Preparing for interviews can be an anxious and painstaking process. Interview preparation should always be thorough, unfortunately, there are several key areas which you cannot practice by yourself. You will need feedback and coaching from someone who has hands on experience in this skill set. Interview coaching has become a highly specialised area, and it will become your secret weapon when you are job hunting
I have been doing interview coaching for over 14 years, helping candidates across many industry sectors, including FinTech, Finance Services, Business Change, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Administrative and Education. I really enjoy helping candidates prepare for interviews and seeing them succeed. I am also concerned to see many candidates who do not have access to interview coaching or do not have time to prepare and leave to chance many key interview variables that can be easily controlled if they only had access to an interview preparation coach. This article covers ten areas where you can benefit from feedback and guidance with your interview preparation.
Interview Coaching Tips
- Handshake: You get only one opportunity to make a good ‘’first impression’’. ‘’First Impression’’ is critical for a positive start to your interview. Your handshake must be firm and confident. Feedback about the quality of your handshake will help you to perfect this.
- Wardrobe: What your appearance looks like speaks louder than words. Do you look like the level of the role for which you are interviewing? Are you dressed too casually or too formally? Your interview coach will help you dress appropriately for the role and company culture.
- Vocal Tone and Volume: Is your voice too high or too low? Too constricted? Too soft? Interview coaching will provide quality feedback and help you make adjustments, to help your voice to sound pleasing and confident.
- Accent: If you have an accent, either regional or international, could this be limiting your ability to be fully understood. Interview coaching can help you fine tune this to help improve your communication.
- Pronunciation: If you mispronounce words or use incorrect grammar, this will affect your interview success and could go against you. Your interview coach listens carefully for these mistakes and will help you correct them.
- Talking Speed: Depending on where you grew up, your personality or your profession, your speed of talking could be too fast or too slow for the interviewer. If you mismatch your speed with the interviewer, this could be a show-stopper. Your interview coach will provide exercises in how to modulate your talking speed, so you that you come across confident and in control.
- Posture: Slump in the chair and its over! Sit back too comfortably, with your legs crossed and you will be seen as having low energy, dis-interested or disrespectful. Poor posture will not only harm your professional image, but slumping restricts your airway and will negatively affect your vocal volume, tone and overall body energy. Interview coaching will help you with this often ignored and important aspect of non-verbal communication during interviews.
- Hands: Do you tend to fidget nervously?, do not know where to place your hands? Do you make hand gestures that are not in synch with what you are actually saying? Any of these behaviours could indicate to the interviewer that you are nervous or lacking in self-confidence. Your interview coach will give you feedback and coaching on how to make best use of your hands to help you come across natural and confident.
- Facial Expressions: You must know what your face is transmitting when you speak and are listening. Interview coaching will include “holding up a mirror” to yourself, to help you understand the important details that your facial expressions giveaway to the interviewer.
- Eye Contact: Good eye contact is one of the most important aspects of giving a good interview. It is almost an art, but it can be learned. Interview coaching will help you learn when to look at the interviewer, when to look away, where to look and how to look at the interviewer.
You now understand that while you can prepare well on your own for an interview, there are several critical areas of the interview that you cannot leave to chance by preparing alone. For the above critical skills, interview coaching is invaluable.
You need coaching feedback, and techniques targeted for adjusting these variables for you to come across in the strongest way possible in your interviews. You must not take any chances on the interview factors that you can control with practice. I wish you good luck and hope interview coaching will help you succeed in your interviews.
If you would like more information on how interview coaching can help you or wish to comment, please email me at: antonio.ciarleglio@albemarleconsulting.com For more information about Albemarle Consulting, our services, or new career opportunities in FinTech, please contact me at: antonio.ciarleglio@albemarleconsulting.com or visit: https://albemarleconsulting.com/
