Succeed in Interviews

Perhaps you are spending hours and hours trying to perfect your CV, and you are finally getting that interview, but it slips away too easily. How to increase your chance to succeed in interviews?

You’ve worked hard to get that interview, most likely practicing and preparing all kinds of interview questions, and studying how to answer each with the SMART method. Those are of course very important, but probably so are many other participants too.

So how to stand out and leave a good and long lasting impression that helps you to go all the way? Besides your education, knowledge and experience, there is something else you can work on in the short term to stand out from the crowd and boost your opportunities.

And that is, boost your first impression on others. Why is the first impression so crucial for an interview? It’s because those first seconds determine the rest of the conversation. It’s crucial to win those first seconds if you want to succeed in the interview.

A first impression is often visual, and it emerges almost completely based on feeling. In fact, people tend to create their own opinion of you when they see you, and it doesn’t matter if it’s in person or online. The rest of the conversation is to confirm their own initial judgement.

Just think to yourself, what are the things you would record about someone you meet for the first time? Almost always one starts with gender, skin & hair colour. Then you probably will notice the following: how they stand or walk, how tall or small, skinny or large, looking happy, sad or tired, what sort of clothes, anything striking or unusual? 

Then, imagine yourself as an interviewer. Hopefully you have read the applicant’s CV, or have seen their Linkedin profile, and then you probably have formed a pre-impression, an expectation before you meet him or her online or in-person. If the person now in front of you is totally different from what you are expecting, there might be distrust from the start. 

Most people trust what they see the most, so it’s to your advantage to create a consistency in what you are presenting. That’s your appearance, your content, your tone of voice, and behaviour, as well as your verbal and your non-verbal communication. The more consistent all those elements are across multiple channels, the more credible you are. Thus the bigger the chance for you to succeed.

If you have a lack of confidence about it or are not sure if the recipient perceives you as you intend, I can help. Let’s do this together. 

I can help you create a strong professional image that helps you impress and also matches your personal energy and area of expertise. And that shows the best of you and matches how you would like others to perceive you.

Together we will look at what colour combination flatters you the most. This will be one that makes you stand out but matches who you are. For example, although wearing red can really stand out, even if red is one of your best colours, it is actually one of the colours to be avoided for an interview. This is because the colour of red not only exudes energy, passion, and confidence, it also express aggression and arrogance. But you may use it as a pop up colour if you wish.