You're Not Bad at Interviews, You're Just Not Used to Talking About Yourself!

Why is it so hard to sell yourself in an interview?       

If you’ve ever clicked the “Leave” button on a virtual interview and thought “I wish I’d said that differently!”, trust us, you’re not alone.

Asking someone to sell themselves in an interview is like scraping nails down a chalk board… deeply uncomfortable and triggering for most of us!!

But why?

You’re skilled, you’ve been doing your job for ages and know your stuff. So it’s not lack of experience that’s the issue. And it’s not even a lack of confidence either! Most jobseekers we speak to in Business Travel or Travel Tech are pretty confident people in their day to day lives. Yet they can still crumble when asked in an interview why they should be the person for the job (and that’s regardless of their position!)

From our experience, there are two main reasons many people struggle to find the words to convince employers to hire them.

Embarrassment and pressure.

Embarassment

How many times were you told as a kid not to be a show off? Don’t brag, don’t make others feel bad about themselves, no one likes a show off? To keep yourself small so you don’t upset or annoy other people? And however many years later, that same mentality is literally stopping you from showing a prospective employer just how good you really are!

Because yes, in general human existence no one likes someone who boasts about their life with arrogance. But in an interview? You’re actively required to demonstrate your potential with evidence so by NOT being your own biggest cheerleader you’re doing yourself a complete disservice!

Of course there are ways to do this with confidence but not sounding arrogant. You need the information you share to be genuine (because lies can totally be spotted!), relevant to the job (keep your latest house purchase to yourself) and said with a healthy dose of modesty. No need to make out that the company would have fallen apart at the seams without you but instead, share what you did with passion, purpose and examples that back up what you’re saying.

Pressure

The pressure to say exactly the right thing.

To get everything out of your head in one fell swoop regardless of if it’s relevant or not.

To deliver a perfect performance because you reeaallllly want the job.

But too much pressure leads to nerves. Which of course lead to babbling, forgetting examples, losing your train of thought or coming across like you’d get walked all over.

The main thing to remember is that employers are not looking for a 100% completely polished version of you that doesn’t exist outside of that interview. They’re looking to get to know you, how you work, what you can do and what value you’d bring to the position.

You’re there to tell your professional story and as we say to all our candidates, no one knows that better than you! You’re literally talking about something you could win MasterMind on if your specialist subject was the history of your own career.

A good idea is to forget the term “selling yourself” and instead, get to grips with “sharing evidence about yourself”.  It isn’t about cramming in as much information as you possible can without any actual substance. In fact, several cool, calm and collected answers vs an entire novels worth of chit chat will fare much better in any interview situation!

We completely understand how unnatural it is for most people to talk about themselves in a positive way without feeling really awkward. We often have to prise information out of jobseekers when we are doing our initial fact finding interviews (and usually uncover plenty that’s not even mentioned on their CV’s!).

But an interview IS a time for you to dig deep and realise that this isn’t about you showing off.

It’s an exchange of information and a chance for your professional story to be told. And a real insight in to who the person behind the CV really is alongside it.

Looking for a new job and you’re in Business Travel or Travel Technology? Want to work with recruiters who can help bring out the best of you in your interviews? Get in touch with us for an informal chat about your situation on [email protected] or [email protected]