How to Stand Out in Your Next Interview to Land Your Next Dream Job

How exciting is it to get called in for an interview for your next dream job!

And yet, it can also be the beginning of us overthinking or underestimating the impact of the opportunity. This is why I share these 6 steps so you can stand out in that interview and increase your chances of landing your dream job.

I used to swing on this pendulum of either overthinking interviews, which would stress me out, or would approach them too relaxed, assuming I had the job in the bag. Thankfully, I can laugh about this now.

Ultimately, when I started following this simple 6 step strategy, even when I believed the job was mine, I landed not only amazing jobs, I was also able to request and receive a commanding compensation packages.

This is my goal for you. I believe in amplifying your VISIBILITY and LEADERSHIP along with your ability to walk into your first day in this job happy and ready to contribute.

If you’re ready to fully step into your leadership and professional purpose let’s explore your Leadership & Professional Purpose Roadmap. We’ll discover your leadership possibilities and what’s getting in your way and slowing you down from having all of this now.

If you’re still thinking about your leadership potential, let’s begin here:

1. WHY is this your dream job?

Everything you do in life, yes, I said everything you do in life starts with your WHY. Why you do anything will really save you a lot of time, money and energy in life.

If your WHY is big enough, most likely, nothing will stop you or get in the way of you pursuing whatever it is.

In regards to your job search and interview process, ask yourself, ‘Why is this my dream job’. Write out everything you feel and believe in your answer. This is your motivating factor and will help to create your story (step 2) and keep you relaxed during this process.

Your WHY is the baseline of your professional purpose.

In my 5 Checkpoint to Follow Your Professional Purpose guide, WHY is the foundation of the first checkpoint, DESIRE. Desire is what you’re passionate about and fuels the fire inside of you creating happiness and fulfillment. Your WHY is what will drive you to the second checkpoint of COMMITMENT, and when it comes to interviewing, will prepare you in a more resourceful way.

2. WHAT is your story?

Once you have your WHY, you have your framework to create your story. Your story is important because it turns you into a real person, rather than a list of bullet points and repetitive one-liners everyone else uses during the hiring process. The framework from you WHY allows you keep the majority of your story aligned with your dream job and the overall opportunity.

The people interviewing you want to know about your personality and if you’re someone they want on their team and also someone they can grab a coffee or drinks with on a social level and/or with clients.

To boil it down, your story is the truth of who you are. If you like football, let them know. If you went on an international adventure last year, let them know. If you are you knee deep in a Netflix thriller…LET THEM KNOW!

Think about when you’re learning something and the person teaching you uses a story as an example to apply the concept you’re learning.

In story form, our attention is higher, our curiosity is ignited and we are able to follow along and comprehend the what the other person is sharing.

Same with your interview…the person interviewing has heard a series of people come in and speak the same way, conveying the same facts, bullets and one-liners, and is craving something different, something WOW.

Your story is that something different, that something WOW!

3. WHO is your audience?

Here is where things really to pay off. When you know WHO you are meeting with in your interview, you can tailor your story and evoke their story from them. As human beings, boy do we love sharing stories about ourselves.

If you are working with a person in HR, ask them to send a brief bio on the person will be interviewing with. Take a look at the person’s social media profiles. Most people only look at their LinkedIn, and I say take it a step further – look at their twitter to see WHO they are, their interests, their opinions…their story.

Also prepare some interview questions specifically geared toward getting to know this person. If this is your dream job, this person is one of the deciding factors, and more importantly is someone who will be part of your dream job daily. What would like to know about this person?

4. What is your expertise? How do you turn it into business/change/impact?

This is the nuts and bolts of the interview, where you highlight and lock in your expertise. I call this bullet point- matching. This is where you go into how your expertise matches the job. Here’s where it can get really juicy and how you really start to break away from the pack – take the bullet point-matching a step further and present your own findings, a project related to the job or company, a solution, your POV on an existing project or case study, etc,

By walking the person through something you’ve worked on pertaining to the job you are now showing how you can solve problems, roll your sleeves up and more importantly how you collaborate because you will also ask for the person’s insight on your work, if they haven’t given it during your presentation.

Now, don’t get too caught up in the meaning of presentation. This step is seamless and does not feel like the gears have switched. No need to request an easel or pull out charts. You can simply have a short document prepared or keep the intrigue up by showing them your work from your laptop.

5. How are you showing up in life and on interviews?

This is the mindset work, which is the biggest game changer for landing your dream job.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve crossed paths with brilliant, talented, passionate, result-oriented, driven, motivated, and inspirational thought leaders and experts…and those on their way to becoming thought leaders and experts, and their biggest challenge and biggest obstacle is what they believe about themselves, their peers, their company, their industry, the opportunity landscape and a whole host of other things that slow them down or keep them from landing their next dream job or further monetizing their expertise.

The way you show up in life and in interviews speaks volumes. What you believe directs your actions, and your actions are what create results and determine outcomes.

This is one of the BIGGEST things I work on with my new clients. A lot of my new clients come to me for the strategy work and quickly discover how much impact their mindset has been making in their life and on their professional journey.

As a coach, I empower and inspire my clients to break down and work through these disempowering beliefs such as:

I’m not good enough (deservability, doubt, confidence)

She/He deserves it over me
I need more education, training or experience
Who is going to listen to my POV, input or concepts?

Fear

If I’m in the spotlight people will also see my failures and setbacks
Standing out too much makes me an outlier or someone who bragging about themselves
I may burnout at a higher professional level leaving me with less time and less energy

Wealth

I don’t know who I’ll become with ‘that’ kind of money/wealth

My clients experience the results they desire faster and in a more sustainable way because I create a system with specific steps to follow while supporting and collaborating with you along way, holding you accountable to move forward towards your professional goals.

During our time working together we create and refine the 4 previous steps and then conduct mock interviews to practice. My clients also have access to my network of experts and industry insiders to conduct mock pitches and experience more insight on their presentation.

6. Putting all of these 5 steps together and into action

I know we have a lot of learning fanatics out there, and I know there are those of you who struggle with the deservability mindset of ‘I need more education, more training, more experience before I can go after my dream job’.

Here’s the good news…the things you want the most in this lifetime all require action. Learning more and having more experience is nice, and what’s game changing is getting out there and doing what it takes to get you closer to your dream job.

Now that you have the 5 steps, the 6 one is to act on them. As a coach, I empower my clients to create action steps around their desire, dreams and goals, and then I collaborate, support and hold them accountable to all of this by ensuring they follow up, have me as their partner to ask questions and receive feedback, all of which is why working with a coach is invaluable because you never have to go through any of this alone. I walk through the journey with you, sharing your vision, supporting choices, collaborating on the strategy and stretching you into action. All of this guarantees you getting what you want.

So I’m curious, what’s one thing you can do today to prepare for your next dream job interview?

Complete this form to receive my online calendar to book this conversation. I look forward to getting to know you and about your leadership goals.

How to Stand Out in Your Next Interview to Land Your Next Dream Job