Do you feel awkward talking about yourself in an interview…almost as if you’re bragging? That’s a totally normal response because you want to be humble, and well, nobody likes a braggart. The difference, however, is that in an interview they need to know your accomplishments. Balancing self-awareness, humility, and confidence is tricky, but doable!
If you feel like that question was aimed at you, here’s what you can do to improve your interview skills.
Make a list of your accomplishments, big and small. This could be anything from being promoted to an actual award you’ve won (in class or on the job). It can help to ask coworkers or supervisors if you can’t think of any. You may also look back at your resume or LinkedIn to help jog your memory. This list is not just to make yourself feel good, but instead to help you craft stories that align with skills that employers are searching for. You see, these skills make their lives easier. In other words, they will want you on their team because of how much you bring to the table.
Now, to come up with some good stories make sure you are using the CAR (Context, Action, Result) method, also known as the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method. First, talk about the context of the story. Make sure you set up the story well enough so that they understand how what you did was a good thing that involved your valuable skills. So I might set up the story telling them about how I saw 15 students in appointments in one day. To them that means almost nothing, unless I set up the context that on a normal day I would see about 2-8 students. Now that the context is set I need to tell them what I did in that situation.
A stands for action. My action in that story was that I didn’t complain. I made sure to keep a positive attitude because I knew that the students needed help. I also made sure to make notes between appointments to make sure that I could log these notes in our online system later. (I could be trying to highlight multiple things here, it will just depend on the question.) I could use this story to highlight my communication skills, teamwork, positive attitude/professionalism, attention to detail…the list goes on!
Lastly, I need to tell them the result of my actions. If you can top off the result with a statistic or numerical value, even better!
Now, I hope you realized throughout the parts of that story that I didn’t sound like I was bragging, but merely telling you the facts about how I handled a situation well. If you think of your answers as just telling stories about what you’ve done it is slightly easier to talk about yourself. Practicing your answers is also very helpful because it makes you feel less weird outlining your accomplishments.
The last tip on this Tuesday is that you need to let the interviewer get know you. If they don’t get to know you on some level then they won’t know if they want to work with you, so try to be open and professional.
The last, last tip is that you can come to an Interviewing Workshop (held once a month), watch the recording here, do a Mock Interview, or an Interview Prep Appointment. Our office is ready to help you succeed and feel confident in your next interview.