Help the Interviewer Help you – Have a differentiator
“We are all, individuals”, “Yes, we are all individuals”
(Remember the film – The Life of Brian?)
Pity the poor interviewer – you only have to deal with one interview; they may have dozens.
Interviews are not the sort of assignments that managers seek out;they are a must to avoid. One of the biggest difficulties they have is the clone syndrome. After a few interviews all the applicants start to look and sound the same. After they all claim to have “excellent communications skills” and they all “love a challenge” etc. No wonder the interviewer loses the will to live and winds up confused.
Help the interviewer help you by having something relevant to the job that they can remember you by; a language skill, experience in another industry or organisation – even a professional passion – but something specific. One person I coached said that he loved his job of making meaningful business plans out of abstract or even woolly strategic statement. “Don’t you love it?” he said “when a plan just works.”
Give that man a job, I say, I want him on my team.