The job interview is about selling yourself in the best possible way. Everyone agrees on that. Opinions differ, however, as to what constitutes good self-marketing. For me, good selling gives customers the freedom not to buy and is successful for that very reason.
Applicants tend to sell themselves by anticipating any reservations on the part of their counterparts with watertight arguments. I think this is an outdated understanding of sales. The customer should be con-vinced to buy with convincing arguments, doubts should be dispelled by skilful objection handling. If you have experienced this kind of selling as a customer, you know the uncomfortable feeling that arises. After all, your counterpart has just robbed you of the opportunity to make an independent purchase de-cision.
There is a more elegant way, as the following example shows: I conducted a job interview training with a salesman of highly complex technical equipment. It was about a job at a start-up in the technology sector. Besides a technical educational background, enthusiasm for state-of-the-art technology was a main requirement for applicants. My client was an electrical engineer and had a doctorate from the ETH. His technical qualifications were undisputed. He was therefore right to focus on soft skills in the interview.
Stop selling!
Twice in the conversation he emphatically stressed how enthusiastic he was about state-of-the-art tech-nologies. I reacted inwardly with resistance. This is exactly the statement every applicant makes when the corresponding requirement is formulated in the job advertisement. In the course of the interview, I asked him about his doctoral thesis. With shining eyes, he explained his research work to me. His enjoyment of the subject – of course it was about the latest technologies – was obvious. I didn’t let on. A few minutes later, he raved about how he and friends had developed a drone together and entered it in a competition. When he reiterated sometime later how excited he was about the latest technologies, I just noted: «You can stop with this comment now; I’ve seen your enthusiasm. »
You determine what others think about you
Show instead of rate – is a tried and tested application principle. Your conversation partners in the job interview like to form their own opinion of you. They do not appreciate being told what to think about someone. In addition, you as an applicant are not neutral when it comes to your self-assessment. Self-assessments as sales arguments create pressure. Your interviewers react with counter-pressure. The trick is to leave the interviewers the freedom to make their own assessment and at the same time get them to form the picture of you that you want. Therefore, tell stories like the applicant in the example above did unconsciously.
Storytelling is not selling, but storytelling sells.