Get hired: imagine you’re already doing the job

At interview visualise already being in the job

We’ve all bombed in interviews. Lack of preparation, out the night before, up against the preferred candidate, interviewed to make up numbers to make the recruitment consultant look good. Some things we could have controlled and some we couldn’t. All leading to a thanks but no thanks. 

The real kicker in failing to land a job is when we’re stymied by plummeting self-confidence, not by our ability to do the work.

I’m seeing a lot of this at the moment, especially around redundancy coaching. Really good people being let go thanks to corporate restructuring who are left raw, confused, and second guessing their own talent, missing out on jobs because an understandable form of self sabotage sees them freezing in interviews, unable to sell themselves. 

Some have been at organisations for 10-20 years and are also feeling institutionalised, unable to articulate their achievements to an outside audience, rather like services personnel leaving the forces and needing to adopt a whole new language when they enter civvy street. 

If you  are struggling in this way, my advice is to imagine you are already doing the job you’re being interviewed for. Visualise being at your desk at the potential employer, think about what you will be doing, who you’ll be talking to, what of your many skills and strengths you’ll be using to help your department and the wider organisation.

Think about the difference you’ve already made elsewhere and the impact you have had. Make a list of your key achievements that will be relevant to this new role. While doing this, consider the wider context, what challenges is the organisation facing, why does it need you, what are the gaps you can fill?

Visualising being in the role will free your mind from negative self talk and the confines of the present situation.

Someone I coached recently was similarly suffering from a hit to their confidence. In our practice interview session for a job that was more advisory than her usual operational roles, my client initially focused on how she didn’t meet the requirements and that this poacher turned gamekeeper move was a step too far.  She was very skilled at analysing her perceived shortcomings and this in turn was further diminishing her self esteem.

Asked to visualise being in the new role, she soon perked up, as she realised a number of key things; she was an expert in a subject this department would really benefit from, she had fantastic connections she could draw on, and having being on the other side of the fence, as a customer as it where, she could quickly identify areas for improvement.

There was a physical change too as she imagined doing the job - her language became more powerful, her tone more convincing, plus she started to relax and smile.  All key proponents of a confident interviewee.

While it was always clear to me she was an excellent candidate, more importantly  my client was believing it herself. 

We await to see if she got the job, but the interview went far better than she could have imagined.  So if you’re second guessing yourself , and self sabotaging before an interview try this visualisation exercise.  It works.