends. Because there are so many stories out there about students who just don’t care, but you do, you’re asking for help. You’re the one that everybody’s going to say, wow, this person’s a star.
So walk us through what a network interview might look like for this population we’re talking about.
Yeah. So the first thing you’re going to do is you’re going to ask someone for an interview, and I recommend you start with somebody you know because they won’t say no. You know, I started with a really good friend. I knew he wouldn’t say no to me. You know your parents have friends. They won’t say no to you either because they know your parents. You’re going to get all that goodwill. So best way to start is to start with positive. You’re never going to get a no by asking a friend of a parent.
And what are you going to say to that person you’re asking? What do you say?
You say I’m looking for career advice, I’m getting ready to start, you know, college, whatever I need to start understanding what the world looks like. I’m interested in fill in what you might be interested in learning about: Computer programming, nursing, doctors, you know. I mean you can make anything up, you don’t have to even really be interested in it, but you want to learn about it. And so if you have a neighbor, let’s say a neighbor who’s a nurse, and you say I want to learn about nursing, you go to this person, you can write them an email, you can just talk to them on the street. However it works for you, but just say look, I’m interested in learning about nursing. Can I talk to you for 20 minutes next week about nursing and how it works and what skills you use in that? Of course they’re going to say yes.
And it’s just 20 minutes. I remember that you don’t want to take a lot of their time, so you always tell them it’ll be 20 minutes.
Take a lot of their time and you really need to hold to that. Take a watch, because you want to be out of there 20 minutes. But you know they’re going to say yes, and then you’re going to go to that interview. You’re going to have a couple questions prepared to ask them about nursing, and you know you can make those up as you wish. But you’re also going to go in there and say, with your list of skills and your source stories, right? So you’re going to sit down with them and you’re going to just make sure they know about you.
Yes, they know your name is Sally and that, but you’re going to say, hey, I just want to tell you a little bit about myself. I have done this, this and this in my career, and you can use double quotes If you want. You know, however, you want to do it. Did you mow lawns? Then tell them about the lawn mowing job that you were successful at. Baby sitting is a great one too, so you’re going to tell them. I just want to tell you a little bit about my background. I’ve done these kinds of jobs and these are my favorite skills. And then you’re going to kind of go down those skills and you know I can plan. I love working with children. I’ve done babysitting jobs where I have taken care of four kids at once while the parents were away for four hours. I made them dinner, I helped them with their homework and got them to bed on time.
You know, whatever you did and you can say I’m really interested in the nursing field, can you see how any of these skills might apply to nursing? They’re going to come back with some answer and then it becomes a conversation about nursing and what are those skills, and you can start asking them questions about their skills and it might sound something like oh, what do you find the most important skills you use in your career or in your field or as a nurse, what helps you the most? They’re going to keep talking about and you’re getting information about nursing and they’re getting a feel for you as to how eager you are, what are your skills and what are your superpowers. The next thing you know you’ve got a friend who knows about you and is going to champion you and then the end of the interview is real simple. Thank you so much for sharing this information. This is really good. I would love to talk to more nurses or other people in the nursing field.
Can you do you have any friends that might be able to talk with me? What are they going to say?
They’re going to give you a name.
They’re going to give you a name, and, or two or three or five, and that’s really the goal of the interview to get a couple names. And so the end of the interview is over. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Do you mind if I keep in touch? And then you can get their email address or something like that, so that you can keep them in touch and you can always go back and email them with questions about something else? Or later you can say hey, I’m interviewing at this college for the nursing program. Would you write a letter of recommendation for me? Well, they don’t know anything about you as a nurse, obviously, but there can give you a character reference and they will bend over backwards to do it. And it’s really helpful as you start your career to have all these people who you talk to by email or however semi-regularly on your side.
I remember you saying you always write a thank you note.
I do.
After the interview and you handwrite it.
I handwrite it.
On a card.
You know, I don’t know if you’ve ever received a thank you note, an actual thank you note in the mail. You hang on to them forever. You know this stands out because that used to be the norm. Everybody wrote thank you notes. Nobody writes thank you notes now. So if you want to stand out in the crowd, go buy some cheap thank you notes at Walmart and just write down a quick note. Hey, Jan, thank you so much for spending time with me yesterday. I really appreciate it. Here’s two things that I learned from talking with you. And then list them Number one, number two. I appreciate it. Thanks for letting me know of your friends. I’m going to be talking to them soon. John, you just won over that person for the rest of life. They’re going to hang. I bet you that thinking is going to be stuck to their mirror and they’re going to be pulling it out on a bad day and reading it for a boost because they helped you. And then you go do the next interview. If Sally told you to go talk to her supervisor, Joan, then you send an email or a letter to Joan and you’re going to say hi, joan, my name is.
I was talking with Sally last week. I am on a career search to understand what is you know more about the nursing industry. She recommended that I talk to you to get more information. Would you be willing to meet with me for 20 minutes next week, when would be good for you? And then that’s all you have to do. You’ve got instant credibility because Sally sent you. Joan knows she likes Sally. She’s going to help Sally anyway she can. You’re in the door with the head of nursing now and you’re going to keep climbing the ladders up and down. Some of my best networking interviews was with a custodian because they know everybody or a secretary. I got into all sorts of places by knowing the secretaries.
And most people said yes.
I had. I did 130 interviews and I had two people say no, two out of 130.
And most of them were very successful experiences, I think one wasn’t.
I only had one experience that was really bad, and it was. It was actually with a CEO of a company. It was funny because I went from that CEO’s office over to another CEO’s office and he could tell something was wrong with me. This is actually a friend of mine. I went in and talked to him. He says, well, what happened? I said, oh, I had this bad interview with this guy over here. And he goes oh, don’t let that stress you. He does the same thing to me, you know. So there are just some people who don’t know how to talk to people, how they get to be CEO. I don’t know.
And so if you have a bad experience, it’s probably not you, it’s not you?
It’s not you there was other stuff going on, obviously.
But that’s the key thing is you’re going around talking to people and people’s friends and then through that they become your friends and, especially as someone in high school or your early years in college, they are going to bend over backwards to help you. They are going to be your biggest champions and they will help you any way they can. And so when you get time to look for a job, now that you have these people in your circle let’s say you are applying for a job that is past the burgers, right? You know it’s a first entry level job you can call any one of them up and ask them to be a reference and if you don’t know the job, you can send out an email to them and say I am two years away from graduation in field X. I am looking for an internship or an entry level job in this industry where I can kind of get a better feel for it.
Do you know of anybody who might have such a job? You’re not asking them for a job. You’re asking them if they know of anybody. Well, guess what? They already think you’re one of the best people in the world because you’re doing what they know they should be doing as a person building a network. They’re going to find jobs for you all over the place. You never know when these networking interviews turn into an actual job interview. I’ve had that happen. I had several people offer me jobs on the spot in the middle of a networking interview. It happens!
So, you get a job interview. You’ve done all this networking, you get an interview. Let’s talk a little bit about tactics during an interview. That can help anyone, communication disorder or not.
So the biggest problem in an interview is time acts funny. You’re stressed, they’re stressed. That’s a whole other podcast about how stressed they are but you’re stressed and you feel like they ask you a question and you have to say something immediately. In reality, you can count to five or 10 and say nothing and answer. They’re totally fine with it because what does it convey to them? They’re thinking about my question. They’re not just rattling off some strange answer or making something up. Now you may be, but if you can come back with one of your well planned answers after taking three or five seconds to collect your thoughts, you can come back with one of your well planned answers. After taking three or five seconds to collect your thoughts, deep breathe a couple times and relax? Then you’re going to actually go right through that answer and they’re going to think wow, what a well thought out answer.
You could even say that’s a great question.
Yeah, let me take a second here because I want to answer that.
I want to just think this through for a second because I think that is really helpful to let them know that you’re thinking, you’re not just saying anything. I want to think about that for a minute. I wouldn’t, say a minute, but I would say a moment, a moment. Because that’s you know but yeah, you can say, that’s a really good question.
That’s another one, and that’s a good question. It’s so used, overused. I would say that’s an insightful question. Let me gather my thoughts for a second here, and then you’ve got even more time. Now you’ve got 10 to 15 seconds. If you need it to calm yourself down, choose your SOAR story which you memorized right, and you can answer their question in a nice, calm, efficient manner. You always will talk faster than you need to, so pace yourself, talk slowly. When people get nervous, they talk faster, and so you need to learn that you can always talk slower and relax, and it’s going to be just fine.
Now what about body language, which communicates so much beyond what you’re actually saying?
Right. So when you’re in the interview, sit calmly in the chair. Don’t sit on the front edge of the chair, just you know. Be back in the chair a little bit. Hands in your lap, just relax, smile. Whatever you do, whatever anything else happens, smile. You just got to be pleasant with yourself because we all forget to smile when we get stressed. Quite honestly, they’ve seen 13 other people that have scowled at him. So if you smile, you’re in. Also, look them in the eye. Make sure you always look them in the eye, no matter how scared or anything. You know, if you can look them in the eye, you can make that connection with them on a physical level.
Before you go into the interview, there’s some things you can do that will help you so much, and there is a great TED talk by Amy Cuddy called Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are.
It was done in June of 2012. It’s out on the internet. I’ll put a link in the show notes, but it’s amazing. She talks all about body language and how to do it, but the best thing I got from it was the Wonder Woman Pose. And she says before you go into the interview, arrive early, which you should do anyway Go into the bathroom, get in the stall, lock the door so no one can see you, put your feet shoulder width apart, put your hands in fists and put them on your hips like Wonder Woman and you stand there just like that for 30 seconds. Just stand there with your shoulders back and it’s amazing how much power you gain from doing the Wonder Woman Pose. And that will actually carry you into that room all the way into that first important meeting that, hey, I’m confident and I’m calm and I’m Wonder man or Wonder Woman, take your pick.
It’s a fake. It till you make it. It really is. It really works. It’s a biological hack. When you do that, something happens to your confidence.
Yeah, it goes up and it’s weird, but it’s true. And watch that TED talk because she explains it so well. It’s really good. But fake it until you make it is so true, because you know we all feel like imposters on a lot of things. You can look at a job description and go, oh, that’s not me. Well, if you dig into that job description, you’re going to see a lot of the skills that you have. The rest you can pick up. Now you don’t go in and lie about things. You can say, well, tell me about this, and you’re like I really haven’t done anything like that. But here’s how I have solved something like that in another job. And they’re like, oh okay, you got the basics, I can teach you the rest.
What advice do you have for someone who feels like they’ve lost control in the interview?
So if you’re stammering and your mind is just blown, I’ve actually had people say look, I am so sorry, I am so nervous. Can I take just 10-15 seconds to calm myself? And as an interviewer, I understand. I know. It’s going to be the hard-hearted person who isn’t going to say you know what? Yeah, I can tell you’re nervous and they’re going to probably just direct the interview into something personable that you’re more comfortable with. That is, you know, like talking about the game last week or something, just to give you a chance to do it. But that’s okay. If you’re nervous and you’re and it’s messing up your interview, just say hey, I’m nervous, do you mind if I take a second just to collect? Can we talk about something else just for a moment so I can get back to myself again? I think it’s going to be okay. Now, it may not be with everybody, but if they’re, that person’s already written you off anyway. Right? So you haven’t lost anything.
I actually had an interview where the kid was so nervous he couldn’t say three words in a row and I stopped the interview and said look, I can tell you’re nervous, let’s talk about being nervous. And I gave him this podcast. Basically, did he get the job. No, he didn’t get the job, but he got the next one. Another thing you can do if you can feel yourself losing it in an interview is to go back to taking five to ten seconds before you answer the next question. Don’t be worried about the answer so much. Just taking that time to breathe and just relax. And just take a moment to calm down, slow down your speech, then answer the question again.
So now let’s talk a little bit specifically about what questions you might hear in an interview.
So you’re going to hear all sorts of different questions and it’s going to be impossible to cover every one of them, but if you happen to get one of these and you’ve practiced it, then you’re golden right and the chances are pretty high you’re going to hear one of these. Tell me about yourself. That’s always the first question that they ask you. You can almost guarantee that. Tell me a little bit about yourself. So you’re taking two minutes and I write this out. I actually write down everything I’m going to say and I practice it. It needs to be a two-minute expose on your life. Now, if you’re young, you may not have two minutes to talk about unless you start. I was born as a baby, but it’s important to have an answer ready for that. So talk a little bit about what classes you liked in school, what are your favorite classes, what are your favorite sports, what are your hobbies, and the important thing I found with that is to say what have you learned from that? So, for example, I really like my high school physics class because it taught me how to do problem solving and to take word problems and turn them into mathematical problems that I could solve. By the way, that is a superpower. If you can answer word problems, you can solve problems, and that is a skill that you should be trumpeting. So talk a little bit about that past and who you are, to help them get to know you quickly.
The next one you’re going to hear is probably worded around tell me a time when and it’s always you know something about the job after that. So tell me about a time when you’ve had to cook under pressure. Well, if you’ve cooked under pressure, great, you’ve got a story about it, right? If you haven’t cooked under pressure, then you transition to and I haven’t cooked under pressure, but here’s a situation where I was under a lot of pressure and this is how I solved that problem. You know, this is how I did that, because then they can say, okay, they’ve been under pressure, I can teach them how to cook, you know. So if you can’t answer it one way, twist it to be something else so that it can show that you’ve done something like it.
Another question you hear a lot is how would you handle an angry customer or how would you handle an employee that doesn’t ever show up on time? And then you can go through and talk about the skills that you’ve done where you might have handled the situation like that. These are all questions to try and get you to talk about how you can solve their problem, because these questions are going to be your biggest clue as to what is their problem they’re trying to solve. It’s going to be hidden in the job description. HR has a tendency to try and strip all that out when they post it. But you can really get into what are they trying to solve by listening to what they’re asking and then demonstrating that you can talk to that. That shows that you can solve their problems.
So I’ve heard to have questions ready for them, so this is at a point where you can ask them those questions. Give us an example of what that would be like.
Yeah, usually at the interview they’ll say do you have any questions for me? You really should have at least a question or two for this person to show that you’ve thought about this and you’re interested in them or are already at the job or the company. You can be interested in them too. So one thing that I do is I do research on the company beforehand so that I understand what the company is, because you don’t want to go in there and say, so what does your company do? You should know that before you walk in the door.
But you can ask questions like what does success look like in this position? Because that’s going to get them to talk about the problems that they’re trying to solve. That’s one of my favorite ones to ask. Another question you can ask is what are some of the biggest challenges you see for the candidate? You don’t have to say yourself, but you can say the candidate, and then they’re going to come back with what are the challenges? Well, that’s a blatant what are the problems that you’re having? You can answer that one. And then, what keeps you awake at night? That’s another one of my favorites, because it’s a little bit strange. It’s a little bit more conversational, but it gets them talking about what’s worrying them about their job.
So this is all to put you in the position of seeing things through their eyes, which can change your focus, the focus off of you and onto how you can help solve their problem.
Exactly as you’re listening to them answer you can then follow up with oh, that’s interesting. Let me tell you about another story. There you go.
And then how do you wrap the interview up?
Well, it’s important to do a strong close. When you get done with the interview, they’re going to say, well, thanks for coming in. You know, there’s the door.
And that’s kind of awkward. You want to have a good impression as you close.
So when you close an interview, you want to be strong. You want to shake their hand, thank them for their time and then just say I really like this company. Thank you for the time. I’ve learned so much. I hope to work with you someday. Show interest, Ask them for the job.
This is all terrific information. I wish I’d had this when I applied for my first job. Any last suggestions, things you want people to remember as we close.
I think the number one thing to remember is the people interviewing you want you to succeed. They hate interviewing just as much as you do, so they want to find the perfect person in their mind as fast as they can. So they want you to be successful. They are actually rooting for you. So just remember that. The key is to have them think oh, they’re going to come solve it for me, they know how to do it Done.
And they are so happy to trade money for a solution. A problem being solved.
Absolutely. When you have that realization, then you will have confidence, and confidence wins every time. So as you’re going through the interview, as self breathe, take time to breathe, talk slower. It may feel funny that you’re talking this slowly, but it’s going to be OK because you’re just bringing your point across and then relax. You can always look like you’re thinking, even though inside you’re just going be quiet man, just like chill out, but just relax, breathe and have fun with it. And that’s the beauty of doing networking interviews is, after you’ve done 20 or so plus networking interviews, you will suddenly automatically relax in those situations because you’ve been practicing that, and then you’ll get to the point like I am now. I love to interview, I love to go talk to people about what their problems are. I think it’s fun and I hope you enjoy it too. So go out there, start with your friends, your parents’ friends, and just work on out there, build yourself a network. You’re never going to be without a job.
This is great information, Dan, thanks for letting me interview you, which I’ve been wanting to do ever since I started this podcast, actually. If you have questions about interviewing, you can always email me, denise at thespeechembrellacom, and I will channel those questions to Dan and he’ll get back to you.
Absolutely Love to help people with this.
Thanks for listening.
Have a great day. Thanks for listening to the Speech Umbrella. We invite you to sign up for the free resource library at thespeechembrellacom. You’ll get access to some of Denise’s best tracking tools, mindfulness activities and other great resources to take your therapy to the next level. All this is for free at thespeechembrellacom. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, subscribe and please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and other podcast directories.
I am a therapist and entrepreneur, clinic owner, published author, and creator of speech therapy materials.
The Speech Umbrella is run by Denise Stratton, Reach out with any questions.