This content provides actionable strategies and "interview secrets" from an experienced HR professional and career coach to help candidates effectively navigate interviews and secure job offers by focusing on preparation, communication, and strategic interactions.
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There is a way to hack every single
interview to basically guarantee that
you get the job. And there's a lot of
BS, really bad advice on the internet. I
can guarantee this video is not one of
them. My name is Emily Durham. I worked
in HR for 10 years, was a top performing
recruiter, and now am an international
career coach. And these, my friends, are
the interview secrets that get you hired
every single time. I'm going to talk
about everything in order, starting from
preparing to the interview going all the
way to after the interview. If you know
my style, you know I like to jump right
on in.
Every single person is going to tell you
to prepare for the interview. However,
not enough people are going to warn you
of the dangers of overpreparing. Do you
know how many times I've conducted an
interview where someone is clearly
reading off of a script or just
rehearsing notes that they've taken and
they're automatically out of the race?
Because the whole point of an interview
is for it to feel like a conversation,
not an interrogation. So, if you're the
kind of person who's going to spend 10
plus hours preparing for each interview,
take a breath. That is not what you're
going to do effective immediately.
Coming from a career coach, I'm telling
you, limit your prep for this interview
to 1 hour. And in this hour of
preparation, you should be able to tell
me what this company does, who their
major competitors are, why you want to
work there, and what skills you need to
work at the company. And this will all
make sense in just [music] a second. On
the note of preparation, if you are not
in the interview 5 minutes early, you
are late. I promise recruiters notice
those things. And when you show up,
dress one level more senior than the
Now, this interview secret is so
underrated, it drives me crazy. But at
the beginning of the interview, before
the recruiter even asks anything,
they're going to ask, "Hey, how are
you?" And the worst thing you can do is
say, "Oh, I'm fine." Yeah, I'm fine.
Yeah, I'm good. How are you? Instead,
you are going to use this as a prime
opportunity to create a meaningful
relationship with them. If you answer
that question correctly, you are
guaranteeing that you're going to have
the ice broken between you and the
recruiter, which is an amazing way to
help you stand [music] out. That gives
the recruiter a chance to say, "Oh, I
watched the game, too. I was gutted."
Or, "Oh, I'm not much of a baseball
person. I'm more into hockey." the teeny
teeny things that make you a person and
not just a piece of paper that helps
build rapport, break the ice, and
actually alleviate some of your nerves.
Now, you already know my tried andrue
formula for answering the tell me about
yourself question is a couple of
sentences to describe who you are, what
you do, and what you want. Remember how
we did a little bit of research on what
the company does and what you would be
doing in this position? Well, we're
going to bake that into your answer. My
name's Emily. Thank you so much for
having me in the interview today. I'm a
senior marketing manager who is
passionate about building end-to-end
strategies in the tech space. And when I
was reviewing the job application for
this role, I saw there was opportunities
to work on international social media
strategy, which is truly my area of
expertise and my passion point. So, I
was really excited. As part of the work
I do at my current company, I'm managing
a team of 15 individuals, and it's been
really rewarding. We've actually grown
our social media business from 12,000
interactions a month to 40,000 a month.
And because I have so much experience in
scaling, I really resonated with your
company's mission to double in size over
the next couple of years, which was
another selling point for me. Right now,
I'm looking for an opportunity to build
an international team in scale with the
skills that I already have while
continuing to grow as an international leader.
The trickiest part is coming up next
when the recruiter is going to ask you
specific questions about the job that
you've applied to. Maybe it's something
like, "Tell me about a time you did blah
blah blah." or when was the last time
you blah blah blah. Now, all of that can
be really easy to freak out over because
no one has a crystal ball to perfectly
predict what questions you're going to
be asked. Before your interview, go to
the job description for this role and
once again, take a look at the skills
they're looking for. Also, what some of
the requirements of the job are.
Basically, what skills do you need to
have and what outcomes do you need to
produce? And all of that, I guarantee is
in the job description. Look at that
list and then just think for two
seconds. Okay, what are the skills
they're assessing for for a team player?
Are they looking for someone who's good
with data? And then on a little piece of
paper or on your phone, on your laptop,
write a list of specific examples that
you have, whether it's in your work or
internship experience or in school,
definitely not in your personal life
that exhibit those skills. Now, you
don't need to memorize your answers, but
you do need to memorize those examples
because if and when they ask you
questions, you immediately have an
example to pull from, which is going to
alleviate a lot of anxiety.
So that's what you say, but how you say
it also matters. In fact, one of the
biggest contributing factors to
determining whether or not someone is
getting the role is not just whether or
not their answer is correct, because
your answer's never perfect. It's about
how they communicate. Is this person
clear, easy to understand? Are they
someone I can see myself working with
easily? And above all, does this person
communicate like they know what they're
talking about? Because the reality is,
recruiters are not experts in what you
do. They're experts in recruiting. So
even if you make a tiny mistake, they
might not even notice. But what they
will notice is that you communicate in a
really not confident way. You can't
communicate confidently if you aren't
prepared. So like I said, have some
examples ready to go and use the STAR
method. Some people say the STAR method
is dated. They don't like it. I firmly
disagree. I think the STAR method is
tried and true and it works. This is
basically a method of answering
interview questions where you say one to
two sentences for the situation, the
task, the action, and the result. So,
you never speak too much or speak too
little because people tune out your
answers when you speak for more than a
minute and a half to 2 minutes. And if
it's less than 30 seconds, we're like,
"What did you even say at all?"
Practice speaking slower. A lot of times
when people are nervous in interviews or
just like speaking in general, they tend
to speak really quickly. they're, you
know, really like like we just kind of
want to get the words out into the ether
and that can actually do way more harm
than good. So, record yourself answering
fake interview questions. You can ask
chat GPT for them or if you want to
comment down below, I'll literally give
you like a fake question that you can
answer and record yourself and watch it
back. Speak more slowly than you [music]
think you have to. It communicates that
you're confident because confident
people aren't scared to take up space.
One of the biggest ways you can speak
like you have options is in how you
answer questions about where you're at
in the process. If the recruiter asks,
"Are you interviewing other places?" But
you better say yes. Even if you're
lying, never say the specific company
name, but definitely say something to
the effect of, "I'm always having other
conversations." Or, "I'm in a couple of
late conversations." What that is
signaling is you are in demand. You are
not desperate even if you are. And
psychology shows us that when something
is in demand, when something is desired
by others, we desire it a little bit
more as well. The same can be said for
any questions about salary negotiations.
If they ask you what your salary range
is, do not immediately be like, "Oh my
god, it's this. Please give me this."
No, play a little koi, girl. Let's just
take a breath. Say, "I'm really happy to
answer that. Do you happen to have a
budget for the role just so I know if
we're aligned?" Give them a chance to
answer first. if they're not able to do
that, if they really push and want you
to have an answer. Make sure you've done
a little bit of research before and
share your baseline number. Now, this
isn't a true minimum. We're going to
inflate this just a tiny bit, not a lot.
Let's say right now you're making
$50,000 a year. You did some research
online and the market average is $60,000
a year. I want you to say about 55. I'm
flexible on salary based on the right
opportunity, but right now I'm targeting
roles at least at $55,000 a year or
more. Does that sound aligned? Why I
like that a lot is it gives you buffer
to increase that number the longer the
conversations go on. Maybe you get more
opportunities. Maybe you realize, eh,
it's not worth it for me to move for
only $5,000 more. It just buys you
wiggle room.
I feel like it's common knowledge by now
that at the end of an interview, it's
always a really good idea to ask the
recruiter questions like, "What are some
of the strategic priorities of this team
in the next couple of years? What are
some of the things about this team that
really excite you?" Do you know what
people don't do enough is sprinkling in
one question about the recruiter
specifically? That happens so rarely
that recruiters will remember that you
actually looked at my LinkedIn profile.
Like that actually shows a level of
interest other candidates haven't. It
can be something as simple as you've
been at this company for 3 years. What's
kept you there? What do you enjoy about
it? Or I've noticed you've been a
recruiter for the last 10 years. What
drew you to this company? I've noticed
recently that much fewer people are
sending thank you emails after an
interview. And I get it because it's
hard to keep sending these thank you
emails to companies that just ghost you.
However, those teeny weeny details,
although may not be the reason you get
the job, can be one of the many things
that help you [music] stand out. After
the interview, send an honest thank you
with a specific call out to something
you spoke about in the meeting. And what
I like about this is if you haven't
heard back in a week, you just reply all
to that thread and it's a less weird
[music] way to ask for a follow-up.
Acing an interview and getting that job
is not about memorizing everything. It
is not about having the perfect answer.
It's about preparing the right way,
communicating the right way, and paying
attention to the little details that can
actually set you apart. And remember,
recruiters want to see you do well. When
they hire you, they either have one less
job to fill or they get literally paid
commission. They want to see you do
well. Okay? If you have any questions,
anything I can help with, or even if you
want to give me your sample answer to
tell me about yourself in the comments,
go down there, click it, click it, click
it. I am so happy that you are here. And
I'm sorry. I know I took an extra week
off before I posted a video. Usually I
post every single week, but it was my
30th birthday. Ow. And I had so much fun
and honestly just needed to catch up.
And I was also relaunching my podcast.
If you've made it this far, maybe you
already know that I have hosted the
Straight Shooter Recruiter podcast for
the last 5 years, and this year I have
actually signed to a podcast network.
So, I am now officially with Rogers
Frequency Network, and I am so excited
about it. The show has actually been
promoted to a new title, Clock In, which conveniently
conveniently
is the name of something else that's
coming. Hm.
No, I'm not going to be reselling
Stanley's, but some stuff is coming. I'm
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