How to interview better is a key question on all our minds.
You can interview better by not being boring. You can’t bore your way into a job.
Admit it. A least to yourself. I find that the most common reason you are boring is that you are too general with your answers.
Check out my latest video to see the difference between a general/boring answer compared to one with rich details!
For my 5 best interview tips, click here
Transcript below:
Part I
Hi. This is Mike Mittleman, your personal career coach. I help people get top jobs in financial services. The video that follows is an excerpt from a live client call. I really hope you find it helpful for your job search.
Part II
People fall into one of two buckets in interviewing. They either give you so much information you want to fall asleep or they don’t give you enough information because they’re at 30,000 feet.
Part III
The problem is, when you’re at 30,000 feet, I can’t compare you to somebody else. Your answers were too general. Nothing you said was wrong. Nothing you said was inappropriate. It was just too general. Let me tell you two different stories.
Part IV
I took my kids to Central Park. That’s one story. The next story is, I took my three kids to Central Park, hopping on the N line. We got off on 71st Street, walked over to Central Park, and the first thing we did was we got ice cream at one of the vendors on the south side of the park.
Part V
After we had our ice cream, I took the kids to the playground on 72nd on the east side, and we played on the jungle gyms, we played in the sand and we did a whole bunch of different stuff. The kids were having a great time. After that, I walked them around a lot so they would get tired so they could actually sleep that night. So we ended up on the other side of the park where we went to the Natural History Museum for a couple of hours.
Part VI
Then we ended up taking the Q train back home, and when I got home they were exhausted and they went to bed and I had a nice evening with my wife. So tell me the difference between the stories. Now you can compare me as a father to another father. I may compare better or I may compare worse, but at least you can now compare me, where if I said I took my kids to the park — [shrugs].
Part VII
So we want to make sure that you pull out examples and stories because an example or a story will tell me more about you. Okay. Because think about it for a minute. I’m looking at your resume. Your resume has — Oh! your resume has specifics. So I like your resume. So your resume is bringing out what’s special about you, but your words aren’t.
Part VIII
And I want you to be able to back up your words with more specifics, because it’s the only way I can compare you to somebody else. So that’s that is 99% of the people do that. Sometimes people talk too much, but majority of time you just don’t use enough examples. Let’s put it this way. I’ll make the bold statement of saying, other than “Tell me about yourself,” I almost want to hear a specific example. A client story. How you interacted with a PM. I want to hear an example or a story almost every single question. I want to hear a story. That’s what makes you different.
