CageBreak

Okay, consider that you are going for an interview. You have prepared various questions and answers. You feel ready. Are you? You are not, until you know this: What are an Interviewer’s real concerns?

You, as a job seeker, are like a product, and you want to sell this product to the prospective employer. Now unlike in the case of a real-life product, you don’t come  with any performance guarantee or free trial period. The prospective employer has to conduct his best due diligence and decide - buy or not buy.

In general everything they want to know about you falls into these 4 categories:

1. Why are you here? (your real motive for this job - it is your top preference or are we the last one you are visiting?)

2. What can you do for us? (how well do you know our needs, and what kind of details have you gathered?)

3. What sort of person are you? (will you be able to fit in with others in the pack? manageable ego?)

4. Can we afford you? (lastly, if all looks well, does the price match the budget? this is more relevant as we consider senior positions)
If you begin thinking yourself from their perspective, then you can start to prepare some very compelling answers about your benefits. You have to show the best data points of your past performance. Any client testimonials are great to take with you as a print out.

If its a high growth industry where they constantly need more people, a borderline case become a ‘buy’, while at senior positions, a borderline cases become a ‘not buy’ because the risk of a wrong choice is big.

Position yourself as a product that delivers more than what’s captured on the CV. Talk examples, show the ability to understand soft aspects of working with or leading teams, and a liking for numbers based performance - and the interviewer will buy you with confidence.