Page 65 - Oscar Adler - Sell Yourself in Any Interview_ Use Proven Sales Techniques to Land Your Dream Job (2008)

LISTEN BETTER TO LEARN WHAT’S IMPORTANT

❏ How the interviewer felt about what you said

❏ What the interviewer is thinking (You have become a talk-
ing résumé by not distinguishing yourself from the piece
of paper that represents you.)

❏ How to translate your skills and experience into benefits
that will be meaningful to the interviewer

At best, you are right back to where you started. At worst, you
may have turned off your interviewer completely. All you can
do after delivering this kind of “background information” is
to wait and see what comes next. It does not matter how well
you have expressed yourself if the subject is of no interest to
your interviewer.
So let’s take a different approach, one that will make you
feel more in control of the situation. Jared Sparks, an Ameri-
can historian and former president of Harvard University,
once said, “When you talk, you repeat what you already
know; when you listen, you often learn something.” If we
only learn when we are listening, then the standard interview
opening statement—“Tell me about yourself”—calls for a
nonstandard response. Instead of launching into a rambling
answer or memorized speech, try something like this: “Ms.
Jones, I know your time is valuable. What areas would you
like me to concentrate on?”
This puts the ball back in the interviewer’s court. Here’s
another little secret: Human beings love to talk about them-
selves, and interviewers are only human. It will be refreshing
for the interviewer to have an opportunity to concentrate on
things that are important to her. More important, her response
will give you a much better idea of what the position entails
from her point of view, as well as the challenges and concerns
she’s facing. Armed with this information, you will be able to
talk about your experience (which are features), ending with

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