I discuss job interview strategies regularly during meetings with customers, mock job interviews and seminars. Some recent experiences of my own have given me new perspectives on the topic. To publicize my book, I have conducted several interviews on radio beginning in December. Several were taped for future broadcasts, so I was able to listen at air time. Others I have downloaded to save and replay on my own.
In my initial interviews, I simply answered the questions of the host, many of whom encouraged me to speak as long as I wanted. After a few interviews, another author (my sister Maureen Dezell) advised me that she always prepares bullet points prior to a radio interview, so I began doing this. My most recent interview was one hour for the Career Catalyst show on BlogTalkRadio. The host, Kenrick Chatman, has sent me a script of questions ahead of time. Here I outlined my answers prior to air time.
As I listen back to my interviews, I’m struck at how much better I sound in the interviews where I had bullet points prepared. People that have heard me on multiple shows agree. What concerned me was that in some instances of longer answers, while speaking freely, I heard myself either make mistakes or confuse my message.
I will now always emphasize anyone involved in a job search to find a way to tape yourself in a mock interview setting. You will discover many things of your delivery that you will want to improve. Plus prepare a list of bullet points you want to make. Interestingly, I need to encourage this more in extroverts. Many of them feel that they don’t need such preparation since they are comfortable talking to people. Since most interviews involve open-ended questions, extroverts are more prone to ramble and not get to the point. I saw that problem in myself after hearing a tape of my answers to such style of questions.
