The Best Person You can be at the Interview is Yourself… or is it?

Nervous, fearful, anxious, on edge, etc. These are the words that I’ve always heard from people around me when work interview discussions came about but I’ve never understood why? I’ve had my fair share of work interviews, more informal than formal interviews but even so anxiety has never taken the best of me, and I’ve always been left with the question of why people are so scared of work interviews.? Maybe most people view work interviews as a moment of judgement, a judgement of their character, their life’s work, their decisions, and overall, a judgement of them as a person. Perhaps I am a one-in-a-million who doesn’t fear being judged and therefore have nothing to fear when sitting against a panel of ‘judges’. This is why whenever we were tasked to prepare for mock interviews, I thought this would be the perfect time to refresh my memory and practice my skills since it’s been a while since I was interviewed. I will use the Rolfe et al model of reflection to reflect on my journey in my interview preparation and the interview itself. I will be using it due to the sheer simplicity of the model. I will ask myself What? So what? What now?   

Just Be Yourself

What I needed to do first is to find a job application online that I could apply to at this stage. I went on a hunt to find a video/film editor job that was entry-level jobs. After finding one, I submitted it for my work interview. I felt as if this could be a job I could apply for once I’m finished with my studies that would help me develop experience and skills further. Upon reading all the responsibilities, I found myself perfect for the role. I felt I could do everything they wanted me to do and more. 

James Reed says ‘The best preparation consists of finding heartfelt and useful answers to certain key questions – and there aren’t so many questions that they can’t all be mastered by the average person in a few evenings’ work’ [2] Questions about you as a person are at the heart of every interview and apart from your CV, it’s how you manage to answer those questions for your possible employer that could lead you to get the job. ‘Jobs are a by-product of an entrepreneur’s desire to build their own business, a business the entrepreneur hopes will solve all of his or her problems via solving other people’s problems.[3] Therefore I knew my answers needed to help solve the problems of the employer.  

Whilst practicing my answers for questions that may come up during the interview, I kept in mind a very important fact: ‘An astonishing 96 percent of employers said they’d pick mindset over skills’ [4]. I needed to remember that overall skills can always be developed and improved faster than a person’s mindset and my mindset is to always stay optimistic and not fear rejection.

Fear of Rejection?

D-Day has come and as we all gathered and got ready to interview each other I noticed an ongoing theme among my classmates. Nervous body language. ‘In a job interview, two conversations are going on at the same time. The second conversion, the nonverbal one, can seriously support or disastrously weaken your spoken words.’ [5] How dare thou body betray us by showing our true feelings through body language. Even if you speak in full confidence without stuttering your body can’t fool anyone. Me on the other hand? Not a nerve in sight. I came well prepared and even if I’m not prepared for every question, my main power in interviews is my amazing body language. It’s my secret weapon.  

We were using the STAR method during the interviews to see how well each candidate answered. I wasn’t confident in my ability to remember to hit all the points that the STAR method required however during my interview I felt thought as though I had done very well remembering STAR. During my interview, I stayed calm and positive showing great body language but not forgetting to still be myself. One of the questions I received, asked which editing software am I familiar with. I replied: Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Avid. However, I also mentioned my dislike for Avid as a program and why I thought so. I think it’s important to show your concern with certain parts of a job that you wouldn’t be comfortable in, it’s a way of still being yourself during an interview.  

Upon getting my results from my interview I was told that I achieved the STA parts of the STAR method but lacked the R: result, the outcome of the situation. My answers were confident and articulated but I did not always provide the results of my situations in my answers. I’ll need to slow down in my answers next time to allow myself time to achieve the full STAR. As for my presentation of myself, I achieved 5/5 and showed my confidence through my body language. Overall: I showed confidence with passion in my answers with good examples of my previous experiences however in those answers I tended to focus on the weaknesses of my crews and for the future, I will focus on more of the positive rather than the negative.           

 

References:

[1] Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Ebrary [Online]. Available at: https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveModelRolfe.pdf (Accessed 19th February 2023).

[2] Reed, J. (2017) Why You? 101 Interview Questions You’ll Never Fear Again. Ebrary [online]. Available at: https://aghalibrary.com/storage/books/1612862071_AghaLibrary.pdf (Accessed 19th February 2023).

[3] Reed, J. (2017) Why You? 101 Interview Questions You’ll Never Fear Again. Ebrary [online]. Available at: https://aghalibrary.com/storage/books/1612862071_AghaLibrary.pdf (Accessed 19th February 2023).

[4] Reed, J. (2017) Why You? 101 Interview Questions You’ll Never Fear Again. Ebrary [online]. Available at: https://aghalibrary.com/storage/books/1612862071_AghaLibrary.pdf (Accessed 19th February 2023).

[5] Kennedy, l, J. (2011) Job interviews for Dummies. Ebrary [online]. Available at: https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/job-interviews-for/9781118112908/ (Accessed 19th February 2023).

[6] Boogaard, K. (2022) The STAR Method: The Secret to Acing Your Next Job Interview. [online]. Available at: https://www.themuse.com/advice/star-interview-method (Accessed 19th February 2023).

Link to Blog: https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/ael3001-2022/2023/02/19/the-best-person-you-can-be-at-the-interview-is-yourself-or-is-it/