You apply for a role.
An email or phone call tells you that you are invited to interview for the role.
Great news. Now it’s just a case of showing up, doing a great interview and the job is yours.
I really wish it was that simple.
In reality it never is.
One thing that’s going to be through the minds of those who will be interviewing you is whether you really are the right person for the job.
Now you might be wondering how you can show you are perfect for the job.
Surprisingly it can be a lot easier than you might think.
Here are 4 things I would suggest you do to increase your chances of effectively demonstrating you are the ideal or perfect person for the job.
Make sure you really know the job
You might find this a little strange. After all you have read the job advert, job description and person specification.
On the other hand have you done this really rigorously?
By that I mean taking your time to highlight important words and insights.
Most will skim over the documents.
If you take your time you will be getting great insights into the job, and, equally important be picking up potential questions.
Know what the critical elements of the job are
I worked for 15 years in the NHS. I still do a lot of work with clients in the NHS.
Like all public sector bodies they tend to produce long job descriptions and person specifications.
Of course that doesn’t mean that all elements of those documents are of equal importance.
This is where your experience and the experiences of those in your network come in.
The better you are at identifying the critical elements the better you are going to show how you the perfect fit.
Make sure your examples are highly relevant
One thing I get clients working on is an example bank.
In their example bank I encourage them to record examples of when they achieved, handled difficult or challenging situations, handled difficult people, made a value contribution among other things.
The temptation might be just to trot out your examples in auto pilot.
Trouble is this rarely works.
What you need to focus on is using the most relevant examples.
Those examples which demonstrate your expertise in some of the most critical areas of a job.
Show your personality
You might be technically brilliant.
However, technical ability is only one aspect in the decision making process around who to appoint.
Your interpersonal skills, fit and outlook are also going to be important too.
For that reason it’s vitally important that you show your personality in the job interview.
After all they are hiring a human being at the end of the day.
So here’s my advice. Give this a try. You might be surprised how much different it makes to your performance in job interviews.