Page 77 - 101 Dynamite Answers to Interview Questions

70 Nail the Job Interview!

stupid - as you phrase your responses. Avoid negative words like
“can’t, ” “didn’t, ” “wouldn’t, ” and phrase your answers with positive
words instead. Rather than say, ‘‘I wouldn’t want to travel more than
4-5 days per month,” you could respond with a more positive, “I
would prger to keep my &me1 to 4-5 days per month. ” Practice being
more positive in your day-to-day communication and you will find
it will come to you more easily in an interview.

37. Turn potential negatives into positives.

While interviewers also want to know what’s wrong about you -
your negatives - you want to continuously stress your positives -
what’s right about you. You can do this by maintaining a positive
orientation toward all questions.
Most applicants, for example, have some qualification or lack of
a qualification that they, as well as potential employers, may
consider to be a negative which is likely to knock them out of
consideration for the position. Perhaps you are just out of school
and hence don’t have experience. Maybe you are over 50 and,
although you how it is illegal for an employer to discriminate
against you on the basis of your age, you believe this will be a
hindrance to your getting a job. Perhaps you have not stayed in
your past jobs for very long and your resume shows a pattern of
job-hopping. Maybe your grades in school were average at best.
Whatever the negatives you believe will hinder your efforts at
landing a job, you should attempt to find a way to turn the negative
into an honest positive. Caryl recalls an older woman -well into her
sixties - who came into her office where she was the personnel
director several years ago. The woman evidently thought her age
would be a negative, so she came prepared with several advantages
to hiring someone her age. Her first advantage was that she “would
not get pregnant!”

38. Engage in positive nonverbal cues.

Studies of the employment process indicate that 6570% of a hiring
decision may be based on nonverbal communication. Nonverbal
messages - your appearance and dress - are the first to be commu-
nicated to an interviewer. The enthusiasm in your voice and anima-