5 Skills to Succeed in a Job Interview

Is there anything you can do in a job interview to increase your chances of success? After having been the interviewer in several, having been a candidate in many others, and researching scientific publications , I think I can recommend some social skills techniques that will be very useful in a job interview.

As you know, the resume is a filter that once passed has little or no importance. From there, and as a 2004 North American study confirms , what is really critical is pleasing the interviewer as a person.

The skills to succeed in a job interview

1. Your appearance matters

Logically, you look well dressed, groomed and combed. It is recommended not to wear a scandalous neckline if you are a girl. Clean teeth, nails and shoes. Nothing new.

2. Open body expression

Smile when you meet the interviewer, greet him by shaking his hand and repeating his name (“ Delighted Jorge, I’m Pablo ”). When you sit down, relax your posture, hands on the table and look at the interviewer’s face. Be careful not to overdo it with your smile and your gaze: if you spend the whole interview smiling or don’t look away from his eyes, you’re going to look like a lunatic. And try to be calm, although only experience will give you that.

3. Unite your defects with your virtues

It’s about being sincere but not stupid. The times when they asked you about a defect and you had to respond with a virtue (“ my worst defect is that I am too perfectionist and that prevents me from forgetting about work when I get home ”) are long gone. Now your feather duster will be visible from afar.

What usually works well is to recognize a defect of yours, linking it to a virtue to minimize the impact that this deficiency may cause, and above all, indicate that you are aware of it and that you are already remedying it.

For example: “ I am somewhat disorganized. That’s because I am very restless and it is difficult for me to focus on a single project at a time. But since the last year, one of my priorities is to organize myself better and prioritize projects according to their importance. I have already got to work .”

4. Failures at the beginning, achievements at the end

In another classic study from the early 70s, it was concluded that if there is something bad to say or admit about oneself, it is better to do it at the beginning of the interview , never at the end. If you present your defects in this way, the interviewer will perceive it as a gesture of openness and honesty and its negative effects will be minimized. And backwards. When it comes to mentioning your greatest achievements, the ideal is to do so towards the end, thus showing some modesty on your part.

5. Differentiate yourself by being honest

Being different, combined with honesty, wreaks real havoc on interviewers. You have to be clear about who you are and what you can offer the company, and that has to be unique. Although it may seem like it has no importance.

In my case, in the positions for which I was interviewed, I was usually inexperienced and too young. But it made up for it because it offered them a differentiating aspect: a marketing professional with experience in social psychology in a sector as traditional as the pharmaceutical industry.

And there the explosive combination with honesty is born:

Look, if what you are looking for is a marketing manager with extensive experience in the respiratory area and an extensive network of contacts with opinion leaders, I am not your man. Now, if you want a professional who in such a changing environment strives to innovate by applying the latest advances in social psychology and consumer behavior to marketing strategies and actions, that could be me .

By exposing myself to the interviewer in this way, even telling him why he shouldn’t hire me , I demonstrated a lot of honesty. But the most important thing is that I differentiated myself, I was unique, and who doesn’t want to have someone unique and honest working for them?