Prepare for Interviews: Step one is review your performance at recent interviews
Do it ASAP before you forget!
This Post is how to learn from every interview and how to prepare better. Over 45? Remember that rejection is seldom just due to age discrimination, plus there are many ways to prepare and avoid it.
OK, so your skills and experience were perfect for the job but you didn’t get it.
There could be a number of reasons…
- Poor manners (all too common, particularly when being interviewed by young agency recruiters – we can’t seem to control ourselves!)
- Talking too much or too little
- Dressed unprofessionally or just inappropriately (bare skin for a religious charity?)
- Knowing almost nothing about what they do or what they need (very poor interview preparation)
- Being too modest / too boastful about your achievements
- Talking about your needs, not theirs
- Prejudice on age, gender, race or some other dumb irrelevancy (you just dodged a bullet – who wants to work for someone like that)
- Your demands were unrealistic about..
- What responsibilities you asked for
- Future career prospects
- Salary
Evaluate and do Better Next Time
The best time to review your ‘performance’ is immediately after, while it’s fresh.
Your objective is to evaluate what you said, or asked, so you’ll do better next time. Self-evaluation will lead to a better interview next time – and you’ll keep getting better.
Remember, all great jobs are competitive – but you just have to be better than the other applicants. And having interviewed many thousands, I know that even a few basic interview skills will give you the edge.
Here’s what to run through after every interview…
Preparation
- How could I have prepared better?
- Did I know enough about them?
- Did I arrive with plenty of time to relax?
Opening
- Did I get off to a pleasing and friendly start?
- How soon was she (the interviewer) fully at ease?
Facts
- Did I get all that I needed?
- What extra information would have helped me?
Attitudes
- How did I treat her questions that seemed silly or irrelevant?
Feelings
- Was I aware of my impact on her?
- Did I know when to soft pedal and when to push ahead with questions?
- Did I thoughtfully answer questions?
Questioning
- Did my questioning follow comfortably and logically from his conversation? Did I neglect to question in areas where he provided clues?
- How could my questioning have been better?
Listening
- Did I cut him short or talk over him at any time?
- Did I talk too much?
Giving Information
- What information did she misunderstand or appear to find difficult to appreciate?
- Might there be repercussions from information that I gave her?
- Did I leave out key information that would have improved my chances?
Closing
- How could the interview have been closed better?
- What was her mindset when the interview ended?
- Did I give a clear and confident indication of my views on the job?
General Questions
- Did I make him a friendly acquaintance?
- Did I show him real interest?
- Did I show annoyance at some of his questions?
- Do I know the next step in his selection process, and when is it?
Live in Australia and over 45?
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For the complete guide to follow-up after an interview, click here
