September 11, 2024 • 36 mins
Ready to conquer your next job interview with confidence? Learn our seven-step framework that will transform your interview preparation from daunting to manageable. Discover why having a clear structure is essential for easing your nerves and amplifying your performance. Josh and Lynda break down Equipped Interview's 7 Prep Steps, offering practical advice rooted in years of expertise, ensuring you're fully prepared to shine.
Our hosts Josh and Lynda dive deep into the art of crafting your interview narrative. Instead of winging it, why not have a well-defined story and key skills ready to naturally weave into the conversation? Learn how to pinpoint the top skills your potential employer is looking for and make sure they're front and center in your responses. This proactive strategy not only boosts your confidence but also makes you a memorable candidate.
Curious about what really makes hiring managers tick? Josh and Lynda discuss the top three qualities they seek: relevant skills, sustained enthusiasm, and likability. They also walk you through the first four prep steps and reveal the fifth: perfecting your introduction. Master a concise, impactful intro and engage your interviewer with the SHOW method—Share, Have an opinion, Opinion (get theirs), and Wonder. Transform the Q&A segment into a captivating dialogue, and leave a lasting impression that sets you apart from the competition. Tune in and get equipped for success!
Don’t spend any more time searching through articles, lists, or websites.
Check out Equipped Essentials for your all-in-one, 35-page digital book that offers examples, tips, memory hooks, and easy to follow advice.
Don’t spend any more time searching through articles, lists, or websites.
Check out Equipped Essentials for your all-in-one, 35-page digital book that offers examples, tips, memory hooks, and easy to follow advice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey everyone and welcome to the Equipped
Interview Podcast.
With a combined 30 plus yearsof being interviewed and
interviewing thousands of others.
We're here to build yourconfidence, help you stand out
and get your dream job.
Your hosts are Joshua Tinkeyand.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Linda Kamali.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Let's get you equipped.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Josh, did someone say framework?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Without getting too nerdy.
Absolutely, let's do it.
Who doesn't love a goodframework, or checklist, if you
want to call it that?
But no matter what industryyou're in, whether it's finances
, or what the medical professionstudent study tips, good
framework or checklist can besuper valuable, just a great
resource to help you get set upfor success.
And just clarity right.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, who doesn't love a good framework?
I love a good framework, Josh.
I'm super excited for this.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Awesome.
We spent a lot of time thinkingthrough our experiences and the
most valuable tips that we'vebeen providing over the years
and we've really come up with asimple, easy to use seven step
framework.
Now the word framework, sidenote, might scare a few people,
but some people might get oh,this is great, I can't wait.
And some are like framework.
That sounds super boring, but Itell you it's just a way to
think about how to prep for yourinterview and our goal is to
(01:21):
use this, these steps, to helpyou land that dream job, and
we've called them EquippedInterview's 7 Prep Steps just to
help you remember it a littlebit better.
And just a quick heads up foreveryone listening Before we go
too far.
If you're more of a visuallearner, obviously a podcast is
audio form, but if you wantsomething to look at, we did
create a free resource for youto look at, either during the
podcast or anytime after.
Got you covered there, you cango ahead and download that free
(01:43):
resource at equippedinterviewcom.
Forward slash seven steps.
All it does is really justsummarize the seven steps.
But hey, if you'd likesomething free and you want to
check it out, go toequippedinterviewcom.
Forward slash seven steps andthat's the number seven and then
the word steps.
I'll also go ahead and includethat in the show notes, and
they're the ones that show up inyour podcast player on our
website.
You can check it out there too.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
That's awesome, Josh.
I'm so excited that ourlisteners are going to have that
.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I'm really pumped.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, so outlined for today.
We're going to cover why isthis needed, why do you need
that framework, what is it?
And then we're going tosummarize all of those steps,
each one individually.
We're going to go ahead andcover each step in more detail
in future episodes, but todaywe're just going to go over what
they are, how they build oneach other and why they're all
necessary.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Let's jump in, all right.
All right, so why do we even dothis?
Why is this necessary?
There's a lot to cover and alot involved in prepping for an
interview.
That's one of the reasons manyreasons that so many people get
overwhelmed and nervous andfrustrated often around trying
to prep for an interview.
There's so many things youcould talk about, so many things
you could think about ways toapproach it, and we've shared a
(02:49):
lot of tips over the years onthe podcast and on the website
and just in our coachingsessions, and we try to boil it
down as much as we can.
But there are just so many goodthings to do and so many things
you could spend your time on.
I keep coming back to the wordoverwhelming.
That's the feeling and thesense that we get when we coach
people.
It's just a feeling ofoverwhelm, trying to figure out
where do I start.
(03:09):
So, if that's you, that'sprobably pretty common.
Most people start there when doI start?
And having a consistentchecklist or consistent
framework to refer back toreally can make it easier to not
only learn the insider tipsthat we provide, but it also
helps you remember them.
It helps you know where you arein your journey and how far
along am I, rather than I don'tknow if I've covered everything
(03:31):
I need to cover in my prep andam I on the right path.
It also kind of lastly, givesus a common language, if you
want to call it that, somethingthat we can each reference
either it's during the podcast,or when we coach people, or on
the website, or just resourceswe provide.
Hey, you really need to focuson step three, or you need to
focus on step six, and thatsounds like you're struggling
(03:51):
with just getting started.
That's prep, step one.
Here's how we tackle that,here's our best resources on
that step, here's our bestthinking on that step.
So it's all those thingstogether.
It consolidates our bestthinking, helps you prep, helps
you know where you are, gives usall a common language to talk
about.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
It kind of covers all your bases, doesn't it?
You know, when folks come to usfor coaching and they do they
come overwhelmed and they're notreally sure where to begin.
This is just a framework andopportunity to cover all your
bases so that you feel readywhen you go on for that
interview.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Absolutely, and so that's a little bit about why we
did it.
Why is it necessary somethinglike this?
And next, important to knowwell, what is it exactly, before
we get to just list out thoseseven, those steps.
It's the seven prep steps thatwe're calling it, just you know.
Yes, they rhyme, prep and step.
It's easy to remember, right,but they're what are they?
Is there seven phases, if youwant to call it that, or the
most important components ofyour job interview journey, both
(04:45):
during the prep phase and theinterview itself.
So we don't go much beyond theinterview itself.
In these seven prep steps, it'sreally focused on your
preparation and how to thinkabout the interview itself, and
they certainly go hand in handright Prepping and the interview
itself.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
It's kind of like that A to Z covering the full
picture.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
From beginning to end .
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And so they really just cover the most important
big picture areas you eitherneed to prep for change your
thinking around, or justsomething to do during your
interview.
It covers all of that in a veryconcise and logical way.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You ready to dive in?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Of course I've been waiting for this episode.
We really have been.
We spent a long time I'll justlike side note here.
It's been a long time trying tofigure out how to best package
this, and probably overthoughtit for many, many months, if not
long a year or longer, justreally trying to think through
how to just package this.
And it's the simpler the betteris what we came down to.
So that's why we have stepsversus any other fancy word or
(05:44):
acronym we can come up with.
So these are the seven steps andsomething to think about when,
when starting to prep for aninterview, most people jump
straight to what we have andyou'll hear in a minute.
But what we have a step six andwe'll get to what that is.
But after, after we go throughthese, I think you'll see just
how much you're missing out ifyou start almost at the very end
of what we say it should be theprep process.
(06:05):
Step six out of seven steps.
It's pretty far along and it'sprobably why so many people feel
nervous or unprepared headinginto an interview.
They're kind of starting mostof the way through what they
should, a process that theycould have started way before
not just time, but thinking andthought process and energy
before you get to thinking aboutsome of the main questions you
get in an interview.
So all of these steps build oneach other and so there's a
(06:27):
reason they're you know, they'renot just seven kind of
hodgepodge things, I would justput them in any order.
There's, there's a logic to itand that's.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I think what makes it nice?
Yeah, order matters, wordsmatter.
Order matters no-transcriptpotential upcoming interviews,
(07:17):
and the prepping is just acritical piece.
What are you doing well?
What are the successes and winsthat you've had through
throughout the time in your role?
Being able to document and keepany type of a notebook or
documentation on a OneNote or aPost-it or however you like to
do.
It always be prepping willreally help set that stage, set
(07:38):
that foundation for continuedsuccess throughout this process.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Absolutely and to your point.
We did recently discuss this inpretty full detail on, I think,
episode 21 or 22, somewherearound there.
Check it out how to always bepreparing and things like that.
The good news for someone let'ssay you're thinking about this
and you're listening to ourpodcast because you have an
interview coming up you haven'talways been prepping and you're
not at that phase the good newsis you can still follow the rest
(08:05):
of these steps without havingdone that.
You're going to be bestprepared if you start with step
one and you're consistentlyfollowing a process to document
what's going well and what yourskills are and projects you've
worked on, and examples andstories.
That's great and we highlyrecommend it and it's the best
way to do things.
But if that's not you you'realready in interviews in front
(08:27):
of you and you haven't beendoing that you can still follow
all the rest of these and it'sgoing to make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So let's jump in, and today and tomorrow are a new
day, so if you haven't beendoing this, this can be a
practice that you can startAbsolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So prep step two is change your mindset.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Your approach is all wrong.
Tell me more, Josh.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So here's the big picture on this one and we will
get into this in more detail ina different episode and that'll
be true of pretty much every oneof these.
We'll spend almost an entireepisode on each one of these
individually.
But big picture.
Why do you have to change yourmindset?
And why is that at thebeginning?
It's because I argue that yourgoal is not going into an
interview to answer theirquestions.
That's not what you need to bedoing, and so that's what most
(09:09):
people's mindsets are.
I need to go in and figure outwhat questions they're going to
ask and how do I answer them.
What you instead need to do isyou need to go in with a
narrative.
You need to go in with a listof skills you want to talk about
.
You want to go in with stories.
You want to go with examples.
You want to get a point across.
You want to go in knowing whatyou're already going to say, and
you just need to wait to findout what question they ask so
(09:30):
you can fit what you want to sayinto their question.
It can be a lot less nervewracking if you already know
your answer.
You already know what you'regoing to say, no matter what
they ask, and so if yourapproach is to just wait and see
, I hope they're going to ask mesomething that I can answer I
hope I can answer it, that's ina sense prepping.
Yeah, prepping to be reactiverather than knowing.
I'm going to say this, this,this and this.
(09:52):
I don't know how yet I don'tknow which question, but I'm
going to insert it in theinterview at some point, no
matter what they ask.
These are the six, eight, 10things I'm going to say.
So it doesn't really matter.
It's kind of like I referpoliticians a lot, because
there's a lot we can learn fromthose who are.
They come in with a narrative,no matter what, and so I don't
care what the reporter asks.
(10:13):
They just say what they want tosay.
It does it, they're like okay,and then they just move on.
Now that might frustrate us, thelistener, the citizen who wants
to know more about what thequestion was.
But in an interview, a jobinterview, you need to know what
you're going to say, going inin almost every case.
So I get, I get real excitedabout these topics, so I'm going
to cut myself off there.
But changing your mindset isthis is the first step after
(10:34):
prepping.
That's just why it's prep.
Step two you need to understandthat, that you need to be
prepared and have something veryspecific.
You're going to say walkinginto the interview and then the
next.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
This is your story, so prep step two is all about
your story and the mindset thatyou go in with.
That is how you're going toshare that story.
Josh, you know I love that wordstoryteller so this is your time
to be the storyteller of whatyou say.
Awesome, easy to be able togain the knowledge on.
(11:13):
Know the top three to fiveskills that that hiring manager
is looking for, and there's somany ways to find this
information out.
Typically it's going to bewritten out on the posting.
You can do some research onLinkedIn or other job areas to
be able to understand what thathiring manager is looking for.
And you need to know thoseskills that the story that you
tell and that mindset thatyou're going to bring is going
(11:35):
to be able to share.
What those skills are Exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And when you, if you think about it from the hiring
manager's perspective, if I'mthe hiring manager, I'm sitting
there waiting for a candidate totell me that they have the
skills that I'm looking for.
I'm waiting to hear keywords orkey think, key stories with
those keywords in them so I canunderstand okay, yes, they use
this skill, or I can dive intothat.
Hey, tell me how youcontributed here, what skill did
you use for that?
And make sure that it comesacross.
(12:00):
And so, if you don't, thisisn't just a yeah, this is one
of the nice things to have goinginto an interview.
It's really pretty foundational, which is why it's fairly early
in our steps knowing what thoseskills are and really thinking
about it.
You might think, oh, it'spretty obvious, so I'll just
gloss over it.
No, this is really importantand here's why I want you to
write down those three to fiveskills that you think the hiring
(12:21):
manager is looking for, likeliterally write them down.
And then, if you have maybe 10,you need to pare it down a
little bit.
You need to focus in on threeto five of those, because those
words, those skills, are goingto, and I need you to do this if
you're going for an interview.
They need to show up all overthe place in your interview.
They need to show up in yourtell me about yourself answer.
(12:42):
You need to talk about theskills that you have because you
know they're looking for them.
If you get the question, whyshould I hire you, you need to
use those skills as part of thatanswer.
If you're getting a star-basedquestion around, tell me about a
time when you did X, y or Z.
Those skills need to come up inthat type of answer.
If you're answering and talkingabout questions at the end of
the interview and askingquestions, those skills need to
(13:02):
come up.
Those skills and those wordsmatter and they need to show up
at all parts of the interviewand they need to be a really
important part of your prep.
Your examples need to follow,need to outline and highlight
all those skills that you thinkthe hiring manager is looking
for Most people.
When I'm coaching them, theystart with hey, let me highlight
a couple things that I've done.
Let me prep around stories thatI have projects, I've worked on
(13:26):
things that I've done, andthat's hey, that's great.
You should do that too, but itneeds to match the skills that
the hiring manager is lookingfor, which is why it's so
foundational to start there.
Make sure you start with thosethree to five skills that the
hiring manager is looking for,and then that informs the rest
of your prep throughout the way.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, are you going to fit?
Are you going to fit?
And at the end of thatinterview, your hiring manager
may ask you why should I hireyou?
This is the perfect opportunityto highlight those skills, and
we've got an upcoming episodeabout words matter and what
words are best used to describecertain skill sets and certain
relationship management elements.
So definitely keep a lookoutfor that.
(14:04):
But this is a really criticalone and that could really be a
make it or break it make it orbreak.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
It All right.
So prep, step four, building onthose skills know the two whys,
and that's W-H-Y-S why.
Know the two whys?
What are those two whys, linda?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So know your why?
The first one is going to bejust your excitement and your
passion about why you appliedfor this role.
You know what excites you aboutit, what are the elements of
the actual role that you feelpassionate and connected to, and
then you're going to pull inthe skills with regards to how
(14:42):
that connects to your why.
What is allowing you to jumpout of bed to be able to do this
role?
And people can feel that duringthe interview.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So great Linda.
Yeah, so know your why that youjust described.
And the second why is know whyyou?
So Linda referenced that aminute ago around what, if you
get the question, you know whyshould I hire you, knowing your
why as to why you want the job,and knowing why you is, why do
they want you, why should thehiring manager hire you?
And you need to be able to talkabout all of those.
(15:10):
The skills are really important, not only skills that you have,
but skills that you knowthey're looking for, which is
why in prep, step three, youneed to know that the skills
they're looking for, but whyshould they hire you?
You need to focus on skills.
You have something that makesyou unique and something that
makes the hiring manager's lifeeasier.
We spent a whole episode a whileback on how to answer the
question and structure youranswer to the question why
(15:32):
should I hire you?
And we focus on a lot of thosethings Skills that you bring to
the table, something uniqueabout you and, frankly, how do
you make the hiring manager'slife easier?
That's oftentimes what they'relooking for.
Why should I pick you?
Maybe they're trying to decidebetween you and someone else
that have very similar skillsand things that they bring to
the table.
Maybe whichever one is going tomake their hiring manager's
(15:56):
life easier is going to get thejob.
Maybe you can demonstrate thatyou get up the learning curve
faster because you've done thatin jobs in the past or you've
had a very specific experience,something unique about you.
So that's those are the two whysKnow your why, why do you want
it, and know why they shouldpick you for the job.
And there's a lot of ways toprep for that.
But a huge foundation for thatis knowing the skills they're
looking for and the excitementthat um, that you bring.
I think I'll reference it inevery episode so I'll just not
(16:16):
break that trend.
And that is the top threethings every hiring manager is
looking for.
If you've listened to anynumber of these episodes, you
can probably repeat these now.
One is do you have the skills Ineed to do?
You have the excitement orpassion to do this job after,
like, the excitement wears offof the new job?
And then three do I like you?
And a big part of knowing thetwo whys your why and why they
(16:38):
should hire you helps themanswer those questions pretty
easily as the hiring manager.
So that's why it's a veryimportant part of these prep
steps.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
It's so important and we've seen this done so well
when you can bring this into aninterview and you really know
your why and why you'reconnected to it, and then you
can take your skill set and sayand this is why you should hire
me.
It's so powerful and odds areyou're going to land that,
you're going to land that role.
So this prep state, step fourreally a great one.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Absolutely.
And I'll pause real quick inbetween step four and five and
to say, almost all the waythrough, you're going to see
kind of a through line or athread that puts this all
together and that's being reallyproactive in all of these steps
and it's connecting the dotsfor the interviewer.
And don't make any assumptions.
We'll get to more of that alittle bit in step six.
(17:25):
But don't make any assumptions.
I like how Linda worded.
That is kind of telling thehiring manager why they should
hire you.
Don't make any assumptionsabout anything.
It's tell them you make connectthe dots.
In other words between you wantX, y and Z.
I have X, y and Z Saying thatout loud.
Oftentimes I'll hear candidatesin an interview say something
(17:47):
to me, give an example of astory, and they're hoping that I
connect those dots, that theyused the skills that I need or
that they have them.
And sometimes it's not asobvious.
It might be obvious in theirhead but it doesn't mean that
it's obvious to me.
On the receiving end.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Don't hope.
Make it happen.
Put that spotlight on you andon your why and why you?
Because this is your time.
This is your time to shine.
That spotlight should beabsolutely on you.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
All right.
So quick review.
Step one was always be prepping.
Step two change your mindset,because your approach is all
wrong.
Step three is know the topthree to five skills the hiring
manager is looking for.
Step four was know the two.
Whys Step five?
What's step five, Linda?
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Step five.
We talk about this all the timeNail your intro.
That's going to be that firstquestion they ask you.
So tell me a little bit aboutyourself, and if you've listened
to our prior podcast, we've gotlots of fun stories about where
folks did not necessarily dothat so well, and this is one
you can practice.
We cannot stress this enough.
You know the range of timeframethat is really good for this is
(18:47):
about two and a half minutes,josh, would you agree with that?
Some folks go over, but that'sa kind of a sweet spot to be
able to work on your intro.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That's the starting point and if you've been
listening, you're looking at thefree resource that I mentioned
earlier, you'll probably noticethe first four steps are kind of
almost exclusively on the prepphase of things, where steps
five through seven aredefinitely things you're going
to prep for.
But now we're getting into theactual interview itself.
And so step five, nailing yourintro, the tell me about
(19:16):
yourself question.
Couple tips we want to justbriefly share there and why this
is so important.
One we talked about it in, Ithink, the most recent episode,
specifically that two and a halfminutes hands down.
That's what you should be aimingfor.
You don't want to come acrossas unaware or too lengthy in
your conversation.
Two you know that you're goingto get this question.
(19:36):
They know that.
You know they're going to getthis question.
You're going to get thisquestion.
You should be prepared right.
So don't let it surprise youthat you get a question around
tell me about yourself.
Also, don't let it surprise youthat it isn't worded exactly
how you think it might be worded.
They might not say the phrasetell me about yourself.
(19:57):
They might say something else,like what made you apply for
this role?
Or, uh, tell me what has youcoming in for the interview
today or any number of thingsyou need to prepare.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Summarize your resume for me.
Summarize, yeah, exactly, I'veheard that before.
Summarize your resume.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, anything.
You the opening question.
I don't care how they phrase it, don't let it surprise you.
You need to prepare oneresponse, no matter how they ask
it, and don't let it again.
This is all about beingproactive and don't let anything
surprise you.
In coming in with a narrative,you come in with your answer, no
matter what they ask, no matterhow they phrase this.
You can be confident in that.
Your opening is your strongeststatement, because it's their
(20:31):
first impression and you need toknow why you came in that room.
Also, we're gonna spend anotherwhole episode on this.
We've done it in the past, butso go back to it a few.
I think it's episode four, likeway back.
Had to answer the tell me aboutyourself question, but you need
to do it differently than howmost people do it.
Most people go chronologicallyand just start way back when
just read through the resume.
Hire a manager who has yourresume.
(20:51):
If they want to read it, theycan.
I highly recommend that youapproach this differently.
Talk about the most importantthings that they're looking for.
We'll get into that in moredetail and you don't have to go
chronologically like everyoneelse.
You can start with who you aretoday.
Here's who I am.
Here's what I'm excited about.
Here's what I can bring to yourjob.
Here's some experiences I hadin the past that got me to where
(21:13):
I am now, and here's why I'mexcited about the future or
joining your organization, whatI can bring, all these things,
who I am today, who I was, allthe experience I bring and what
I'm going to do for you, and I'mgoing to check these items off
of your list as the skills Iknow you're looking for, because
I've got them, and here's whyI'm so excited for this
opportunity.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That's a different narrative.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Oh sorry, that's a different narrative than coming
in.
Okay, I did this, and then Idid this, then I did this, and
that's just reading your resume.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
And it's just not as much fun either.
I mean, for me.
I actually personally startwith things that I do outside of
work.
I start with you know who'sLinda, the human being, and then
I go into the employee and what, what I've done, and I want to
make myself memorable.
You know, you want them to beintrigued and enjoy the story
that you're telling, and there'slots of different ways to
approach this, but, um, allreally great tips for prep step
(21:58):
five.
Now, that intro is so important.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
So important and, as you're prepping for that, if you
follow the step in the waysthat we and the resources we'll
give you in the frameworks, evenwithin this prep step five that
we can give you and have overthe years and will continue to,
if you do that, that also helpsyou prep for a lot of other
questions, because if you knowwhy you're joining or why you're
applying for this job, whyyou're interviewing, what skills
(22:22):
you have, what's unique aboutyou, it's going to help you
answer other questions that theyask you.
So it's kind of a multiplebenefit there.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Two more steps to go, josh.
We've got prep.
Step six and this is probablyeverybody's absolute favorite
the messy middle, proactivelyprepping for their questions.
And this is, as Josh mentionedin the beginning of the episode.
This is where a lot of folksstart.
They start with okay, whatexamples do I have?
And let me make sure I nailthose examples and go into the
(22:51):
interview to answer theirquestions.
Is that what you've seen, josh?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
100%.
I mean, it is so much harder tostart here without doing any of
the legwork prior to this inthese steps.
If you say, okay, I have thisinterview, let me start prepping
for questions I might get.
That's why it's so frustratingto try to prepare for an
interview for most people,because you're starting to,
you're trying to find a way toanswer questions with answers
(23:15):
that you haven't done any of thehomework for yet, and it's
possible to start there.
It's just really really tough,really time consuming and not as
effective, and our goal is tomake things easier for you.
And so, if you're followingthese steps, you'll you already
have in your mindset, right,you'll know the skills the
manager is looking for, you'llwhy you're excited about it,
(23:38):
something that's unique aboutyou.
You'll have, hopefully, if youwere always prepping, you have a
documentation of a lot of goodexamples of projects you worked
on.
You know peer interactions,customer interactions, client,
client situations.
You know wins, failures, thingslike that, already documented
that you can just refer back toand see which ones draw out
those three to five skills thehiring manager is looking for or
whatever you're trying to comeacross.
(23:59):
But it is a big piece of theinterview, right, if you're this
prep step.
Prep step six again isproactively prep for the messy
middle that we call it, which isthe bulk of the interview.
They're questions, right.
They're still asking youquestions, whether I say your
approach to that should bedifferent or not, they're still
asking you things and it's abulk of the you know, time-wise,
the interview maybe it's anhour interview.
(24:25):
It could be 45 minutes of that,right, and so you still need to
prep for that, even though wesay it's later in the process.
But if you know what skillsthey're looking for and you are
trying to be really proactiveabout connecting the dots for
them, this is a lot easier of aof a prep stage than anything
else.
So quick.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You don't know their questions, we don't know those
questions, but what you do knowis the skills that they're
looking for because you appliedfor the role.
So what stories and examplescan you share through those
skills?
Because that's what's going tofit with their questions and
that's where, when you're alwaysprepping and I'm sure now, at
this point, you're starting tosee how these steps are blending
(24:59):
in together, this point you'restarting to see how these steps
are blending in together,because it, your story and the
skills are what's going to beable to best answer these
questions and make the interviewa lot more fun and
conversational.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Exactly.
That's exactly what it is, andone.
I guess one quick example toget to share what this could
look like is a versus B, likeapproach a would be okay.
Let me write down all of myexamples and during an interview
, if I get a question, I'll pickone of those examples and I
will tell the story to the bestof my ability.
Here's, here's something I didand here's how it worked out.
(25:30):
That's option A and fairlycommon.
I'm going to recommend option Band option B looks like similar
.
Start where, hey, I've got allmy examples.
But within each example I havea list of which skill that the
hiring manager is looking for.
And look at that list that I'vepreviously created in step
three.
Those are the top three to fiveskills the hiring manager is
(25:51):
looking for.
Next to every story that I havewhen I'm prepping, I'm going to
write at least one or two ofthose skills next to it.
So I know when I tell thisstory, I'm going to highlight
these one or two skills that Iknow they're looking for,
they're listening for those.
So every single time I give astory, an example, a situation
that I've been through, any oneof those things, I'm going to
(26:12):
highlight at least one, if nottwo, of those skills.
And so, during the interviewitself, what that sounds like is
hey, you're giving your exampleand you say phrases like and so
I used my strong relationshipmanagement to do X, y or Z,
rather than I did X, y or Z, orI really used my strength of
(26:32):
fill in the blanks, strength ofpersuasion, my strength of data
analysis, whatever it is youthink they're looking for, and
what you actually did use.
Right, you can't lie, but usethe skills that you did, but
connect those dots.
Don't make the assumption thatthey, oh, that they understand,
oh, candidate, a usedrelationship management here
they might, but you want to justbe, as a split, as explicit as
possible and connect those dotsfor them, and so that's what
(26:54):
proactively prep for the messymiddle.
their questions with thatproactive part means.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Josh, are you my coach?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
My goodness, that's exactly how I listed for my own
self this week.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
It's just like you somehow jumped into my dream and
popped somehow probably.
But you're exactly right.
That's what I did, was I listedout the six most critical
skills for the role that I'mgoing for and then I thought
about my examples and was ableto, and and, like you, shared
there some.
Some examples fit differentskillsets, so if an example
(27:26):
comes up, it's just going tomake it that much easier for me
to choose based on that skillsetand, at the end of the day,
that question likely has askillset in parentheses next to
it, of what they're looking tohear from you is is um, that's
what's what they're looking fora skill they're looking for a
skill and you're going to justshare it in the form of a story,
making the messy middle a wholelot less messy.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
That's right, all right.
Prep step seven.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Your favorite, Josh.
This is this is all you, this,probably is my favorite Show it
to me.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
But here we go Stand out with conversation starter
questions using the show method.
Now, the show method issomething if you've listened to
this podcast you might haveheard it before, but it's been a
while since we've talked aboutit and it's something that I
came up with years ago and itsounds really nerdy to say, oh,
I have an interview method herethat I came up with, but we've
(28:23):
used this and it's really funand it's easy to remember.
So the goal during the timewhere you get asked questions at
the end of the interview is notto ask throwaway questions and
get answers from them.
Kind of like I said earlier,your approach is probably all
wrong here.
I don't want you to go in there, ask questions and get answers.
Ask questions and get answersEveryone does that and they're
usually not great questions.
Even if you have the bestquestion in the world.
(28:44):
You just ask a question and getan answer.
You're not maximizing that time.
The time at the end of theinterview is your time, and so
you do everything in yourability to maximize your
potential to get the job, and Ithink the best way to do that
and I've seen this year afteryear after year, is to have a
conversation with theinterviewer, not just get
(29:04):
answers from them.
It's not Q&A time is not themost effective.
So how do you have aconversation when they say, hey,
do you have any questions?
Well, you ask a question.
That starts a conversation, andthe way to do that is to set
yourself up for that and to keepthe conversation going.
And so that's where this showmethod comes from.
And if you're not looking atthe resource, it's S, it's like
an acronym, it's S H O W, theshow method, because I want you
(29:28):
to show them the real you during, during the end of the
interview, you're probably alittle more relaxed.
Their questions are over thatmessy part that we just talked
about.
This is over.
You're probably a little morerelaxed a little more.
You so show them the real.
You're probably a little morerelaxed a little more.
You so show them the real.
You show them what it lookslike to be a potential employee,
eventual colleague, with thisperson.
And you're more likely to dothat through a conversation
(29:48):
rather than a Q&A.
So, briefly, what is this showmethod that helps you kind of
tee up yourself for aconversation?
The S-H-O-W the S stands forshare, the H stands for have an
opinion, the O is opinion.
Get theirs this time.
And W is wonder.
(30:11):
And so let's put it togetherreal quick Share.
What does that mean?
I want you to go in withsomething that you've read,
something, a video that you'vewatched, an article that you've
read, a research report, anugget of news that you've
learned about the company thatyou're going for, the
organization, a project thatyou've heard about, that this
department or team is working on, something.
I want you to have doneresearch, to have done something
(30:33):
that shows additional effort onyour part and ability to learn
and retain information.
So that's share, sharesomething about that.
H is have an opinion on it.
So now you've learned something.
I'm going to just pick oneexample and stick with it.
Let's say that you found aresearch report that is
interesting around some newtechnique coming out in your
(30:54):
industry and so great, hey, youknow what I read recently in XYZ
Quarterly that this newtechnique is coming out.
Now the age is having anopinion on it.
I think.
Start with, I think I thinkthis is groundbreaking and we
could really use it.
I see in this department, fromwhat I know about this
department, in a couple ofdifferent ways and then share
(31:15):
that, or be the opposite, be thecritic and say this seems to be
popular.
I don't see it.
I don't see what's going on,and here's why I don't
understand why this is sopopular.
I think there's a huge riskhere.
Et cetera have an opinion.
They want to see someone who'sthought critically about
something they've researched.
So you've shared somethingyou've researched, you've had
the opinion.
That's the H.
Oh, now the actual questioncomes in.
(31:36):
They said do you have anyquestions?
And you say, yeah, so faryou've just been talking.
So you got to throw a questionin there, and this is where you
do it.
So get their opinion.
That's how you get theconversation started.
You've shared your opinion, nowget theirs.
And so it could sound likesomething.
But hey, this is me.
You have a lot of experience inthis area, in this industry.
I'd love to hear how do youapproach this situation, or how
have you talked to your teamabout this?
(31:57):
Get their opinion, get theirinput, something along those
lines, and they're going toanswer it.
Maybe it's long, maybe it'squick, but you need the
conversation to keep going, andso that's where the W comes in.
The W stands for wonder, andit's just a just kind of a
mental trigger.
It's a cue to you to keep theconversation going by using the
word wonder or something like it.
So it could sound somethinglike oh, that's fascinating.
(32:20):
I wonder if something changedhere or over on this side.
Or I wonder if this one littlepiece of the research was
different, would that changeanything about your opinion?
Or would you address itdifferently with the team?
You could substitute the wordcurious or something.
It's just the W is wonder, justto be a mental cue to keep the
conversation going so it doesn'tturn into just Q&A.
(32:41):
I can tell you from the hiringmanager side of things, someone
that I can have a conversationwith and my last impression with
them before they leave thatroom or the virtual room is
having a conversation with apotential colleague.
If that goes well, I see themmore so as someone I could work
with and someone that I'mexcited to work with, more so
than quote just a candidate,that's.
(33:05):
I'm trying to see if they havethe right skills or not.
So the best way to end yourinterview is to use conversation
, starting questions using thisS H O W or show method to show
them who you really are as aconversationalist and hopefully
a new employee for them.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And when this is done , well, josh, it is just
beautiful.
It's just beautiful and you'regoing to walk out of there
feeling so confident and justfeeling like you've really had
such a nice conversation.
To end the official interview.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Exactly so.
Those are the seven prep steps.
Quick recap and then we'll getmoving on here and prep.
Step one always be prepping.
Step two change your mindset.
Your approach is all wrong.
Step three know the top threeto five skills the hiring
manager is looking for.
Step four know the two whys,know your why and why you.
Step five nail your intro orthe tell me about yourself
(33:49):
question.
Step six proactively prep forthe messy middle, which is their
questions.
And step seven stand out withconversation starter questions
using the show method.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Such great tips, josh .
This was so wonderful, and Iknow that sometimes feels
overwhelming when you thinkabout a framework, but hopefully
, as you listen through, as wetalk through each of those steps
, you're realizing that you knowwhen you're preparing in the
right way for your interview.
You can make it so much easieron yourself if you follow the
right process, especially ourseven prep steps that we
(34:18):
outlined today, and remember tojust always be your true self.
That's the most important thing.
Go in, do your best, enjoy theinterview process, because it
truly is all about growth and itis your time to shine.
And if these tips helped you,please share them.
Pay it forward.
It's likely you're not alone.
Everyone is trying to learn andgrow in this space.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Absolutely.
A quick reminder.
If you do want that resourceand you want to jot down that
URL where you can get it, it'sequippedinterviewcom.
Forward slash seven steps.
Also, if you have a question orscenario you'd like our help
with guidance, a topic that youwant us to talk about, love to
hear it.
Send us an email at questionsat equippedinterviewcom.
It's questions atequippedinterviewcom.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Well, that's all for today, but let's keep this
conversation going.
Check at equippedinterviewcom.
Well, that's all for today, butlet's keep this conversation
going.
Check out equippedinterviewcom.
Thanks so much for listening.
We can't wait for next timewhere we discuss Josh.
What's next time?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Next time is how to navigate weird or off-the-wall
interview questions.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
They do, they do happen, don't they?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
It can be frustrating , or hopefully you can get
through them and that's our goal.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Going to help you with that.
Remember you've got this.
Believe in yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Be intentional, do the work, build your confidence
to stand out in your next jobinterview.
Thank you.
Hey everyone and welcome to the Equipped
Interview Podcast.
With a combined 30 plus yearsof being interviewed and
interviewing thousands of others.
We're here to build yourconfidence, help you stand out
and get your dream job.
Your hosts are Joshua Tinkeyand.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Linda Kamali.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Let's get you equipped.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Josh, did someone say framework?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Without getting too nerdy.
Absolutely, let's do it.
Who doesn't love a goodframework, or checklist, if you
want to call it that?
But no matter what industryyou're in, whether it's finances
, or what the medical professionstudent study tips, good
framework or checklist can besuper valuable, just a great
resource to help you get set upfor success.
And just clarity right.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, who doesn't love a good framework?
I love a good framework, Josh.
I'm super excited for this.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Awesome.
We spent a lot of time thinkingthrough our experiences and the
most valuable tips that we'vebeen providing over the years
and we've really come up with asimple, easy to use seven step
framework.
Now the word framework, sidenote, might scare a few people,
but some people might get oh,this is great, I can't wait.
And some are like framework.
That sounds super boring, but Itell you it's just a way to
think about how to prep for yourinterview and our goal is to
(01:21):
use this, these steps, to helpyou land that dream job, and
we've called them EquippedInterview's 7 Prep Steps just to
help you remember it a littlebit better.
And just a quick heads up foreveryone listening Before we go
too far.
If you're more of a visuallearner, obviously a podcast is
audio form, but if you wantsomething to look at, we did
create a free resource for youto look at, either during the
podcast or anytime after.
Got you covered there, you cango ahead and download that free
(01:43):
resource at equippedinterviewcom.
Forward slash seven steps.
All it does is really justsummarize the seven steps.
But hey, if you'd likesomething free and you want to
check it out, go toequippedinterviewcom.
Forward slash seven steps andthat's the number seven and then
the word steps.
I'll also go ahead and includethat in the show notes, and
they're the ones that show up inyour podcast player on our
website.
You can check it out there too.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
That's awesome, Josh.
I'm so excited that ourlisteners are going to have that
.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I'm really pumped.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, so outlined for today.
We're going to cover why isthis needed, why do you need
that framework, what is it?
And then we're going tosummarize all of those steps,
each one individually.
We're going to go ahead andcover each step in more detail
in future episodes, but todaywe're just going to go over what
they are, how they build oneach other and why they're all
necessary.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Let's jump in, all right.
All right, so why do we even dothis?
Why is this necessary?
There's a lot to cover and alot involved in prepping for an
interview.
That's one of the reasons manyreasons that so many people get
overwhelmed and nervous andfrustrated often around trying
to prep for an interview.
There's so many things youcould talk about, so many things
you could think about ways toapproach it, and we've shared a
(02:49):
lot of tips over the years onthe podcast and on the website
and just in our coachingsessions, and we try to boil it
down as much as we can.
But there are just so many goodthings to do and so many things
you could spend your time on.
I keep coming back to the wordoverwhelming.
That's the feeling and thesense that we get when we coach
people.
It's just a feeling ofoverwhelm, trying to figure out
where do I start.
(03:09):
So, if that's you, that'sprobably pretty common.
Most people start there when doI start?
And having a consistentchecklist or consistent
framework to refer back toreally can make it easier to not
only learn the insider tipsthat we provide, but it also
helps you remember them.
It helps you know where you arein your journey and how far
along am I, rather than I don'tknow if I've covered everything
(03:31):
I need to cover in my prep andam I on the right path.
It also kind of lastly, givesus a common language, if you
want to call it that, somethingthat we can each reference
either it's during the podcast,or when we coach people, or on
the website, or just resourceswe provide.
Hey, you really need to focuson step three, or you need to
focus on step six, and thatsounds like you're struggling
(03:51):
with just getting started.
That's prep, step one.
Here's how we tackle that,here's our best resources on
that step, here's our bestthinking on that step.
So it's all those thingstogether.
It consolidates our bestthinking, helps you prep, helps
you know where you are, gives usall a common language to talk
about.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
It kind of covers all your bases, doesn't it?
You know, when folks come to usfor coaching and they do they
come overwhelmed and they're notreally sure where to begin.
This is just a framework andopportunity to cover all your
bases so that you feel readywhen you go on for that
interview.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Absolutely, and so that's a little bit about why we
did it.
Why is it necessary somethinglike this?
And next, important to knowwell, what is it exactly, before
we get to just list out thoseseven, those steps.
It's the seven prep steps thatwe're calling it, just you know.
Yes, they rhyme, prep and step.
It's easy to remember, right,but they're what are they?
Is there seven phases, if youwant to call it that, or the
most important components ofyour job interview journey, both
(04:45):
during the prep phase and theinterview itself.
So we don't go much beyond theinterview itself.
In these seven prep steps, it'sreally focused on your
preparation and how to thinkabout the interview itself, and
they certainly go hand in handright Prepping and the interview
itself.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
It's kind of like that A to Z covering the full
picture.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
From beginning to end .
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And so they really just cover the most important
big picture areas you eitherneed to prep for change your
thinking around, or justsomething to do during your
interview.
It covers all of that in a veryconcise and logical way.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You ready to dive in?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Of course I've been waiting for this episode.
We really have been.
We spent a long time I'll justlike side note here.
It's been a long time trying tofigure out how to best package
this, and probably overthoughtit for many, many months, if not
long a year or longer, justreally trying to think through
how to just package this.
And it's the simpler the betteris what we came down to.
So that's why we have stepsversus any other fancy word or
(05:44):
acronym we can come up with.
So these are the seven steps andsomething to think about when,
when starting to prep for aninterview, most people jump
straight to what we have andyou'll hear in a minute.
But what we have a step six andwe'll get to what that is.
But after, after we go throughthese, I think you'll see just
how much you're missing out ifyou start almost at the very end
of what we say it should be theprep process.
(06:05):
Step six out of seven steps.
It's pretty far along and it'sprobably why so many people feel
nervous or unprepared headinginto an interview.
They're kind of starting mostof the way through what they
should, a process that theycould have started way before
not just time, but thinking andthought process and energy
before you get to thinking aboutsome of the main questions you
get in an interview.
So all of these steps build oneach other and so there's a
(06:27):
reason they're you know, they'renot just seven kind of
hodgepodge things, I would justput them in any order.
There's, there's a logic to itand that's.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I think what makes it nice?
Yeah, order matters, wordsmatter.
Order matters no-transcriptpotential upcoming interviews,
(07:17):
and the prepping is just acritical piece.
What are you doing well?
What are the successes and winsthat you've had through
throughout the time in your role?
Being able to document and keepany type of a notebook or
documentation on a OneNote or aPost-it or however you like to
do.
It always be prepping willreally help set that stage, set
(07:38):
that foundation for continuedsuccess throughout this process.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Absolutely and to your point.
We did recently discuss this inpretty full detail on, I think,
episode 21 or 22, somewherearound there.
Check it out how to always bepreparing and things like that.
The good news for someone let'ssay you're thinking about this
and you're listening to ourpodcast because you have an
interview coming up you haven'talways been prepping and you're
not at that phase the good newsis you can still follow the rest
(08:05):
of these steps without havingdone that.
You're going to be bestprepared if you start with step
one and you're consistentlyfollowing a process to document
what's going well and what yourskills are and projects you've
worked on, and examples andstories.
That's great and we highlyrecommend it and it's the best
way to do things.
But if that's not you you'realready in interviews in front
(08:27):
of you and you haven't beendoing that you can still follow
all the rest of these and it'sgoing to make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So let's jump in, and today and tomorrow are a new
day, so if you haven't beendoing this, this can be a
practice that you can startAbsolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So prep step two is change your mindset.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Your approach is all wrong.
Tell me more, Josh.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So here's the big picture on this one and we will
get into this in more detail ina different episode and that'll
be true of pretty much every oneof these.
We'll spend almost an entireepisode on each one of these
individually.
But big picture.
Why do you have to change yourmindset?
And why is that at thebeginning?
It's because I argue that yourgoal is not going into an
interview to answer theirquestions.
That's not what you need to bedoing, and so that's what most
(09:09):
people's mindsets are.
I need to go in and figure outwhat questions they're going to
ask and how do I answer them.
What you instead need to do isyou need to go in with a
narrative.
You need to go in with a listof skills you want to talk about
.
You want to go in with stories.
You want to go with examples.
You want to get a point across.
You want to go in knowing whatyou're already going to say, and
you just need to wait to findout what question they ask so
(09:30):
you can fit what you want to sayinto their question.
It can be a lot less nervewracking if you already know
your answer.
You already know what you'regoing to say, no matter what
they ask, and so if yourapproach is to just wait and see
, I hope they're going to ask mesomething that I can answer I
hope I can answer it, that's ina sense prepping.
Yeah, prepping to be reactiverather than knowing.
I'm going to say this, this,this and this.
(09:52):
I don't know how yet I don'tknow which question, but I'm
going to insert it in theinterview at some point, no
matter what they ask.
These are the six, eight, 10things I'm going to say.
So it doesn't really matter.
It's kind of like I referpoliticians a lot, because
there's a lot we can learn fromthose who are.
They come in with a narrative,no matter what, and so I don't
care what the reporter asks.
(10:13):
They just say what they want tosay.
It does it, they're like okay,and then they just move on.
Now that might frustrate us, thelistener, the citizen who wants
to know more about what thequestion was.
But in an interview, a jobinterview, you need to know what
you're going to say, going inin almost every case.
So I get, I get real excitedabout these topics, so I'm going
to cut myself off there.
But changing your mindset isthis is the first step after
(10:34):
prepping.
That's just why it's prep.
Step two you need to understandthat, that you need to be
prepared and have something veryspecific.
You're going to say walkinginto the interview and then the
next.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
This is your story, so prep step two is all about
your story and the mindset thatyou go in with.
That is how you're going toshare that story.
Josh, you know I love that wordstoryteller so this is your time
to be the storyteller of whatyou say.
Awesome, easy to be able togain the knowledge on.
(11:13):
Know the top three to fiveskills that that hiring manager
is looking for, and there's somany ways to find this
information out.
Typically it's going to bewritten out on the posting.
You can do some research onLinkedIn or other job areas to
be able to understand what thathiring manager is looking for.
And you need to know thoseskills that the story that you
tell and that mindset thatyou're going to bring is going
(11:35):
to be able to share.
What those skills are Exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And when you, if you think about it from the hiring
manager's perspective, if I'mthe hiring manager, I'm sitting
there waiting for a candidate totell me that they have the
skills that I'm looking for.
I'm waiting to hear keywords orkey think, key stories with
those keywords in them so I canunderstand okay, yes, they use
this skill, or I can dive intothat.
Hey, tell me how youcontributed here, what skill did
you use for that?
And make sure that it comesacross.
(12:00):
And so, if you don't, thisisn't just a yeah, this is one
of the nice things to have goinginto an interview.
It's really pretty foundational, which is why it's fairly early
in our steps knowing what thoseskills are and really thinking
about it.
You might think, oh, it'spretty obvious, so I'll just
gloss over it.
No, this is really importantand here's why I want you to
write down those three to fiveskills that you think the hiring
(12:21):
manager is looking for, likeliterally write them down.
And then, if you have maybe 10,you need to pare it down a
little bit.
You need to focus in on threeto five of those, because those
words, those skills, are goingto, and I need you to do this if
you're going for an interview.
They need to show up all overthe place in your interview.
They need to show up in yourtell me about yourself answer.
(12:42):
You need to talk about theskills that you have because you
know they're looking for them.
If you get the question, whyshould I hire you, you need to
use those skills as part of thatanswer.
If you're getting a star-basedquestion around, tell me about a
time when you did X, y or Z.
Those skills need to come up inthat type of answer.
If you're answering and talkingabout questions at the end of
the interview and askingquestions, those skills need to
(13:02):
come up.
Those skills and those wordsmatter and they need to show up
at all parts of the interviewand they need to be a really
important part of your prep.
Your examples need to follow,need to outline and highlight
all those skills that you thinkthe hiring manager is looking
for Most people.
When I'm coaching them, theystart with hey, let me highlight
a couple things that I've done.
Let me prep around stories thatI have projects, I've worked on
(13:26):
things that I've done, andthat's hey, that's great.
You should do that too, but itneeds to match the skills that
the hiring manager is lookingfor, which is why it's so
foundational to start there.
Make sure you start with thosethree to five skills that the
hiring manager is looking for,and then that informs the rest
of your prep throughout the way.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, are you going to fit?
Are you going to fit?
And at the end of thatinterview, your hiring manager
may ask you why should I hireyou?
This is the perfect opportunityto highlight those skills, and
we've got an upcoming episodeabout words matter and what
words are best used to describecertain skill sets and certain
relationship management elements.
So definitely keep a lookoutfor that.
(14:04):
But this is a really criticalone and that could really be a
make it or break it make it orbreak.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
It All right.
So prep, step four, building onthose skills know the two whys,
and that's W-H-Y-S why.
Know the two whys?
What are those two whys, linda?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So know your why?
The first one is going to bejust your excitement and your
passion about why you appliedfor this role.
You know what excites you aboutit, what are the elements of
the actual role that you feelpassionate and connected to, and
then you're going to pull inthe skills with regards to how
(14:42):
that connects to your why.
What is allowing you to jumpout of bed to be able to do this
role?
And people can feel that duringthe interview.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So great Linda.
Yeah, so know your why that youjust described.
And the second why is know whyyou?
So Linda referenced that aminute ago around what, if you
get the question, you know whyshould I hire you, knowing your
why as to why you want the job,and knowing why you is, why do
they want you, why should thehiring manager hire you?
And you need to be able to talkabout all of those.
(15:10):
The skills are really important, not only skills that you have,
but skills that you knowthey're looking for, which is
why in prep, step three, youneed to know that the skills
they're looking for, but whyshould they hire you?
You need to focus on skills.
You have something that makesyou unique and something that
makes the hiring manager's lifeeasier.
We spent a whole episode a whileback on how to answer the
question and structure youranswer to the question why
(15:32):
should I hire you?
And we focus on a lot of thosethings Skills that you bring to
the table, something uniqueabout you and, frankly, how do
you make the hiring manager'slife easier?
That's oftentimes what they'relooking for.
Why should I pick you?
Maybe they're trying to decidebetween you and someone else
that have very similar skillsand things that they bring to
the table.
Maybe whichever one is going tomake their hiring manager's
(15:56):
life easier is going to get thejob.
Maybe you can demonstrate thatyou get up the learning curve
faster because you've done thatin jobs in the past or you've
had a very specific experience,something unique about you.
So that's those are the two whysKnow your why, why do you want
it, and know why they shouldpick you for the job.
And there's a lot of ways toprep for that.
But a huge foundation for thatis knowing the skills they're
looking for and the excitementthat um, that you bring.
I think I'll reference it inevery episode so I'll just not
(16:16):
break that trend.
And that is the top threethings every hiring manager is
looking for.
If you've listened to anynumber of these episodes, you
can probably repeat these now.
One is do you have the skills Ineed to do?
You have the excitement orpassion to do this job after,
like, the excitement wears offof the new job?
And then three do I like you?
And a big part of knowing thetwo whys your why and why they
(16:38):
should hire you helps themanswer those questions pretty
easily as the hiring manager.
So that's why it's a veryimportant part of these prep
steps.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
It's so important and we've seen this done so well
when you can bring this into aninterview and you really know
your why and why you'reconnected to it, and then you
can take your skill set and sayand this is why you should hire
me.
It's so powerful and odds areyou're going to land that,
you're going to land that role.
So this prep state, step fourreally a great one.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Absolutely.
And I'll pause real quick inbetween step four and five and
to say, almost all the waythrough, you're going to see
kind of a through line or athread that puts this all
together and that's being reallyproactive in all of these steps
and it's connecting the dotsfor the interviewer.
And don't make any assumptions.
We'll get to more of that alittle bit in step six.
(17:25):
But don't make any assumptions.
I like how Linda worded.
That is kind of telling thehiring manager why they should
hire you.
Don't make any assumptionsabout anything.
It's tell them you make connectthe dots.
In other words between you wantX, y and Z.
I have X, y and Z Saying thatout loud.
Oftentimes I'll hear candidatesin an interview say something
(17:47):
to me, give an example of astory, and they're hoping that I
connect those dots, that theyused the skills that I need or
that they have them.
And sometimes it's not asobvious.
It might be obvious in theirhead but it doesn't mean that
it's obvious to me.
On the receiving end.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Don't hope.
Make it happen.
Put that spotlight on you andon your why and why you?
Because this is your time.
This is your time to shine.
That spotlight should beabsolutely on you.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
All right.
So quick review.
Step one was always be prepping.
Step two change your mindset,because your approach is all
wrong.
Step three is know the topthree to five skills the hiring
manager is looking for.
Step four was know the two.
Whys Step five?
What's step five, Linda?
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Step five.
We talk about this all the timeNail your intro.
That's going to be that firstquestion they ask you.
So tell me a little bit aboutyourself, and if you've listened
to our prior podcast, we've gotlots of fun stories about where
folks did not necessarily dothat so well, and this is one
you can practice.
We cannot stress this enough.
You know the range of timeframethat is really good for this is
(18:47):
about two and a half minutes,josh, would you agree with that?
Some folks go over, but that'sa kind of a sweet spot to be
able to work on your intro.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That's the starting point and if you've been
listening, you're looking at thefree resource that I mentioned
earlier, you'll probably noticethe first four steps are kind of
almost exclusively on the prepphase of things, where steps
five through seven aredefinitely things you're going
to prep for.
But now we're getting into theactual interview itself.
And so step five, nailing yourintro, the tell me about
(19:16):
yourself question.
Couple tips we want to justbriefly share there and why this
is so important.
One we talked about it in, Ithink, the most recent episode,
specifically that two and a halfminutes hands down.
That's what you should be aimingfor.
You don't want to come acrossas unaware or too lengthy in
your conversation.
Two you know that you're goingto get this question.
(19:36):
They know that.
You know they're going to getthis question.
You're going to get thisquestion.
You should be prepared right.
So don't let it surprise youthat you get a question around
tell me about yourself.
Also, don't let it surprise youthat it isn't worded exactly
how you think it might be worded.
They might not say the phrasetell me about yourself.
(19:57):
They might say something else,like what made you apply for
this role?
Or, uh, tell me what has youcoming in for the interview
today or any number of thingsyou need to prepare.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Summarize your resume for me.
Summarize, yeah, exactly, I'veheard that before.
Summarize your resume.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, anything.
You the opening question.
I don't care how they phrase it, don't let it surprise you.
You need to prepare oneresponse, no matter how they ask
it, and don't let it again.
This is all about beingproactive and don't let anything
surprise you.
In coming in with a narrative,you come in with your answer, no
matter what they ask, no matterhow they phrase this.
You can be confident in that.
Your opening is your strongeststatement, because it's their
(20:31):
first impression and you need toknow why you came in that room.
Also, we're gonna spend anotherwhole episode on this.
We've done it in the past, butso go back to it a few.
I think it's episode four, likeway back.
Had to answer the tell me aboutyourself question, but you need
to do it differently than howmost people do it.
Most people go chronologicallyand just start way back when
just read through the resume.
Hire a manager who has yourresume.
(20:51):
If they want to read it, theycan.
I highly recommend that youapproach this differently.
Talk about the most importantthings that they're looking for.
We'll get into that in moredetail and you don't have to go
chronologically like everyoneelse.
You can start with who you aretoday.
Here's who I am.
Here's what I'm excited about.
Here's what I can bring to yourjob.
Here's some experiences I hadin the past that got me to where
(21:13):
I am now, and here's why I'mexcited about the future or
joining your organization, whatI can bring, all these things,
who I am today, who I was, allthe experience I bring and what
I'm going to do for you, and I'mgoing to check these items off
of your list as the skills Iknow you're looking for, because
I've got them, and here's whyI'm so excited for this
opportunity.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That's a different narrative.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Oh sorry, that's a different narrative than coming
in.
Okay, I did this, and then Idid this, then I did this, and
that's just reading your resume.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
And it's just not as much fun either.
I mean, for me.
I actually personally startwith things that I do outside of
work.
I start with you know who'sLinda, the human being, and then
I go into the employee and what, what I've done, and I want to
make myself memorable.
You know, you want them to beintrigued and enjoy the story
that you're telling, and there'slots of different ways to
approach this, but, um, allreally great tips for prep step
(21:58):
five.
Now, that intro is so important.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
So important and, as you're prepping for that, if you
follow the step in the waysthat we and the resources we'll
give you in the frameworks, evenwithin this prep step five that
we can give you and have overthe years and will continue to,
if you do that, that also helpsyou prep for a lot of other
questions, because if you knowwhy you're joining or why you're
applying for this job, whyyou're interviewing, what skills
(22:22):
you have, what's unique aboutyou, it's going to help you
answer other questions that theyask you.
So it's kind of a multiplebenefit there.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Two more steps to go, josh.
We've got prep.
Step six and this is probablyeverybody's absolute favorite
the messy middle, proactivelyprepping for their questions.
And this is, as Josh mentionedin the beginning of the episode.
This is where a lot of folksstart.
They start with okay, whatexamples do I have?
And let me make sure I nailthose examples and go into the
(22:51):
interview to answer theirquestions.
Is that what you've seen, josh?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
100%.
I mean, it is so much harder tostart here without doing any of
the legwork prior to this inthese steps.
If you say, okay, I have thisinterview, let me start prepping
for questions I might get.
That's why it's so frustratingto try to prepare for an
interview for most people,because you're starting to,
you're trying to find a way toanswer questions with answers
(23:15):
that you haven't done any of thehomework for yet, and it's
possible to start there.
It's just really really tough,really time consuming and not as
effective, and our goal is tomake things easier for you.
And so, if you're followingthese steps, you'll you already
have in your mindset, right,you'll know the skills the
manager is looking for, you'llwhy you're excited about it,
(23:38):
something that's unique aboutyou.
You'll have, hopefully, if youwere always prepping, you have a
documentation of a lot of goodexamples of projects you worked
on.
You know peer interactions,customer interactions, client,
client situations.
You know wins, failures, thingslike that, already documented
that you can just refer back toand see which ones draw out
those three to five skills thehiring manager is looking for or
whatever you're trying to comeacross.
(23:59):
But it is a big piece of theinterview, right, if you're this
prep step.
Prep step six again isproactively prep for the messy
middle that we call it, which isthe bulk of the interview.
They're questions, right.
They're still asking youquestions, whether I say your
approach to that should bedifferent or not, they're still
asking you things and it's abulk of the you know, time-wise,
the interview maybe it's anhour interview.
(24:25):
It could be 45 minutes of that,right, and so you still need to
prep for that, even though wesay it's later in the process.
But if you know what skillsthey're looking for and you are
trying to be really proactiveabout connecting the dots for
them, this is a lot easier of aof a prep stage than anything
else.
So quick.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You don't know their questions, we don't know those
questions, but what you do knowis the skills that they're
looking for because you appliedfor the role.
So what stories and examplescan you share through those
skills?
Because that's what's going tofit with their questions and
that's where, when you're alwaysprepping and I'm sure now, at
this point, you're starting tosee how these steps are blending
(24:59):
in together, this point you'restarting to see how these steps
are blending in together,because it, your story and the
skills are what's going to beable to best answer these
questions and make the interviewa lot more fun and
conversational.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Exactly.
That's exactly what it is, andone.
I guess one quick example toget to share what this could
look like is a versus B, likeapproach a would be okay.
Let me write down all of myexamples and during an interview
, if I get a question, I'll pickone of those examples and I
will tell the story to the bestof my ability.
Here's, here's something I didand here's how it worked out.
(25:30):
That's option A and fairlycommon.
I'm going to recommend option Band option B looks like similar
.
Start where, hey, I've got allmy examples.
But within each example I havea list of which skill that the
hiring manager is looking for.
And look at that list that I'vepreviously created in step
three.
Those are the top three to fiveskills the hiring manager is
(25:51):
looking for.
Next to every story that I havewhen I'm prepping, I'm going to
write at least one or two ofthose skills next to it.
So I know when I tell thisstory, I'm going to highlight
these one or two skills that Iknow they're looking for,
they're listening for those.
So every single time I give astory, an example, a situation
that I've been through, any oneof those things, I'm going to
(26:12):
highlight at least one, if nottwo, of those skills.
And so, during the interviewitself, what that sounds like is
hey, you're giving your exampleand you say phrases like and so
I used my strong relationshipmanagement to do X, y or Z,
rather than I did X, y or Z, orI really used my strength of
(26:32):
fill in the blanks, strength ofpersuasion, my strength of data
analysis, whatever it is youthink they're looking for, and
what you actually did use.
Right, you can't lie, but usethe skills that you did, but
connect those dots.
Don't make the assumption thatthey, oh, that they understand,
oh, candidate, a usedrelationship management here
they might, but you want to justbe, as a split, as explicit as
possible and connect those dotsfor them, and so that's what
(26:54):
proactively prep for the messymiddle.
their questions with thatproactive part means.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Josh, are you my coach?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
My goodness, that's exactly how I listed for my own
self this week.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
It's just like you somehow jumped into my dream and
popped somehow probably.
But you're exactly right.
That's what I did, was I listedout the six most critical
skills for the role that I'mgoing for and then I thought
about my examples and was ableto, and and, like you, shared
there some.
Some examples fit differentskillsets, so if an example
(27:26):
comes up, it's just going tomake it that much easier for me
to choose based on that skillsetand, at the end of the day,
that question likely has askillset in parentheses next to
it, of what they're looking tohear from you is is um, that's
what's what they're looking fora skill they're looking for a
skill and you're going to justshare it in the form of a story,
making the messy middle a wholelot less messy.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
That's right, all right.
Prep step seven.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Your favorite, Josh.
This is this is all you, this,probably is my favorite Show it
to me.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
But here we go Stand out with conversation starter
questions using the show method.
Now, the show method issomething if you've listened to
this podcast you might haveheard it before, but it's been a
while since we've talked aboutit and it's something that I
came up with years ago and itsounds really nerdy to say, oh,
I have an interview method herethat I came up with, but we've
(28:23):
used this and it's really funand it's easy to remember.
So the goal during the timewhere you get asked questions at
the end of the interview is notto ask throwaway questions and
get answers from them.
Kind of like I said earlier,your approach is probably all
wrong here.
I don't want you to go in there, ask questions and get answers.
Ask questions and get answersEveryone does that and they're
usually not great questions.
Even if you have the bestquestion in the world.
(28:44):
You just ask a question and getan answer.
You're not maximizing that time.
The time at the end of theinterview is your time, and so
you do everything in yourability to maximize your
potential to get the job, and Ithink the best way to do that
and I've seen this year afteryear after year, is to have a
conversation with theinterviewer, not just get
(29:04):
answers from them.
It's not Q&A time is not themost effective.
So how do you have aconversation when they say, hey,
do you have any questions?
Well, you ask a question.
That starts a conversation, andthe way to do that is to set
yourself up for that and to keepthe conversation going.
And so that's where this showmethod comes from.
And if you're not looking atthe resource, it's S, it's like
an acronym, it's S H O W, theshow method, because I want you
(29:28):
to show them the real you during, during the end of the
interview, you're probably alittle more relaxed.
Their questions are over thatmessy part that we just talked
about.
This is over.
You're probably a little morerelaxed a little more.
You so show them the real.
You're probably a little morerelaxed a little more.
You so show them the real.
You show them what it lookslike to be a potential employee,
eventual colleague, with thisperson.
And you're more likely to dothat through a conversation
(29:48):
rather than a Q&A.
So, briefly, what is this showmethod that helps you kind of
tee up yourself for aconversation?
The S-H-O-W the S stands forshare, the H stands for have an
opinion, the O is opinion.
Get theirs this time.
And W is wonder.
(30:11):
And so let's put it togetherreal quick Share.
What does that mean?
I want you to go in withsomething that you've read,
something, a video that you'vewatched, an article that you've
read, a research report, anugget of news that you've
learned about the company thatyou're going for, the
organization, a project thatyou've heard about, that this
department or team is working on, something.
I want you to have doneresearch, to have done something
(30:33):
that shows additional effort onyour part and ability to learn
and retain information.
So that's share, sharesomething about that.
H is have an opinion on it.
So now you've learned something.
I'm going to just pick oneexample and stick with it.
Let's say that you found aresearch report that is
interesting around some newtechnique coming out in your
(30:54):
industry and so great, hey, youknow what I read recently in XYZ
Quarterly that this newtechnique is coming out.
Now the age is having anopinion on it.
I think.
Start with, I think I thinkthis is groundbreaking and we
could really use it.
I see in this department, fromwhat I know about this
department, in a couple ofdifferent ways and then share
(31:15):
that, or be the opposite, be thecritic and say this seems to be
popular.
I don't see it.
I don't see what's going on,and here's why I don't
understand why this is sopopular.
I think there's a huge riskhere.
Et cetera have an opinion.
They want to see someone who'sthought critically about
something they've researched.
So you've shared somethingyou've researched, you've had
the opinion.
That's the H.
Oh, now the actual questioncomes in.
(31:36):
They said do you have anyquestions?
And you say, yeah, so faryou've just been talking.
So you got to throw a questionin there, and this is where you
do it.
So get their opinion.
That's how you get theconversation started.
You've shared your opinion, nowget theirs.
And so it could sound likesomething.
But hey, this is me.
You have a lot of experience inthis area, in this industry.
I'd love to hear how do youapproach this situation, or how
have you talked to your teamabout this?
(31:57):
Get their opinion, get theirinput, something along those
lines, and they're going toanswer it.
Maybe it's long, maybe it'squick, but you need the
conversation to keep going, andso that's where the W comes in.
The W stands for wonder, andit's just a just kind of a
mental trigger.
It's a cue to you to keep theconversation going by using the
word wonder or something like it.
So it could sound somethinglike oh, that's fascinating.
(32:20):
I wonder if something changedhere or over on this side.
Or I wonder if this one littlepiece of the research was
different, would that changeanything about your opinion?
Or would you address itdifferently with the team?
You could substitute the wordcurious or something.
It's just the W is wonder, justto be a mental cue to keep the
conversation going so it doesn'tturn into just Q&A.
(32:41):
I can tell you from the hiringmanager side of things, someone
that I can have a conversationwith and my last impression with
them before they leave thatroom or the virtual room is
having a conversation with apotential colleague.
If that goes well, I see themmore so as someone I could work
with and someone that I'mexcited to work with, more so
than quote just a candidate,that's.
(33:05):
I'm trying to see if they havethe right skills or not.
So the best way to end yourinterview is to use conversation
, starting questions using thisS H O W or show method to show
them who you really are as aconversationalist and hopefully
a new employee for them.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And when this is done , well, josh, it is just
beautiful.
It's just beautiful and you'regoing to walk out of there
feeling so confident and justfeeling like you've really had
such a nice conversation.
To end the official interview.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Exactly so.
Those are the seven prep steps.
Quick recap and then we'll getmoving on here and prep.
Step one always be prepping.
Step two change your mindset.
Your approach is all wrong.
Step three know the top threeto five skills the hiring
manager is looking for.
Step four know the two whys,know your why and why you.
Step five nail your intro orthe tell me about yourself
(33:49):
question.
Step six proactively prep forthe messy middle, which is their
questions.
And step seven stand out withconversation starter questions
using the show method.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Such great tips, josh .
This was so wonderful, and Iknow that sometimes feels
overwhelming when you thinkabout a framework, but hopefully
, as you listen through, as wetalk through each of those steps
, you're realizing that you knowwhen you're preparing in the
right way for your interview.
You can make it so much easieron yourself if you follow the
right process, especially ourseven prep steps that we
(34:18):
outlined today, and remember tojust always be your true self.
That's the most important thing.
Go in, do your best, enjoy theinterview process, because it
truly is all about growth and itis your time to shine.
And if these tips helped you,please share them.
Pay it forward.
It's likely you're not alone.
Everyone is trying to learn andgrow in this space.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Absolutely.
A quick reminder.
If you do want that resourceand you want to jot down that
URL where you can get it, it'sequippedinterviewcom.
Forward slash seven steps.
Also, if you have a question orscenario you'd like our help
with guidance, a topic that youwant us to talk about, love to
hear it.
Send us an email at questionsat equippedinterviewcom.
It's questions atequippedinterviewcom.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Well, that's all for today, but let's keep this
conversation going.
Check at equippedinterviewcom.
Well, that's all for today, butlet's keep this conversation
going.
Check out equippedinterviewcom.
Thanks so much for listening.
We can't wait for next timewhere we discuss Josh.
What's next time?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Next time is how to navigate weird or off-the-wall
interview questions.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
They do, they do happen, don't they?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
It can be frustrating , or hopefully you can get
through them and that's our goal.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Going to help you with that.
Remember you've got this.
Believe in yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Be intentional, do the work, build your confidence
to stand out in your next jobinterview.
Thank you.
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