You’re sitting face-to-face with your employer. He looks at you carefully and says, “Tell us about yourself. Not this. You are in a state of panic. You’re in the middle of something that dominates your life: football, gym, movies, family – what does he want to know? Talking about yourself is the most important part of the interview. And, of course, the most difficult one. Yikigai will teach you how to deal with it.
Speak briefly
This may seem strange and illogical to you, but all the information you tell us about yourself should fit within one minute, if not less. This is partly due to the need to keep the attention of the employer, but the most important thing is that you focus on yourself. When you are nervous, there is a great temptation to talk a lot and bury important information under tons of trifles and details. Briefness is the sister of talent, you can’t afford to spread your thoughts on the tree.
Talk about work
We are not used to advertising ourselves. Our first impulse is to fill the employer with information about his personal life because we are used to defining ourselves through hobbies and friends. Family, personal goals, hobbies – we are ready to tell about everything that is equally useless for the employer and for us in a situation of the interview. Whoever understands that he is required to provide professional information has an incoherent stream of qualities, such as: “I am diligent, hardworking, motivated, punctual, can work in a team and on my own.
Believe us: this is bad.
Coming on time and understanding the work ethic is expected of you. Positioning these qualities as your own merits is like selling a house, advertising it as “having walls, floor and ceiling”. You need to talk about something substantial. Tell me how many years and months you work in this industry. If the experience is not impressive, focus on education. Tell us what programs you know, what skills, what equipment, what you know how to sell – in general, go deeper into the specifics. You can’t be confused by trivial enumeration, because…
You need numbers
Just like in your resume, to provide your employer with exact numbers and numbers – and this will take you far ahead even in front of more experienced competitors. Let’s look at two examples – which will impress you more? “I’ve worked both in the hall and the kitchen. I’m mostly a waiter, but I also know how to wash dishes, deliver orders, and I’ve worked in a cold shop.” Or, “I worked in a family restaurant for a year and a half. I was a waiter for about a year or so, serving about two hundred people a day, and up to five hundred at the weekend. I also worked in the kitchen for a couple of months in a cold shop, delivering orders and washing dishes.” Depending on the type of restaurant, two hundred people may not seem like a large number, but the employer will find out about your abilities. Having an idea of what you can do, it’s easier for him to make a decision.
Keep your bar higher
When people come to an interview, they spend a lot of energy to convince everyone that they meet the minimum requirements for an ad. Remember, if you are invited to an interview, you already meet the minimum requirements, otherwise you wouldn’t be wasting time. The purpose of the interview is to show that you have more skills than anyone else who applies for this position. Think about how advertising works. It doesn’t just show you the composition of the product or the way it works. And what else? Attractive and funny young people at a party, running puppies in the yard of a beautiful house. They promise you not the product itself, but the life you will have if you buy it. You have to do the same thing. When you talk about yourself, you have to lay the foundation in the first half and in the second half, you have to tell us what you will do. You will bring in fresh clients, improve safety in the workplace, etc. And then…
Find the right angle
If you don’t have the experience and knowledge, you need to find something else that will compensate for their lack of experience and demonstrate their ability to interact with people and create a quality service. We are all young, and we must turn our youth into energy, endurance, and performance, not lack of experience. Think of examples. “The Sandwich Effect is a technique of giving bad information in a positive manner. Start with the positive (experience, education, ability), then the negative (lack of knowledge of specific techniques and methods), and then gently move on to the positive (how you can compensate for the described lack). The technique is perfect for presenting your shortcomings. Practice Write down your speech and give it to yourself. When you feel more confident, you will be less stuck and stop filling in the gaps between awkward words “uh-oh”. You’ll be surprised how much information can be stored in a minute! You need daily practice. If you have the opportunity, videotape yourself or sit in front of a mirror and talk to yourself about your strengths and weaknesses, as you would say to your employer. It won’t be easy, but any skill needs to be honed.
