We usually think of job interviews as ordeals to get through with us doing all the talking, answering the trickiest questions they can come up with. Actually the reality is quite different and organizations have realised they only waste their time if they try to trip you up. But what you should be aware of is that for at least 40% of the time we should be listening carefully as they ask their interview questions because what we hear will have an enormous effect on what we need to say. The truth is that organizations or businesses want you to be successful because that keeps their recruitment costs to a minimum. So wasting time with trick questions costs them money. When they ask a particular question it is because IT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM. This is them telling you what they want and need. So apart from being able to talk and describe yourself, your skills and your experience well, listening carefully is also a most important interview skill, you can literally listen up and win interview success. By taking note of their questions they are giving you masses of information about what is important to them. Why do so many of us find it difficult to listen well? After all, so long as our hearing is not actually impaired we can hear most of what is going on around us. However many of us will find listening difficult for a number of reasons: • We naturally think at about four or five times the speed at which we think, so when someone else is doing the talking we can find a lot of time to allow our minds to wander; • If there is anything we might consider unusual, or irritating about the speaker's appearance, voice, accent or pronunciation we allow it to put us off; • Our own thoughts are generally of more concern to us and we find it easier and more pleasant to tune in to these than concentrating on what someone else is saying; • Since we were quite young we have taught ourselves to listen to many things at once, and actually pay only the minimum attention to any of them, so it becomes difficult to pay attention to one thing for a longer period of time; • As soon as we think we've heard enough to establish in our minds what response is needed, we stop listening to the speaker and start composing our answer. Misunderstandings easily arise from failing to pay full attention in many situations, but in the interview it could cost you the job you really wanted. So you really must listen up and win interview success. To improve your listening skills at interview you can practise following every word they speak and repeating their sentences silently in your own mind. It's like a time-slip so that you mentally hear the same phrases twice and therefore assimilate the meaning more effectively. Try it with a friend, it's weird at first keeping up with what someone else is saying, but your capacity to formulate answers based on a clearer understanding of the questions will more than make up for it. With his background of over 25 years running businesses, and as a Career Coach and Consultant in many sectors, the author guides job seekers through the steps needed in order to achieve that all important new position and he has personally coached thousands of individuals to career success. Find out more about what you can to to improve your interview success rate during the interview or how your interview skills can be improved at www.my-interview-guide.com
Peter Fisher is an expert author and webmaster for many websites including www.my-interview-guide.com
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