JNU’s student career development association organized it and here’s a report and some photos of the class:

http://tinyurl.com/2vjfs27

Excited. Anxious.

Before long, as the day gets nearer, you will start to feel nervous, if you are like most people.

While you are busy feeling nervous and, hopefully, doing good research about the employer, the job, and the industry, how do you think the interviewer is feeling?

Let me be upfront: The interviewer or the hiring manager is sweating.

Yes, you are not the only one who is afraid and nervous.

The interviewer is nervous too.

The reasons for this are interesting:

1. The chances of finding a good employer through an interview is only 3% better than picking a name out of a hat;

2. If the interview was conducted by someone who would be working directly with the candidate, the success rate is 2% worse than that of picking a name out of hat;

3. If the interview was conducted by a human resources expert, the success rate plunged to 10% below that of picking a name out of a hat.

The fact remains that most interviewers have never been trained to properly select candidates through interviews. And they simply pretend that they do and make it as if what they are doing is scientific.

They also have work up to their eyeballs and spending time sorting through job candidates is something they are not hired to do. And so, they may well know that they are not very good at it.

Another fact of life: As humans, we make decisions emotionally, then justify them by logic.

Very seldom do we actually decide using logic to make decisions (Yes, management and business schools will teach you the logical evaluation tools to use for decision-making… but that’s not real world.)

This is the reason why the first impression you give the interviewer within the first 3 – 5 seconds matters the most!

Now, why is it that they don’t seem nervous?

Well, because you are too focused on yourself (and your fears) to notice their nervousness. And of course, they have learned to hide their fears from years of practice.

Now, what is the interviewer afraid of?

Here a list:

1. You won’t do the job well because you lack the needed skills or experience.

2. You won’t put in a full day’s work regularly.

3. You will be sick often.

4. You will quit within a few weeks or months.

5. You will take too long to master a job.

6. You won’t get along with others in the team.

7. You have to be held by the hand to get the job done for too long.

8. You will simply do the minimum required.

9. You have a work-disrupting character flaw.

So, in actuality, we have 2 very nervous people sitting across the table in an interview.

Think about it: How difficult is it to convince a nervous person who really is not sure how to do a good job at selecting a candidate?

The game is simple: The more sure, definite and certain you are, the more convincing you will be.

Practicing the wrong thing will simply make matters worst.

You do not want the practice to turn your interview responses into canned, impersonal answers at the real interview. You do not want to practice only specific questions just to freeze when asked a question you didn’t expect. You also do not want to practice bad habits.

Here are 3 tips for you to work on:

1. Practice the interview process. If you are a fresh graduate or still studying, you will hardly have enough practice in your business suit. Even presentations in school are done mostly in your casual wear. Remember there can be a huge gap between dressing the role and behaving the role. So, dress up for your practice interview and set the environment to match where you might actually be. So, practicing outside of your home environment is a good idea. The point is match the practice as close to the real thing as possible.

If you can, film your mock interview process and see yourself in the video. You’ll be surprised with what you see.

2. Practice phone interviews.

My own experience with most job-hunters is that they are often VERY ill-prepared. Not just in what they say, how they say it, but also their environment. I’ll have a phone interview appointment with them and when I call them, I can always guess where they are by the, “Next stop, Tsim Sha Tsui, the doors will open on the right…” announcement.

Phone interviews need to be handled differently from live interviews. Phone interviews do not give the body language cues and thus, you need to listen much more carefully to engage your interviewer. The only communication tool is your voice and the way you use it. For your voice to be engaging over the phone, a range of volume, tone, and tempo has to be used.

You will also be in a comfortable environment and perhaps even dressed very casually. As such, there is a danger of becoming too informal as you speak. The best way to practice phone interviews is to tape it. Most mobile phones these days have a recording function. Or you can always use your computer microphone with “sound recorder.”

3. Practice with someone who can actually help you.

One client gave me an interview response recently which he learned from a family member that had me burst out laughing. It turns out that this particular family member hadn’t been in the market for about 10 years and have no idea what it is like to interview for a job anymore.

It is vital to get credible advice when you practice your interview techniques. Before you take advice, consider where it’s coming from. If it’s a fellow job-hunter, are they successful and are they working where you want to work? If it’s a recruiter/head-hunter, what is their agenda (always remember who is paying the head-hunter to recruit). If it is a coach, are they psychoanalyzing you or do they know what it takes to get someone hired?

Bonus tip: Please get your hands on the frequently-asked interview questions. And make sure you know how to answer them. No, not memorize your answers. But have a good idea how you will answer them.