By Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
It’s easy to avoid this interview mistake. Just use stars.
Tough interview question: Rate your abilities on a scale of 1-10
I thought I’d share with you a classic mistake people make when answering questions in interviews, as shown in today’s “Stupid Interview Mistakes.” Often, it is because they are so nervous that they become disorganized.
I want to encourage people to do two things. The first is to remember some kind of anchoring device that will take you home. Like I was doing with someone yesterday, and in their case, I suggested that if they have a ring, when they need to center it, just press that spot on their finger as a reminder, whether they’re wearing a ring or not.
Another thing that is more specific for many people is to organize your answers using a specific acronym called STAR. It represents the situations you enter, the tasks you are asked to perform or assigned or choose to perform, the actions you perform, and the results you obtain. When citing results, you need to use financial terms that reflect that your work helped the company earn or save money. If your work helps your company generate a certain amount of money, you can point out the dollar amount or percentage difference between you and others in your company doing similar work. You can express it in pure dollars or as a percentage. It makes no difference.
The STAR method of answering questions grabs people’s attention because you’re telling a story, and people love stories! The format is also “situation”, “task”, “action” and “result”
Recruiters are not your friends
About Big Game Hunter Jeff Altman
Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter is a coach who has been a recruiter for a hundred years. His work spans career coaching, executive job coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 job search podcast on iTunes with over 3,100 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice on networking more effectively, how to negotiate job opportunities, or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide no-nonsense career advice, whether it’s about job hunting, better recruiting, leadership, management or support on workplace issues. Schedule a discovery call on my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
My courses can be found on my website at www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses. These courses include informational interviews, interviews, final interview preparation, salary negotiation mistakes to avoid, the top ten questions to prepare for any job interview, and starting a new job.
Connect with me on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/thebiggamehunter
Watch my videos on YouTube at JobSearchTV.com
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