Page 177 - Marky Stein - Get a Great Job When You Don't Have a Job-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Get a Great Job When You Don’t Have a Job

You’ll learn how to divide questions into four major cate-
gories and develop an overall plan for answering each type of
question. For example, the questions “What are your strengths?”
and “What are your weaknesses?” actually belong to two entirely
different categories. The first is what I call a straightforward
question, and the second is what I call a stress question. Each
requires a different, almost opposite, strategy to answer success-
fully. You’ll learn the most advantageous approach for each of
these questions, and many more, in the following pages!

With fearless interviewing techniques, you’ll have to
keep track of only four categories instead of hun-
dreds of questions.

Interviewing Can Be Fun!

As you read this section, I hope that you’ll go through the process
of “reframing” what an interview means to you. Reframing is the
process of transforming how you perceive a situation so that you
can look at it in a different, usually better, way. By gaining confi-
dence in your interviewing skills, you’ll cease to see the interview
as some sort of uncomfortable interrogation, and you’ll begin to
see it as an incredible opportunity for learning, pleasure, and
even fun.
Once you do an inventory of your skills (which we will do in
the next chapter), you will see that the interview is merely a
forum for you to enjoy talking about what you do best and love
doing most. Imagine that! A job interview that’s fun!
Learning how to interview fearlessly is like learning how to
dance. There are some basic steps to master. At first you learn
and practice each step slowly, but before long you find yourself
gliding across the floor. You’ve picked up the right book to help
you learn those steps, and with just a little bit of practice, you’ll
be flying. Let’s go for it!

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