Posted under Interviewing on December 26th, 2007
An interesting point arose in a mock interview session I held with a client today. I like to begin by asking, “What questions are you concerned about, or what answers have you already thought of that you’re less than 100% confident about?” The client’s response was, “I’ve been thinking about my answer to ‘What brings you here today?’”
“OK,” I said, “So what have you come up with thus far?”
“I’m applying for the job you had posted on Monster.com as a special education administrator.”
Period?
Period.
Then I brought the mock interview to a halt. “Let’s take that answer up to another level, shall we? Why are you excited about potentially getting this job?”
Oh, my goodness, the answer flooded out of the client’s mouth. “Special education is something I was turned on to several years ago when I worked for an extended period in a special education setting.” “I was exposed to children with all different types of learning styles and educational challenges.” “I decided then to pursue an advanced degree in this field.” “I see this job as my opportunity to really apply my expertise in a wide variety of ways.”
Whew! I said, “Well, isn’t that what brings you here today? Let’s incorporate all of THAT into your answer!”
The moral of the story is, when interviewing, and quite frankly, when developing your resume, please back away from the static, typical answer. Find your passion. Tell your story. Speak from your heart. That’s how you make the employer really stand up and take notice.
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