5 interview tips to differentiate you from the pack and nail that interview.

You have put in the time to figure out your pivot, map out your transferable skills, reformat your resume, and network within the industry. Your hard work is paying off and you are finally beginning to land interviews. It’s go time.

If you want to stand-out in your interview, you need to do things differently from others. Rather than rehashing off quoted interview success advice, I am going to focus on the tactics that differentiated me from other candidates.

1) Research, research, research. I would spend a few hours researching the company, industry and products and weave those into my answers.

Hopefully, you have been working off a LAMP list and have the inside track on the company. If not, you definitely should familiarize yourself with their products, industry trends, competitors, and challenges. The key is weave this knowledge throughout your interview to demonstrate that you have put in the time and effort to research the company. It’s amazing how many people don’t do this basic step.

2) Specificity of answers. Remember all that research you did? Well, time to use that in the interview. Specificity shows that you have done the research, can hit the ground running, and that your application wasn’t a random drive by. It shows initiative and drive – two soft qualities that are very important hallmarks of top candidates. Basically, it shows that you are a go-getter.

I have used this approach numerous times and I can see the light go off in the interviewer’s eyes in real time and changes the dynamic of the interview.

3) The right kind of practice. Everyone knows practice is important, but are you doing the right kind of practice? Candidates who get the job are the ones who do a lot of interviews. They know how to interview well.

Interviewing with small companies first can go a long way to build your confidence. Mock interviews are useful, but don’t replicate the stress levels of an actual interview. That confidence comes from interviewing multiple times with 10–20 companies before interviewing with your dream company.

4) Being strategic. Most ppl make the mistake of targeting FAANG or large, well-known companies as their starting point. If you are pivoting industries, you are competing against people who have the more experience and domain knowledge and have better networks. It’s unlikely you can beat them. Plus, the top candidates have also likely been practising for longer than you have and have been on more interviews.

I personally focused on SMEs that were relatively unknown and had less competition than the well known majors. When pivoting, it’s good to manage your expectations. You can’t work in a dream role, in your dream company. Does it happen? Absolutely. Does it happen for everyone? Probably not.

5) Not making it a two way conversation. When you start asking really good questions, it puts you in the driver’s seat. It puts interviewers on the back foot as they have to now justify why you should work for them versus other companies. This creates a subtle but very powerful transference of power that changes the dynamic of the interview.

Plus you get to learn more about the company culture, ways of working, expectations, and value systems that can help you decide if you actually want to work for the company.

The type of questions I have asked in the past are:

1) What about my experience stood out for you?

2) What kind of employees get promoted?

3) What makes your culture unique?

4) What qualities are most effective and rewarded at the company?

Networking can be another effective method to research company technology or products which you can show off during the interview. The trick is to do it organically, which takes real-world practice and experience.

Interviews are these intricate kabuki dances that are carefully orchestrated to show off the best attributes. By following these tips, you can future enhance your performance and clinch that coveted role.

In the final post of the series, I will talk about alternative ways to network and raise your profile organically while gaining skills to break into a new industry.